I mean they aren't Aston Villa awful, but I guess that's the fun of being in a league as focus on parity as MLS is. Chicago is bad in the way that they haven't won an away game in two years and every year they're "re-building". Update on Vincent: Vincent is starting on the bench and Kellyn Acosta is instead starting at left back.
Kellyn Acosta almost gets his ankle wrecked while making a challenge, which I believe is a another sign from above that Kellyn Acosta shouldn't be playing LB. Literally nothing good ever happens when he's there.
Kellyn Acosta can play at fullback. And when he played right back for FCD full time he was quite good there. He was so good that they moved Loyd to centerback. Then they moved Kellyn to central mid........leaving a colossal hole at right back that still hasn't been filled. [Enter, hopefully, Reggie Cannon.] But now that Kellyn is a full time central mid in both training and games, I don't know why he's still played at fullback by all sorts of coaches. Right now Kellyn Acosta playing left back is a symptom of our lack of left back depth. If Acosta is our starting MLS all-star caliber left back, and Vincent is our backup..........that's a problem. Vincent has been "go0d" recently in that position. Not all-star caliber yet. I actually think that if FCD moved Kellyn to left back and he trained/played there full time, he'd become quite good. I don't know why they'd do that, though. By the way, I thought somebody would comment on Kellyn's uniform number for the game: #MLSAllStar pic.twitter.com/wVABGcvAVK— Kellyn Acosta (@KellynAcosta) July 28, 2016
With Dax McCarty out with a fractured tibia, big opportunity for Sean Davis................................
Or for Etienne or Adams, neither of who were in the 18 for NYRBII today. The homegrown talent on this team is real special.
Mikey Ambrose finally made it to MLS. http://www.orlandocitysc.com/post/2...acquires-ocb-defender-mikey-ambrose-fc-dallas
I find it so odd that Orlando had to trade for his rights. He obviously wasn't in FCD's plans. I mean, I wonder if Ambrose went to FCD first when he left Maryland................and FCD declined to sign him. [We'll recall that he signed for the Austin Aztex before going to Orlando.] When that happened, they should have forfeited his "rights." Of course that would make sense, and none of these player acquisition rules make any sense. We shouldn't have all of these bizarre hurdles for young players to go thru in order to get signed by clubs that actually want their services. Mikey Ambrose.......................another player from El Paso.
I've been saying this for years. I get single entity on some minimal level at this point but a high level of freedom of movement doesn't need to escalate salaries but will improve development. High levels of freedom of movement creates market forces which helps players determine their best location to be on a number of factors. Teams build infrastructure, hire coaches, develop philosophies to attract talent whether its at age 15 or 25. MLS has to revamp their rules for 2016 realities and not 1996.
http://cornerofthegalaxy.com/2016/08/07/la-galaxys-jack-mcbean-to-go-on-loan-with-coventry-city/? LA Galaxy Striker and Homegrown player Jack McBean looks to be headed to English League 1 side, Coventry City. The loan will be for six months with a possibility of extending the agreement for a year. He's been around so long that we forget that he's only 21. He's younger than Jordan Morris.
This group is moving a lot faster and sooner than imagined. Lynden Gooch debuts in Premiership for Sunderland. Green lands first team status with Bayern Munich.
Also some guys making good progress in MLS. Marlon Hairston, for instance. Alex Bono is finally looking like an MLS player in Toronto during Irwin's absence. We could go on. And we can certainly argue again for the millionth time about the bizarre choices at fullback made with the U23 team at the the CONCACAF tournament. If we look at the lineup for the all-or-nothing game against Honduras, this was our starting XI. Now if somebody just got serious about US youth teams today, they'd look at that and have no clue who the fullbacks were that day. This was less than a year ago. Meanwhile there are guys like Rosenberry, Vincent, etc. that could have done the job. At a minimum, they came into MLS shortly thereafter and showed themselves to be at least MLS-caliber players. Worth noting that we couldn't get Yedlin (Brooks, Rubin, and others weren't available as well) for this team. We started a really young CCV, who'd never played a professional first team game. Meanwhile guys like Zimmerman and Parker may have been better. We had Will Packwood on the bench instead for Pete's sake. This after basically every MLS team has passed on him because he's slow as molasses after his unfortunate injury. Heck, Dave Romney and others were eligible and would have been more useful. Where was Paul Arriola in this qualifying team? Where was Kellyn Acosta? Its less than a year ago. These players had shown they belonged by then. Klinsmann has talked about this being a "lost generation." Its not a lost generation. We have a lot of talent in it that was underscouted, underutilized, and underserved by the USSF. What's sad is that we decided to take the U23s more seriously this past cycle. But we kept calling up the same players over and over again, most of whom had come from our U20s. We were calling up guys like Alfred Koroma and Benji Joya (who at least had a pulse, but a very faint one.) What has Maki Tall ever actually done? Did we call him up to important teams just to ensure that he was in the USMNT fold in case he turned out to be good?
Ya, but people were anointing Will Trapp as the next Todd Kitchen (who was, in turn, the next Sergio Busquets). And, now that we look back at the Honduras loss - not that the US didn't play like crap - but they're having a great for them Olympics run under Pinto. And that shows the random nature of these tournament over and beyond the actual play quality. Honduras bombed out of a couple of Gold Cups but Pinto's third try is their charm. The same goes for the US and Mexico too - the US's bad run was the 2015 GC. 2013 and the Centenario went well. Mexico had a dour ending to the Centenario. As have Brazil and Uruguay, who have been known to win a match or two.
Hearing Borussia Dortmund U.S. prospect Junior Flores has decided to join MLS by the 2017 season, would enter via the allocation draft.— Will Parchman (@WillParchman) August 15, 2016 I am being told Junior Flores will be in the #MLS draft in January. He's coming home. #USMNT #DMV pic.twitter.com/2TG6IXVwlK— The Bolivian Yank (@TheBolivianYank) August 15, 2016
Great news, although another lost half year at a club not interested in his development. I'd certainly take him at FCD next season to work with Oscar.
Anyone know why BJIV was subbed off in the 44th minute last weekend? That's a suspicious time for a sub.
Still confused why FCD didn't sign him as a homegrown. Didn't want left back depth I guess................... Congratulations 2012 @drpepper Dallas Cup alum @mikeyambrose3 on your @mls debut with @OrlandoCitySC pic.twitter.com/YL1vk5icpF— Dallas Cup ⚽️ (@dallascup) August 21, 2016
Charles Renken has played 5 times for less than 110 minutes this USL season. He played quite a bit last year, so maybe injuries again?
Quite a lot of kids in this age group called up to the USMNT for WCQers this upcoming week. Ethan Horvath DeAndre Yedlin John Brooks Kellyn Acosta Christian Pulisic (obviously younger than this age group, but felt like including him) Paul Arriola Caleb Stanko Jordan Morris Rubio Rubin
Check out @travismclark's Tweet: Former @MarylandMSoccer/Red Bull mid signs in Germany https://t.co/fRQxfI5Wct— Travis Clark (@travismclark) August 31, 2016
Caleb Stanko got his first cap last night from this age group. Folks talk about this being a "lost generation," but 15 players eligible for the recently completed U23 Olympic team have now gotten full USMNT caps. John Anthony Brooks Matt Miazga DeAndre Yedlin Kellyn Acosta Jordan Morris Christian Pulisic (so young he's actually eligible for the next Olympic cycle) Emerson Hyndman Julian Green Jerome Kiesewetter Luis Gil Will Trapp Caleb Stanko Paul Arriola Rubio Rubin Brandon Vincent Who's next from this age group? We've got these two upcoming friendlies against Cuba and New Zealand. On the broadcast last night the commentators mentioned Klinsmann said he might leave some Euro-based players home for this series of games [He's the king of misdirection, though]. This might be an opportunity to introduce some additional young faces. My gut? Ethan Horvath gets a cap in one of those two games or after the January camp. I think that's immiment. Then I'm hopeful that some MLS "youngish" players get a look like Walker Zimmerman (who's quietly having an outstanding season) and Keegan Rosenberry (who as far as I know has never been capped at any level). We'll probably have to wait for the January camp for them.
Leaving off Pulisic, who is not part of the group we're discussing -- right now I would guess that if the WC roster was being picked tomorrow and everyone was healthy and in form, two of the guys above would be locks. Another few (maybe 2-4) would be in the mix. How many (and who else) will contribute during the Hex? (This is an actual question, not one of those I'm-asking-a-question-that-is-actually-a-statement questions.)
It's the previous one that is lost. This is going to end up being a golden generation, until the one behind it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_CONCACAF_Men's_Olympic_Qualifying_Tournament_Squads I could see Gooch as soon as October if he keeps up what he has been doing. If accepts the role, I think he's got some serious potential a dmid or outside back.