The staff's responsibility is to recognize superior talent and get them in the program. Note we are not having this conversation about Brooks, Miazga, Ariolla, AJ, Boyd, ... How much BuLi experience did Brooks have before he was called? Now you are just making excuses for incompetence or something even worse. How did Williams, McKennie, Sargent (how much pro experience did he have) get on a super heavy MLS roster? You never said what would have changed if we had qualified. January 2018 camp = not FIFA date so won't be released Last FIFA date before WC2018 roster release.
This thread brings to mind a Grateful Dead Lyric “He’s gone, and nothins gonna bring him back, he’s gone...” The horse is putrid and it is like beating soggy bread pudding. Some combination of not qualifying, crappy management, and entitlement on all sides. Etc. Let’s keep this from the top of the forum for a few days?
Brooks played an entire season in the 2. Bundesliga. Miazga played an entire season. Arriolla played a full season. AJ was a leading scorer in the Danish League. You are right though, we don't have this problem with Julian Green. We can use the vast experience he gained training for the world cup. Is getting them into the program collecting them like pokemon or magic the gathering cards? If so, missing out on Thomas Delaney should be a big deal. He is pretty good at that CM role. Should have lobbied harder when he wasn't getting the full call up at the international level. What changes if we had qualified is that the player then has to choose between two teams. If the choice is you have a chance of playing in the world cup vs you have a chance to help rebuild the program ... which do you choose? Getting the right coach and first season at club level sets players up. Lee Nguyen basically rotted after Hiddink left and Koeman came in. If Gonzalez played a dozen games and wasn't called for a summer friendly / international, I would be more upset. Felix Magath basically relegated American players to the bench or practice squad with like 3 consecutive teams when he came on board. The irony of which is just great.
Vela doesn't belong in that list, but I do understand the overall point. Although I do disagree with what I'm assuming is the overall idea. Gonzalez might have been entirely overhyped by US fans/media, but whichever team caps him is lucky to have him. If he ends up not being as great a player as his current form indicates, it still doesn't change that this overall "He's overhyped and might not pan out" is just wishful thinking on the US boards. It applies to every single player so IMO it's a moot point.
Sarachan not calling him in for November was a total F up. Sarachan not calling him AT ALL in November, particularly if he was not calling him up was a total F up. This crap is the very definition of not valuing a player and it is inexcusable, particularly for a federation that just bombed out of qualifying and is supposedly pivoting to youth. In addition to the Ives source, there is Jonathon himself saying no one contacted him in November, Sarachan saying he sent him a text once in December and Tab saying he talked with him, but being the U20 coach and all he couldn't speak for the senior team, you know the guys that should have been talking to Gonzalez. Totally unprofessional clown show. Yeah not qualifying was the biggest error, but the same clowns that orchestrated that colossal screw up kept compounding it with JG though and this narrative that they did everything they should have is laughable. Maybe we lost him when we failed to qualify, but we put in a Trinidad level performance trying to keep him after that, no wonder our players quit on these quitting coaches. It's all good though cause it's not like these guys are sticking around to do more damage to the program.
I was down with bringing Bruce back for all the reasons you said, I don't think Bruce got the job because of connections, he was a proven commodity, I was referring to all the recycled parts that came with him and the recycled parts that have been populating our youth set up for years. Once 10/10 happened it has to be curtains on Bruce and the coaching staff that yes, only had jobs because of who they knew, I mean our current interim head coach is a guy that can't get a job at St Louis University. All things being equal I would always prefer a domestic coach. That domestic preference is a far less important criteria than competence though. At this point I would like a real tactician with a proven track record, the opposite of Klinsmann, that good young American coaches could learn from and interact with to expose them to new ideas and groom them for the future.
I finally get your point. If the US had qualified Jona would have been able to use the obscure FIFA rule that says once a team is qualified then players could call themselves up to a national team! I bet Jona also did not know that he could just call himself up to the NT once the US qualified. It seemed pretty clear that when he was not called to Portugal (and a player like Sargent was) or even spoken to he was not going to be called this cycle. The only other FIFA dates before WC2018 is the March (19 to 27) date. It is very clear that the Arena-GOB did not value or rate Jona but he could have just called himself into that camp once we qualified.
Not that I think it's the end of the world but if you really think it matters that Sargent got some looks before JonGon, could it have something to due with our perceived strength/weaknesses at their respective postions? Also, in some cases it might be the right thing to invite a guy who's not getting a lot of pro minutes vs someone who is - particularly with developmental projects. Either way? Picking a National Team squad of all youngsters and new faces was cool but had the distinct pong of public relations strategy to me.
I didn’t want to lose Gonzalez as much as anyone else, but if he fled because of one missed call up then he wasn’t committed in the first place. Honestly, screw him. To be blunt, chances were that he may have struggled to adjust to our system anyways as most Latin based players have.
Has he got any Euro interest that's more than gossip? I really hope Feyenoord contacts him as our midfield is expected to be revamped next season. Within the club the leaving of Vilhena and El Ahmadi is being expected and the first new signing for the next season for the midfield has been done. So, JoGo agent, make a call to Gio van Bronckhorst.
The pressure to leave MX ASAP is not as it is with MLS, because the Mexican league has a much better reputation in Europe. They're ok pushing the players to go only when they turn 22 or 23 and their value has already increased in the market by playing regularly in their local league. That's not the case for us: either our young guys don't play, or they play and their value remains the same due to the poor valuation of the league.
Good point! “If we don’t change we’re going to keep producing the same country-club type of players who fold when you push them.” — Lorne Donaldson https://www.sbnation.com/soccer/201...eam-hispanic-player-development-sueno-alianza
Just remembered another similar case@ Lynden Gooch was eligible for Ireland, England, and the USA He played for US and Irish youth teams. He got a surprise appearance for Sunderland in the EPL early last season. Did the coaches at the time: 1. Ignore him 2. Bring him to the first two games of the hex and actually cap tie him in the debacle in Costa Rica If you went for #2, that is because that is basically what we have done with every dual national that wasn't Mexican-American. Gooch, Miazga, Pulisic were all cap tied, this cycle in WCQs, at the first opportunity. Gonzales wasn't and now he is gone.
Guys, he plays in Mexico, is fluent in the language and shares that heritage. Would have loved to see him rep the USA, but he's going to make a lot more money as a player representing El Tri. As much as we all hate to admit it, he made a good decision for his future. We should all respect that. His statements of "No one called me so I'm going to take my ball and go home" are beneath him. But that's just a kid not understanding PR.
But weren't all of those Klinsman? I doubt Arena would have done the same thing. It may well be Arena was against Hispanic players but it could also be he leaned heavily on veterans. He sure did that at LAG towards the end. I think most of us thought it wouldn't be much of a problem in qualifying but we were wrong as it turned out to be a big problem. How about we get a coach that brings in youth, knows and teaches tactics and chooses the best players and system with no favorites next time?
I don't understand the apologetic arguments for USSF and Arena's staff. The fact that he could have jumped is all the more reason he should have been capped! Gonzales is not fluent in Spanish, he grew up near San Jose and doesn't write Spanish at all. He was ignored by Arena's staff because they didn't think he deserved to be called. Probably any attention and he would have loved to stay. We will never know. But his entire history before the November snub suggested he wanted to play for the USA. Calling him a liar is beneath you.
I don’t think Gonzalez did anything wrong and made a sound decision for his career and his family. He also didn’t say the bolded above. He responded directly to a question “no one called me”. He later accepted an offer that was too good to turn down. I’d feel much better about this if he had been called into September and October camps and he turned them down. Our federation pretty much told him he wasn’t good enough for him yet, while calling in inferior players with no where near the potential he has. Mexico’s federation threw everything they had at him. Good for Mexico and Gonzales, bad for the US and we only have ourselves to blame.
I think the xenophobia surrounding our program and anti-foreigner stance coupled with the ignoring of him made him feel somewhat unwanted. The former can be a real issue for future Mexican Americans if our program doesn't change its exclusive attitude and become more inclusive. Judging by the interview with the president of Allianza our program/league has really pitted itself not only against what it considers second class citizens abroad but those with Latino heritage too. Perez getting booted is an example of this. Do people think a young dual national like Efrain Alvarez isn't watching all this? It's not just German Americans who've been targets or taken offense. Mix, a Norwegian American took offense. Pulisic, took offense. Mexican Americans likewise will take offense. Herc has taken offense. This is the result of questioning people's Americaness and worse, doing it largely to cover up our own failures.