This reason keeps being thrown out. If it is true, why the hell is Llanez in camp. There is also the flip side that players can benefit from getting to a camp. The simple answer is to talk to the club and then make decision.
I'd prefer to get him working with the full team, and he wouldn't need to interrupt his club ball. Each player progresses differently, some skip a grade.
I have always thought players should be moved along as fast as possible, but should still compete at their youth WCs, Olympics, as well as the qualifying games. These are part of the development in the international game. If we qualified and took the tournament seriously, It would very close to what I think would be our first team. I also believe the olympics is very important and not qualifying for the last two has been harmful for the USMNT and the game in general. The tournament itself doesnt mean much, but it is a huge stage and great exposure for the game. A deep run would get interest from casual sports fan. From that standpoint it is more important than YWCs and the GC. It could possibly rival the WC.
Based on what? NBC will not be showing the games in prime time. They might be on cable at 2 am. If they won gold, it would be a 10 minute highlight segment at 11 pm that night. They made a bit of a run in 2000, nobody cared.
When I watch Dortmund and see Julian Brandt he reminds me of Pomykal. They move and pass similarly. Brandt is better offensively while Pomykal is more of a pest defensively. Could Pomykal play at Dortmund? If I had to guess yes if fully healthy but he might need a year or so to get up to speed.
It's very hard to compare a minor league player to a major league one as the ability to look the same vs. better competition is a daunting task. I was hoping that Pomykal would get the opportunity to show that he's like Tyler Adams sooner as opposed to later but it doesn't look like it's happening this year. I don't think BVB would be interested in Paxton, although I know that's not what you said.
They may have similarities but Brandt is completely different level of player. Whose spot does he take? Witsel, Delaney, Dahoud, Guerrero, Brandt? They have got a kid PP's age that is on the roster and they just sold Weigl for $22+M. Seems like a stretch that 20 yo with roughly 2,000 mins in MLS is a year away from breaking into that squad.
Landscape is different now. NBC actually has a lot of money invested in soccer now. If I am reading it right, the final is on a Saturday morning at 730am est. ABC will have Pulisic on GMA, but NBC wouldn't televise him playing for a gold medal? The team would be made up of professionals that some casual fans might actually know who some of the players are.
I never matched those two in my head. It has been awhile since I saw Pomykal play, tbh, but I don't feel the two are similar. I think Ledezma or Mendez being more similar. Brandt hits passes routinely that I don't think Pomykal ever tries. Maybe in time he will. You are right that Pomykal is a better ball winner. Pomykal is good at beating one player to break into space, like Brandt. Could Pomykal play at Dortmund? Hard to say as he hasn't come close to that level. It is possible, looking at his injury history, he might not be able to stand up to a higher paced game. Pomykal would be very good in Liga MX and possibly in Serie A. Hopefully, he gets healthy and back to his Summer form and then makes a move and we can all see if he can.
You posted it right there, the game will be on at 730am est. It will not be prime time. They might show a condensed version if the USA is involved in prime time. Extended highlights and the medal ceremony. There are many Americans doing well in the Summer Olympics, track and field, gymnastics, swimming are all very TV friendly. Coverage of unknown athletes making it big is more the NBC thing than showing professionals doing what they do professionally. It will be on a side channel, watched by people that will watch USA soccer. It will not be some major event that changes the landscape. The Donovan goal in 2010 was the closest the USMNT have ever come to that; but they blew it in the next game. 2002 was not as big a TV deal, iirc, even with the deep run because the time difference was crazy. As it will be in Tokyo. 3.8 million watched the quarterfinal game in 2002, while 7.7 million watched the 3rd group game in 2014. The USWNT never gets more than 1-2 million viewers for their Olympic games in good time slots. My point would be, how many Hex points do you sacrifice to have the team play in the Olympics? My answer would be zero. But the Olympics end a few weeks from the first Hex games, so a sacrifice will have to be made. The whole idea this will be some epic victory that everyone is on the bandwagon for is a theory with no credible empirical basis.
The question was if there were any players that could play for Dortmund not which players could take the place of a starter. I took it to mean which players if in the right situation could handle it. Since Pomykal seems the most ready young player since Adams and he is vaguely similar to Brandt (note not exactly the same player) I threw his name into the ring. In a way he may be a better fit because Brandt is only playing because Delaney is hurt and their defense has missed him. Oh and Pomykal does make those passes though you're right that he doesn't do them as much as Brandt. He did do them at academy level though and had some nice layoffs from the end line to the top of the box in U20 so I'm hoping he gets there. He's a definite defensive upgrade and has a Tyler Adams like knack for anticipation and quickness. To finish off I think there are other teams that he'd be a better fit for as you said they don't need him. I'm guessing Sargent might like him in midfield at Bremen.
I like Pomykal a lot too. My worry at this point is all the injuries. Adams at least got to ramp up through several relatively injury-free years to being at Leipzig level. Pomykal's development seems filled with stops and starts due to the injuries. Could he have a full year of continuous health to allow him to get up to speed?
I wish they had qualified in 2012 and 2016, no doubt, when that freakish goal went in in that nightmare 2012 semifinal qualifying game, I was flat out gutted, for me, for the players, for the olympics, for Johnson, for everyone. I cant help but rethink my own perspective though w/the passage of time now that I'm reading your take. Never thought about it much before, but I seriously wonder how much getting absolutely annihilated in 2012 in London or 2016 in Brazil would've helped. The '12 team was particularly bad, in retrospect, at least the '16 iteration had a lot of options from the '15 U20 WC team (which has become quite a bit disappointing over the years but looked pretty good at the time especially on the defensive end), but in truth, neither of those teams was very good. The players, after all, weren't very good. In that 2012 catastrophe, relevant long term senior USMNT's players? Zero. Some guys caught some games here and there, Hamid, Adu, Villafana, Boyd, Shea, Mix, Corona, can throw in Augudelo who didnt play in that match. But zero long term starters or even short term automatic XI guys in that group. ZERO. In 2016, the team wasn't quite as horrific, sure we vomited all over ourselves to freaking Honduras in the semis, but we did knock out Canada to get a playoff against Colombia. So at least there was that. But look again at that roster, and there are some guys I can't even remember being relevant, period, The defense looked good: Miazga, Acosta, Parker, some guy named Eric Miller, a midfield of Will Trapp, Hyndman, Matt Poster, and the one time hype guy Luis Gill, Mario Rodriguez and Jordan Morris at Forward. It aint horrible, there's only three WTF guys to me. The bench is where it gets ugly: Shelton, somebody named Fatai Alashe, Kiesewetter always a fun name, the Julian green tour, one time fave D. Payne, W. Zimmerman, and Arriola. to my mind the '16 iteration actually kinda looked competent and I think it's reflected in the performance. They won their group easily, won all games, and finished +11 in GD. Then the roof caved in against Honduras, and it turns out, Honduras was pretty good, making the semifinals in the Olympics and playing well in their Bronze defeat to perenial power Nigeria (losing 2-3). We lost our playoff to Colombia, 2-3, not bad considering Colombia would go on to beat bronze medalist Nigeria, and finish runner up in their group before losing to eventual olympic champion/gold medal winning Brazil. So maybe I can walk back my trashing of the '16 team, they did kind of play like the U20's from '15, they were good, especially when you consider how well Honduras played (beat Algiera, tied Argentina, beat S. Korea, lost to Brazil and Portugal and Nigeria) and how well Colombia played, the two teams that kept us out of the Olympics, but the '12 team? They finished third in a group with Canada, Cuba, and El Salvador. They won one game in that group of also rans. They looked like garbage, played like garbage, and w/the passage of time had little to no impact on the USMNT in the fullness of time. They got their handful of guys in, to be sure, collecting a half dozen to a dozen caps, but no US regulars in the bunch, at all. If nothing else, anyone looking at that '16 team can at least point to a collection of players with a lot of senior caps, and a lot of guys that would fit into that 13-35 area of the pool between 2017-Present. So I guess after investigating it, I've got mixed emotions about that '16 Olympic team. Would they have done much that might have yielded a positive result? I just don't see it. Getting results against either Argentina or Portugal w/that roster seems a huge stretch to me if we just switch places with Honduras. If we switch w/Colombia it's more of the same. I wish we made the olympics, but I don't feel the same about 2016 and 2012 as I feel about 2004. The 2004 iteration was a flat out good team. They ran into a do or die match against Mexico in Mexico, something we rarely ever get results in. they didn't. Add in that the team had just learned that a coaches daughter had just died a day or two before the game and the players mentality wasn't entirely right either. That is the team that's really heartbreaking to me. The 2012 would have been a disaster in London, the 2016 team would have likely crashed out in the group stage, the 2008 team had to screw up a lot (and they did) to oust themselves in the group stage, but the 2004 team is the one that is a could've been, might've been to me. Hopefully 2020 doesn't join them. I definitely think that the '20 iteration is right there with the '00, '04 and '08 squads as the best we've ever produced, and probably is the best, if you have every single player available. Fingers crossed.
I cared, Patrick. I cared. That was damn near peak Conor Casey as well. With hair. So close to a medal.
Maybe they should have cared. Six players who were involved in that run also were contributors to the United States' World Cup run two years later: Friedel, Donovan, Agoos, O'Brien, Hejduk and Wolff.
The point isn't that it wouldn't be fun or great, for nuts like us. Just that the probably mythical "general American sports fan" wouldn't get into it. They never have and there is no reason to expect they will. The way they are covered by the network and time difference make it a fool's errand. If the 2020 Olympics were in Chicago or Toronto, then there might be a case. The Atlanta Olympics with the USWNT was their first real media and caught some attention. But it was dwarfed by the '99 WC. Sacrificing the 2022 WC to try and show well in the 2020 Olympics would be one of the worst USSF decisions ever. And that is a long list!