Look at the post I just responded to in the MLS Flavors thread or the post above that claim he struggles against high-level ballers (despite not facing high-level ballers). Its there. There are plenty who don't like Trapp. In fairness, there are also plenty who recognize that we don't really have better options, he's in his mid 20's, he's done a decent job, and should stay in his current role until some of the younger (and more talented) players emerge.
I haven't chimed in yet but I'm skeptical of Trapp. I liked the idea of a heady player who could distribute well from that position, but soured on him with u23s. He struggled with the athletiscm of the concacaf teams and Colombia and turned the ball over way too much in dangerous spots. He has improved since then but not near as much as he would to for our team to be any good or him be a weak link. I also dont see why he is going ro make a big jump at this point. People complained that they didnt like 3 dmids or the young guys having to win spots prior to 2017, but that is basically what Sarachan has been doing while gifting a spot to Trapp and making him captain. I dont see him being ahead of Mckennie, Adam's, Durkin, etc in a few years, so think we have already wasted too much time on him.
There's a reason he wasn't wanted in Europe. I like him personally but his ceiling is at a pup tent level.
He has looked very good in the last 3 matches. I had tuned in expecting to check up on Durkin but Canouse has essentially sent Durkin to the bench. I would place Canouse somewhere between Delgado and Acosta as far as current form and effectiveness. He certain seems more mobile, dynamic, and impact-full than Trapp and is certainly a much better 1 v 1 defender.
Trapp is wanted in Europe? That's not really an argument to make when comparing the two, considering one is an MLS lifer to this point. He's 2 years younger than Trapp as well. I don't think there's an issue with seeing what Canouse offers at the international level.
Since '02 WC '02 Qtrs, '06 Grp, '10 R16 '14R16 Copa '16 Semis Confederation Cup '09 Finals So yeah, that's better than what the soccer talent market would have predicted.
we have been great at sneaking out of groups, but the closest we've come to putting together a whole tournament in is the 2016 Copa and that was .500 soccer. 2002 2-2-1 2006 0-2-1 2009 2-3-0 2010 1-1-2 2014 1-1-2 2016 3-3-0 9 wins, 10 losses, and 6 ties might get you into MLS' playoffs, but isnt that impressive for an international team and is sort of what I'd expect 20+ish team in the world. It is what it is. I dont see any positives of making believe it has been better than that.
I doubt it. The 2010 team was mostly players from Top 4 leagues. '02 was an outlier to the upside. '06 we came in 25th. In '98 we came in 32nd. Our finishes the last 20 years: 32, 8, 25, 12, 15, DNQ Our average finish (being generous and giving 35th place for 2018) is 21st. Just about where most statisticians rank MLS. https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/6vzdux/league_power_rankings_based_on_538s_club_soccer/ Copa '16 was at home. Confed Cup is a tournament the South Americans and Europeans don't take seriously. Anyway, you could hardly argue the win over Spain was from superior talent on the field and not just an improbable upset result that can happen in a low scoring sport on a neutral field. But looking at the "world soccer economy" and the past USA teams, no team had a better pool of players valued by that economy than the 2009 team that beat Spain: Starting 11: Top 5 League:7 Top 10 League: 2 MLS/Other: 2 Only 5 MLS players on the whole roster. Contrast that with 2018, when there were 16 MLS players on the roster that lost to T&T. Only 2 players from a Top 5 league started. Young players can improve and move to a Top 5 league and older players can drop off. Which makes the decision last cycle to focus on older, minor league, players a major reason for our failure. Repeating that mistake would be suicidal.
Don’t forget the 1994 run that also shows that the USMNT historically is greater than the sum of its parts.
It seems pretty clear to me that we have historically fought above our playing weight. Even when we have players in the majors, most of them are/were not core players for their club team. Perhaps another way would be to look at transfermarket and IIRC we’re not usually a top 30 team. The reason most of our players play in the minor leagues is because that’s the right level - we have historically had very few LD, Eddie Popes types that were clearly playing for a club team well below their potential. Maybe add Besler to that list and I’m sure a few others?
I think that is a nice thing to tell ourselves. But who are we punching above? I think we tend to punch to our talent. Some cycles it has been better and some cycles it has been worse. I think we underperformed in 2010, overperformed in 2002. One we lost to Ghana and the other we beat Mexico. Are those teams so clearly better than us that we were punching above our weight? In 2014 we came in 15th and that was about where we should have finished. In '06 and '98 we were horrible, we definitely didn't punch above our weight. '94 was at home and we advanced as the 3rd place team and lost to Brazil. What other host country advanced third in their group? Not South Korea (1st), Japan (1st), France (1st), Germany (1st), Brazil (1st), Italy (1st), Mexico (1st), Russia (2nd). South Africa, a dreadful team, came in 3rd in their group. So, 1994 was punching below our weight. We have two great wins: Portugal '02, Colombia '94 Quite a few decent ties: '06 Italy, '14 Portugal Some terrible losses: '02 Poland, '06 Czech, '98 Iran There were some wins against worse teams, losses to better teams. There is really nothing in our World Cup record that really validates the view that we have "punched above our weight consistently". It is just something we tell ourselves and keeps the status quo in place. "Don't worry that the 2018 team looks to be full of older, MLS players, we have a shot because our talent is underrated and we always punch above expectations".
That’s quite a leap from “punching above our weight” to ”Don't worry that the 2018 team looks to be full of older, MLS players, we have a shot because our talent is underrated.” You may have solved the space/time continuum challenge there. You appear to be conflating that MLS is around the 20th ranked leagues (which I agree with) and the skill level of our national team. I think this is inconsistent as unfortunately, the elite players in MLS are not primarily American. Again, transfermarket has us ranked outside of 30 last time I looked and we’ve placed somewhere below 32 up until this last horrible campaign. I think you know that I’m not a status quo guy but I know I’m where I should be when I get hit from both pro- and anti-MLS posters....
I would think transfermrkt undervalues our team solely because MLS doesn't sell Americans. Either "trading" them in the league or letting them leave for free. I'm not sure Transfermkt is a good barometer for two reasons: 1. It is probably underrating the transfer value of most of our U21 players since none of them have ever been sold. It estimates Pulisic at $50MM and McKennie at $8MM. I've seen Pulisic rumored at double that and McKennie would also at least be in Thomas Delaney range of $20 MM. 2. MLS almost never sells any American. Who in our best 11 has even been sold in the last three years? Yedlin and Brooks? Transfermkt is not going to be a good source. I do appreciate it is objective though.
I haven't read the rest of the thread, so is this a serious question? If so, to my knowledge, he hasn't even been in the 18 for Benfica. Many of us are wondering what the heck is going on. He needs to work out his situation pretty soon.
Fair enough, thank for the response. I still don't see how that makes him a more viable option than Canouse.
Euro teams scout efficiently. Offering one but not another means they think one is better. They tend to be less bias than fans on a message board. Just my take.
Canouse has already been in the BL with Hoffenheim tho? The situations aren't really comparable, I was just confused at the argument @Excellency was making.
I get confused by many arguments here, so I'm with you. I was referring to the 'now' and Canouse isn't a commodity, seemingly, to Euro clubs at the moment.