Oh yes, New York taxes NY-based partnerships, even those of us who don't reside there . . . joy. Actually, I live in NC and have to pay taxes to the Crown, because of our London office (but that's a good thing, means we are making a profit there). My accountant earns her keep. Oops - see that I wasn't supposed to post that. Sorry. I'm in trouble now.
I hope he sticks with the club this summer even if he's only given a super-sub role. Far better than a loan at a 2 Bundesliga club where he may or may not start. He needs consistency among familiarity IMO.
So, everyone is fretting about Josh being bumped from the GC roster after not being taken to the U-20 WC. My take is he looked pretty terrible at club level for the last 2 months of the season. It was assumed by US Soccer he'd be at a level above U-20 however. He got to camp still looking kinda terrible, Gregg went with guys who looked better, also considering Josh's position at WB. Honestly think it's a big blessing in disguise to leave him at home. It's crucial for his development and career he hits the ground running this preseason and hopefully this will give him the runway to do so
Better he get a full off-season and full pre-season with Bremen than scrap minutes at the GC and coming into Bremens pre-season late IMO. His time will come.
Sargent is a squad player and cover Bremen next year regardless of preseason camp. There is no way to spin this positively. Missing out on a leadership role with the U-20 and/or a serious tournament with the full nat team is not good for his career development. Especially after so much inactivity for him the past two years waiting to sign with Bremen and then being buried on their roster..
Maybe there isn't, but there are lots of ways to spin it badly and this is one of them. The lad is all of 19 and won't turn 20 until end-February and has just come off his first season as a pro, during which he's chalked up: 10 BL games, 205 minutes, 2 goals and 0 assists, plus 12 RL games, 1000 minutes, 7 goals and 2 assists 1 contract extension with improved terms He's negotiated big - in fact enormous - step up in level very successfully and if he's not in form coming into the GC, resting him before the BL pre-season tops pushing him for production when he's not "up for it" and getting him frustrated at and stressed by his non-performance, which may carry over into the pre-season. For the next WC cycle, what happens at Bremen is vastly more important than what happens/doesn't happen at a biennial summer tournament. As for the U-20s, nobody gives a shit what a guy with a first-team contract does against teenagers, most of whom are still struggling to do at Regional Liga level what Sargent has already done at BL1 level. He's beyond that level now.
Being left off the GC roster is bad news for Sargent. That means Berhalter and staff came to the conclusion that, at least at this moment, he is not good enough to compete with others who can play the attacker role who are in the pool and, more importantly, he did not show enough promise/development trajectory to make it worth the USMNT's while to bring him in for the mutual experience of him learning the team and the team learning him. I have now seen numerous comments by "those in the know" that lead me to believe that his career may have plateaued. I guess we'll know a lot more, one way or the other, when the Bundesliga season returns.
How do you know he was terrible at club level and at this last camp? He didn’t really play enough to be judged. Was your comment based on the fact he didn’t play much this spring (so assumed he played terrible in practice) or do you have other ‘insider’ info or did you see him at training?
He did not play terrible at his club for 2 months, IMHO. He was given chances and had some success and some not so successful outings. Couple that with his club chasing a EL or CL spot after finding some form and you have him not getting so many minutes ahead of tried and tested teammates. As for his camp performance, I was not there. But I do know that this kid has a lot more future with the USMNT than Jordan Morris. There is no good reason, barring and nagging injury or other personal situation, for him to not be on this team for the GC instead of Morris. Coaches choice, if that is what it is, is short sighted.
I can’t see a positive in being left off the full squad. He should’ve been at the U20 world cup in that case. Anyhoo.. hope Sargent can raise his game higher before he gets left out of Werder’s plans.
Sarge has enough B1 appearance as a <20 year old that he will be given plenty of opportunities to show his abilities in training. Can't imagine that not being on the GC is a huge set-back for him at the club level; they will be happy to have him around and not potentially getting injured playing for someone else. To the extent it means he was not good enough to beat current competition in the US coach's eyes, it could be concerning as an indicator of where he is right now, but I would not bet the house on that analysis. He's got a lot of time to show where he's at. But he looked pretty meh v. Jamaica to be honest (if we want to make grand conclusions off not much info.)
I think the key difference is that one has to be really good rather than not “terrible” at elite clubs while one can maintain one’s starting role in the minor leagues as long as one’s not “terrible”. Morris and Sargent at Wender are prime examples.
I don't see that many positives for Josh, but his omission from the U-20 squad is probably going to be a positive for US Soccer, as Soto has slotted in and (hopefully) done enough to get him the next contract he needs.
Does Sargent's inclusion in the U20 squad make it noticeably better? is there a huge gap between him and Soto or could they play together under Tab's lineup?
Zagadou from Dortmund was at the U-20. He has way more Bundesliga experience than Sargent. So, apparently no less than world cup winner France and Bundesliga runner up Dortmund "give a shit" about that tournament. But no doubt Greg Beerholder and you know more about developing elite soccer players than they do. Bottom line is Sargent needs competitive matches badly. He waited for nearly a year to sign with Bremen and then hardly played last year. He's played very few top level matches during two years of critical development time. This summer was his best chance for a run of games since he is going to be playing center bench for Bremen next year and it's not going to happen. Rationalize it all you want but sitting on the couch all summer can not be good for his development as a soccer player.
Sargent almost scored and looked far better against Jamaica than a bunch of guys who made the GC roster. His omission is pretty obviously a case of a coach picking "his" players. He needs to push for a loan that gives him significant playing time. Bundesliga 2 looks pretty good at this point. If Sargent is content collecting a salary and sitting on Werder's bench that will not be a good sign for his development.
Not comparable situations. The depth at center back in French full team means Zagadou should be at U-20. Positive is that Sargent was included in full team player pool. Bad news is now both club coach and national team coach don’t deem him ready for showtime. Once multiple coaches have same conclusion it starts to look more truthful.
HERE are one person's thoughts. Additional analysis of the Sargent situation is also presented, including how his lack of selection may or may not have been influenced by the need for other players. There is also the following from ESPN. Note that the text bolding is mine. I was struck by the word "eroded" because it implies there was a decline in performance which showed as a decline in opportunity. All this combined to give me the sense of performance backsliding.
Looking better than that line-up is not super-impressive, tbh. But it's one game with a make-shift squad. I would not make grand pronouncements in either direction on it. But I'm not going to buy into the "not being on the GC squad is some major event in Sarge's career - in either direction." He's under contract. He got an extension. Weder knows him better than anyone. They will care way more what he does in training than what he does in the GC. So really Beerholder's opinion is pretty low on the totem pole of import.
The only problem with that "analysis" is it just not true. Total revisionist history. Werder had injured vets coming back and they were making a run at Europe. Regardless of Sargent's form in extremely limited playing time he was guaranteed to go down the pecking order given those facts.
I would agree with that if not for the fact that Sargent has had very little activity the last two years and the strong prospect of another year of limited playing time with his club. The odd call up here and there does not make up for the experience of a full international tournament he lost this summer.
Perhaps in regard his USMNT future, but I don't see how his inclusion/lack of inclusion (unless it really does correlate to a surprising drop in form) affects Weder. They have watched Sarge day-in/day-out for a few years now. I don't want to belabor the point, but my guess is they are happy he's not likely to have some GC opponent do his knee. My amateur opinion is: Not on U20 or GC roster because Beerholder thinks he's not quite ready - bad indicator for immediate US future but immaterial for Weder future. Not on U20 or GC roster due to some really sudden, surprising and precipitous drop in form - then it's a bad indicator for both.