Usually I am against capping such young players who've done very little at the professional level (Zelalem, Hyndman, Carter-Vickers) and Pulisic has done less than very little at the professional level, but he's probably currently better than a lot of our current attackers. Can we please cap Pulisic already? The kid is incredible. LD level talent.
The comparisons to Donovan are going to be inevitable. Just like Landon, he seems real comfortable going to his left or right and using both feet to pass or score. If we can find ANY finishers in the USA, this guy could break Landon's assist records. He was putting balls on a dime at full speed against the run of play. So impressive.
When do you want him called in? I'm all for it just curious as to when you'd call him in. I think we should have several spots in the 23 for St Vincent and T&T go to guys like CP, Siebatcheu etc. Can get them in against St Vincent potentially. T&T will obviously be a difficult opponent on the road so hopefully we can preserve some of our older guys' legs for that match.
Nothing wrong with modeling LD. Donovan was a big fan of Roberto Baggio. He never became Baggio, but you could see what he was attempting to emulate. Donovan was more of a striker at that age, Pulisic is more of a midfielder who can score.
Is he physically mature enough yet to play against grown folks and not get broken? I really wouldn't want to send him back to Dortmund busted up and throw off his development timeline, like we did with Julian Green after his first cap.
Yeah, I'm not sure he's ready for even the u-23 level. He can play well enough, but he's not quite the athletic freak that Landon was. Honestly, I think he'll have a much higher ceiling than Green. He reads the game at a very high level right now. He's got a good mix of setting up his teammates and being ruthless in front of goal.
His workrate is also incredible, and his competitiveness is second to none. There have several times where I have watched him go 1v1 and win, not because he juked the defender out, but just because he wants it more than they do. Similar to Luis Suarez in that aspect, no Im not saying hes Luis Suarez but he affects games by just never stopping and continually going at opponents and wearing them down. I think he could get a few Cup games with Dortmund this year along with Passalack, and if he does, its almost a guarantee he gets called up. If Klinnsman can call in Boyd while playing for Dortmund's reserves then why not?
The same thing happened with Green when he was with Bayern's reserves. But isn't there a difference (and someone please correct me if I'm wrong) in that both of those guys were playing against adults, whereas Pulisic is still on one of Dortmund's youth teams?
He is behind Donovan because he isn't a pro. He has illustrated the physical tools and soccer iq (on occassion) to be in the same league as Donovan talent wise. Who knows if he has a similar career.
Honestly I would prefer that he stays with Dortmund rather than come into that camp. He's been pulled out of BVB training and matches plenty, would be good for him to stay there for a sustained period of time.
Two wrongs don't make a right, vis a vis Green and the like. In part because of hasty or unjust call-ups like that, we are behind on capping older attack talents that would be helping us now and into the near future. I'm talking about Lletget, Benny, Nguyen, Nagbe, etc. They get integration priority. Then we can come in with that next generation. He's only 17, and that's not old enough for me. It's not old enough for his nemesis yesterday to try and cap-tie him most likely, and it's in all likelihood not old enough for him to be motivated to jump ship. He seems pretty prideful of being American and he comes across as very American when listening to him. No accent, comfortable in the language, and confident in his role. So if we wait until he's an ancient 18, or at least well into his 17th year on Erf, there should be no worries. These fears about losing dual nationals like Siebatcheu and Pulisic if we don't cap them super early so they might help us significantly in 7 years or so, while complementing them with players who've done it in the past, is leading us to not integrating new and much more proven players who'd in all likelihood help us in the present. A present in which we suck. And that's not going to help dual nationals want to play for us in the long run btw. We don't want to stay in this vicious cycle. If we lose one from waiting until they prove it within reason, that's disappointing, but so be it. Who, individually, would we have even regretted up until now? Not Julian Green, yet.
I'm not worried about him leaving. I think he's currently a better soccer player than guys like Zardes and Bedoya.
It's quite speculative on account of the levels he's playing at internationally and domestically. Let's see the homie get bumped up to u-20 and loaned out like Zelalem, only to the BL 2, or respectable 1st division, and see how he fares. Zelalem certainly looked good in youth internationals, and that was at a higher level than Pulisic. They both have physical challenges playing against men that guys like Zardes and Bedoya don't. So even though I'm not high on those guys either, I would be pretty surprised if Pulisic was as good as or better than them at this point. Then, even if he is, what about Nagbe's, Lletget's, Benny's, Lee's, Finlay's, Salinas', Shipp's, Powers', etc. turns? The strategy here you're suggesting isn't very high efficacy. Trust your instincts that apply to other reserves.
Bringing Landon Donovan (Beasley, Eddie Johnson) in young didn't seem to hurt him, the team or the pool.
Dortmund doesn't send their top talents out on loan. They usually just go into the first team. We can wait until he plays a first team game, but I don't see the need to wait long past that to give him a call up. IMO, Pulisic is clearly better than Zelalem who many people want capped.
It's a terrible and predictable response because there are exceptions to every rule. It shouldn't preclude the rule from being followed outside the rarest of occasions. And I don't think an exception should be made for a player who just turned 17. I think Donovan was about 18 and a half when he debuted. Johnson was 20 and a regular for Dallas. Beasley was a regular for the Fire. Incidentally, they all had the tool of being speedsters. And it was a different time where we didn't possess nearly the depth we do now.
Again, two wrongs don't make a right. I never was in position to want Zelalem to be capped based on what he had done already. In fact I argued with people like Vexco about it and I think you were on my side there. He was trying to advocate for getting called up from Rangers out of the Scottish Championship because he thought Klinsmann might well do it, when a proven player like Boca was threatened to get banished for a move back there by Klinsmann. And I bet Vexco defended that decision here too. lol
Well I'm not strongly advocating to cap him now, but he is highly thought of at BVD and is playing at pretty much the same level that Landon was at Leverkusen. I don't recall Landon getting any appearances for Leverkusen before we gave him a senior NATs appearance. If Pulisic features for the big team, that would indicate he should be in the conversation.
Interesting that Passlack (who I believe is considered one of Dortmund's top 2 prospects along w Pulisic) is the German team's captain versus Argentina. Just had a hockey assist on Goal 1... Much like the rest of the folks on here, I've watched every U-23/U-20/U-17 game that's televised and think Pulisic is far and away our most impressive young guy. After he plays a first team minute w Dortmund (Cup game I assume) I say we call him in...I would be shocked if he doesn't start the opener in Russia, assuming a certain German Coach doesn't f*ck up qualification...
The first time I saw Donovan play was with with the U-17s. I knew from the first moment I watched him that he was going to be special. It wasn't just the speed, quickness, technical touch. It was the high soccer IQ. That's what stands out with Pulisic. He's several moves ahead of everyone else on the field. If he stays healthy, he will have a great career. I just hope he decides to play for the USA.