http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/ne.../danny-mwanga-tony-tchani-andy-najar-us-radar Some good immigration nuggets in here.
He states that Najar received his green card in 2006. Is that actually true? If so, I'd say that makes it pretty likely he'll end up going with us. For some reason I though Najar hadn't received it until 2009 or 2010, though.
Fascinating, because the general impression I've gotten on Bigsoccer was that Mwanga would likely apply for citizenship in 2011 and Najar in 2012. This article states the opposite, Najar would be eligible in 2011 and Mwanga in 2012.
It is never too early to blame Thomas WrongAgain for something. I still blame him for chasing off Subotic who could have helped our defense the last World Cup.
I blame him for the U.S. losing the World Cup bid. Also...mimes and carnies. On a more serious note the article indicates that Najar was approached by Honduras for the U-20's and declined. Is this true? If so, is this a good indication that he is leaning towards the U.S?
Wait ... they can get Bubba on board for the World Cup bid but they have no "political capital" to fast-track a trio of soccer prospects? If Sunil doesn't have the juice to do that, he might as well resign. The talk about the "doctors and scientists" is silly (meaning stupid and idiotic) because there's no urgent reason for the "doctors and scientists" to become the US citizens, aside of wanting to vote. There's definitely an urgency with the sports figures, such as Tanith Belbin.
Rongen doesn't hobnob with Bill Clinton and Morgan Freeman. The head of the USSF does. Tanith Belbin didn't get her papers because her coach spoke on her behalf. She got it because the US Figure Skating has.
This is good to hear. Najar is probably the most ready for international duty out of all of them. Also, we need a speedy winger. Mwanga is always good to have. The guy has the potential to be very good but he has quite a few forwards up against him.
Well hell let's just fire both of them! In other new...this is going to be an interesting cycle with more players like these facing tough decisions. However, IMO none of these guys would make the roster for 2014 (possibly Najar).
To me, it's not whether these guys could be on team, but rather just the fact that competition for every spot would be heightened. My feeling for years is that for a lot of our guys, there wasn't a sense of needing to fight for their spot on the national team like they had on their club teams. I think bigger and better player pools should make all out top players work harder to keep their spots, and the team as a whole better, hopefully. Exciting times, as I think we will see more and more of these kind of guys over the next few years. Amazing what a successful run can do eh?
The roster that is 3.5 years away? That's a long time away. Especially since Mwanga plays in (arguably) our weakest position. Jan of 2003 noone thought Clint Dempsey would score a goal in Germany or Onyewu would be a starting CB. Stuart Holden didn't get his first cap until 2009 and Findley and Buddle sure as hell weren't locks. Jose Torres wasn't in the equation in Jan 2007. Alot can change between now and 2014.
I don't believe that. Who's been a better/more productive player in MLS: Danny Mwanga or Teal Bunbury? Who's been a better/more productive player in MLS: Tony Tchani or Eric Alexander? Bunbury was just capped by the USMNT, and both Teal and Alexander are at camp cupcake. And Andy Najar is USMNT ready right now. In case people haven't looked at our camp cupcake roster, we're actually thin with natural wingers. There's Brek Shea of course, who's thinking of moving to centerback after his successful GenAd experience. There's Bedoya, but he also plays in the middle in club football. Who had a more successful 2010 MLS season: Robbie Rogers or Andy Najar? Andy Najar in a landslide. If these three were made available to Bob Bradley tomorrow, they'd all be in the mix. Obviuosly Najar and Mwanga play in positions of greater need than Tchani. Tony would have to beat out people like Bradley, Edu, Clark, Torres, etc. But he's a talented kid, and has the ability to do just that. You never know what could happen between now and 2014. So better to have as many options as possible. [Actually there will probably be players on the 2014 roster that we don't even know about yet. Raise your hand if you thought going into the 2010 MLS draft that Tim Ream and Eric Alexander would be capped a year later. If you have your hand raised, you're crazy. There are players coming out in 2011 and 2012 that will be in the mix.]
Actually they way I read the article is that both Najar and Mwanga would be able to apply for citizenship this year. It explained that Mwanga, depite getting his green card a year after Najar, would only have to wait 4 years to apply because he was granted asylum which makes the wait time 4 years instead of the standard 5.
I am very high on Tchani. (Full disclosure, Redbull fan/season ticket holder and as such a little biased.) Though he has a lot of work to do and though he toils in the position at which we are deepest, he is the kind of calm on the ball, powerful, athletic central midfielder who can dominate a midfield. I won't suggest that he has that sort of ceiling, but I am reminded of the performance Yaya Toure put on in 2009 versus Chelsea in the Champions league, where he dealt very well with Ballack, Lampard and Essien. I think the Shalrie Joseph comparisons were not off base. It would not surprise me in the least (assuming for arguments sake he became eligible) if 4 years from now he were the best box to box central midfielder in our pool. Not saying I think he will, just that it would not surprise me.
Chill out guys. I realize that anything can happen. But we're talking about 3 guys coming out of their rookie years. I don't take stock in anyone untill I actually see them play for the USMNT a few times. Lots of rookies look good their first year in MLS. Very VERY few of them pan out. I saw Tchani play in person all last season. IMO if he continues to improve he will be very good for Red Bull. Not great, but very good. I personally do not think he will be 23 man roster good for the USMNT ever. However that is just my personal opinion at the moment.
Chill out would seem applicable to you as I don't really see anyone getting exercised. I think there were plenty of caveats and qualifications and I think there is enough evidence to be optimistic about some of these guys. But I don't think anyone has said they would immediately supplant anyone in the pool. I, too, saw Tchani play and believe him to already be very good for Redbull. Certainly better than Stammler or Robinson in that role. He is 21 with 30 club appearances and there is a lot of time.
mwanga is june 2011... nowak and union are well aware of this process.. watching what mwanga did against manu tells his upside... i'd say olympics before anything else for him... don't forget mwanga dad was on the "bad" side in the civil war he's made many local statements about wanting to play for usa time will tell, as usa is far more likely to make a wc final.. also watch out for the french sneaking in to make him french
I just don't want the thread to turn into a 60 page deal with one side saying these 3 guys are locks and the other side saying they are dead wood (oh wait, it's BS...) I was simply saying my opinion is that based on their first season in MLS Najar has a possible shot at the 23 in 2014.
Of the three I'd say Mwanga is the most likely to suit up for the US. 1) Mwanga 2) Tchani 3) Najar Najar seems the one of the three that is being hounded by another federation the most (Honduras in that case). He'll probably have to reject U20WC callups, probably U23 callups, and probably full Honduras national team callups..............while the US has to sit and wait. Is he going to hold out? I don't know. Tchani says in that article: "Once I get my U.S. citizenship, then I'll make a decision." Well, if he's going to wait until he gets his citizenship to make the decision..........he's likely going with us. If not....why wait? Another thing to take from the article is that Bradley/USSF is in contact and aware of all of these situations. You see people criticizing them for situations like Movsisyan, Soumare, Ibisevic, Joseph, etc...............but the timelines for many of these players don't offer much of a road for the US. There never was much hope we'd get Movsisyan and Soumare as long as other federations's were calling. There's not much hope with regards to Le Toux. While France isn't calling, he's going to be ~35 (post WC14) by the time he's eligible.
In the US, we're more bureaucratic and follow the rules more tightly than in, say, Poland. I'm not sure if you're joking here, or Sunilhate has finally destroyed your brain. Anyone who gets on Sunil because the US Gvt. won't open itself up to a ton of lawsuits by treating one class of passport applicants differently from the rest is Gollum-esque. EDIT: Why the hell won't my Gollum image show up? Grrr.
nice, i hope we can get Najar integrated in our Gold Cup roster. and then Mwanga's bleeding in would be ideal in the Olympics.
It was posted in the US Youth forum a few weeks back that Najar did turned down a call up to the senior Honduran MNT. He made an excuse that he had to go to Toronto during the MLS finals weekend to recieve his ROTY award.