I don't think this is necessarily an "unpopular" opinion, but I hope we never call Nagbe up ever again. I'd like to call up players who want to be there. And this is 3 times now. No thanks. He's certainly not a lock-starter for this team, so I don't think we're losing much.
Nagbe, to me, is one of those players whose legend has greatly exceeded his actual ability. I've been watching him for years, and I'm still trying to figure out what everyone loves about him.
Your patience is rewarded: https://web.archive.org/web/2012081.../08/Klinsmann-teleconference-quote-sheet.aspx Mind you, he'd already played under Bradley. He does finally get cap-tied in 2013, but doesn't even get another call-up until the World Cup almost a year and a half later. That's highly irregular. https://www.theringer.com/2018/6/5/...ory-jurgen-klinsmann-sunil-gulati-bruce-arena None of us know for sure, but there's enough evidence to believe Chandler wasn't that committed to playing for the USA. What this has to do with other players like Nagbe, I have no idea. It seems like the burden is on you to prove this player was committed to playing for the US, since it seems important to you to believe that.
Bill Hamid is a good keeper to have competing for the NT. Maybe not as the no.1 but surely no.2 or no.3
Never was on the Nagbe hype train. Guys I see as having a better ceiling than expected: Horvath (sabotaged by his own club though), Steffen, Sargent (hopefully not sabotaged by his coach), Adams (hopefully not ruined by injuries), Sabbi (hopefully someone is paying attention). Guys I see as having a lower ceiling than expected (and the reason this is in here): Pulisic. McKennie, Weah, Novakovich, Antonee Robinson, Tyler Boyd.
I don't think you understand what sabotage means. the idea that horvath is somehow being wronged by his team is a myth. In europe they sign players to compete at positions you only get ur spot if ur elite. The idea that a place like club brugge was going to be like hey we have horvath lets not try to upgrade at goalie ever again is a joke. that isn't sabotage its called not being good enough.
Nagbe can ball; he's just got to be deployed correctly. He was in the midfield of two different MLS Cup-winning squads. We've got better CM options emerging now, but Nagbe was no schmuck.
Wow.... I always wonder if certain people are really ignorant or just act dumb to twist things. I'd bet it is some of both in this case. I didnt "diss" Nagbe for his background. I am interested in any player that is eligible for the USMNT.... including dual nationals that have never stepped foot in the states and naturalized citizens. It is pretty odd that you would purposefully (?) misinterpret my post, place judgement and then describe a number of our players as having "mothers who were lucky enough to be nailed by a serviceman". It is also odd to me that someone would view a player with no association with the US who moved here in a better light than a player whose father served our country. I think I've seen you say that Nagbe "earned" it. This is weird to me as well as pretty much every other player who is eligible for the team is basically due to the luck of being born to American parents in America. I dont think Chandler is a great player, but think he is incredibly disrespected by people like you. He is repeatedly "dissed" for not being commited to the team when the call ups he didnt accept were before he committed to the team and suggesting an injured player might consider not playing. So I dont think Chandler was not committed is nearly as clear as you seem to make it. I only defend these attacks as they appeared to be out of a general dislike for the dual nationals. Nagbe on the other hand skipped out due to not getting the minutes he wanted and not feeling wanted. He did that in the last window before the Hex and those that hate Chandler, didnt seem to mind. He has now lied about not being in contact with national team and rejected callups, including the Gold Cup. https://www.starsandstripesfc.com/2...rlington-nagbe-jurgen-klinsmann-usmnt-call-up Yet, you still defend him. I personally dont really care. The only thing that really ever bothered me about Nagbe is that he played like crap in 2017 after being gifted a starting spot. If he had played like he did in 2016 when he was being pushed to provide more, we probably would have gone to the World Cup.
Nagbe is a horrible soccer player. His soccer IQ is miserably low. He might be good at some skills competition, but there is no place in the international game for a role like the one he supposedly excels at. I generally dont care about MLS cups, but definitely not role players on those teams.
Nagbe can keep the ball, no one doubts that. But with the NT often he looked like he didn't know what to do with the ball after the keeping part. Not good.
My unpopular opinion is that Julian Green is getting screwed over and should be a part of this team. He has scored an important World Cup goal for us, is a regular starter at age 24 in a league we have for along time used players from to help our full team, including our current coach who spent a decent amount of his career as a full US international while playing in the German second. People have so much animosity about Klinsmann and blame Julian for whatever grievances they have that he's a whipping boy. But it's not the kid's fault and he is a much better option for a midfield roll than guys like Roldan or Lletget who we field regularly and worlds better than someone like Mihailovic. He is a better and more intelligent passer than any of those guys and while I think Julian never really has developed into the dynamic type of attacker many hoped for, he's no less effectual than either of those fellas in the attack. He has actually looked like one of our more dangerous guys when he has been on the field. Even with his being a bit too plodding at times, he's still a better winger than Baird at the very least and while he's very different than Arriola, I'm not sure he isn't better than him as well with maybe not the engine but with a lot more skill and sophistication.
My unpopular opinion is that it is not the USSF's fault, but it is the individual players' fault that they file one-time switches out of the US program. Or maybe it's nobody's fault...it just is. It's certainly unpopular to suggest that all of the whining from spurned Yank fans is unbecoming and reeks of desperation like a spurned lover who just can't find the self-confidence to move on.
Unpopular opinion is that while we have improved, so has the world and we are no better relatively than we were 3 or 4 cycles ago. Maybe worse.
Our keeping situation is a shambles.We did not realize how lucky we were to have Freidel ,Keller,and Howard-even Guzan of five years ago is above the current group.And we just act like it's not part of the problem with this NT.
Here's my unpopular opinion. If Green wants to play for the US he can come to MLS and prove that he's better than the Lletgets and Roldans. I don't think a spell in MLS has done Keaton Parkes or Emerson Hyndman any harm.
Nobody can "prove" they are "better" than aanyone else in the MLS because the MLS is so utterly horrible. The players are actually somewhat better than they appear but the coaching and officials drop their level of play down so low as to negate any quality. Unfortunately the low level of play in the MLS is one of the major reasons the USMNT keeps developing towards greater and greater failure and that will not change until the level of play in the MLS gets better and that is hampered by everything from poor coaching and poor development to much too much expansion diluting the talent that exists. With half the number of teams the MLS might actually play at a level to produce decent players for the USMNT.
The NT plays better as a team without Pulisic than with him. When he's there, he becomes the focus of far too many plays, so all the other team has to do is mark him well.
MLS is so much better than when I started watching it 5 years ago you should give it another shot. To give you an example of how things have changed, in 2015 Seattle Sounders had 3 players with a basic salary of more than $280k. Today they have 12 players making a basic salary of more than $500k. I mean you have the CONMEBOL and Argentinian 2018 player of the year struggling to make an impact. The standard of officiating has also improved. I watch every NYCFC match and I think we're had VAR invoked maybe once every 3 games max.
Salaries are pretty much meaningless as far as quality is concerned when the talent that exists is so spread out. In the MLS each team has only one or two good players and it takes more than that to make a good team. “A football team is like a piano. You need eight men to carry it and three who can play the damn thing.” – Bill Shankly The problem with the MLS is that most teams have only one or two that can play and maybe four or five that can carry and then the remainder that keep tripping everyone else and cause the piano to keep getting dropped. Also just because VAR is not called on does not mean the officiating is good but rather it means that, in he MLS' case, that VAR is just as bad as the on field refereeing. Every game the play, passing and even free kicks are horrible (most free kicks do not even hit the goal) and the referees allow outright muggings in and around the box on the poor lazy excuse so as not to interfere with the game and then VAR ignores the referees oversight. The refereeing is not better it is just differently horrible. I do watch the MLS and have watched it since its start because it is the best soccer readily avail to me as college drops even lower. The MLS is one of the biggest reasons that the USMNT is so bad.
It's not the Premier League and it's not the reason USMNT are "so bad". You need a coach who knows who is best eleven is, and fields them as often as possible, rather than someone who approaches the job as an intellectual exercise.
But the MLS is the primary source for talent, development and coaching development. Being that primary source pretty much also makes it the primary reason for the USMNT's performance. The current coach is an MLS product and replacing him with another coach with failure built into his psyche by the MLS' weaknesses will not solve the problem and putting even a great coach in charge of this bunch of MLS losers will produce no more than a marginal improvement. The MLS is not the whole problem but it is the primary one. Our whole development, player selection and leagues are the problem and, until that gets fixed, the US will never be really competitive at the world level. We have plenty of players at the youngest levels but most get lost to bad coaching and bad leagues of which the MLS is at the top.