621 Czech Republic September 3, 2014 1–0 622 Ecuador October 10, 2014 1–1 623 Honduras October 14, 2014 1–1 624 Colombia November 14, 2014 1–2 625 Republic of Ireland November 18, 2014 1–4 vs 689 Brazil September 7, 2018 0–2 690 Mexico September 11, 2018 1–0 691 Colombia October 11, 2018 2–4 692 Peru October 15, 2018 1–1 693 England November 15, 2018 0–3 694 Italy November 20, 2018 0–1 What a 4 years its been... Are you more optimistic about this team/this staff/this cycle at this time (Dec 2018) vs 4 years ago (Dec 2014)? So many different factors at play, thought it would be a cool discussion. Notable highlights off the top of my head 2014 -Gutsy win in Czech by way of a Bedoya goal, Altidore captained this match if I remember correctly -Donovan send off in CT - Enner Valencia with that goal late -Bobby Wood missed like a bunch of 1v1's that fall, literally couldn't score -Embarrassed in Ireland 2018 -Tyler Adams goal vs Mexico -Weah's pass to Wood -Embarrassed at Wembley -We finally hired a coach lol
I am most excited by the average age of the players this cycle. Secondly, excited by where they are playing, for the most part, and where the others are heading for opportunities. It was quite painful at this time last cycle. Still fresh. This is totally different and the feeling of hope is strong. In 2010, Belgium was touted for their youth and where they were playing. I am under no illusion, but this is where we are now. It took them another cycle to really mature, it may be the same for us. But we on our way!!
I’m not excited about the players of this cycle (yet). But what I am excited about is the prospects for the future. I’m excited that clubs from all of the top leagues in the world are interested in our prospects. Not just in the top few, but also in other kids we don’t expect them to be. And not just a player or two, but sometimes multiple players at multiple positions. That means we are actually developing depth so if Sargent gets hurt or stalls in his development, a Sebastian Soto, Alfonso Ocampo-Chavez, or Ricardo Pepi could potentially emerge and fill the role we hoped he’d take. I think people tend to focus on the big names and players, but guys like Soto, Ledezma, Richards, give us the potential for a depth that we’ve never had before. I think that is an overlooked reason for our struggles in the last few years. Guys like Howard, Cameron, Yedlin, and Brooks being hurt consistently really hurt us last cycle. No matter what you think of the guys who replaced those guys, they weren’t as good as the top players and I will bet the gap between our best and second best players at a position will be much closer by 2022
It's sport fan psychology to always think at the outset that the new season/WC qualifying cycle offers more promise than the last, but I really do feel more optimistic than I did in 2014. At that point, I figured the 2018 qualifying cycle would be a down one, since key guys like Dempsey, Howard, and Jones would probably be declining, and there weren't any clear replacements of that quality on the horizon. Of course, I didn't think that it would be such a down cycle that we would fail to qualify, but still... This time around it sure seems like the young guys coming into their own and presumably forming the core for this cycle will be better than the core for the 2018 cycle. There's still more uncertainty surrounding the young guys than most (myself included) like to acknowledge (Weah could still go the Julian Green route, Miazga, CCV, and EPB could all fail to become CBs in top 4 leagues, etc.), but it sure seems like with just the sheer number of guys we have in promising situations, that enough will come good that it will be an improvement on the Bradley, Altidore, Cameron, etc. core of last cycle.
The program certainly appeared to be in better shape at this time in 2014 than it does now in 2018, but I'd argue that the player pool looks much more promising now than it did in December of 2014: While we were coming off a successful World Cup, we did it on the backs of a bunch of older guys at the end of their primes who weren't projected to be around the team for the 2018 World Cup, like Clint Dempsey (31), Jermaine Jones (32), DaMarcus Beasley (32), Tim Howard (35), Geoff Cameron (29), and Kyle Beckerman (32). We were trying to figure out how we were going to move on from an era in which our two best ever field players (Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey) were both approaching aging out of the player pool, at ages 32 and 31, and trying to figure out who would take up the mantle in leading our attack. Turns out, Donovan retired that year, while Clint defied the odds and continued to be relied upon as an impact player for the USMNT through 2017. We didn't have many promising young players ready to break out to the senior team coming out of 2014, which we've now identified as a missing generation (the 1988 - 1994 group of players). The new players we blooded in the fall of 2014 and early 2015 were guys like Gyasi Zardes, Rubio Rubin, Miguel Ibarra, Steve Birnbaum, Perry Kitchen, Greg Garza, Alfredo Morales, Jordan Morris and Bobby Wood. None of these guys have gone on to become stars for the national team, and except for Wood and Zardes, none have become regular contributors to the national team. By contrast, we now have a lot of very promising young players who, while still quite young, have the potential to become real difference makers. Guys like Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, Tyler Adams, Tim Weah, Zack Steffen and Josh Sargent are progressing well with big clubs. We have a lot of other young talent in the pipeline at the U-17, U-20 and U-23 levels. What we're lacking right now is veteran leadership and a solid core of impact veteran players in their prime at the 24-29 age group right now, but we're at the beginning of a new World Cup cycle and there's still time for these kids to develop and grow into difference makers for the national team.
I was more optimistic in December 2014. here is a sample of our youngsters in Dec 2014: PlayerAgeClubLeagueComment Jozy Altidore25SunderlandEPLScored goals for fun at AZ, Struggling in EPL Ale Bedoya27NantesL1Led US in tackles at WC2014. Terrence Boyd23RB LeipzigBL2Left Dortmund and scored goals for fun in Austria. WC2014 30 man roster John Brooks21HertaBuLiPlayed at WC2014 Timmy Chandler24NurnbergBuLiStarter in BuLi, on WC2014 bench Joe Corona24TijuanaLigaMXStarter in LigaMX, WC2014 30 man roster Mix Diskerud24RosenburgNorwayStarter in Norwegien first, WC2014 bench Greg Garza23TijuanaLigaMXStarting LB in LigaMX Julian Green19BayernBuLiWonder goal at WC2014, signed and played in CL by Pep Joe Gyau22DortmundBuLiMade his Dortmund first team appearance Emo Hyndman18FulhamChampionshipEPL academy product from age 15, silky on ball skills Miguel Ibarra24MUNASLSpeedy, technical high-work-rate wide attacker, NASL Golden ball winner. AJ24AZEredivisiePlayed at WC2014, scoring goals for fun at AZ Fabian Johnson27HoffenheimBuLiTop 5 US player at WC2014, linked to Barca move Alfredo Morales24IngolstadtBL2Down to BL2 to get PT, bossed Mexico U23 as a #6 in 2012 Rubio Rubin18UtrechtDanish SuperligaStarter, speed and attacking mindset Brek Shea24Stoke CityEPLMLS MVP finalist who was coming off prior year injury Bobby Wood221860BL2Raw speed and power but struggling at 1860 Munich Dre Yedlin21SeattleMLSBreakout at WC2014, EPL move likely
Add: - Russell Canouse, 19 --expected to make the jump to Hoffenheim from the B team any moment; - Jerry Kiesewetter, 21 --returning to Stuttgart, expected to get play time with the main team; - Ventura Alvarado, 22 --starting with America, that won the Apertura and the Liguilla MX in December; - Desevio Payne, 19 --about to make his big jump to the Groningen first team in the Eredivisie.