That would be awesome. I have never followed it, but I imagine it has to be a pretty fun league given the amount of talent that comes out of it
Fantastic! Lol and he will be playing in Europe, so we pretty much make him a lock at that point. That’s how it works, right?
Those winger spots for the World Cup are going to be a real dogfight over the next year… not looking so great for say Paul Arriola. 1424474576457699331 is not a valid tweet id
No, it'll take a month of consternation before a solid line of thought comes through. There's always a lag time.
Also consider that Aaronson is playing more regularly in the midfield now. In reality, though, neither of those should be that revolutionary. Plenty of us have stated that Aaronson and/or Reyna could or even should be dropped into the midfield. Given how many guys we have who can play on the wing (Pulisic, Weah, Konrad…potentially Hoppe or Sargent.,.not even including Morris or Arriola) it makes sense to consider it as a viable option.
Team A: Pulisic———Aaronson———Reyna ———-McKennie——Adams——- Team B: Konrad———TBD*————Weah ———Musah———Acosta——— ...That spot TBD spot could go to Lletget, Ledezma, Clark, Cowell, Gioacchini, Ferreira, Morris, Bassett, Pomykal, Busio, De la Torre, Green, etc. I could include Hoppe and Sargent too (or maybe another CF) if we want to have 2 target type CF and one Support Cf.
I was surprised KDLF got the start. He has never been in their system. Never played 1st team club ball, and he beat out whoever was the LW from the previous season. Kudos to Sampoli for seeing the diamond in the rough.
I think the lack of attention paid to KDLF is more because of the fact that in the little moments that we did see him, the experience was the polar opposite of guys like Dest, Pomykal, Sargent, Adams, Reynolds, Pulisic, Weah, Aaronson, Richards etc. All of those guys were either great with the youth teams, or great in senior debuts or a bit of both. KDLF was an unknown quantity off playing with the youth teams. Was he another Mukwelle? Or was he just working his way up to stardom? Most people would've gone with the former because his performance was so poor at the '19 U20 WC. So people kind of turned the prospect hype machine on him off like they did with Carleton, and Haji Wright in recent years. The difference is, at least for now, everything he's done since April suggests he might be a superlative, legit talent, but again all the evidence up until today was basically youth league material and preseason stuff, stuff that could be tossed aside without much consideration as just beating up on non-entitities and guys in training who aren't at a full 90 let alone 100%. However the trend lines are all there: the #'s look good at the youth level, the #'s are trending up across the board since April. Still odds are its a small sample size trap, but I'm betting on he's legit. There's a reason Barcelona was trying to find room for him last fall but just couldn't get him to break through, if he's "almost good enough for Barcelona's 23", like legit that good, what he probably is, is pretty freaking, damn good, and he literally just turned 20 a few weeks ago, he would've been of age FOR THIS U20 WC if it hadn't been cancelled.
I'm scared ----less Arriola's got an auto spot as a "poor man's Bedoya" defensive stopper on the wings. You can see the reasoning for the stupidity pretty easy. The best fullback options are: Attacking: Great Defending: Weak to middling options in Robinson and Dest. I'm hoping both continue to improve but I could see himself locking into the idea of bringing Arriola simply as a guy to defend a 1 goal lead late against a superior team due to his dogged defending. Praying like crazy that Weah, Reyna, Aaronson and Pulisic at minimum turn into monsters on the defensive end to just cut this ----y idea off at the root. If Arriola proved anything this summer it's that he doesn't have it for this level. The personality, mentality, work rate, they are all there, but everything else is just so so so 1970s US soccer. Horrible finishing, poor technical skills, better at throwing himself into a net instead of actually kicking a ball into the net etc. You can't afford to put guys like Lewis and Arriola on the field when the end product is that ----ing bad. You aren't getting a ton of chances against top 15 UEFA sides and top CAF, AFC, and Conmebol sides in WC's, and you can't afford to waste those opportunities on players with two off feet. That's what giving a spot to Arriola for his defense and work rate gives you, the chance to make a complete Wondo style hash of a chance to be a hero. Just Say No Egg.
There has been quite a lot of talk comparing Arriola and Bedoya (poor man’d Bedoya). I’m not trying to criticize Bedoya when I say that is unfair to Arriola. Yes, they both have high work rates and put in a strong defensive shift but I don’t think I am wrong when I say Arriola is faster, giving him an edge. When it comes to goals…. It’s not like Bedoya created a lot of danger for the opponent 2 goals in 66 caps. arriola: 8 goals in 39 caps Bedoya 103 games mls: 9 goals Arriola 69 games mls: 14 goals I know Bedoya played in Europe and I know stats are only part of the equation and I am not arguing that Arriola should keep his place but he is not a poor mans Brdoya the fact is that the quality in the team is better now. A younger Bedoya would be considered a poor mans Bedoya in today’s team
I thought Arriola and Zardes showed pretty much everything (good and bad) in the gold cup final. Both excellent work rate and executing game plan, but Arriola had a terrible day in front of goal. I like that the young players will need to meet a minimum level of defensive commitment and work rate to beat out Arriola/Gyasi. We need the A team to play above the sum of their parts too, and the major ingredient in the Gold Cup was that we were fitter and committed to the high press for 120 mins against Mexico.
Arriola is not close to Bedoya at the international level. Bedoya may not have the goal scoring numbers playing primarily as a CM for the US but he has 11A in 66 to 4As in 39 for Arriola. On the defense side it is not even in the same galaxy. Don't forget that Bedoya led us in tackles at WC2014 and IIRC again at COPA 100. In the end they are different types of players. Arriola is more of a modern Zusi; same high work rate and speed.
I been following him since the U20 qualifiers. When he got his chance vs Wales. He started, and he only got 5 balls coming to him. Three of those passes were errant balls, they were either, over his head, to the opponent or 50-50 ball. The other two balls he got he misjudged the bounce and the other he turned his opponent and was fouled to stop the play. That is all he got to play with. His only other pass that it was intended to be for him from his buddy (Dest) was intercepted by Lletget who proceed to sky the shot. Around minute 60+ Llanez came in for him, and had a shot on goal the very next play that was saved. Since then we haven't seen De La Fuente in a USMNT shirt.
Agree. He was bad but he was young. There was no reason to give up on him and he’s proving that now. People underestimate how impressive it is to simply hang at younger ages at times.
He automatically becomes better than any MLS option as soon as he gets down of the plane in Europe. Everyone will be saying GGG should call him over any MLS options because he will be playing in Europe.
interesting to see it laid out. balance w the two outside attackers is important to me so reyna (wide) with pulisic still doesnt do it for me- it plays awfully narrow and reyna takes all the space dest would ideally move into. so im still pretty locked on to pulisic and weah wide with reyna central, as you have it with mckennie/adams behind or in our typical 433 with reyna in lletgets spot. i not nearly there with konrad yet (nor does a direct b team do much for me), but i would still use aaronson outside- so opposite konrad would fit what im looking for (and work with any of yedlin/cannon/moore staying wide). in that case pomykal would be my tbd. that cm would have a lot of defensive bit and strong pressing from pax and brenden (no clue how konrad will shake out in that department). im really high on clark, but i think he would definitely be a luxury player for at this point, a high energy option off the bench both to boost the attack and in joining a press. but i definitely agree that we need to add/use some attack to the middle. hoping against hope we really are past the dlp that the next big step i wish we would take. reyna or aaronson as the 3rd cm with mckennie/adams just makes too much sense to me, and considering the rotation/flexibility we need that allows us to only carry 3 wingers/outside mids with a 3rd st or 5th cb.
honestly, I think it’s my favorite league to watch. You generally don’t know what’s going to happen when teams other than PSG play (and last year was a bit unexpected with Lille), and the standard of play is pretty high and entertaining. I’ve been saying to myself for years that if MLS could just get to Ligue 1 level we’d be set.
I thought he looked a bit nervous against Wales, which is understandable. I was not particularly impressed with his performance in that game and it reminded me of my impressions of him at the U20 WC. I recall that when I rewatched the game, my feelings on how he played softened a bit however, and I thought he showed well defensively and looked good with his movement off the ball. Some of it surely comes down to expectations. In any event, that is all ancient history because he has looked like a completely different player since maybe mid spring with Barca B. His confidence on the ball has increased as has his explosiveness. He looks like he is becoming a beast. If he continues to play like he has recently for the next couple of weeks I call him up, no question about it. He is showing the technical ability on the ball that only a handful of other players in our pool possess.
I never gave up on KDLF because usually at U17 or U20 there are a couple of players a year or two younger who are there to soak up the experience and be leaders the next time as they are young enough to play at that age twice. They almost never get a minute. I suspect Konrad played because of injuries to those ahead of him and he was exposed by players two years older. As for Arriola he's never going to be a technical marvel but sort of a winger version of Heyduk. Watching him at the end of the Mexico game hunting was fun. He had a gleam in his eye and a predatory pace and was running around pressuring their backs and keepers. There's always a spot for a guy like that but the team may be to the place where there are several who can do that and the others can also add goals and assists. I always appreciate guys who give everything even if I hope someone surpasses them.
Shrug. I think Konrad's "poor performance" at the 2019 WC is exaggerated. He didn't stand out, but he also wasn't poor. What he was doing was driving at and attacking defenders like few in our pool do. It wasn't working then, so fans were beating their heads on the wall. Now we see the fruits of those labors, because he's doing it and succeeding (at least from what I've seen in preseason and this past weekend) in France. You know who stood out in 2019? Sebastian Soto. Joint 2nd leading scorer in the event behind Haaland. That tells you what little that can mean at times. The idea isn't to see who the best players are at the U20 level, but who the best are as adult professionals. American fans wildly overemphasize the importance of these youth competitions. [I haven't given up on Soto yet either.]