You don't call in Richie Ledezma because of league strength or if he passes some magical (and ridiculous) first team barrier. You call in Richie Ledezma because you can see his skill set and abilities speak to both missing elements of the current team AND a potential level that you'd like to start integrating him as a rapidly improving talent. Call him into camp, and if he performs, give him minutes against Cuba as needed. He's shown enough to say that he's someone we want to be in the program, and that he deserves to be in the program, and I think he's within shooting distance of players like Lleget and Holmes who have been getting those minutes (even though he's not quite there). Not to mention if we're somehow still playing Roldan. Focusing on the exact quality of the Eredivisie or the who he's scored against is somewhat immaterial -- Berhalter can watch the tapes and games and see both how he might play now and project who he can be in the future. I understand the whole "they've gotta earn it" bit... but I think you can do that for real minutes and still bring in guys to get them started on integrating in the team. I'd through Llanez and Servania into this crew, given our needs for a CM. They can be 24-26 in camp and only suit up for the easier game if needed.
Novakovich was one of the most productive players in the league, unlike Ledezma who has been pretty good but unproductive, and I was against calling up Andrija even though I had an affinity for him. Incidentally, as of today he hasn't done much thus far in Serie B. Some people keep on making these two wrongs make a right argument. It makes things worse. I still don't see the upside, outside of cap-tying a player who isn't seriously a threat to depart and if he's that easily malcontent (which I seriously doubt he is) from not getting called as a not yet productive player out of the Dutch 2nd division then that's another problem. A guy with that resume so far has a slim shot at lighting it up now, and as soon as he did in all likelihood that would become clear to us from looking like he belonged for a few games at PSV, at which point it would trigger a call-up. The integration would be swift too if he was doing it in Champion's League like Dest. That made it easy. He dropped right into the starting lineup w/ the senior NT. Conversely, by not providing more reliable options like Pomykal and Parks you win less now and slow the integration of players more apt to help you this cycle on average. We just saw this happen at the end of last cycle. It was the primary factor in sinking us. Now let's do it again. Capping is a zero-sum game. Some act like they're inexhaustible.
for players who arent already established i am pretty strictly "gotta be playing for your club team". and im as hopeful as anyone in mendez, ledesma, soto etc but theyre not. as for the "hes not with the reserves/youth team hes in the erstedivise"- get out of here with that. dutch second division doesnt punch your ticket to the national team. i also think we are getting ahead of ourselves that he made the first team bench. look- thats great. and about a month can change a whole lot, but right now we are in "as soon as he turns 18 sarge is totally a lock starter" territory here. let him keep making the bench, get his first minutes, get in a few as a sub. dest played the full preseason due to injury, made his case in his cameos once the season started, by a month into the season had taken hold of the starting spot. thats an insanely meteoric rise- and it took two months. so no, im not at all on board with "as soon as he steps on the pitch hes a must cap player". let me be very clear- i want to see ledesma WAY more than mihailovic or aaronson, but shaq moore started against barcelona that time, you know? give him time to earn it. thats not saying hes got to wait in line- let him actually get into the first team. not on the bench due to injuries, not just yo-yo'ing from jong to the first team but getting very sporadic minutes. quality will show itself, cream rises or whatever. but hes as safe a pick for breakout player right now as matt olosunde would have been last year. we ALWAYS think one of our kids at any even remotely sexy club is on the brink... you cant break out if you arent in the team yet.
that Cuba game to me is all about testing some new things for me...Hell, I might not even play my new toy, Dest, in that match and instead favor Antonee Robinson who I want to still get some minutes too. In my opinion, we play the first team against Canada, let the starters go, try out some new faces, take it into the January Camp, and regroup in March with the best team heading into 2020. I’m going with against Canada: ——Sargent—Morris——— ————-Pulisic————— ——-Lletget—-McKennie—- ————-Morales————— Dest————————Yedlin ——Brooks——Miazga——- —————Steffen————- Bench: Horvath (G), Carter-Vickers, Cannon, Pomykal (Lletget) 60, Aaronson, Yuiell (Morales) 70, Ebobisse (Sargent) 80 and against Cuba... ——Sargent———-Ferreira—-— ——————Lletget—————- ——Pomykal—-——Aaronson— ————-——Yuiell————— A-Robinson——————-Cannon ————Alvarado—CCV———— ——————Horvath—————— bench: Johnson (G), Richards, Lima, Mendez (Pomykal) 70, Llanez (Lletget) 70, Ledezma (Aaronson) 70, Ebobisse *Weah, Adams, Soto, Altidore out with injuries. if we can’t beat Cuba with that team then we have bigger problems. Point being, Cuba, we need to see if we can put some heat on some of the starters. And I don’t mean Lovitz, Bradley, Trapp, Zardes, and Roldan. I mean players who actually project to be legitimate ballers in 2022.
From what I saw I think Ledezma is getting the hang of what it takes to play against adult pro players. It looks like both physical and experience growth are slowly paying off.
Ledezma is absolutely unique for American player. I don't recall as good passer on any NT team. He is a major part of Soto goals stats. Should be given uniqueness discount.
Wait.... what was the primary factor in sinking us last cycle? Capping young players? Did I just wake up from a 4 year coma or something?
Lol imagine advocating for Julian green to get called up instead of Ledezma. I don’t want to assume that certain poster hasn’t watched him play, but his skill and ability jump off the screen. He was on the bench at psv. He needs a call. we just got worked by freaking Canada and you aren’t wanting to bring in perhaps a top 3 passer in the entire pool??? We should just keep playing lletget roldan etc?? Lol.
Multiple LOL's - always the compensatory ploy of certain posters insecure their points will suffice. Imagine dismissing Lletget who has already been pretty good for the national team and solid at a higher level for a reserve/youth player that's not even lighting the world on fire there or claiming I was advocating for Green when that was just compared to Ledezma right now. If I fleshed out my roster, I don't think either would be called up. But Green is notably improved this season after a positional switch. Arguably playing better than RL at a higher level. Yeah, you implied I haven't seen Ledezma play, and you were wrong about that too. I've seen him multiple times for both the youth team and Jong PSV (likely more than you there). He was talented but not physically ready when playing against men. Got bodied off the ball and had to release the ball extra quickly if not running into open space. As if he shouldn't even be asked to be productive in the Dutch 2nd division before warranting a US senior team call-up. Man, I guess we have really fallen far, to pre-modern days, island nation standard. I already covered how making a 21-man bench for PSV over the weekend was circumstantial atm, like Feyenoordsoccerfan the Dutch insider here backed up. Your analysis is superficial.
You're framing it as capping young players. I'm asserting it was speculative caps for a wide variety of players that led to ultimately circling back to by and large the same core they ran with for the cycle that led to diminishing returns and got sunk.
When you have the opportunity to call up the 6th best player on the LA Galaxy, you can’t pass that up. Lletget is a fine place holder but Ledezma has a very high ceiling and will get psv minutes soon. Something lletget could never do. I’m not even anti lletget, but Richie is quality. You call up quality **especially after looking completely devoid of talent in the middle attacking third** And I implied nothing of the sort, regarding amount of watching a player. Comprehend...
I comprehended it just fine. You did not, or are not being genuine. Implied the probability was I hadn't seen him play to make my assessment. Just said you didn't assume I didn't. That would be an absolute. You're speculating Richie becomes worthy of being a PSV regular, and even if it does that means he's at that level now to help the US national team. Lletget had more hype than Ledezma has even, but played w/ a club/league not conducive to integration, unlike PSV/Eredivisie. So he likely would have played significant time for them as well, after which he'd either have been dropped or hung around in a rotation for a while. And we're not limited to Lletget. Parks played several games for a comparable club to Ledezma's in Benfica already and ultimately excelled in MLS this season. Pomykal excelled when healthy and was better on the u-20's. Plenty of attrition or unforeseen info acquired before Richie would warrant an imminent call-up.
He's a winger for me in the current formation and an ideal second striker in a two forward formation.
You can actually call up both 23 players are called up for these League of Nations squads. If I check my rule guide, only 11 start. I have no problem if the back end of these League of Nations rosters are used to incorporate these young and upcoming players. Pomykal two camps ago. Aaronson last camp. It can be Ledezma or Mendez or Parks or Cappis or whomever at this camp. They don't even have to play or even be on the gameday roster. Just keep providing opportunities for the "next generation." Keep rotating thru. If this was the Gold Cup or WCQers or important friendlies in preparation for WCQers, then I'd think differently. Or if we had a pool of adult professionals that were performing at a different level than they are now, I'd think differently. Its weird. People whine, complain, etc. about the midfielders we have with the USMNT. Start replacing them with youngsters who are less proven and people freak out. What has Lletget actually proven on the international level? What has Roldan actually proven on the international level? What has Trapp actually proven at the international level? They've proven that they're CONCACAF level players. And that's fine. We need a pool of CONCACAF level players too. But we should always be searching for more. And yes, sometimes you incorporate young players and they don't pan out in the long run. Maybe a player like Kellyn Acosta fits into that category. Maybe Djordje Mihailovic too.. But that's OK. You have to keep the upward mobility in the program. Keep providing opportunities and challenging young players....................... Weah is most certainly in the mix for the USMNT (whether as a forward or winger) if healthy. And certainly a nominee for our "Breakout Youngster of the Year" award if he can get back on track. He's certainly behind Dest and Sargent amongst the Euro contingent right now. We like Pulisic on the left wing and cutting inside (like he does at Chelsea). Morris has been playing well enough on the right wing. But after that, we don't have a lot of those speed merchant winger/forwards with the senior USMNT. Tyler Boyd is an odd duck. I haven't figured him out yet. Arriola has good moments. But we can use an infusion of talent there. Weah can be that. Maybe soon we'll think that Llanez of Wolfsburg can be that.
You have to recognize that it isn't only the US that's improving...everybody else is also improving at different pace. Canada got really good since they cleaned house and hit the reset button post 2017 after implementing reforms in 2014. Underestimating opponents is a dangerous path. While everyone here were surprised at Curacao, those who watched the Nation League qualifiers saw them coming a mile away, same for Haiti.
I think anyone that paid attention to some of the back and forth before the Canada US game had to be a little concerned (if you were a US fan). Some of the comments from the US side (not talking about fans but the team) were pretty dismissive of Canada. That is the type of attitude and talk that leads directly to upsets. It is also unfair to put the loss completely on the US. The US team played poorly but part of that was due to Canada's effort. Canada deserves credit. If it was a one off, for the US it would be similar to one of our historical wins of the past where we beat a higher ranked opponent....that didn't justify firing the coach of the other team and shouldn't justify (by itself) the firing of Berhalter. I am not saying he should stay but rather that Canada deserves credit and that Berhalter should go based upon his body of work. I also believe that if he does stay, and I am wrong about what should be done, he will prove it not in one game or set of games but over the course of 4-8 months (at minimum).
He's not wrong......................... Anyway, back to the youngsters. Some folks on these boards may not know Gioachinni at Caen. Just breaking thru. 1189206582409748480 is not a valid tweet id 1189329059030933504 is not a valid tweet id
Francisco Maturana and Antonio Oliviera were fired. The USA played well against them, somehow, they were held to a standard we are not holding our coach to.