Props to Klinsi for rolling the dice on this kid out of Stanford tonight. Lucky sevens, with a nicely finished shot to give the United States the early lead. One start, one goal. The last time a collegian scored a goal for the USA was almost back in the dark ages of USA soccer when Dante Washington of Radord, where?, scored against Mexico, also, no less. Replay of the goal, here: http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/artic...t-jordan-morris-scores-first-goal-us-national Anyway, here is some info from his Stanford bio: http://www.gostanford.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=208997460 Yeah, this was Mexico's "B" team, but he delivered. So anyway, is he a one goal wonder? Should he become an orthopedic surgeon like his Dad? Work a deal to retain his eligibility or give it up to play in MLS? Wait for some deal in Europe? Or maybe he's just trolling Klinsi and Big soccer. Some seem to like his game, others suggest he really doesn't even belong. Anyway, what's your take?
Too early to tell. Think he should get professional time. Personally think we should be talking about Juan Agudelo's goal and overall play much more. He's been overshadowed by Morris. Juan was stellar.
Correct! But he is certainly at the level to be playing with these players. He has the pace and ability. His touch to take the ball away from the defender and then finish was excellent. His quickness and touch are really good for a young player. Hope he chooses to go to the Olympics if we can qualify. Juan was finding good space and finding the right pass. He is a far better player than he was when he blasted onto the scene 4-5 years ago. (and he is only 22...) LMAO ONLY 22. Its ridiculous.
He took advantage of a fortunate bounce and illustrated why he is a top prospect in this country. And again he's 20, he's not exactly young in soccer terms. IF we ar comparing him with his peers globally he should be expected to make that play. Still, no more college players. If he really is going to be in college for the next year and a half, he can't be apart of serious tournaments.
Another interesting factoid . . . Juan Agudelo, who seems like has been beating around forever, is only two years older than Morris. Agudelo, of course, did appear to be "the deal" last night, lol
Agreed. He's obviously got loads of potential, but he has to decide what his career path is going to be. I'm sure mid table teams in Germany would love to take a stab on him due to his free transfer status.
Good find -- although technically the last goal scored by a USA collegian was not Dante Washington's against Mexico on 12 March 1991, but Dante Washington's against Canada on 16 March 1991. Those goals were Washington's only two USMNT goals, and they both came in the 1991 North American Nations Cup, the last-ever edition of that tournament. Coincidentally, Washington, like Morris, was a sophomore, and also like Morris, scored against a Mexican team missing most of its first-choice players. Radford University, Washington's alma mater, is in Virginia. As for Jordan Morris, one goal proves nothing, and one match proves nothing. But the goal was well-taken, and he also had an otherwise solid match. He's certainly earned the right to be considered for the Gold Cup, although presumably left off the roster (Altidore, Aron, Zardes, Agudelo, etc.) More to the point, last night's goal might help propel Morris out of Stanford and into a pro career, which would surely help his development.
I think Morris is an MLS bench player at this point. I don't really understand why JK keeps calling him in (along with Ibarra and Green). As I said elsewhere, he reminds me of a smaller, slightly less athletic Darren Mattocks. He's lightening quick. That's really the only thing about him that I think is outstanding. His touch seems OK, but we haven't seen anything from him yet that would indicate that he could make the play that Agudelo did to bring down Bradley's ball that led to the goal. His decision-making is mediocre at best. I agree with others who said that Agudelo was much more impressive.
Leaving aside the "Klinsmann is showing off his ego" theory, the logic behind calling in Morris for meaningless friendlies, especially early in the World Cup cycle, goes like this: getting called in might cause him to leave Stanford sooner, therefore resulting in a better player for the USMNT down the road, maybe for the 2018 World Cup. If Morris is suddenly on the Gold Cup roster or a WCQ roster, though, that logic goes totally out the window.
I think Morris showed speed, aggressiveness and finishing last night. He also seems to have decent feet. I don't think most of us have seen enough to know if he can deliver regularly, but what most impressed me was the composure of his finish. That looked like a goal scorers touch to me. If he can learn when and where to run, a guy with his physical tools could be very dangerous if he's a natural finisher to go with it. Staying in college can really be a development problem for him though the longer he stays.
People need to calm down. It's like the English media in here. The guy took his chance well, but he is far from the next big thing. He has scored 4 goals in 13 matches for Stanford this season. That is good form, but that is hardly anything to get excited over. If he produces at a higher level consistently, then yes, he might be the real deal.
If you don't want to see people get excited about 20 year old college students scoring goals on Mexico, you shouldn't be on an Internet message board at all, much less in this thread on this site. Oh, and you can bank on Morris being on the Gold Cup roster. That's signed, sealed, delivered. You think Klinsmann is going to leave off the guy who HE discovered and brought into the fold after he scores the GWG against Mexico?!?! Bro, pass me some of that, pronto.
Juan Agudelo is so young that he's only a month too old to be on our Olympic squad. Consider the age difference between Juan Agudelo and a player we think of as a youngster. Juan Agudelo is two months older than Wil Trapp. Just as an argument for being patient, Julian Green is three years younger than Agudelo. I don't know what to make of Morris. I want to be excited. However, I can't be excited about a player that simply lacks ambition. Every month he stays in the NCAAs is a month he's falling behind his contemporaries. Lots of twitterati arguing last night about the identity of the last NCAA player to score against Mexico. The consensus has changed from Dante Washington in 1991 to Mike Sorber in 1992.
Not enough information to determine this. I would guess no but he has earned minutes against a better side. I wouldn't be surprised if we see him appear in gold cup as a super sub with Agudelo in the 4-4-2 diamond or even a 3-5-2.
One of the biggest problems he will face if he doesn't get out of college is that he will likely lack fitness compared to professional players. I don't think it was surprising to see him subbed off with plenty of time left.
Lacks ambition? If I knew I'd get called up to the full National Team on a semi regular basis at 20 and still stay in college, I'd do the same thing. Much more fun than playing pro. We probably agree that it's not good for short term development, but he's getting pretty much the best of both worlds right now.
You're right, too bad he isn't scoring "goals". He got one goal off a lucky bounce. People were saying he needed to be subbed off at half because he was running aimlessly all match.
He also isn't plural, so that clearly wasn't what I meant when I said "students scoring goals," now was it?
Took the ball away? It deflected off the Mexican defender into an area where he ran and kicked it toward goal. Good goal but far from impressive. For me he struggled at combining with teammates and making calm decisions to hold possession. He's very fast and can put pressure on defenses. He's still a very good prospect and will help us down the line. Just don't think his goal rockets his reputation to anything more than it is. A top prospect with potential down the line when he learns the professional game.
What's the best of the one side? Learning the game at college. For his level talent that's not the best of both worlds. What his play last night should tell him is I need to be challenged more in professional soccer so I can improve. I hope it doesn't tell him 'hey I scored vs Mexico so I don't need to leave college soccer. I'm fine where I am. With that logic he should stay 4 yrs then transfer to a NAIA school for his master's then think about his Doctorate playing in adult pro leagues. Where he plays should matter going forward. I wonder if Seattle raises their offer significantly because scoring for the full national team vs Mexico does certainly help his negotiating leverage.
I won't take anything from Juan, but it is much easier coming in later in the game playing tired legs. All this kid did was hustle and had that backline tired an worried. Imagine if Juan would have started and he comes in the last 20 minutes? Imagine a tired backline trying to keep up with that pace. It might be JK's plan going forward.
I actually wonder if JK didn't call Morris in to showcase him to Euro teams. I could see JK really wanting Morris to go over-seas, and trying make that happen.