I'm certainly not for making the National Team a day care for young players who aren't playing first team pro minutes, but someone in another thread brought up a good point today. It might make sense to call up Palmer-Brown for this tournament. First of all, he's unlike McKennie, Wright, Carleton, Sargent, Perez, etc. in the sense that he's more than proven he should be a regular starter at his club team for what should be years at this point, and only isn't due to the biggest injustice situation between an MLS club and a young player in a really long time. And he's proven to be absolutely unchallenged by youth players. There are a lot of calls by some people to call in some of those youth players mentioned above, but the case against them is that we have to build a WC roster, a tournament in a year. Unless you are getting first team playing time, you can't be a regular senior NT player, therefore we gotta wait until those players are before they are considered. And then there have been some calls (like there always is) for a few players who people like what they see from during the U-20 WC, this year its Jones and Adams, but we've watched those guys in MLS, and they are at best average starters at this point. At times this season, they've fairly earned a seat on the bench. Meanwhile, we've seen that Palmer-Brown has outplayed all these MLS regulars in this tournament and qualifying (Lennon, Adams, Jones, Saucedo, Acosta, Glad, Redding) by some margin. He's not put a foot wrong with the U-20's in 9 matches between qualifying the U-20 WC. All those others have either had an uneven match or two. There's a good case that he could be a big help to the senior NT presently. And since his contract is up at the end of 2017, he'll be able to move freely in January, or maybe he even gets sold this summer. There should be a good chance that he's playing regularly leading up to the WC.
Bruce Arena comments on squad selection for the Gold Cup: http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/201...ster-for-venezuela-trinidad-mexico-qualifiers I would only consider calling in YAs in Europe who have uncertain club situations or YAs who play in the English Championship, since their season is so long that they can afford to miss a few matches. My guess is Lichaj, Ream and Williams will be strongly considered; other than that, mostly MLS and Mexico-based players.
That makes it tough to get looks at fringe-y YA's. Fringey MLS'ers have Cupcake, and GoldCup. I guess the upside is there aren't many fringe-y YA's. The 3 you mention, and ....?
I'd like to see Josh Sargent called into the GC camp. I found him to be really, really impressive against Senegal, displaying attacking prowess and mentality well beyond his years. In addition to scoring a great goal, he withstood repeated poundings by opposition players. He's tall and, despite not yet being 17, he is sturdy enough to shrug off the assaults. Ordinarily, I'd say that 16/17 is too young simply because of physical immaturity, but I'd give Sargent the benefit of any doubt. Besides, I want to see him play with Pulisic ASAP (recognizing, of course, may be excused from the GC).
He recently turned 17. He'll be 18 in Feb. It's an interesting conundrum. He looks great. But, he's really young. Not sure you want to put that much on his shoulders. As a side note, his passing is almost as impressive as his scoring.
His field vision is what impressed me the most. That went extremely well with his off-the-ball movement which was very efficient and productive.
I agree about his movement. And, I also think the entire team's off the ball movement has been excellent.
My updated list; GK: Bill Hamid, Ethan Horvath, Zack Steffen RB: Timmy Chandler, Eric Lichaj LB: Jorge Villafana, Tim Ream CB: Omar Gonzalez, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Matt Miazga, Walker Zimmermann CM: Kellyn Acosta, Danny Williams, Cristian Roldan, Alfredo Morales W/AM: Paul Arriola, Lynden Gooch, Kekuta Manneh, Julian Green FW: CJ Sapong, Christian Ramirez, Dom Dwyer, Gyasi Zardes Game 1: -----Zardes---Dwyer------ Gooch----------------Arriola -----Acosta---Williams---- Villafana-----------Chandler ----(C)Ream--Gonzalez----- -------------Horvath----------- Subs: Ramirez (Gooch...Zardes to LW) Manneh (Arriola) Morales (Acosta) Game 2: ----Sapong---Ramirez----- Manneh----------------Arriola -----Acosta---Williams----- Lichaj-----------------Chandler ------(C)Ream--Zim-------- -------------Hamid---------- Subs: Green (Manneh) Gooch (Arriola) Roldan (Acosta) Game 3: ----Zardes--Dwyer------ Green--------------Arriola -----Acosta--Roldan---- (c)Ream-------------Lichaj ------Miazga---CCV------ ------------Horvath--------- Subs: Sapong (Zardes) Morales (Acosta) Gooch (Green) Comments: -Went with Zimmermann instead of Hedges due to not robbing Dallas of both at the same time. -Ream makes the list either as a backup left back; which Lichaj could also fill to, but as an experienced defender option. I also want to give young prospects, Miazga and Carter-Vickers a run. -DMB and Zusi don't need to be on both rosters, and chose to rest the core group of Brooks, Cameron, Yedlin, Johnson, Bradley, Dempsey, Wood, Pulisic, Nagbe, and Altidore. -EPB, Jones, Lennon, Adams, and Sargent, can wait. Same with McKinnie and Wright. I want to get them all some PT this year, but they'll be the guys slowly introduced in the fall and hopefully ready to breakthrough in early 2018. -I may say to rest Villafana for Garza, but at this point, Villafana needs exposure with this team. -Johansson is neck/neck with Zardes. -Gonzalez pushed out Besler, Marshall, and Birnbaum for bringing some experience to the back line. -I want to see what Morales can do under Arena; having him knock out McCarty who's in the WCQ roster and Kitchen. - Hyndman is apparently ruled out with an injury, so Roldan takes his spot. -Nguyen, Kljestan, Pontius, and Feilhaber are all about the same level of quality, and given their age, I don't mind calling them up for, oh shit moments, but not for the Gold Cup where we want to see if some of the young guns are ready. January Camp, though. -Williams needs a serious look; as well as Acosta and Arriola. Gooch is there to see if he can showcase the talent he had pre-injury and Manneh, as well. -Finlay and Trapp need to both pick up their games to be considered . -Wooten just missed, but shouldn't be forgotten. Right now, we just have Sapong, Ramirez, and Dwyer who need to be looked at; and we can't have all four forwards be inexperienced -I've got Zardes pushing Agudelo out because I still need to see more out of Agudelo. Granted, Zardes isn't going to score buckets of goals, but if you are going to go with a forward who isn't scoring goals; at least go with the one who works hard to create space for others. Plus, I wanted to see Green given a chance, and if Green is a dud, Zardes can slide into that wing spot.
Its also stupid. He was injured, and didn't dress for the past three matches. He has 6 goals in 829 minutes so far this season. Thats a good start to the season from a goals perspective, by any rational measure.
Derrick Jones is being wildly over-rated. He has to be over-rated to keep the myth of Tyler Adams alive. Why the vitriol, Bsky?
My sense is that we should test guys who we could see playing at WC Russia in 2018 with enough experienced guys sprinkled in strategically to make us viable for the title. I don't see Corona on our WC team.
Seems like somebody up there is keeping a lid on things? Bradley and Dax are 30+ I believe. Acosta is a joke. Who takes over the 6? Both could conceivably be unavailable at the same time, certainly one of them. Let's see EPB at the 6 for the rest of this u20 tournament. Or do you want EPB to compete for pt with CCV, Glad, Brooks, Hedges, Zimmerman, Cameron, Besler, Gonzalez, Parker, Miazga? After the Korea tourney EPB could move to the Gold Cup, get call ups to senior team and get sub minutes in freindlies and select quali's. Why not? MLS may have a profit motive but I'm sure Sunil and Arena wouldn't be affected by that.
*was, it was two weeks, now he's back. You are making a mountain out of a molehill. Most players miss a few games per season. And that still doesn't make your previous comment correct, you've moved the goalposts on this one.
I'm hoping the Gold Cup CM's will be Acosta, Trapp, Roldan and McCarty. EPB can play at DM, but he should be at CB. Thats where he has the biggest impact. I think he's better than most of those CB's you named. Needs playing time. Hopefully he gets out of SKC soon.
Why is Acosta a Joke. And I don't know why EPB would be moved, if we get past NZ I expect Jones to go back to that spot, and he's been playing really well there.
We need both Jones and EPB. Jones doesn't have the passing game we need. People tend to ignore passing out of the back around here. Using EPB to clear balls out of the box or over the line for corners, like the one he cleared that turned into the tying goal for Saudi Arabia, is a waste. (Edit: Getting sidetracked to U20 tournament here)Let's say I'm in the semis against USA : I simply send a minor player to occupy EPB's zone then I direct the play on the opposite side through Jones knowing he cant hurt me on the dispossession. otoh - If you play EPB at the six he can pursue and defend the play left or right and Jones can cover the center, if EPB has to move too far out of the central zone in pursuit of the play. the short version is that Glad and CCV can get done what EPB gets done at cb but Jones cant get done what EPB gets done at the 6. Jones doesn't defend as well and is a tick late on his passing. We cant play for draws in the ko rounds. Passing out of the back will be important.
Danny Williams isn't a new player, but for Arena he is. Perhaps we see him on the Gold Cup team. I'm also interested to see Dwyer and Ramirez at forward.
when's the last time agudelo scored 10 goals in a season? the answer is never, and he's already into his seventh season as a pro. in that same span of time, wondolowski had 10+ goals every season, despite injuries. if you're looking for reasons to call up agudelo, his goalscoring record definitely shouldn't be one of them.
Here's my 23 as of now: GK - Hamid, Horvath, Steffen D - Zimmerman, Besler, Gonzalez, Miazga, EPB, Garza, Lichaj, Chandler* MF - Acosta, Williams, Roldan, Hyndmann, Kljestan/Feilhaber (pick one), Nagbe, Arriola F - Dwyer, Morris, Sapong, Ramirez, Zardes