4-1 winners in a route. Nevan goes 90 minutes. 4 starts in a row...rated well in the first 3. The kid is still 18 for a few months, and Klopp (who is known as a smart coach) loves his potential. Q: Since he is so young, even if he played a full international, he could still switch? Or what is the rule exactly (I'm confused after the recent Adu articles). Nevan keeps this up- and Bosnia WILL call. And maybe sooner (late this year?) than later....
Thanks for the update. Keep posted if there's any reviews of his play. If he plays in a COMPETITIVE full international game he is cap-tied no matter what. If he plays in a NON-COMPETITIVE full international it has no bearing on his status (someone confirm this please?). If he plays in a COMPETITIVE youth international game he can switch before his 21st birthday. If he plays in a NON-COMPETITIVE youth international it has no bearing on his status.
If Brazil counts, I really think US should cap the kid. Hell, even if it doesn't count, he deserves some recognition for doing a great job (breaking into Mainz lineup). Before people blast me, Subotic deserves this based on (1) performance, given the number of youngsters we've capped in recent months and (2) there is a legitimate 'who will he play for' issue...and why in the world would quality-depth poor US want to risk losing another 'on the fence' guy. It is absolutely possible that Bosnia could call him up within less than 6 months. Why risk it?
If Sal Zizzo gets a cap without playing a pro game and Lee Nguyen gets a couple of caps while being relegated to the PSV reserves and Charlie Davies gets capped without scoring a pro goal, then I don't think it's unreasonable to cap Subotic, given what he's done the past few games with Mainz. The fact that he's 6-4 and could play for Bosnia factors into it, too. Why risk losing the kid? Show him we're interested and start getting him experience. Doensn't mean he'll be ahead of Gooch and Boca and Parkhurst and Conrad, et all... but he should be in the mix.
Let's not forget that the 4:1 result was against the recently relegated (big club) Mönchengladbach, who still has some talent on that roster like Oliver Neuville (aging but still made Germany's WC roster in 2006) and that Mainz still has some talent leftover from its two-year B-liga run as well.
Yeah, cap him. I don't anticipate a big argument here, who wouldn't want to cap a talented young defender that could potentially play for another country? We're so quick to cap forwards that show any promise but central defense is just as much of a problem.
Honestly, I've been a but dissapointed with our D as of late, so I think this kid really deserves a camp, I'd say play him against Switzerland to cap-tie him, and see what he can do. Brazil should be an evaluation of our A team against the best in the world, and then we can experiment a lot against Catalonia, and take what we want from that game into Switzerland. So put simply, call him in in October.
True..the Swiss might make more sense for his cup of coffee. No sense having the kid do the 'round trip if he's not going to play much and we have another cap opportunity just a month later. My concern is that Bradley doesn't try this year. That would actually be kindof ridiculous given the names/situations Sandon listed.
Here's an interview with Neven from 9 days ago: http://www.main-rheiner.de/sport/objekt.php3?artikel_id=2931198 I don't have time to translate everything right now, but important parts: During the war you came to Germany and played football in the E-youth. After you emigrated to the USA however you didn't play organised football anymore and only started to do so again when you signed with Mainz. How do you judge your development? I wasted a few years, didn't I? On the other hand you never know what would have happend if I played all my youth for one club. It even was an advantage for me that I didn't know the meaning of derbies last season. (Don't really get the meaning in the context of the question to be honest.) And it's obvious that America made me to the person I am today. You have an American passport, do you feel American? No, I am a bosnian Serb. I don't forget where I was born. It was nice that our game against TuS Koblenz was shown in Serbia. We had so many "Jugos" playing I guess they had to do it. Well, if you search German google you'll find quite a lot articles about him. I guess it's because it's very unusual for a 18-year old CB to start for a Bundesliga or 2. Bundesliga site. In one of those Klopp says about him: "He still needs to improve reading the game but he already plays a superb long ball." and another article says "he's blessed with a presence and charisma that you can't teach."
On the other hand he seems thankfull for the chance the US offered him. It could really depend on which federation shows more interest. There are rumours here that the Croatian and Serbian federation offer quite a bit of money to persuade young players to play for them. I kinda doubt the Bosnian federation has equal means. Former German youth international Kucukovic recently chose to play for Bosnia and fellow Mainz 05 talent Vrancic had said he will play for Croatia despite Germany really wanting him.
"You have an American passport, do you feel American? No, I am a bosnian Serb. I don't forget where I was born." I really thought that the US was the first choice for this guy, but that quote makes me think he won't be playing for us.
There's only one way to know how or if at all American he feels, call him up for the Switzerland game. And as far as money goes I think the USSF some decent change laying around somewhere.
Um, unless I've got this mixed up, Bosnia is a separate country now, and the Serbs are the minority, and probably not very well liked. Is this guy Serbian Orthodox? I would presume so. Bosnia is a predominantly Muslim country. If my recollection of recent Balkan history is correct, he's not gonna be thrilled about playing for Bosnia. Notice the remark he made about the game being shown in Serbia. Not Bosnia, Serbia.
Bingo. Good question whether they would even call him into a Bosnian camp. There's a few thousand years bad blood there. I hope Bob doesn't ask Rongen to call him. Or better yet, ask Rongen to do and and force Rongen to tell Nevin how wrong he was.
I'm sure having Rongen drop him from the U-20's and publicly call him out as having made little progress did not give him a warm fuzzy about playing for the US. I said it on another thread (and of course was berated for being a Eurosnob of all things), something does not fit in the reasoning for why this kid was not in the U-20 side. Especially with the weak defense they put out there this summer.
I hear you, and that's an interesting point. A quick wikipedia search (insert grain of salt here) lists the current national team players, and player entries often indicate ethnic background. From what I can see here, there are ethnic Bosniaks, Bosnian-Serbs and Bosnian-Croats (an even smaller minority in Bosnia-Herzegovina) in the national team player pool. I'd conclude that, to a certain extent, the composition of the national team probably transcends ethnic divisions. Whether or not your average Bosnian Muslim or -Serb or -Croat identifies with the national team is clearly a different (but interesting) story.
On paper, Serbia is a much stronger squad (although losing the Montenegrin players didn't help) than Bosnia ... however Bosnia is has done well so far in its Euro Q's and is in the 2nd place. Serbia is in 4th in a different group. On own quality, Neven seems to be more probable of making it to the WC as an American ... provided he can beat out his competiton for the roster spot.
Rongen specifically stated that Subotic's injury prevented him from getting further looks. Subotic was gifted playing time in the final game of the last Bundesliga season. He's been quoted as saying something to the effect of the coaches knew I was still not 100%, but wanted to see what I could do to evaluate me in future plans with the club. There's no question that he has risen his stock more than any other American in this early early part of the European season. He's a shoe-in at this point to start for the U-23's at the Olympics if he elects to play. That said his comments about his national allegiance are iffy at best. Will be interesting to see how this plays out.