if you're trying to say there are plenty jewish-mexicans, that just isn't true. pretty sure they represent under 1% of the total population. it is rather remarkable that there are 2 jewish-mexicans on the national team for how few there are in mexico. edit: apparently .03% of the mexican population is jewish which makes that approximately 40,000 jewish-mexicans
Were we talking about overall populations because I could've sworn we were talking about soccer? Besides, those numbers you pulled up are of people who actively practice judaism and of course, the US has the biggest numbers in that bracket, for obvious reasons. There are plenty of people of mixed races and religions who aren't accounted for.
Nery should focus on getting his career back on track....now he wants to start discussing socio-economic issues and Mexican jews??
I can also tell you that they are not part of the chosen people. Any footballer who is Jewish ends up flirting with a club in Israel. Just see Lucas Licht of Argentina or Roni Porokara of Finland.
USA’s Best Left Back May Be Mexican Not much new stuff. Talks about the Chivas vs NT issues, and about him being a lock for the Mexican Olympic squad.
Mexico has a couple other good young LB in Torres Nilo and Adrian Aldrete that are further along and closer to the big team that could get in the way of Ponce hence facilitating a switch to the USMNT. I saw him play Sunday morning and looked very solid. Nothing spectacular but solid.
Damn shame about the possibility of playing for the Mex Nats. If only our country, or California for that matter, welcomed immigrants instead of trying to deport them the moment they start speaking Spanish. Oh well, illgeal is illegal. Ni modo. Sorry, enough of my anti-xenophobia trip, good luck to him.
It was a general reference about his family living here in the states and the anti-Mexicanism that exists. If you watch the sensationalism of the Spanish language media here in America, you'd know or at least assume, that you are not welcomed when you say you are of Mexican-extraction. That's because they make a GIANT issue out of anti-illegal immigrant news. My point is that's too bad. I just want to see the guy play for the US. There is no incentive for him to play here. There is no link to US Soccer either because these guys get plucked before they're near our radar or they're already playing in the Copa Libertadores final.
Although there's absolutely zero evidence of any sort whatsoever that Ponce is playing for Mexico because of any issues with or in the United States. The fact is that wehen you look at US youth teams (U17, U20, U23)........there's an enormous number of Mexican-American and hispanic players on those squads. The number of dual national Mexican-American players that have chosen to represent the United States (Torres, Orozco, Castillo, Ruelas, Salgado, and on and on and on).............far outnumber those that have chosen to play for Mexico. As of right now the only Mexican-American to represent Mexico's senior national team has been Edgar Castillo............who ended up switching to the United States later anyway. My favorite example, of course, is Sonny Guadarrama (now at Atlante). He was on the US youth teams, decided to play for Mexico...............they didn't way him, so he came crawling back to the US........and we summarily told him he could go f*ck himself. Right on.
I think of the players you mentioned the only one that Mexico might think got away is Salgado. The other guys Mexico could care less where they went. Torres is overrated and sitting the bench at Pachuca. For some reason some here think there was European interest but the truth is that he was being rumored to of being offered in an effort to try to get Omar Bravo from Deportivo. Castillo cannot defend and is better suited as a winger but very lightweight but Mexico have a surplus of wingers way better (Barrera, Gio, Vela, Guardado). Orozco not good enough. Ruelas could turn out pretty good and Salgado is looking really good so they could be the only ones that got away from Mexico. Having said that Mexico has a wealth of potential stars coming right behind the Golden Generation of Gio, Vela, Hernandez, Juarez, Moreno, Ochoa, and Barrera. Most here have not heard of many of them but Chivas, Pumas, and Atlas are loaded. Aside from Vela and Gio most U20 Mexican players are not well known and typically don't break into the first teams until they are about 22 or 23 but we are already seeing some glimpses of from Martin Galvan of Cruz Azul, Edgar Pacheco of Atlas, and Hernandez of Morelia, and Guti Estrada of Santos (which just won the best winger in Mexico award). Lets put it this way. If Salgado would have stayed at Chivas he would have had at least 4 more years before he would be able to hit the starting XI. And he would find it hard to beat out Michel Vasquez or some of the other young Chivas strikers. In the US there is so much pressure, hype, and overall attention on young players that it sometimes backfires. I think the decision for Mexican Americans to choose the US has a lot to do with the thought that it is easier to crack the USMNT at the particular positions these players play at (Forward, Attacking Midfielder, Left Back), notice no goalies or defensive midfielders. And that Mexico has more depth (not saying they are better - don't want to open a can of worms).
I came away from the Mexico vs US u20 match at the Dallas Cup highly impressed with Saul Villalobos. I'd say he was easily the best player on either team. Gave Kofi Sarkodie fits all night
This is what I was implying. I have never heard of this guy. The Mexican league is full of these promising young guys that hardly get a sniff of first team action until about 22 mostly because of the reliance of foreign players. Chicharito is a good example, he was known within Chivas but not really outside the team. And he was lucky he was with Chivas as they along with Atlas and Pumas are the only teams that actually play the young talent. Otherwise he would barely be breaking into the first team somewhere else in Mexico. Then you have Salgado and all the hoopla and pressure of being the #1 pick. There might be better players in Mexico that we might not even of heard of yet. In fact at Chivas he was not even considered the best prospect and had issues with Chivas management. So in summary I think too much pressure and hype is being placed on the youth players in MLS and they get thrown to the fire too soon. For example you can see that Adu and Altidore were behind in the curve on learning tactics and positioning and are barely learning it now. Now I see Agudelo, Najar, Bunbury, Shea, and others thrown at the fire and run the risk slowing tactical awareness and positioning learning that will be required for higher level leagues.
Which must be why there are so many more Mexicans prospering in higher level leagues. Wait. There aren't? Actually, I agree with you. MLS is a league where tactics are an afterthought. Teams across the league play a pretty similar style, mostly because there is not enough talent on each team to be able to vary play significantly. So you see most teams comfortable with pressure defenses and quick transition attacks. The bad news is it is a style that de-prioritizes skill and tactics and places a heavy emphasis on athleticism and speed of play. The good news is players from MLS aren't surprised or overwhelmed by the speed of play in higher level leagues, and once they get the tactics, they tend to do well. In Mexico, it is the opposite. Heavy emphasis is placed on skill, tactics to a lesser extent, but the league is played at a slow place and frankly has many average/sub-average athletes on the field. Perhaps the ideal development path for a player would be to go to Mexico at a young age to get the fundamentals in skill taught and practiced in Mexico, then to move to MLS to learn how to play at a more physically demanding pace.
You are right on in the difference in the two leagues. That is why I am surprised that there is only one Mexican in Spain where I think they woudl to very well and like 5 players in England/Scotland. Chicharito is an example of one player that possess both skill and physical talents and maybe Agudelo as well. Mexico pays very well so there is less of a need to go to Europe plus the US produces better European style individual players. So I do not think it can be compared Apples to Apples. Mexicans go to Europe at a later age and to top teams. Lets look at Mexicans abroad in the past few years. As you can see Mexicans tend to stay in Mexico and when they have left it was with a top tier team. Players that went to top teams in league Javier Hernandez - ManU Carlos Vela - Arsenal Gio Dos Santos - Barca/Tottenham Guille Franco - Villarreal Carlos Salcido - PSV/Fulham Maza Rodriquez - PSV Efrain Juarez - Celtic Marquez - Barca Jona Dos Santos - Barca Players that went to teams and won league championships with them Hector Moreno - AZ Alkmaar Pavel Pardo - Stuttgart Ricardo Osorio - Stuttgart Players in mid to low level teams Guardado - Deportivo La Coruna Barrera - West Ham We are starting to see now that Mexicans are starting to go to Europe at a younger age even at a paycut for the lure of European soccer.
Ruud Gullit installed a pretty skillful attack in LA. He was undermined by Alexis Lalas w/re to personnel but the team was on it's way to being something special in American soccer from a tactical standpoint. Which is all to say that it is certainly possible to play more skillful soccer with the US players.
What, they were on their way to being the first MLS team to concede 100 goals in a season or something?
I wasn't implying anything about the quality of those particular Mexican-American players my friend. (Torres, Orozco, Castillo, etc.) There is simply a set of US fans that's horrified at the prospect of highly talented, young Mexican-American players choosing to represent Mexico instead of the United States. The reality as of right now is simply that it hasn't happened. The closest was Edgar Castillo, and he might not be good enough for either national team. People were all interested in the possibility of Jesus Padilla playing for the US while he was at Chivas. So far he doesn't appear to be good enough for either national team either. Sure there are youth players that have represented both nations like Sonny Guadarrama, etc.......but none of them so far have "graduated" to the senior national teams. Maybe Ponce will be the first, who knows...............but as US fans we CANNOT expect 100 retention. And we can't get all crazy about the fact that a Mexican-American at Chivas is going to represent Mexico. Hello? It's Chivas...........if he wanted to represent the United States he wouldn't be a first team player at Chivas. If he leaves Chivas, who knows? But why would he leave Chivas right now? I don't know..........
looool It's more like there were NO tactics. When you don't tell players a role or a style you want them to play, they'll just go out and attack. Which is all well and fine, but you still need SOME discipline to tell them "Hey, you need to get back sometimes"