I find it amusing when people call out other posters for assuming things and then turn around and assert as fact their own particular assumptions. Either these posters are being intentionally disingenuous or, to put it bluntly, they lack the requisite intelligence and/or introspection to realize that they are being hypocritical. You should never hold people to a different and higher standard than you hold yourself. For the record, I generally agree that Mexico has a strong pull for some of these players and their families. That said, that is clearly an assumption and much more of one than whether any mistakes were made in the recruitment of these players. If you can't see that we can do better from our end on some level, then you're frankly not worth debating. That's not to say that USSF are a bunch a bumbling idiots that can't do anything right, which would be an equally unfair characterization. The point is we can and should strive to do better. Some of these players are always going to be a challenge, but the response isn't to throw your hands up in the air and give up. You review your mistakes, adapt your processes to address the challenges, and once you've done your best in that regard, live with the outcome. That's what the best run organizations in the world would do, that's what I have done and would do, and that's what I expect USSF to try to implement going forward.
What about some specifics? It’s easy to assert USSF hasn’t done well with dual-national Mexican Americans when talking in generalities. It’s much harder when examples come into play.
Am I crazy or do I see relatively often that these players don’t have contact with the coaches or USSF that often outside of actual call-ups? Last I remember seeing was the recent Charlie Kelman interview. Do not know why people get so worked up when people say USSF recruiting could improve. It’s plainly obvious. These young kids love that constant contact. To be checked up on.
I hear you, and it's obviously hard to know for sure without being there, but my gut says that there is some room for improvement on our side. 1.) With JoGo, it seems that Sarachan left him out of a camp to stay with Monterrey, but that it wasn't communicated to him directly. 2.) With Efra, it seems like the incident in the youth camp wasn't addressed with his family. I don't even disagree with the "tough love" treatment as it addresses the number one weakness in his game, but our federation needs to realize the risk and speak with him about it. In both cases, Mexico seemed to sense an opportunity and started trying to flip the player. And in both cases, there was sub-optimal communication and management of the process from our side. Who knows whether these players were always going to leave anyways (and I don't necessarily disagree with those who think that way), but I'm a firm believer that you control what you can control and then be content with whatever happens. You're not trying to retain every player, you're trying to maximize your chances across the portfolio at a reasonable cost. Like I've said, if I were in charge at USSF, I'd look to modify general business best practices to the soccer national team environment in areas like sales force effectiveness, account management and more generally in portfolio and pipeline management. Seems like there is plenty of low hanging fruit in those areas to me.
MLS ExtraTime spent almost the first ten minutes discussing Alvarez... Will @efrain_alvarez1 end up with Mexico or the USMNT? FMF is in direct contact w/ his family and could be cap tied this Gold Cup. But.. I still feel it’s very much in the air. *cough* @ussoccer https://t.co/r1h9EezSrs— herculez gomez (@herculezg) March 5, 2019 Report: Mexico aggressively pursuing Efra Alvarez, could make Gold Cup team That's what Herculez Gomes seems to think. He only has an actual paid job with ESPN covering soccer. And contacts in both countries. And 24 caps for the US including at the World Cup. But what does he know, right? Just imagine for a minute that he's some useless old white dude who has failed US Soccer multiple times like Thomas Rongen or Richie Williams and then maybe you'll actually give some consideration to what he has to say.... One, both Jonathan Gonzalez and Efrain Alvarez were once part of the US setup, it's not exactly the same as say Trent Alexander-Arnold. Two... and yet you're wasting time posting in this thread? Maybe consider taking your own advice instead of trying to control other people's behavior.
USSF will always have a sizable number of dual nationals that can be brought into the fold compared to other nations. Recruiting them is always going to be a way to bolster the player pool. I think everyone agrees with that, so why not recruit as well as possible? Sure, maybe even good recruitment wouldn't have secured Jona Gonzalez, but it didn't happen. USSF could learn a lot from big time college sports. The fact is college football and basketball coaches know what kids like, know how to get them excited about a program, and know how to get them to commit. With national teams they wouldn't even have the silly NCAA restrictions to worry about. It just seems stupidly easy and cheap to improve what is currently in place.
I think the November friendly against Portugal situation has long been misrepresented when it comes to Gonzalez. The reports were that Sarachan had spoken to the Monterrey hierarchy and they asked for him to not call in Gonzalez because they had a rescheduled game during the international break. He agreed and didn't call him in. They proceeded to release a starter to the Mexican NT, so it made it seem like he wasn't called in when what had happened was that Monterrey was (for all intents and purposes) not releasing a player to the USMNT, while they released a player to their own NT. I don't think we actually know about what type of communication there was with either player. It makes sense for players who wanted to switch to put stories out in the media that claim USSF didn't communicate with them to ease any backlash that might come with their switch. When I see a report from Herculez Gomez about Jonathan Gonzalez, I don't take it as the truth. It might be the truth, but I take it as a side of the story he's likely getting from one of the camps. He has indicated in the past that he knew the Gonzalez family. I suspect thats where he got his information. Is the same thing happening with Alvarez? I'm not even sure I believe that Mexico wants to call him up to the Gold Cup. That sounds like a negotiating ploy by Alvarez to get more from USSF, if he decides to eventually switch. None of this is to say USSF is a well-run organization or that they shouldn't try to keep dual-nationals in our program, but they've taken a lot of criticism for situations that I don't believe we actually know that they did much wrong on. It's surprising that so few have stopped to think about the different angles to these stories, and instead instantly believed the first thing they heard that was anti-USSF.
I agree with you, this seems to be a strategy to get the attention of the USSF. As has been said several times and is what I think too, Efra is a very talented boy, but it seems a total exaggeration to say that the Mexican team wants to have him in the Gold Cup. The boy has not done anything relevant yet to say that the MNT from Mexico wants me to play for them. As far as I know, Alvarez in Mexico's U-17 team is not even a key player, he is more a rotating player in the team. Does not it seem very strange that he is not even dominant in the U17 team and that the senior team wants him to play with them? Also, as they had mentioned before, Busio, who is the same age, did more than Efraín and nobody talks about Busio as the next big star. Give the boy time, do not want him to be the next big star because that adjective has already been taken by many in this country and then they did not achieve anything.
Goal (Jon Arnold): Berhalter: There will be an opportunity for Efrain Alvarez with the U.S. national team United States national team coach Gregg Berhalter said Wednesday that he and his staff are continuing to watch LA Galaxy teenager Efrain Alvarez and said the 16-year-old will get an opportunity with the U.S. if he continues to excel. ... "Regarding Efrain, for us it’s been interesting to watch from the background because he’s a guy that has taken a pathway that, you’d call it a somewhat normal pathway although it’s been accelerated," Berhalter said at a news conference Wednesday. "He started out in the academy of LA Galaxy, he played there, he went to the second team of LA Galaxy, he did really well with the second team and now he’s making an impact with the first team. That’s exactly what we want to see continuing. It would be great that he continues to chip away and get playing time and now can be a consistent performer for one of the top clubs in MLS. "We’ll be there watching the whole thing, and when he’s doing what we expect him to do, there will be an opportunity for him with the U.S. national team. Regarding a potential choice for him, we want to create an environment that players want to be in. We want to create a playing style, a team spirit that players want to be a part of. If we do, we’re confident we can get players like that and keep players like that in our program." Some "old man yells at cloud" folks may be upset that the mighty US coach is debasing all of American soccer by publicly talking about a mere U-17 player...
Sounds like the USSF is doing exactly the right thing. Take a measured approach, see how he does and give him a call when the time is right. There is no indication he should be called into the Senior team at this time simply based on one good assist in an MLS game, but lets see how he does over the next two years. I wouldn't mind him talking about all the 17 and 18 year olds making their way through the system and hopefully to the first team. Let's us know who he is looking at closely.
The one major bargaining chip the USMNT has with Efra over Mexico is quicker first team playing time. Berhalter obviously knows that. https://t.co/psgS0u4Hhv— Will Parchman (@WillParchman) March 6, 2019 Well maybe not, if the FMF - Gold Cup story is true...
If he is dishing out assists and scoring goals on the regular for LAG then he should probably call him in and tie him to the US. But that is yet to be seen. The kid has done it so far at every level but I still have doubts about his fitness and defense but that hasn't stopped him yet.
For whatever it's worth, Alvarez's agent is Spencer Wadsworth, an American who was/is also Jesse Gonzalez's agent and was cited as Gonzalez as key in convincing him to switch to the US upon the 2017 Gold Cup callup. Not that Wadsworth will necessarily push Alvarez to the US, but he'll likely try to push Alvarez to wherever he thinks the best opportunity is, whether that's Mexico or the US, though ultimately the decision is Alvarez's. Just noting it's not as if Alvarez's agent is a rah-rah pro-Mexican guy.
I’d be surprised if he switches back but Herc probably knows more than we do. Must be something that made him question representing Mexico, or he’s matured a bit since and realized what he did that got him kicked out was wrong. He would be probably become the player with the best vision / passing on the NT once he develops more this year and next.
My preference would be for Berhalter and/or USSF to be talking to Alvarez, not just about him. (Hopefully that's happening behind the scenes.) But it's a good start and perhaps a sign that they're taking these types of situations more seriously.
The disconnect with some is that people don't seem to realize how good this kid is in the federation. He's 10 times the player Green was.
It’s not about buying a player that’s such a cynical view. It’s about forming relationships and selling a culture. Letting prospects know what we have to offer and that we are keeping tabs on what they have to offer. If we don’t, others might, we always talk about how for a lot of these players the decision is genuinely difficult. Having a federation in communication with you throughout the process seems like something players would consider.
Yup. But keep in mind that this has been the attitude for a long time. Starting with "The List" that Thomas Rongen kept 20 years ago, there's been a major effort behind the scenes to identify and recruit dual nationals. There's the famous example of a USSF official approaching Mix Diskerud while he was taking a corner kick at a youth tournament. People make a whole lot of assumptions regarding what's going on behind the scenes. We just don't know. The issue with Jonathan Gonzalez occurred when we had no USSF president, no technical director, no full-time USMNT coach, no U23 coach............................so there was undoubtedly a lack of communication.
I'm not suggesting that any form of recruitment is "buying a player". When I get emails from recruiters asking me to look at a role, that's recruiting. But there's nothing wrong with it. And I'm on-board with talking up the program and talking with players. So, on-board with most of what we're talking about. My only contentions are when people point to things like college athletics recruiting...without acknowledging the expensive and manipulative dealings that characterize it. I'd like it to be high-energy recruitment, without the gift-based recruiting that characterizes so many US sports. I think we all agree here and are splitting hairs.
Guillermo Barros Schelotto: "Efraín Álvarez can not waste time thinking about the national team" "He has to have defined what he's going to do about the selection," Guillermo began. "What you decide must be supported and you have the right to decide." The Argentine said that they have not discussed the issue with the player because they have devoted themselves to talking about other issues inherent in the club. And immediately afterwards he released his strongest posture. "He does not have to waste time on that, it's a decision he has to make and, once taken, dedicate himself to training and improving, he has a lot to train and a lot of way to go."
In terms of influences, I don't think you can disregard Brian Kleiban, either. I think there is a good chance that Kleiban is not as down on the US system as he was when Efra made the decision to switch. He has a fairly prominent role in the US soccer landscape, and something seems to have changed his perspective at least a little bit since then. To think that Kleiban did not have any influence over Efra at that point in his career would be silly. I'm sure he advises him significantly less now, but a pat on the back and stamp of approval for the US setup from Kleiban could go a long way in Efra's confidence in rejoining the US.