Against major powers like Brazil, Argentina, France, or Belgium, it's either bunker, get embarrassed, or pray for a miraculous goalkeeping performance.
We shouldn't call in European based players. Don't take them away from their club teams. They need to work on keeping their places at the club level. The 2022 cycle hasn't even started yet. The players need to worry about improving and moving on up in the club football world.
Euro-based players should be called in for the Brazil game. They can fly out right after the match to get a full week's rest and prep for the next club match. The MLS guys can take the Mexico match.
I've never been clear on the following question: Can we call up different squad for Mexico than Brazil when it is same FIFA window? Does the answer depend on FIFA status of the matches?
But how do you feel about kids who are sitting on the bench like Sargent, Parks, Weah who could show well against Brazil and gain an advantage at club for minutes thereby? Clearly McKennie and Pulisic don't need that visibility, I agree.
If they were sitting on the bench, I wouldn't call them in, but I wouldn't be sure that any of them are even sitting on the bench at that point. As we see with Parks, he wasn't called into the team for the first Benfica match. He was with the reserves. Sargent has played recently with the reserves. Weah has been with the first team recently, but the full first team isn't back yet. I don't think he regularly makes the 18 when everyone is healthy. You already know I don't want reserve team players called in. We have MLS players that need visibility. They should play against Brazil and Mexico.
For the Euro-based players, playing time at club level shouldn't be an important criteria at this point in the European season and this point in the cycle.
This comment concerns me unless we're trying hard to find depth in the MLS based players. I watch a lot of MLS games and there are 2 guys I see with the talent and potential to match the European based Americans. Two. Steffen and Adams. Who needs visibility and why? Seems to me our best 11 for the next cycle is basically based in Europe. And they are young. They need time together as a team.
We don't have many good players, whether its Europe or MLS. We still have to try to develop a squad though. Most of our player pool plays domestically. They need to be given a chance. There's enough of them that deserve a chance. I'm not going to quibble over particular names.
In the France match, Parker did just as well as his Euro-based colleagues. Even Trapp held his own, something few would have thought he could do. Side-by-side comparisons and comparisons against top competition beat eyeballing guys in MLS matches.
I was thinking along the same lines. Unlike last cycle when guys like Dempsey, Bradley, Altidore, Howard, Jones, etc. were part of the core and were in MLS, it seems like this cycle, the core of the team (Pulisic, McKennie, Miazga, Yedlin, Weah, etc.) is already in Europe, and it seems like Steffen and Adams will be there sooner than later. I do think MLS players will continue to be important for the team, but they'll primarily be 2nd/3rd stringers, with only the occasional starter still playing in MLS. So, I'd rather use the friendlies to build chemistry between the core players than see with MLS guys are worthy of being on the backend of the roster. For example, I'm more interested in seeing Miazga and Brooks play together as a CB pair to increase familiarity and see if they are indeed the #1 pairing going forward (they looked very good against Portugal, but haven't played together since, right?) than I am in seeing whether or not Parker or Zimmerman can make a case for #4 CB.
I think the MLS team would beat the abroad team. Its about half and half though. Its been like that for years. I don't know why the insistence that we give preference to players playing in a certain continent when that would be counter-intuitive to our player pool.. That type of strategy is part of why we failed to qualify for the last WC.
We aren't going to be able to call all of the euro guys all the time. There are going to have to be MLS players on the rosters. If for nothing other than depth.
Clubs choose who plays based on what they see up close every day, not on what they do in some lazy friendly an ocean away.
There will be plenty of matches to build chemistry during the course of the cycle. Playing the Euro-based players in both friendlies would be counterproductive, as they would then likely miss out on the next round of club matches
"We have MLS players that need visibility. They should play against Brazil and Mexico." I"m impressed and I agree, yet ,calling in exceptional cases in need of visibility, players we have great hope for, does not preclude playing MLS players in need of visibility. We don't really have a classic "9" stateside other than Jozy who is well known. We don't have an 8 with the kind of skill set Parks has apart from Delgado but that doesn't mean we cant call in Delgado and Parks. As far as Weah is concerned, we see that he is a good prospect with some confidence from Tuchel, playing with a super star team which to me means we try to nudge him along as best we can. I think my college philosophy professor would call that "situational ethics". For me, when we play here stateside the Euros are exceptions and when we play in Europe the stateside players become the 'exceptions'. The exceptional players in this window for me are Sargent,, Weah and Parks.
They are not as stupid as we make them out to be. Brazil playing in front of a crowd of expatriates paying hundreds for a ticket are no pushover. Do you know what our record against Brazil is? It ain't pretty. There's a reason for that.
A lot of the time, its hard to tell who deserves to play, and who doesn't purely based off their league play. Thats why if possible I'd prefer to split the pool into sections for certain friendlies. Give one section a couple of games, then give the next section a couple of games. Let the players who play the best make up the combined team when the games matter. I don't have a problem with a couple of players from Europe, if their positions at their club would not be jeopardized and there's no one to test out in MLS at their position. I do think its important to remember that the European guys got tested out in May/June. The MLS guys now deserve a couple of games to be tested out.
If Yedlin's injury is short-term, then there's no need to rock the boat. Shaq Moore probably deserves another start after the France match, while Lichaj has been a constant Sarachan choice as a veteran presence. If Yedlin's injury is long-term, then that's an issue for Sarachan's successor.
Chandler should get another chance, whether Yedlin is injured or not. I'd also call in Lima. Alternate would be Cannon. I think all of those players are better than Moore.
I dont care about the MLS vs Euro debate. What I do care about is seeing a 100% youth movement. No more Bradley, Altidore. Bedoya and maybe even Yedlin. I want to see the team like the one that tied France in the WC warmup. I am disappointed that Dave S is still around though as I think given 1/2 a chance he'd revert to much of the of the Arena team that couldn't get it done with the WC on the line. He hasn't done it in previous games but I don't trust him
Neither is anymore my squad than the other one. I just think that the MLS one is slightly stronger right now. It usually is slightly stronger due to better depth and more cohesion. (Not counting the guys we need to phase out from either side of the Atlantic). While we're at it, long-term injured guys like Yedlin and Morris aren't counted either. Also, I'll try to include no pet projects for either squad. GK: Steffen, Hamid, Guzan DF: Lima, Cannon, Besler, Parker, Long, Glad, D. Acosta, Adams MF: Trapp, Roldan, K. Acosta, Delgado, Mueller, Arriola, Saucedo, Lennon FW: Agudelo, Ramirez, Dwyer, Sapong GK: Horvath, Kronnholm, Klinsmann DF: Chandler, Lichaj, Miazga, EPB, CCV, Brooks, Ream, Robinson MF: McKennie, Williams, Hyndman, Corona, Pulisic, Saief, Gall, Green FW: Wood, Novakovich, Rubin, Sabbi Steffen Adams-Glad-Besler-Acosta Trapp Roldan-Acosta Arriola-Agudelo-Saucedo Horvath EPB-Miazga-Brooks Chandler-McKennie-Williams-Robinson Pulisic-Wood-Saief I think the abroad starting lineup is slightly better and has more of our best players, but the MLS team is overall deeper. We also see often that some of the more accomplished European-based guys at the club level can't translate their play to the National Team.
My Euro team would be ------------Sargent----weah -------------------Pulisic --------wes----------------parks --------------------epb --robinson-brooks-miazga--Yedlin --------------GK: Klinsmann my domestic side would be --------------jozy----dwyer -----------------roldan -------adams------------Delgado ------------------trapp ----v/fana--parker--long--wenger ---------------gk:; steffen