We have no idea what the hell he's going to do because he has only had 2 camps under his belt...which is an absolute sham in itself. I like Gregg, he's a prideful guy and you can tell he is a players coach who is really putting his heart and soul into this project. Such a delightful change from Arena and Klinsmann (to a lesser extent).
Bruce only cares about Bruce. He's smug. Gregg has pride for our country, our fans, our players. He's not stuck on himself for no reason either.
Central Defenders (4) John Brooks Palmer-Brown Central Midfielders (5) Morales Outside Back/Wing (6) Fabian Johnson Tim Chandler Eric Lichaj Attackers (5) Bobby Wood Andrew Wooten Andrija Novakovich Here's the players whom I wanted for the 23-man squad who didn't even make the 40 man provisional. To be fair, injuries may play a large part in who is on the roster but there are a bunch of injured MLS players on the list. I guess Berhalter doesn't rate black German-Americans irrespective of the fact that they play at an elite level.
Unclear but entirely possible as I mentioned - I'm guessing Bobby Wood is hurt as well. I still see a trend here.....
Yeah, Berhalter is a racist. That's it. It's definitely not because Brooks is hurt and Johnson/Chandler are past their prime. It's racism.
Stoked to see Fossey make the provisional. Overall disappointing. 16 YAs and 24 domestic including one from USL.
I don't recall saying he's racist and would point out that there are blacks on the roster but it's interesting when pointing out a pattern in what I see as omissions that you jump to racism. It's interesting to me that "past their prime" players are still able to play for Big 4 UCL players when uninjured while similar or older aged MLS players are deemed not be "past their prime". The viable question with Johnson/Chandler is not current ability but rather ability to be healthy.
Honestly, I think considering injuries, the 40 man list is pretty decent with a few interesting surprises.There's at least one USL call-up, which is always odd. Interesting to see Gyau on there. Would prefer Weah on Gold Cup as opposed to the youth squads, but we all knew that was the case already. I do think Morales and Wood seem to be the biggest snubs considering club careers, but obviously neither is a surprise. Slightly surprised to see Nova left out as he was sort of in and out of the fold and this is a 40 man list. The real questions will come when this list gets trimmed to 23. And yes, the official release with positions listed calls Adams a defender, which is where I am left shaking my head.
If you weren't trying to race bait then why even bring up their skin color? Club teams have different priorities than national teams, we are building towards the next WC in 3 years. And I completely agree with you on a number of guys who should have been included (Novakovich) or excluded (Bradley) but there's no reason to think there's some sort of bias against Chandler or Johnson, neither of whom have been called up in close to 2 years. And Holmes is a black dual national, albeit not German.
Bradley should have never gotten another callup after that debacle at T&T. Still kills me that he was welcomed back into the fold with open arms despite being more responsible for that humiliation than any other individual (and when 2 of our top 3 U-21 players play more or less his position) while 3 guys--Howard, Dempsey, and Beasley--who each bled and fought for that team for ~15 years and who are each not individually responsible for the loss will all have to live the rest of their lives remembering that night as the last time they represented their country. I don't want Bradley on the team, but that doesn't automatically mean Chandler and/or Johnson should be either.
I'm simply pointing out the FACT that all four black German-Americans were excluded from the 40 man provision roster despite playing for B1 teams for multiple years. It's interesting that pointing out the 100% exclusion of black German-Americans is deemed race-baiting by you. What are you talking about wrt Chandler or Johnson? There's clearly a bias against them: the previous full-time coach openly stated that he was opposed to dual-Americans raised outside of the US being part of the USMNT and the next two MLS-affiliated coaches seem to concur.
My final 23 GK: Steffen, Horvath, Johnson RB: Adams , Lima CB: Miazga, Zimmerman, Carter-Vickers, Robinson(Long over Zimmerman if healthy) LB: Robinson, Lovitz CDM: Trapp, Bradley 8: McKennie, Roldan CAM: Holmes, Mihailovic, RW: Pulisic, Arriola LW: Boyd, Amon ST: Sargent, Altidore, Zardes Steffen Adams Miazga Zimmerman Robinson Trapp McKennie Holmes Pulisic Boyd Sargent/ Altidore
Or how to take a perfectly good thread and turn it into a race-baiting skree. Thanks for your uh, contribution.
I'll again point out that it's ridiculous that even acknowledging facts is now race-baiting in certain people's mind.
With the fullbacks, it seems GB is desperately calling in anyone. He must not be at all happy with Lovitz, Lima, and the rest he has looked at so far. With CBs, he has gone the other way and left a good young player completely off the list (EPB) and included trash (Omar), past prime (Ream). There is no reason to not look at EPB and consider him on par professionally with Miles Robinson, Zimmerman, or even Long (who has not been the same player this year). But, just a quibble. Considering the March roster fiasco, almost all the important names are on here (important in the sense their exclusion would be a bad signal): T. Boyd A. Holmes A. Robinson CCV (poor Matt Doyle) Amon Persisting with Adams as a Defender is dumb, but whatever. We are seeing that GB is just stubborn when he thinks he is being brilliant. I would think Lima, Ramirez, and others that got zero minutes in March will be the first cuts. Why not list Novacovich over Ramirez then, or even Wooten. Probably EPB, Nova, Gall were not locks for the 28-30 man camp roster so their releases were not asked for. If injuries whittle down the camp roster they will just fill in with domestic players on the list.
It is a fact that several German-American players were not called into camp. There is NOTHING factual about a perceived "pattern" as you call it. You are welcome to your double-standard but you are not welcome to deform information to correspond to your grievance agenda.
The previous full time coach isn't the current coach. Brooks is hurt and would be a 100% lock for the squad if he wasn't, Johnson and Chandler have long had rocky relationships with the USSF, Wooten is having a great season (in the 2BL, not 1BL as you claim) but is 29 and has one cap--I actually would have brought him in for a look as the 2BL is a very good league but he's not likely to ever be more than a Herc Gomez type. There's no evidence that Berhalter has some sort of weird bias against black German-Americans (but not black British-Americans Holmes and CCV). Brooks is hurt and the other 3 exclusions are very defensible on their own merits.
matabala, We've both been around a long time here so I'm surprised by your attack. It's a FACT that 100% of the black German-Americans were not called into camp despite playing at a high level. That's not up for dispute. How can you not acknowledge that I see a pattern in the FACT that all of them were excluded? What information do you think was deformed - are they not black German Americans who were excluded from the 40 man pool? The more I think about this, the more this is bulls**t. Where is the double-standard deformation of fact grievance agenda?
You were the one who mentioned that they hadn't been called in for two years: i was simply pointing out that a potential reason is that one of those coaches admitted a bias that had nothing to do with soccer quality. There is clear evidence that there's bias against them IMO - you are welcome to think differently but I would prefer not to get attacked as a race-baiter for pointing out inconvenient facts.
Might elicit some "icky" feelings from some (which I understand), but I pretty much agree with this. I don't think Berhalter is racist. I do think Johnson/Morales/Chandler are far superior to most players called in. I don't care about previous associations or conflicts with USSF or anyone else. I want the best players to be here. They are amongst our best players. We have MB forced down our throats by USSF and the media every chance we get, who is no longer good by really any definable measure, and who won't be around in 2022 (though I'm starting to wonder...), yet strolls back in the team and is virtually guaranteed a key spot. But our Bundesliga contingent had some issues with Klinsy or Arena or the USSF 3 years ago, and are too old, so thx but no thx. I don't get it.
There's [weak] cases that can be made against Chandler, Johnson, Morales and Danny Williams as individual players given their age, health and prior USMNT history. However, I'm always looking for structural patterns and it seems clear to me that it's not simply age, health and prior USMNT history that is driving their exclusion given the same considerations aren't used for players who are actually on the squad. If I had to guess, I think that there is a strong bias against those who were not raised in the US and associated with the domestic system as Arena, Wambach and Donovan explicited stated. It's an inconvenient fact that many of these happen to be under-represented minorities.