Wednesday 14 Nov 2018

I'm still at work and was freaking out that there is a Wednesday thread.

 

If you guys read the last article about scouting for Mexico, is a confirmation that our own federation is not doing enough. Very good read.

 

For those who are bored.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/46157528

Can you name the 15 Americans to play most in the Premier League?

I got 9 out of 15... and missed quite a few obvious ones

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/chriss...ble-teams-2018/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
I remember a time when Atlanta was considered a bad move for MLS.

NFL owner
Team will play in a stadium that is to big.
Atlanta is a bad sports town
Silverbacks are already there and can't draw fans.
And on and on and on.

For some reason I think Miami might reach this standard after they get their infrastructure built.

 

I got 10 out of 15. I was surprised I couldn't remember more. I think it speaks to how quickly we forget....

 

Got 11. Self-inflicted Gibbs Slap for one of the misses.

 

I remember reading in the threads not too long ago where people said CenturyLink Field in Seattle would be an empty incredible hulk of a stadium. I think both the Sounders and Atlanta proved everyone wrong.


No one ever dreamed Cincinnati would be awarded a team 2.5 years ago and their record attendance numbers for a USL team have been amazing. After Miami, I can't help but think St. Louis will be the next big major club with huge attendance numbers if and when they get a club.

 

It was fine read about a Dutch scout's journey to scouting for Mexico in the US. but I see very little in there that highlights anything regarding the USSF "not doing enough". It talks more about Van der Most's hair then it does highlighting whatever it is the USSF is doing incorrectly. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty to deride about the USSF but this article isn't doing it.

The article talks mostly about Van der Most's (a Dutchman scouting for Mexico in the US) background for the first half and mentions that the US has scouts in Mexico, England and Germany so scouting other nations for prospects isn't something the USSF is lacking.

Then it talks about some of the racism Mexican-American players face and quotes Herculez Gomez quite a few times with regards to it but never accuses the USSF of it beyond Gomez questioning why kids aren't getting first team opportunities in this country.

It talks a bit about the Johnathan Gonzalez switch, how he was upset he wasn't called up enough and how Rongen (who no longer works for the USSF) said he visited his home but didn't. None of which is revelatory.

It talks a bit about Efrain Alvarez's connection to Van der Most (via Chivas USA) and his switch to Mexico switched because, the article asserts:

What happened between U.S. Soccer and Álvarez was more personal than professional, according to Van der Most. “There was an instance where Efra was with the youth national team and one of the U.S. national team coaches just didn’t like him, not as a player, but said he was a bad kid,” he says. “He’s just a little kid and he’s just joking around, but they didn’t like him and he wasn’t called up for one camp.”

The scout even says it's nothing to do with something institutional within the USSF and implies that Alvarez probably said/did something that was stupid/immature and was subsequently dropped from one camp for it. Kids will be kids but actions have consequences and if a kid can't stand to be dropped from one camp, then so be it. There is too much unknown involved in 15 year old prospects to call a kid into every camp, not to mention the size of this country means that limiting our U15s to a small group means missing out on other prospects.

The article finishes saying that Mexico won some U17 tournament in Mexico City called the Four Nations Tournament and that Alvarez got an assist in and that all those hours Van der Most spent with Alvarez playing foot-tennis really paid off (because no American coach would ever play foot tennis...).

 

Ditto (on the score and the slap).

My misses (open) My misses (close)

Guzan (which I should be slapped for), Spector, Bocanegra, and Moore

 

I thought Harkes played a bunch of games in the EPL. He's not on the list

 

Also eleven. My miss is worse

Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler

as it's the current guy, Yedlin[/SPOILER}.

 

Well a couple of his seasons predated the EPL i think.

 

Your miss was my miss.

 

I got 15/15. I knew Wegerle would be there somewhere, so I figured he must be the one that had me stumped. And he was.

 

I got 9 of them. Totally forgot Marcus Hahnemann existed! I never would have remembered Joe-Max Moore!

 

I was wondering how many people would remember him. As a Rapids & Rovers fan he was one of my first guesses but I'm a pretty small minority.

 

That list takes me back to the early days of really shitty streams and great and heavily commented YA GameDay threads.

 

At some point, someone has to publicly say that playing for a national team is a privilege and it is not club soccer where you choose which team you play for based on who is nicer.

I kind of wish that FIFA would only allow one switch in a players career from when they are 13 years old and disallow "recruiting" beyond 1 meeting per year for a federation. It's already kind of ridiculous and it's only going to get worse.

 

That was the only one to stump me. If there were not any hints, I doubt I would have gotten half in the time allotted.

 

I was looking for QPR, but I guess they weren't in the Premier League when Wegerle was with them.

Since we're doing American/Premier League trivia, does anyone know if any American with zero caps has more Premier League appearances than Zak Whitbread? I think he had close to 20 EPL appearances with Norwich. I don't have the answer, just wondering.

 

"They're Yanks! They're abroad! They're Yanks abroad!"

 

12/15. Missed Wegerle, Yedlin, and Moore. Shocked that Yedlin is on this list already.

 

Thanks for sharing