Oh, anyone notice that TT has become a starter? Granted, we’re playing him out of position at RB, but he’s still starting. He ought to take over Eriksson’s spot, but somehow Magnus has bamboozled Matias. Go Quakes!! - Mark
I'm not persuaded he's out of position. I was disheartened by the (continued) poor quality of his shot on an excellent scoring chance against New England.
He’s more of a setup guy than a shooter, but I’ll have to take your word for it. I’ll need to watch three or four games when I get home. My internet access has been limited, and the bandwidth spotty. But, I’m having lots of fun! Go Quakes!! - Mark
A Quakes player's vow to impact the world At the start of his career, San Jose Earthquakes Homegrown Player signing Tommy Thompson made a vow to positively impact people through soccer. Making good on his promise, Thompson has teamed up with Soccer Without Borders in Oakland, an organization that helps immigrant, refugee and asylee youth overcome the obstacles they face. Host Jillian Sakovits joined Thompson on one of his visits to Soccer Without Borders to see the impact soccer is having on these children's lives.
Sorry didn’t mean to put that post in this thread... I’ve since requested to have it removed. Apologies!
No I can't. The time expired and it was too late for me to delete it. I don't have that type of account and never did. I see the mods deleted it so I guess no harm was done. Apologies once again!
I think Tommy just solved my problem. I have been hemming and hawing about which Quakes jersey to get. TT FTW! I think positivity and flexibility are _the_ keys to happiness and success in this world, and he is showing both for MY team!
It appears to me that he is more patient in balancing his Defense Duty vs Attacking Chance taking than Lima, thus taking the spot from Lima.
In regards to “Merit based systems” , does TT deserve a USM national team call-up at 23 years of age? By the next WC he will be 26 going on 27....Therefore, shouldn't this be prime time on his international career? If I were Berhalter, I’d take a look because Tommy based on his current form has been doing very well this season or at least after the brutal month of March. He still needs to improve but his time is now and the program is in definite need of young blood.
Playing for the Quakes, Tommy has only shown that he excels at trick moves. He can't really shoot, he's not that fast, he's kinda small. How many assists does he have? Yes, he now speaks Spanish. But I think he fell off the YNT rosters a while ago. I don't see any reason why Berhalter would want him back in the NT program when he has so many optons at midfield.
Really? Other than maybe Christian Pulisic, I don't think the competition at the position is all that fierce. Michael Bradley is 31 going on 32 and will be almost 35 by the time the next WC kicks off and I don't think he should be relied on... I don't think Cristian Roldan or Sebastian Lletget are all that great either. Maybe Tommy isn't currently as good as any of them but in 2-3 years time, with more work, he could easily be.
Falvo, are you watching the USMNT games? Read Ives Galarcep’s article on the top 100 USMNT prospects/players. Tommy ain’t in the list, but there are a ton of midfielders who are.
I'm sure the Euro based players will be tough to beat and the depth chart for mids is long. If you look at TT's performances that last 2 months though, he is finally coming into his own as far as MLS midfielder's re concerned. Even today against Chicago and Wondo's record breaking day, the Univision announcers were ecstatic about his improvement. Afgain, maybe he isn't at that point yet but 2020 is a long way off.
When I started playing soccer, I was a left wing in a 4-3-4 (it was popular in the mid 70’s), I’m not left footed, so you might imagine my success rate. I did score one goal for my JV team, but at the end of the year, with three games left in our season, the regular GK got put on Varsity, and we didn’t have any backups, so I went in goal. Needless to say, the vast majority of my time was spent in goal, until I was 48. TT doesn’t need to be in goal, he needs to find his place. I think he may have found it. I hope he thrives there. (BTW-I never had the engine or imagination to play as a mid, but I could play as a forward or defender). Apologies, to you all, to use myself as an example.
The thing is the life span of players is not big. What’s great now won’t be in 3-4 years time. Everyone looks at the national team as the pinnacle and with a set team in place but in today’s international game, that is no longer the case. From one tournament to another , usually on average there are only 4-5 returning players. Looking st the WC team that was eliminated in 2017, you had Tim Howard as starting Gk who is in his last year and Clint Dempsey who retired last season. Relying on Michael Bradley to be our star mid for the qualifiers leading up to 2022 would be a joke. Also using the 2017 WC elimination as an example, the program needs help at every position. Maybe Tommy isn’t the guy today but maybe by 2022 he could be....
Barring injury, we fans can only hope that he becomes a team and country fixture. Makes me wish I’d had the chance, but I chose the USAF. (And I’d do it again)
Falvo, if TT gets a national team callup between now and WC 2022, I will gladly take you out to dinner! I like Tommy a lot, i just don't think he will get to the next level. He's had 5 years to get there.
5 years playing for terrible coaches that stifled him at every turn. I don't know that Thompson will make the jump to playing for the National Team, and I don't really care so long as he performs well for San Jose, but his lack of development is not on his own shoulders, certainly. He's shown already in this short time that he can be much more than a trick performer. I think many of us saw the potential there, but when you have guys like Kinnear literally choking the creativity out of the team, it's not a surprise that Thompson didn't flourish during that time.
the thing is, I watched TT at warmup yesterday. It's no different than the day he joined the Quakes. He's kind of a loner or very independent guy, so he practices by himself a lot. He's always struck me as being more into the celebrity of being a pro footballer, rather than the football itself. He's very multi-talented, right? plays piano, break dances, learned spanish in 100 hours, etc. Maybe he's too multi-talented to focus on doing what it takes to be a NT player He doesn't appear to have any real team relationships, maybe because he is so close to his brother(s). I talked to him once, in Feb, at a StreetSoccerUSA event. He is unable to look at people while talking to them. Maybe he has ADHD or something. Whichever, that makes it harder to form relationships, and maybe would turn off a coach. EDIT and plus He seems to get sick a lot, which means he loses fitness, and he has to really work to get back to a good performance level