Too early? Last year I had a pretty good idea of who I "picked to click." But, not this year. So, I'll leave it to the board sharpies. Who's NT profile will rise this season?
Well, I have absolutely no idea, but it seems that the last clear path to the 2014 WC roster for an MLS player who is currently not really on the radar screen is to kill it for the first 2-3 months of the MLS season, earn a spot on the GC roster, kill it at the Gold Cup, earn a spot on the roster for the last few WC qualies, kill it in those qualies, make the WC roster. Not impossible, nor unprecedented, but unlikely at the very least.
True. But, I don't think a player has to be "out of the blue" to qualify as "flavor of the week." For instance, Feilhaber, Pontius, & DeLeon have a body of work that, if maintained, would get them into the GC. Though, that's another thing that makes this topic problematic. The "most likely to's" will spend a very large chunk of the summer on the GC roster, making them more "GC flavors of the day" candidates. Too bad. It's one of my favorite BS topics.
OK, under that definition I've got my money on Feilhaber, Pontius, Agudelo and Besler. Those four all have a realistic shot at running the table in the manner suggested by my previous post.
I want to say a more creative player like Silva or Pontius. Or even a central defender. But if I had to bet, I would put money on a central midfielder.
I hope Pontius can stay healthy. I see Benny finally Havering a big year. As for suprises Im not sure. Excited to see who steps up
A guy I'm excited to watch this season is Jose Villareal. Ill also be keeping an eye on a hopeful bounce back season for Juan Agudelo and continued progression from Luis Gil.
Too early for candidates for rookie of the year? My picks 1. Hurtado 2. Zardes (HG qualify?) 3. Alvarez 4. Smith
Luis Gil is the guy I'm looking for. RSL's going to give him plenty of opportunities. I'm personally looking for Matt Hedges to take "the next step" with FC Dallas.
+1 here. That dude has so much raw talent and so many physical attributes, I hope they don't go wasted.
Kitchen for me. After his first year as a true DM, I think he can really make a massive impact this year.
My 40 players to watch that will have breakthrough performances... and who have not received a cap under Klinsmann: 1. Chris Pontius 2. Nick DeLeon 3. Austin Berry 4. Dax McCarty 5. Bill Hamid 6. George John 7. Luis Silva 8. Perry Kitchen 9. Amobi Okugo 10. Kenny Cooper 11. Jack McInerney 12. Dilly Duka 13. Freddy Adu 14. Matt Hedges 15. Andrew Wenger 16. Sheannon Williams 17. Kofi Sarkodie 18. Chance Myers 19. Sam Cronin 20. Seth Sinovic 21. Eddie Gaven 22. Michael Farfan 23. Luis Gil 24. Chad Marshall 25. Lee Nguyen 26. Gabriel Farfan 27. Chris Schuler 28. Jose Villarreal 29. Eric Alexander 30. David Estrada 31. Omar Salgado 32. Andrew Jean-Baptiste 33. Kevin Alston 34. Connor Lade 35. Tally Hall 36. Kelyn Rowe 37. AJ Soares 38. Steve Lenhart 39. Ryan Meara 40. Tommy Meyer/Warren Creavalle My Rookie/New HG players of the Year Favorites: 1. Eriq Zavaleta-CB/F *So much potential here. There may be some growing pains in the first half of the season, but I have full faith that he will take the starting spot away from Ianni. 2. Gyasi Zardes-F *Gets bumped down one because of injury. 3. Scott Caldwell-M 4. Erik Hurtado-Winger 5. Andrew Farrell-CB/RB 6. Taylor Kemp-LB/LM 7. Ryan Finley-F 8. Mikey Lopez-CDM 9. Carlos Alvarez-M 10. Chris Klute-CB, LB 11. John Stertzer-M 12. Walker Zimmermann-CB 13. Dillon Powers-CDM 14. Charlie Rugg-F 15. Kofi Opare-CB 16. Donnie Smith-M 17. Tommy Muller-D 18. Will Trapp-M 19. Blake Smith-M 20. Jimmy Nealis-LB 21. London Woodberry-CB 22. Don Anding-M 23. DeAndre Yedlin-D 24. DeShorn Brown-M 25. Greg Cochrane-LB
And my way too early speculation for Camp Cupcake 2014.... (3) GOALKEEPERS: Sean Johnson, Bill Hamid, Tally Hall (6) FULLBACKS: Sheannon Williams, Kofi Sarkodie, Brad Evans, Steve Beitashour, Justin Morrow, Seth Sinovic (5) DEFENDERS: Eriq Zavaleta, Austin Berry, George John, Matt Hedges, Amobi Okugo (8) MIDFIELDERS: Luis Silva, Dax McCarty, Perry Kitchen, Conor O' Brien, Dilly Duka, Benny Feilhaber, Kyle Beckerman, Mikkel Diskerud (9) FORWARDS: Gyasi Zardes, Nick DeLeon, Chris Pontius, Andrew Wenger, Kenny Cooper, Jack McInerney, Freddy Adu, Will Bruin, Eddie Johnson ***I'll say that Matt Besler, Omar Gonzalez, Alejandro Bedoya, Josh Gatt, Juan Agudelo, and Graham Zusi all leave MLS or move to a bigger European league. ---------------Pontius----Bruin-----Johnson------------- ----------------Diskerud--------Feilhaber----------------- --------------------------Beckerman---------------------- Morrow---------------------------------------------Beitashour --------------------John--------------Berry---------------- -----------------------------Johnson------------------------ Bench: Hamid, Hedges, Williams, McCarty, O' Brien, DeLeon, Cooper on the 23: Hall, Okugo, Kitchen, Silva, Wenger
For accuracy's sake... Played 90 vs. Venezuela @ 2012 Camp Cupcake. Good list (as are your lists always). Put me down for Kitchen as well. Kinda pissed he wasn't there vs. Canada actually.
Thanks for pointing that out... For some reason, I thought Johnson played that match... Well, I guess that makes 40 easier then... Bump everyone up, and someone take their pick between Tommy Meyer or Warren Creavalle for the last pick. The one thing that Kitchen really has going for him is that he is a CDM. We are under the illusion that we are stacked there, but it's not really true. Our best options are Maurice Edu, Danny Williams, Kyle Beckerman, and Alfredo Morales. Bradley, Jones, Torres, Diskerud, Zusi, Corona, Bedoya, Feilhaber, Davis, and Kljestan do not play there in Klinsmann's system.
I like Kitchen as well but still thinks he gets hyped more than other players that are above him in my opinion- like Okugo you failed to mention. Both Okugo and Kitchen have played central defense and d-mid both for club and youth national teams. In comparison, I think Okugo has proven he is the best central defender than Kitchen. With regard to CDM, I think Okugo is also better as he has always been selected above Kitchen to play CDM in every youth national team camps and games they played together--recently u20 and u23.
Kitchen started out being played out of position in the pros. He may well have been a good college central defender, but he's not even close in the pros. He was moved to right halfback, because he was being roundly abused by the likes of Ching, Lenhart, & Casey - all big, physical forwards. Ever since he was moved to DM, he has really come on, but still needs to improve in the attack to become an excellent box-to-box midfielder. Now, I would only rate him as a good, solid DM, but he's only 20, and he has a tremendous upside, IMHO.
Sinovic has been excellent for KC in preseason. He's much more athletic than I originally thought. Also going to give Andrew Jean-Baptiste a shout, though he may be more for 2018.
Jean-Baptiste was going to be my off the radar pick. I like what I see in this preseason game vs San Jose. He's strong and athletic, and very composed on the ball. I would imagine Haiti will probably call him up for the Gold Cup this summer. It would be a shame to lose him.