I hear a lot of dancing around the Mexican American subject. I chose to say La Liga because that frames it as more a professionally stylistic soccer problem rather than a straight up racist/cultural problem, but the truth is, it is both and until we address this openly we wont make much progress. I should be up front: I don't like El Tri. Never have. I played against Mexican teams who beat us up one side and down the other in Las Cruces and Ciudad Juarez, etc etc. In the 80's and 90's they were simply on a completely different technical and stylistic level. So why have countless US based La Liga players failed in defense, midfield and striker on the USMNT? We can pick Edgar Castillo or Corona or Torres or or or. There is a long list. Orozco Fiscal is universally hated on these boards despite never playing nearly as bad as Tim Ream. Ever. Just about every single non-affluent mexican american player I am sure has a horror story about trying to join a club, high school, college, semi-pro, pay to play club. Where the coach was calling him JO-Zay and saying things like: Got to get in there AMIGO. That perro wont hunt! etc etc. Meanwhile the player is looking around watching his white counterparts spray their first touch like a drunk at a urinal, see overhit balloon passes get praised...I mean the comedy of the situations I am sure some of have undergone would be just that if htey didn't usually end with no offer and no chance to advance. Jose Torres is a good example for me. His entire game is getting the ball out quickly, seeing the play develop before it does and releasing guys. In the US team, he was basically made to play dmid alongside freelancing Bradley and he of course didn't shine. Corona while a much different kind of player also never adapted well. Is there a place on the USMNT for this kind of player? The US 17's didnt use one single hackworthing mexican-american on the field as far as I could tell? I saw a lot on the bench though. Watching the Perry kid hustle his brains out to nowhere and in search of no one must have really hurt.
Simply put, most Liga MX guys haven't been good enough for us. Maybe it was a stylistic issue if they hadn't spent anytime in the ussoccer youth setup.
I think it is about the players that fall through the cracks and never get shots. It is easy to write off a handful of guys who have gotten decent playing time in Liga MX as not particularly great players, guys who Mexico wouldn't care about either. Gonzalez at Monterrey will be an interesting situation to watch though as he's a real player wanted by both and playing a leading role at a big club. If we can't fit him into the current squad, we've got some real problems. But, I worry more about the kids who get constantly overlooked on the way up and who never get a chance to make it that far in the first place. Seems to me a lot of it is down to the upper-middle-class focus of so much of US soccer as far as not only access but feeling welcomed. I'm not going to belabor the cultural/racial politics here because I don't feel like starting a shouting match and even mentioning that some people get left out and are disadvantaged gets so many people riled up. But yeah, I'm on the side that says we exclude too many players because of the culture that surrounds soccer in this country and it's a real problem. And, a lot is stylistic. The US has long favored athletic ability over soccer skills. Big strong, fast guys still get a lot of attention. Even around here, look at how people talk about a player's "ceiling." Players with great physical tools are always assumed able to learn to play better soccer and have a higher ceiling. Players who can play soccer but aren't physical beasts are often talked about as not having much room to grow, etc... We're throwing away a huge resource by not being more welcoming on a personal level and not listening and learning from a culture that has for a very long time been more successful at producing good players. I do think efforts are being made and progress is being made. But, it will take a long time and a lot of people in positions of power would have to step aside or change the way they think about the game in order to truly integrate.
I think we have a broader problem with integrating Latino Americans into the national team system, and I think the style of play in Mexico (more technical, slower pace) has been incongruent with how many Americans approach the game. But I'm not convinced that Jose Torres and Joe Corona are the best examples to support your argument. I don't think Torres or Corona have ever been that good. Torres' club career has flat-lined, and Corona has been an on-again, off-again starter in Mexico.
I remember the 2013 U20 cycle in which Tab Ramos spent a huge amount of time trying to identify and utilize USYNTers based in Mexico. The kids that made the World Cup roster (JP Ocegueda, Benji Joya, Daniel Cuevas, and Alonso Hernandez) didn't advance. In fact, we've had quite a poor success rate of our USYNTers in Mexico (Alejandro Guido, Stevie Rodriguez, etc. etc.) You ask people to name USMNT-eligible youngsters that are falling thru the cracks in Mexico........................and they don't get very far. There are a few. Those that were US based but ended up choosing Mexico as their international team are down there (Edwin Lara, Abraham Romero, etc.) But when people say we're not incorporating Mexico-based players on our U20 and U17 squads, its easy to challenge them by saying "Who? Who are the U20s you think should be called up?" They can't name any. We've been including Jonathan Gonzalez for quite a while now. Ramos called him up to the U20s UP a cycle, as his natural cycle is the next one. With Paul Arriola now back in MLS, which Liga MX-based players to we really think are currently USMNT-worthy? Its not a very long list, and we're calling up those players. Omar Gonzalez, Villafana, we've been in contact with monterrey about Jonathan Gonzalez....................
Because there are rarely mexican-americans that are among the top players in their positions in Liga MX if there ever was one, most of them tend to be either average or below average players in small teams, youth players that never acomplish anything, second division players or benchwarmers. You never hear about a mexican-american Javier Aquino or Rodolfo Pizarro kind of player who is among the best in their positions in the league.
Yet another reason someone like Osorio should be a main candidate for the job. He is familiar with Liga MX and MLS.
This is an interesting point. However, just because they are not top players within their positions does not automatically mean that they would not have a role (or could play into a role) for the US national team.
Exactly right. The elite American youngsters (the Pulisic, McKennie types) head to Europe and not Mexico. Even the guys we've had that started in Liga MX (Jose Francisco Torres, Edgar Castillo, etc.) weren't "stars." They're average guys. There's this thread in some American circles that we should incorporate Mexican-based players more, but I don't really have any understanding of who those players are supposed to be. Mythical players that folks want to exist. Whenever a Jonathan Gonzalez pops up we do recruit them and try to call them up to the USMNT. This past U20 cycle we also called up Jonathan Suarez of Queretaro. Who is that? Nobody knows. Just like Mexico has scouts based in the US looking at players, we have scouts in Mexico looking at players.
Liga MX is clearly head and shoulders above MLS there is no doubt about it but is still not even close to the european elite and honestly it's still below the third rate leagues like the Eredivisie and Jupiler Pro League, we are not at a point where our "meh" players can be contributors for other countries, of course you are going to find exceptions like Arriola who was decent most of his career here but nothing else, that's why he ended up in MLS instead of Tigres, America, Monterrey, etc. As I said, if there was a mexican-american playing at the same level as Pizarro, Elias Hernandez, Victor Guzman, Orbelin Pineda, Erick Gutierrez, etc. that choose to play for the US he wouldn't only be a contributor for the USMNT, he'd be a star but we have never seen a mexican-american play at that level, for whatever reason they tend to flop down here.