These two have also been the standouts for me. Sargent to me, is like a combination of Agudelo with a better tactical understanding of the game and the clinical finishing of McBride. He's definitely not going to win a full field foot race with many people, but he's fast enough when it counts. He has the potential to be a world class striker--hopefully he gets a club situation that will allow him to grow. I'm surprised that more people aren't talking about Jones, he has been amazing. Zelalem's unfortunate injury has resulted in an opportunity for Jones and he has made the position his own. I really like what I see from Jones. He reminds me of Patrick Viera; a bruiser with skill and an excellent ability to read the game.
I totally agree. Sargent hasn't had an opportunity to fail, yet. We've seen enough mediocrity from guys in MLS and beyond. I'm not saying that Sargent is definitely a worldbeater, but he looks good and we have a much better idea of the ceilings on a lot of these other guys.
Nope, we haven't seen that. They were hidden under Klinsmann because he also had a blind prejudice, and when given the chance lately overall they've made positive contributions to our World Cup hopes. We're still way behind in finally giving those guys a try. Did Holden and Cameron have low ceilings? They weren't even MLS standouts rather merely good players who were afterthoughts when added to rosters. Some are always looking for that next big thing. We're not winning the WC in 2018. And if we try, we'll probably get embarrassed and bounced in the group stages ignominiously, if we even get there. What would be the benefit of that? There's still 4 years in between to get the young players now experience. Be a little patient and stop thinking the grass is always greener on the other side. Sargent will get his shot. He's 17. If he was in January camp practices I wouldn't object because we aren't losing anything, but if we invested spots in him outside of that, off what little he's proven, nothing against grown men, then we'd be foolish.
First off, we've almost exclusively seen mediocrity from the US team during any of our lifetimes. If you haven't, then I guess that you and I might have different ideas about how crappy you have to be in order to be considered mediocre. Of course, that'd be fine, too. I just don't get too pumped up about watching my team routinely lose to countries ranked outside the top 20. But to be clear, you're suggesting that we should intentionally lose the World Cup, right? But, somehow, we could do so with greater dignity than if we tried to win it? Something like that? It's not about the grass being greener; it's about the fact that there's no indication that we'll ever win a World Cup. Maybe we'll win the next ten in a row, but it's more likely that we won't have won one any time in the near future. That said, where there's talent that might help us to win one (or get close to winning one), I think that we should cultivate it and, ya know, try to win. I don't know when there's ever been as much talent in the US as there is right now, but much of that talent is very young. Does that mean we'll be amazing in four years? Maybe. A lot of guys fizzle out while they're still young. Any number of things can happen, but there are a few young players who might be among the most talented US players to have ever suited up. That's what's going on right now. Maybe it'll be even better in the future, but maybe we'll start WWIII with Russia before the future gets here. I'm kidding, of course, but my point is (if it's not overly clear) that we don't know what the future looks like. We have good potential right now, but what if Sargent could score more goals than any of our current forwards? Wouldn't it be incredibly stupid and unfortunate if he then ended up watching the World Cup from his parents' living room in Missouri? You can say that Sargent hasn't proven anything, but I'll tell you who else hasn't proven something: none of our current players have proven to be special on the world stage. Pulisic could, Acosta could, Cameron could, Yedlin could. Maybe even Sargent could. What a lot of guys have proven is that they'll almost definitely never be special on the world stage. We could list those names ad nauseum, but what for? I'm sorry but I just don't see the point in losing with dignity. I'd rather try to win. Call me a fool if you want.
I think you have some type of point here. I do agree that if possible, the team should be younger with younger players getting priority over veterans. But at the same time, the youngsters gotta earn spots. Sargent currently can not sign a pro contract with Werder Bremen (or whatever team in Europe he's signing with) until next July, basically during the World Cup. He'd have played 0 pro games at any level. You can not take a guy to the WC or add a guy to the NT who has played 0 pro games. Sends such a terrible message to the rest of your group, and there's no way to test whether he'd even be good enough without taking up NT minutes. If he was to circumvent the rules in Europe by signing a contract in USL/NASL for the rest of the season, and then signing in Europe next February, I think for him to have a logical chance, he'd need to go straight into that team's first team, play regularly, and score goals. A long shot, and I don't even believe Sargent is the caliber of player that could do that, but if you want him to play at the WC, thats probably the only way it will happen. And the same applies for all youngsters. We can talk about all these names, maybe they are better than the players older than them with more pro games, but they gotta play. Once they start playing regularly, and showing a high level of play (which should happen pretty quickly, given the talent these players have), thats when you integrate them. It might be a year away, maybe be two, maybe its four. Either way, you gotta wait until they are ready. Thats what happened with Pulisic, he earned his chance with the NT, I don't think there's any good reason to make any exceptions to what should be a pretty standard rule for all NT's. Players gotta earn spots, you don't fast track them until they earn a chance with the NT based on their play with their club team.
There was never even the slightest chance that Josh Sargent was going to be on the Gold Cup team. If Arena wants to call him up to the January camp, I don't think anybody would have a problem with that. The whole point of that camp is to "expand the pool." Klinsmann called in guys who'd never played a single pro game to that camp, partly because he treated it like a U23 camp (Jordan Morris is an example). We should give the USMNT coach the freedom to call in whatever domestic players he wants to that group.
This is a Pulisic- level prospect. The most complete striker prospect to ever come out of the United States, IMHO. So, what is he doing? playing with U-17's? He beyond is that. this is not a good situation. Even playing some minutes with pros in the USL and NASL would be better at this point.
I've pointed out how it makes very little sense what he is doing. I don't know if he's found some loophole that no one knows about or if there's some other thing at play, but not signing in NASL or USL is taking 4 months off when he can start to play.
Does anyone find it entertaining that Agudelo's biggest supporter is questioning a player "taking 4 months off when he can start to play" without knowing what he is going to do kind of entertaining?
https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/aron-johannsson-bacon-at-bremen.1981905/page-97 @bshredder suggest a move to Bremen is still in the cards
Interesting how you read me the riot act on posting opinion-as-fact but then engage in this nonsense.