I don't disagree with anything that you're saying. The argument is who would have produced results at the U20 World Cup.... Kunga or Akale?
DLT has to adjust his attitude a little for the next level if he hopes to get there and not become a Nagbe.
What? Adams can't defend?? What is the basis of this? He is a box to box midfielder at a MLS level (albeit only for a few games so far) for a reason. Adams came up as a ball winning midfielder at 1st with NYRBII, so I don't really get the general "he can't defend" statement there. And the slight insult of Jones saying he "cant pass" doesn't make sense. Is he ever going to cut open a defense with a pass? No. But he does a fine job of winning the ball back and then laying it off with a simple pass. The reason he played EPB there was because Jones wasn't eligible and Palmer-Brown's passing ability and overall talent level make him a pretty damn good ball winning midfielder. It's not really a bad thing that he played there for the qualifying tournament if he got the best player of the tournament award there.
You know I'm with you in the answer being Akale. In hindsight the forward group I would have brought assuming the same circumstances surrounding Haji: 1. Perez 2. Akale 3. Sargent 4. McKenzie Gaines 5. Lennon 6. Kunga Easy, easy decision to drop Saucedo, Sabbi and Ebobisse for me and I already can't help but feel like I'm forgetting someone else I like.
In that case Atlanta should sell him immediately. I thought he showed nothing in his limited minutes. Maybe somebody who knows him better can explain why he didn't get more minutes. I actually laughed watching him play.
I saw nothing in his early appearances but admittedly I wasn't paying attention. What I saw against Venezuela made my mouth water - from a developmental point of view.
I was so surprised I almost fell out of bed listening to ET radio analyze the U20's . The panel did a great job of giving a balanced and germane perspective of the U20's performance and the meaning of that performance. The U20 discussion starts in the 38th minute. I was encouraged that they actually noticed how good Glad was. https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017...rge-villafa-living-his-dream-us-national-team I took away pretty much what the Duke took away above - except I don't share his admiration for Tyler Adams. I would add just one thing, addressed to US Soccer: Please stop giving us Acosta-Nagbe types in midfield. It's pretty simple: A midfielder handles the transition from defense to offense and offense to defense. He must defend when the ball is headed towards his goal and launch the attack when in possession and headed toward the opposition goal. Putting a guy like Jones in mid who can defend but can't pass is hopeless. Adams cant defend in transition, a lot like Acosta. Putting a guy like Nagbe in midfield when all he can do is dribble isn't going to make any sense and will become more painful to watch as the competition stiffens going up the ladder in WC type tournaments. As an aside, I thought it was interesting to analyze Venezuela's goal from the outlook of what-if-we-played-3-in-the-back. CCV dives at the cross but you can see his legs are just a hair short. If Glad were playing that outside back role and CCV were covering Peneranda in the middle I don't think they score. We didn't really have wingbacks to play in this tourney anyway - maybe Brooks Lennon? - so just an academic question aimed at US Soccer's stated policy of playing with 4 in the back (which I understand as a way of conforming to what young, developing players would be used to).
I do agree that he has an insane amount of natural ability, I just find it extremely sad that we counted on a completely unproven talent to compete at the highest level of U20 play.
Then why do you keep calling for Polster who's atrocious on the ball or Trapp, who's completely mediocre on both sides of the ball? I mean, you say what you say above but keep promoting players who exemplify all the issues you dislike.
True. Probably the player who's wasted his talent more than any other in our current pool. On pure talent he should be far better than what he is.
That one would be starring on Arsenal, the one from Portland has these mediocre stats https://www.mlssoccer.com/players/darlington-nagbe and not even close to the best players on his team.
If you continue to think of Polster as the guy who played his first game for Chicago years ago straight out of Southern Illinois University you can say he's bad on the ball. But where do I say I want guys who are "good on the ball"? I just said we cant start developing guys just because they run fast and dribble like Nagbe. I've just said elsewhere I think Trapp's development was stunted at Crew. So that's not the same as "keep calling". You seem to have fallen into the same trap as the amateurs who think launching an attack has to do with dribbling 40 yds while the opponent takes time to set his defense. I'm more in the camp of those who look at how many players a mid cuts out with his pass. Now, please don't start saying that incomplete variable is all I look at. Look instead at what I say about the lone 6 dmid we play and how difficult it is for that dmid to pass out of the back from a central position. So he's going to dump the ball to Bedoya? Anyway, I started ranting about mids long ago in this cycle and I don't think we've gotten anywhere. We're just now starting to look for replacements for Jones. Pity Arena having to take over from Klinsmann. Here is Arena himself complaining today: http://sbisoccer.com/2017/06/arena-klinsmann-call-ups-had-no-consistency
Nagbe has to be the most overrated player for the NT. He can dribble and has an okay motor, thats pretty much it. There's this myth around his game that he is so talented. What is he so talented at?
A poster literally just spelled it out. Nagbe's game and career warrant a lot of discussion, criticism and debate, but not over whether or not he has talent.
Yeah, and I don't agree. When you list "pure ability" as one of his talented aspects, you seem to be grasping at straws. I think Nagbe's a deceiving player. Because of the things he's really good at (dribbling, ball control, his motor), its expected that he has other aspects along with that (passing, speed, 1v1 creativity, good defensive ability for a #8). He doesn't really have any of those things at any better than an average level. He's more of a flash player than anything, IMO. He has little flashes of very good play that excite fans, but on the whole, he's not productive enough with his end product as an attacking midfielder nor complete enough as a #8 (with notable deficiencies with passing and defensive play) to be an effective #8.
Akale and Farfan are the only ones who could made an inpact, imo. I'm not sure about the timing, but Mckennie might not have made his bundesliga debut if he was a part of the squad. On Sargent, I worry he is going to miss a year like Haji Wright.
Why would he miss a year? He'll be training abroad and with the U17s until the U17 world cup in October, and then he'll sign in February. That's only a few months.
Adams' defense is one of his best traits, at least his one-on-one defending and ability to apply pressure. You must not have watched the last several U-20 cycles and their central midfields very closely, which was the point of my post, along with alluding to the U-17s, which are also better in central midfield this cycle than in the previous several. For example, the last U-20s didn't even have a true d-mid and had to choose between nascent box-to-box player Kellyn Acosta and utility mid Delgado, opting for the latter with less than impressive results.
He can't sign in February yet. He would have to sign a contract with a USL or NASL team for the rest of this season to be eligible to sign in February. If he doesn't do that, he has to wait until July 1 to sign.