Dest switching to Netherlands would be a huge blow. Not sure I can blame USSF if it does happen. (YA forum needs to lighten up rules on NT discussion. Allow to an extent within context of the particular player. People care follow YA because of national team context and ramifications. Site is dying, same stupid rules from yrs ago. People on Twitter and reddit rather than here. /rant)
I'd guess it's more that he grew up in the Netherlands and identifies more as dutch than American. I could be wrong, but in any case, I wouldn't blame him. These kind of decisions can't be easy.
Not to mention the simple fact of location and peer group: Hey dude living and playing in Amsterdam with a bunch of national team players, come over here to camp in... Zeist - or even the ArenA. Versus: Hey dude living and playing in Amsterdam with - no national team players - take a train over here to your camp in Los Angeles or wherever...
No doubt - but I'd imagine for a kid his age, if they were playing in LA or NYC or TO with Jozy or Morris or Zardes or whoever, that would effect how you feel. There's not a lot of guys in the ArenA locker talking about upcoming USMNT games and nobody in neighborhood is giving you stick about the Mexico rivalry. It all contributes. My kids are duals - and they "feel" way more "the other country" after they've spent a good whack of time there. It's natural.
Agree. It's where you're spending your time. Where your friends are. Etc... Dest grew up in the Netherlands. It's why I imagine he would lean that way. It's not about USSF being a mess as the poster I quoted initially suggested. My kids are dual nationals as well. Unfortunately neither the Italian or US feds will be calling on them.
I think if he is seriously considering the Netherlands, he won't accept any senior team call up, Cap tying or not. If he is called up in September and he does accept, I think he will also accept the cap tying cap in October.
I would call him in September and tell him exactly where he stands after the two games in that window and tell him we will not call him in October unless he calls and specifically asks to be called, in which case we would consider him. I appreciate everything he did at youth level for us and would never want to pressure him into a cap tying event. He should be the one taking that step.
Maybe if the thread title is changed, he'll feel more respected and won't be inclined towards the lure of greener pastures.
Maybe we could tease one of our Mods into the thread to take care of this. @dark knight @bungadiri @TheFalseNine Please correct Sergio to Sergiño in the thread title, thank you. Although come to think of it, once the thread title gets fixed, what else will we have to post about?
Corrected. Thanks for the heads up. And you could post about how to insert a tilde. That would be awesome.
I think that the USMNT should congratulate him on his professional starts and send him an invitation to the camp prior to the US/Mexico game. It lets him know that he's on the radar and that they reward professional progression. The guy has been dedicated in the youth program...there's no reason not to follow the same progression pattern with him that you would with any of the other players. If he declines, then you allow him to potentially suffer the consequences of that missed opportunity. He won't get to see soccer at that level with those guys, he won't get in front of the coaches and trainers, and he won't get to see the field. That's a lot to risk for the hope of getting called in for another country after being so dedicated to one country. The US program has a ton of talent coming up. If I'm a young player, I'm looking around at this group and want to be a part of it. Pulisic is going to be a star player and then you have Steffen, McKennie and Adams who very well may be also. That's before you get to Weah, Sargent, Cannon, etc. and the other young U-20 and U-17 players who are starting to climb the ladder in Europe. There is a LOT of talent coming up right now. Two separate generations with quality players on the right paths to developing into quality professionals. If I'm in that group, I want to stay in that group. Dest has a head start on being part of the 2022 World Cup with the team he spent his youth career with. He'd be giving that up to integrate with a new program.
He also may decline a camp invite because he literally wants to focus on his club career. He's getting minutes at Ajax...why would he want to lose momentum?
Shrug. This has been a key player for us at the U17 World Cup and U20 World Cup. To some degree I think folks are making the assumption that his national team allegiance is waffling due to potential Holland interest. He's basically said the same things that every one of these young dual nationals says. They don't publicly close any doors. I would call him up to these non-cap tying friendlies that are coming up. If he doesn't want to go to the League of Nations to leave other doors open, that's fine. All we can do is continue letting him know that we're committed to him. The US actually has an extremely high retention rate of young players that have played for U17 and U20 World Cup teams. Extremely high. Subotic is the key example, but he's a bit of an outlier due to his past as a refugee.
Let's get this thread back on track. Can someone please tell me how to make the accent marks over an e used in French, as for example Comte and/or Gruyere cheese? Thanks!! Serious question. And, yeah, call Dest in.
As much as I despise everything about US Soccer in its current form, I'd be hard pressed to be angry if they lost him. And I think, like others have posited, he will likely turn down a call up over the rest of 2019 while he focuses on his club form and figures out if he's in the Dutch plans. I could argue (and have in other cases) that the US staff should know more about these players and their club's perception of them/timeline for them, and thus not surprised like we are about a 4-6 months that has seen him jump from youth/B teams to the first team, but that would be nitpicking.