Osvaldo Alonso?

He's captied to Cuba, but will never play International football again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osvaldo_Alonso

 

He has played for Cuba.

 

I've always thought it would be interesting to see if FIFA would waive the cap-tying given the Cuban defectors are political refugees and had to A) leave the island to be able to make a decent living playing soccer (not to mention have freedom) and B) aren't allowed to play for Cuba anymore because of said asylum.

It's a moot point till one of them gets US citizenship but it would be interesting to see what FIFA would do.

And for the record, I fully believe that were he allowed to play for the US that Osvaldo Alonso would be good enough to do so. Probably not good enough to overtake Mike, Mo and JJ, but in the Kyle Beckerman range of guys who are good enough to play for the US but have better players in front of them.

 

Agreed.

 

Hopefully the political situation becomes such that he can safely return home and represent his country again at some point before his playing career is done.

Probably not, but you never know.

 

To be honest I'm very surprised that USSF youth scouts haven't checked out any Cubans, I mean there all over the east coast and pretty much taken over Florida.

I'm pretty damn sure there's tons of cuban talent down there, so the question is why haven't we found them yet?

 

The same thing you could say about the Mexican-American here in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. There is a bunch of us, I use "us" because I am Mexican-American, out there too.

 

I know there are a bunch Latino's of Mexican decent out on the west coast and mid-west area(I'm a L.A. guy myself) and our scouts have looked around a some Mexican talent but since this thread was mostly about Cubans that's why I asked those questions in my previous post.

If I offended you with my previos post I'm sorry I'm just confused to why I have yet to see other latin talents on the USMNT.

 

Sorry if I sounded offended but I am not. I was just wondering the same thing you were about cubans with mexican/american. I did notice you were from LA. I live in Riverside.

I remember reading in another thread on this forum one main reason is that these kids, whether they are cuban or mexican or whatever, don't have the money or resources to be able to be seen by the US scouts. That could be another reason.

And there is some players on the US National team with latin decent; Agudelo and Bedoya are from Colombian decent, A. J. DeLaGarza has a father half Mexican half Guatemalan, Hercules Gomez is Mexican American (from LA), Omar Gonzalez has duel citizenship with the US and Mexico, and so does Jose Torres.

 

Just looking at the MLS, there really aren't any mexican american players who would be at the level to play for the US. I think a big part of this is due to the cost of playing soccer in the US. It takes money to play on a good team and get noticed by scouts to play professionally. I'm sure there's plenty of talent that just end up playing pick up games and at the most in high school. Until this changes, the US national team, and people who can't afford to play on expensive club teams, suffer.

 

^^^^ Yuppers and agreed!

I remember Clint Dempsey's story on how his family had enough money to focus on his soccer career or his sister's tennis career. His family decided on his sister but she suffered a heart attack which evidently killed her and the money went to Clint.

It is hard to get into soccer here in the States.

 

We tend to gravitate towards baseball and boxing first, much to my disappointment . Most Cubans in the usa (ones who came before the early 90's) tend to be very Americanized anyway.

- Cuban American

 

That sucks man, I'm sure there are some talented Cubans who can play the game of football though.

But I see where your coming from, man if we can tap into the latin somemore we would be a force to reckon with but until the USSF get there shit cleaned up and come out of there stone ege way of thinking(mainly believe that this is a Rich man's sport and not a poor man's)we are pretty much going to stuck in neutral for a very longtime I'm afraid.

 

The federation needs to switch the mentality of "suberbia soccer leagues", "pay to play" mentality and open the doors to different leagues. i used to work for a big soccer shop in texas and all the club teams (which i wont mention) are very political. most of these clubs are run by people who look at making money and at the passion of the sport. the few that i have come across that did have the passion for the sport eventually began going by favoritism which eventually led to greed of who would pay more. i think its very sad.

on a side note i do believe that if the federation concentrated alot more in inner cities, not only would there fan base grow, but you might see a national team consist of more latin americans and african americans than you would see all white. take baseball, football, and basketball for example. the basketball usa team consists of_____. i don't follow american football so i forgot what its called, the game that is held in hawaii every year after the super bowl, the top players are______. the MLB allstar game consists of_______.

 

Jones
Bradley
Torres
Edu
Benny
Sacha
Clark
Beckerman

and you bring up Osvaldo Alonso????

Someone shoot me please!!!

 

That is the sad part, he already left, so at least put him in your squad so that you team is better. They had him in the booth during one of the GOld Cup games, and you could see he was really hurt to say that e would not be able to play for Cuba again. He even showed up at their hotel to catch up with some old friends and give them shirts/shoes and they denied him access.

 

I'd say Alonso is on par in CM with at least 2 of those players..Clark and Benny.

Likely Beckerman as well. Alonso plays a more holding role though.

 

Most Cubans play baseball, soccer is not as popular in Cuban culture as baseball.

 

Umm Alonso is at least as good as Torres, Benny, Sacha, Clark, or Beckerman at a CDM role. The decision he made was right for him, and you have to know that international matches had to be considered (trivial compared to your actual life).