From an ASN story about Thomas Rongen: "If Bryan Arguez doesn't get sold from D.C. United to Hertha Berlin, Brooks probably would have fallen by the wayside. I knew some players in Germany, like Julian Green, and I had just discovered Mix Diskerud. So I convinced Sunil [Gulati] to give me some money to go to Europe and look at some players. I had not made the connection yet at Hertha until I got a phone call from Bryan, who said, 'Coach, there's three Americans on this team.' And I was like, 'What are you talking about?'" Arguez was referring to..." Of the top of your head, who were the other two? (That shouldn't be too tough for most of us here, but what the heck.) Answer here: http://americansoccernow.com/articles/thomas-rongen-recalls-bringing-john-brooks-to-u-s
Out of curiosity, I figured I'd check whether BigSoccer knew about Brooks before Rongen. Assuming Arguez called his coach sometime in 2008, I guess we did not -- but credit to @Pagefan for starting the first Brooks thread in 2009, well before his first callup in August 2010. http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/john-anthony-brooks-hertha-berlin.1268027/ Wait, is Pagefan actually Rongen?
I know Kiesewetter was one (he and Brooks are childhood friends from the same neighborhood in Berlin and still very close today, calls him his brother) the other (I'm guessing) was T-Boyd.
You got it. Here's the first Boyd thread: http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/terrence-boyd-at-hertha-berlin.981054/ And, I believe, the first Kiesewetter one: http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/jerome-kiesewetter-at-vfb-stuttgart.1268061/
So, what's my prize? In the spirit of the competition I'm hoping it's a Rongen-signed Nevan Subotic Serbia kit to add to my budding collection of ironic sports memorabilia.
Well, he's a '90 -- a bit older then the other guys, and he was called into a U20 camp in April '08. Arguez was there too. (@smithfan gets credit for starting a Morales thread in 2006. Offhand I don't recall if Morales was called in before that, but I don't think he was.) I don't know whether he actually played on any of the same Hertha squads as the other guys (or Arguez, for that matter, though Arguez is actually the oldest of the bunch). http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/alfredo-morales-at-fc-ingolstadt-04.414584/
A great Big Soccer Myth that never dies- Rongen was responsible for Subotic leaving the U.S. fold. Not exactly- while Rongen may have made a comment that Subotic wasn't quite ready for the U20s (at that point in time he was still unsettled and was very inconsistent), Subotic was pretty clear from prior comments that he really wanted to play for Germany internationally ( turns out he didn't qualify, and Serbia was always his fallback choice), and that he really didn't see himself as an American. For all the criticisms Rongen gets as a coach, and some of them are valid, he's done yeoman's work as a scout of foreign-based Yanks.