parks is such an interesting player. obviously great feet for the size. wish he had played more early instead of having to catch up play himself into form. handful of moments for sure tho
Leyva stayed on the bench today and AOC missed the 18, but they play Dortmund on Wednesday so hopefully we'll get to watch them vs Reyna.
I think playing Roberts and Pomykal together would go a long way in solving the production issues at FCD since Roberts probably the best player on the roster really suited to get more production from that advanced midfield role. I agree that he is too young for a big load, but I hope we see those two playing together soon, and doing it full time next season. Paxton can be sold after that -- he still has a ton of developing that he can do in MLS, and FCD need him longer so that they can actually benefit at least just a little bit from the way that they are building around him. If you say that this could be another Acosta situation, that means that you don't believe that Paxton is all that good anyway. There are two significant factors that make the Pomykal/Roberts 8/10 combination so interesting: 1. They balance each other out perfectly. Pomykal has impressed with his defensive play, and he likes to collect the ball and carry it from deeper on the field. Roberts is the opposite as he likes to operate much more in the attacking half. Whlie Pax might be better in space, Roberts can make something happen in a crowd. 2. They see the game similarly and seem capable of playing off each other and combining with each other all over the field. Their penchant for combination play leads to an unlimited number of options for how the team can choose to attack in any one sequence. A top form Servania or Cerrillo behind Pomykal and Roberts is one of the most dynamic midfields the league has every seen. If they had a truly reliable and consistent threat coming from out wide, these guys could be playing some extremely exciting football!
Whoa Nelly!!! I know we haven’t always seen eye to eye on players during our discussions, but Roberts is no where near ready to be a consistent player in MLS. He may be thrown into the mix out of necessity, but he’s just not close to becoming a key cog in the team. From a personal standpoint, I don’t think Roberts projects very high and wouldn’t be surprised if he never makes it, or is a career fringe player. It is fine if you have a different opinion on him, I take no issue with that. I have watched this kid play in a dozen important youth matches, Dallas Cup, DA Playoffs and GA Cup and every time I have seen him he’s been bad. Not invisible or ok, bad. Maybe I’ve missed some of his good performances, but until I see one, I just can’t rate him.
I said he's not ready to be a consistent player in MLS.... But he will be next year, and he is capable of making big plays at the MLS level this year. I disagree with your opinion on Roberts. I have't seen him nearly that much, but I have seen enough to make a strong opinion that he is an extremely high upside player within the type of systems that I like to play. That is not to say that my assessment is correct, of course.
I know that I was/am very surprised at the number of players that stepped up with big minutes. Perhaps most surprising to me was that many of those players got zero or very few minutes last year (Cerrillo 828 min, Vines 979 min, Aaronson 1109, Sands 1135 min, Ferreira 1424 min all in the top 10 and a couple of guys that got a lot last year have not gotten big minutes this year (McKenzie 12 min vs. 1629 min and Durkin 570 vs 1503). Of course a big part of it is FCD but they didn't do it all themselves.
I think if Pomykal is unavailable for whatever reason...………..Jacori Hayes is his backup. ROberts was getting all of those minutes earlier in the season when all of Pomykal, Servania, and Cerrillo were with the U20s. Then Grueso went to the Copa America and Acosta went to the Gold Cup. And Hayes had an injury. With everybody back, Roberts is going to be the odd man out. Of course, we may have other moments this summer when everybody leaves. U23s? So there are going to be more opportunities. He only turned 18 in May. Still a young'un. He's had about 250 minutes between first team play in MLS and the USOC. If he gets about 500 minutes in MLS play (with all of his USL minutes as well)………………..then that's a successful 2019. Of course I said in another thread that I'd be happy for him to be loaned to Bayern a la Chris Richards. Loan Thomas out, pick up some additional depth from the midfield internally or externally. Also disconcerting from an FC Dallas perspective is how long John Nelson has been out with his injury. I wonder if FCD is going to have to pick up some fullback depth in the transfer market. If they don't think Reynolds is ready, then they have a real depth issue in that position.
I starting watching the game right before the RB penalty so I don't know how Parks played before that. During the next 20 minutes or see he seemingly made only poor passes to the other team. After that he sort of became neutral and then towards the end he made a spectacular pass from deep right onto the foot of a plying streaming into the box. He has talent that few Americans ever have but he also needs to become more consistent and dial up the defense.
In Glad's last 4 starts, RSL is 3-0-1 (W-L-D) with an 8-1 goal differential. He almost had 2 goals against Philly, with 1 header hitting the crossbar and another drawing a nice save from Blake. Herrera had an assist on the game's first goal, and Lennon had a decent game. Saucedo got fairly mediocre reviews for his performance, and he may be back to earth after his outstanding start to the season.
Out of those 3 I’m really hoping Saucedo can show his potential more consistently because I do see him as NT quality when he is. He’s not fast, but when he’s on his offensive ability is incredible. Herrera seems fairly average all around from what I’ve seen, but he’s very consistent and could be in the picture if he can show more improvement offensively picking players out on crosses. Glad I don’t think will be in the NT picture. His mental game can be like Gonzalez’s in terms of having a dud moment.
We have the opposite opinion! I see Glad as having the highest ceiling in terms of USMNT. I see Herrera as as second due to need in the position. Saucedo shows flashes, but in the grand scheme of things he's not going to break into the USMNT over all of the other U23/U20 attacking options we have. I just don't see it.
Well at least we can agree on Herrera. What about Glad do you see potentially improving to get him to the next level? If Saucedo showed his best more consistently would you consider him NT quality? If not why? I also see winger as a position of need.
Herrera is having a pretty under the radar season. RSL's splits with Herrera at RB and Toia at LB vs another backline are very stark. I'd rate him as one of the better RBs in the league, but below-average at LB. I have a very hard time seeing Herrera being USMNT-caliber at LB because he just simply can't use his left foot. I'd have an easier time seeing him in the picture at RB but the competition is tougher there, and I can't see him jumping ahead of any of Cannon, Lima, Yedlin, Adams, etc. But who knows. Maybe he'll land a January call-up soon.
Glad is by far the best performing player of the RSL homegrown. The others may be close to average MLS starters. Glad is one of the best CB's in MLS, and has been for a few seasons now.
My gut is that Lennon, Saucedo, and Herrera will have perfectly respectable MLS careers that may include a couple January camps, but I doubt any break 5 caps. That may be Glad's future too but he's the only one I can see growing beyond that and having a real national team future. Danny Acosta is a complete wildcard who might get 40 caps, and also might flame out of MLS within 2 years.
I went back and watched the first 45 of Philly v RSL yesterday and they noted that with Wagner our Fabinho got his first start of the year at LB, probably not great for Real that they’d go with Fabinho over him.
Interesting tweet thread from Frank de Boer on a topic not really touched on much, the inability to callup academy or second teamers(usl players) to the first team: Asked FdB to elaborate on this, and his gripe seems less to do with transfers and more to do with restrictions holding back second-team/academy players from joining the first team: https://t.co/2RGaH7XqMB— Joe Patrick (@japatrick200) July 16, 2019 Atlanta has a bit of a injury crisis at left back with Bello, Shea, and even Ambrose being hurt. FdB mentions that it'd be nice to callup George Campbell in situations like these. This is all very confusing to me, but couldn't Atlanta do a short-term loan for Campbell like some teams do for the Open Cup? Or can you not do that in league play? Edit: Nevermind Campbell is still on a academy contract so he couldn't be loaned since he isn't on a full-time contract
I thought I read somewhere that a MLS team was recalling players from loan from a couple affiliate teams for a friendly with a Liga Mx team tomorrow. More importantly, they’re doing a short term loan for 2-3 players who only have USL deals for that friendly. If a team can do a short term loan for USL players why can’t they do the same for academy players? Depending on how long those guys are injured for I don’t see why they couldn’t sign Campbell to a first team contract. LA did that earlier this season when Zlatan and other options at forward were injured with Zubak.
Was that LA example during the regular season or not? I have only been able to find examples of non-league games only so far. I'm also unsure why Atlanta's signing of Campbell isn't effective until January 1, 2020. Perhaps roster limits?
In 2017 FCD loaned a keeper up from their USl affiliate. Jacob Lissek. https://sportsday.dallasnews.com/so...runch-taking-page-major-league-baseballs-book
I think FdB's point stands that it's too hard to simply callup a youth player for a game if needed regardless if short-term loans are available or not
Yup. And with Brek Shea going down with an ACL team, they need a long term solution. Not a 1 or 2 game loan. I mean.................at left back Atlanta does have a ton of guys on the roster that can play left back. Injuries have devastated that position, though, so they're a little at a loss. But this happens. Figure it out. There is a mechanism for an intra-MLS loan. I don't know why other clubs would want to help Atlanta out. But if they have a young player that needs minutes, they could make it work perhaps. [If I remember, part of the problem there is that the intra-league loans last until the end of the year. There's no recalling of players. Clubs are hesitant to give up their depth, even when the kid isn't playing] How about trying to loan Marco Farfan from Portland? Something like that. [I don't know all of the nitty-gritty of those loan rules, but they do exist.]