It's just so unhealthy-we have players who have been competing Day in and day out in Europe at a professional level who deserve it over Sargent. The kid literally has played four games in the last 5 months
I'm old enough to remember when people used to insist that a young player should be on our World Cup roster "for the experience!" (Edit: Not just ours. Other countries, too...) Truly, it was a gentler time.
People wanted Weah, Lindsey and Durkin called up for this qualifier. I'm surprised at how angry people are over Sargent especially considering how awful our forward group is
I would take Weah over Sargent everyday of the week. He's playing high level matches every week. Josh hasn't don't anything since the WC
Sargent may still make something of himself when he gets to Werder Bremen, but you're right, Weah is getting games at a good level, albeit U19, but probably also trains with the 1st team at PSG.
Giggsy, giggsy. Take a breath. We took Green to the World Cup. And it wasn't even an American coach. We have fragile depth at forward. That's all. I know. It sucks.
Yes and Sargent is way down the list of our fragile forwards. Altidore Dwyer Agudelo Wood Wright Ramierez Johanson Boyd Bunburry Sapong... Ok this list is embarrassing...
I'm not saying it's right. I'm just saying it's going to happen a few more times. Indeed it's happened multiple times. Juan Agudelo in 11/11/10 - only had 7 pro appearances Bobby Wood in 8/13 - only had played in regionlliga Jordan Morris in 8/14 - still in college Landon Donovan in 10/25/00 - only played regionlliga and oberlliga Charlie Davies in 6/07 - only half a season in Sweden and no goals scored Julian Green in 11/13 - regionlliga, rejected the call up! The big constant here is that all these guys are forwards and all of them were seen as special. This call up is very much within the typical pattern for the US.
I thought the Bradley approach was fine. You'd prefer to not have to call up guys with only a few pro games, but they had regular roles in their teams, so it wasn't that much of a stretch. I really disliked the Klinsmann approach, didn't at all agree with his call ups of Wood, Morris, Green. Donovan is a different case as he turned into our best ever player, so its hard to fault Arena there.
Dwyer, Agudelo, and Sapong are called up. Altidore is in the playoffs right now, red card or not you don't take him from the team now. Wood is nursing an injury according to the US Soccer call up announcement. Johannsson has 90 minutes in the 3rd Bund and 3 minutes in the 1st Bund, for a total of 93 minutes played this season. Boyd has had a total of 75 minutes in the 2nd Bund this season. Teal Bunbury had 7 goals total this season in just over 1000 minutes in MLS. I think Wright is better served stay with his team during this break. Ramirez I would have liked seen called in, but he doesn't occupy the same space as Sargent occupies, replace one of the other players for him. Seems like you're trying to make a fuss, but it's just a little silly. I guess if you want to disregard context it's dumb right? an amateur getting called up to the USMNT without playing a pro game yet. But it's a camp where we're pretty short handed at a position we're short handed at. This is also a tournament focused on youth, who may be of age for the next World Cup. We also shouldn't pretend Sargent is some scrub, he was like bronze boot at the U20 World Cup, and he arguably was our best player at the tournament. He's about to go pro, for a decent club too it's just timing. Plenty players have been called into these meaningless camps for U20 performances, why is it a problem now.
No, no national team player should be called in unless they're playing first team minutes or at least playing week in and week out. Sargent has done neither - that is embarrassing and sets an extremely bad example. The kid is not even close to a sure fire prospect.
Shrug. I don't think most care if the coaching staff takes a flyer on one of these youngsters to a camp like this. Its just a camp. He may not even play in the game. If Sargent doesn't develop and it turns out like a wasted camp slot..................so what? I'm typically a person that says callups to the USMNT should be earned rather than handed out. However, the purpose of the USMNT has changed for the next 1.5 years. We're not preparing for anything. We're in expanding the pool mode and providing opportunities to a lot of players. I don't really care if we call up Gio Reyna or youngsters of any age that the staff wants to just give a taste of a USMNT camp to. Frankly, I'm not sure we should think of these as USMNT camps and games. We have folders in our heads named USMNT players, U23 players, U20 players, U18 players, U17 players, etc. As far as I'm concerned we should throw all the folders away. There is no definition for what qualifies a player for the USMNT over the next 1.5 years until we're preparing for the 2019 Gold Cup.
Calling up a young player with no pro experience is not ideal but considering the fact that he is one of our best U17s at the moment and this is a meaningless friendly, whatever. Imagine if we called up Pulisic last cycle, before he made his debut with Dortmund. Don't forget that this thread is about Olympic Qualifying, so we should not be having discussions about players who realistically aren't expected to be available for it.
We can still call a ton of players up who have earned it within professional organizations in America and abroad. Sargent hasn't earned anything, that is my point - his game still has so many holes.
Isn't it possible that Sargent got called in because he hasn't gotten competitive games, and Weah didn't because he's playing? Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Sargent in a kind of awkward situation right now, where he basically has to sit around until he turns 18 and can head to Bremen? So, why not call Sargent in and give him something productive to do with his time for a little while? He probably won't actually play today. It's not hurting anything to keep him around the more established players.
I don't think this is a Sargent vs. Weah debate, but you are right about his situation. As best as I know, he can't play official games until July.
Most of those call ups would be a waste of time. You can give Dom Dwyer And CJ sapping a cookie but they still aren't very good
I'm saying that's not a thing. Dwyer is tapped out on potential. Giving him a cap is just like giving him a cookie nice reward for him but pointless for us. There won't be a meaningful game for him to ever play for the US. Meanwhile you're basically angry that Sargent got called in to practice with the team.
Representing your country has everything to do with "Deserve" your comment shows a complete lack of understanding on development, locker room, and creating the right culture within the US Soccer establishment that would actually produce real results on the worlds stage.