An U-15 player. Called into a recent US U-15 camp. It will be interesting to see where he ends up in the next 5 years.
Just to round this out a bit, U.S. Soccer says Kyle is a '97. http://www.ussoccer.com/News/U-15-B...layer-Roster-for-Training-Camp-in-Carson.aspx Father's a Brit, mom's a Chicagoan.
Scored and assisted for the U15s against Real SoCal. http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/club-soccer-articles/new-players-shine-in-u15bnt-scrimmages_aid25654
Kyle Scott has been called up by the England U-16's. He said that he is still undecided on what National Team he will represent. Thats common though for players his age. He is keeping his options open. Certainly not good though when someone like England comes calling
In this day is England really that much more attractive than the US? It's not like England has won anything in recent times and one could argue that they are slowly slipping as a power while the US is slowly gaining.
I agree, but England is still a more attractive option. I think we are at the point where we can beat England on any given day, but thats still not good enough to be a more attractive option than England. They have better players, have a better league, have more depth, and have a better chance than we do to win the World Cup. I wouldn't be surprised if eventually someone chooses the USA over one of these bigger countries. We make the World Cup every time, get out of the group stage often, have a solid group of players, and aren't too far away from being as attractive as an option like England. I think its going to take one world class player to make that choice, and then the floodgates will open. While the USA can't take credit for guys like Rossi and Subotic entirely, they are world class players that could be the difference from being between 20-30 in the world and 10-20. Our main weakness is that second CB position and on the wing,. Someone like Subotic could do wonders for our back line. I think of it like College Basketball or College Football. We are that program that is on the verge of breaking out if we can lure one big name player away from one of the powerhouses. Sure, our development of youth players is still behind these countries by a considerable margin, but lets not act like there aren't world class talents that could play for the USA, they just have chosen not to.
Which brings us back to having USSF hire Nick Saban, John Calipari, and/or Urban Meyer as consultants. Certainly couldn't hurt our recruiting efforts...
Just another tournament England crashes out of before the pundits think they should, overlooking that they are barely a top 10 European team. In a World Cup setting no one should realistically expect England to do any better than the US, maybe one round farther but that's about it. England now is like Notre Dame football for the last 15 years: overhyped and living off the ghosts of the past.
Ding ding ding, just look at the best teams in the EPL (Man U, City, Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea). These English players have played in 10+ games for their respective teams this year at the minimum. Arsenal - Wilshere, Jenkinson, Walcott and the Ox Chelsea - Cole, Cahill, Lampard, Bertrand Man U - Carrick, Ferdinand, Evans, Cleverley, Rooney, Young, Welbeck Man City - Hart, Barry, Milner, Lescott Tottenham - Lennon, Walker, Defoe, Caulker, Dawson, Naughton Most of these teams depend on foreign (mostly Spanish, Italian, German and African) players to fuel their teams. Hell there is only 2 English players in the top 10 scorers in EPL, 5 out of 10 for top assists. The league itself is top notch, but the thought (not sure if this is a media driven thing, probably is) that English footballers rule the EPL is pretty much false.
Or US Soccer could just worry more about developing pipeline of quality players from within its own system. Then it won't have to rely on the choice of players who are developed entirely elsewhere - the dependency of which is the mark of an unhealthy program.
I'm as much a US homer as the next guy but this is fairly absurd. The only CONCACAF team who could even make such a claim at this time is Mexico and even that would be a pretty big stretch. Right now, being honest, we are a 3rd tier soccer nation (30-40th in the world) which is at least at least two rungs below England. We don't have one player on our NT who would start for the England NT and only a couple who could even make their bench. Outside of the very cream of the crop (Spain) England has the talent to go toe with any team in the world. This assertion that England, talent wise, isn't one of the 10 or 12 best footballing nations in the world is preposterous. Like Bshredder said we need to focus on developing our own talent, not relying on players developed by other nations... When nearly half of your best XI was developed in another country you know that your infrastructure is still very flawed. I won't give you too much heat for this opinion though because I think this over inflating of our NT and under inflating of England's is simply a product of our NT overachieving in the World Cup in relation to our talent level and England underachieving relative to theirs in recent times. (This is what makes the Notre Dame comparison a bad one, Notre Dame fell out of the top tier because they no longer had the talent, England's lack of pedigree in recent times is a lot less about talent and a lot more about other variables) I think the role of expectations is seriously understated when analyzing something like this. In this country there is no real pressure, making the World Cup is considered a success. This I think allows our team to overachieve in big tournaments like the World Cup because unlike most nations in it, there isn't this huge pressure from the media, the fans, etc. to make it to ___ stage in the tournament (outside of a few die hards like us). So we are basically playing with house money every World Cup we make, certainly so if advance past the group stage. In England it's totally different, the pressure is immense. The media, the fans, everyone there expects results and a deep run in tournaments and despite their recent history, from a talent stand point they should expect this. But when you have that kind of monkey on your back it is easy to crumble under the pressure and eventually after a certain number of years it snowballs and gets to a point where England is at now. Luck plays a factor in any tournament run as well and unfortunately for England, lady luck is simply not a fan of the English. When the US has these same kinds of expectations and pressures placed upon them then we will know that we have truly arrived as a footballing nation and culture. We have a hell of a long way to go yet, though I am hopeful we will get at least part of the way there in my lifetime. When/if we finally do get to that point lets just hope we will handle those pressures and expectations better than England has. Considering Americans have a certain mental toughness and and ability to overcome and overachieve in comparison to many other cultures and countries I think we will be able to deliver the goods, unlike the English. P.S. I apologize for the long winded nature of my post.
Indeed. Also- trans-Atlantic flight to play qualifiers in San Salvador and Kingston vs. short flight to play qualifiers in Luxembourg and Amsterdam. Endorsement contracts in England for English International versus endorsements contracts in America for American International. Hmmm. Really, still not that hard a decision if the European team is a real option for the kid.
But then look at the best players on each team, they aren't these guys for the most part...Look at all the guys who are foreign who are big time players on these teams though. Arsenal - Arteta, Carzola, Vermalen, Podolski, Mertesackar, Szszesny, Sagna, Giroud, Chelsea - Mata, Hazard, Oscar, Ivanovic, Torres (he hasn't been that bad this year contrary to people's beliefs), Ba, Luiz, Ramiers, Obi Mikel, Cech Man City - Toure, Kompany, Silva, Tevez, Aguero, Dzeko, Clichy, Zabaleta, Nastastic, Nasri, Garcia, (hell this could easily be their starting lineup) Man U (most English dominant team) - De Gea, Vidic, Evra, RVP, Rafael, Valencia, Kagawa I don't know about you but I'd take a group of these guys over any of combination of domestic guys in the EPL. Foreign players rule the league, the English players just get more hype for doing less.
I'm not over-inflating the US team. I never claimed we are as good as England just that in an average WC we would do about as well as England will. England still produces a lot of talented players but a lot of them seem to be relics of a style that has disappeared from the rest of the soccer landscape outside of England. Some of their younger players seem to be breaking the mold a bit so maybe there's hope for them. The EPL isn't really a tactical league and it's hurting their national team because of it. Their last 4 WCs they've had 2 2nd round exits and 2 quarterfinal exits, not exactly impressive to me. At the Euros they are as likely to not get out of the group than anything. My only point is that choosing between England and the US isn't choosing between winning World Cups/Euros and not. England isn't going to win a World Cup or Euro anytime soon, just like the US. Also, as you pointed out, the insane and unrealistic pressure the English team is under doesn't help their team out. It's like the media there is setting them up for failure. They seem to revel in the misfortune of the national team.
But the guys you just listed don't play together as a national team. Obviously, the English do and they make a pretty good group. Certainly better than any combination of US players, which was the point to begin with visa vis playing for the US or England.
Q: How many of those guys play together on the same national team? A: Not very many When you have a league that quality of the BPL you are going to attract great talents from all around the globe. The point is the English players that do play for these clubs are very good ones and make the foundation for a plenty talented enough English national side. Any sane USMNT fan would trade our best XI for the English best XI in a heartbeat.
You know you can say that but it wasn't luck that we finished first in our group at the last WC and if we are in the same group again, we can only pray, I would bet that we finish ahead of them again.
Well, it was a little lucky that Clint scored against them, but I get the gist of your point and I don't disagree. But make a 23-man roster for England then see how many US players could expect to crack it. Maybe Dempsey. Howard, in his prime, probably, but he seems past his prime now. Same with Donovan. And maybe Fabian Johnson. I'm not pretending England is a world-beater. I'm just suggesting they can still put together a very good national team and that individually they are better than the US is right now.