Santiago Muñoz said he is willing to play for US too. If I were GGG I'll call him up in a friendly some time soon. See how serious he is about joining. And it will also put pressure on FMF that it isn't only them poaching MLS but USSF poaching Liga MX developed players who can also play for USMNT.
I'm not convinced Munoz is actually all that good. Maybe its just me........................ The first step we need to take is restarting youth national team camps. A lot of Mexican-American kids are accepting callups to Mexico camps right now. But that's in an absence of American camps. So who the hell knows? We've been having some regional ID camps for the younger age groups.
I wish more focus was put on securing our borders over adventurousness outside the US. It is a zero-sum game.
I don't know I listened to a podcast interview he did with Grant Wahl this week. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fútbol-with-grant-wahl-podcast/id1513071118 He does not sound like someone who is switching over from Mexico unless we are willing to give him an opportunity and they are not. And for now he's not close to the senior team for either country.
Indeed. I still think its crazy that a youth affiliate of FCD in El Paso.....................had a starting forward line of Ricardo Pepi and Santiago Muñoz. Supposedly they brought Santiago up to Frisco a couple of times for tryouts, but didn't pull the trigger on a move. Worth noting that Muñoz actually lived in Juarez on the Mexico side when he played for FCD. His parents would drop him off at the Paso del Norte International Bridge. He'd walk across the border, pass thru customs, and a coach or parent from the team would drive him to practice. Then he'd return the same way. Not easy. Fantastic photo of Santiago Munoz (left) & Ricardo Pepi when they were kids playing for FC Dallas-El Paso. Munoz signed with Premier League side Newcastle United today; Pepi is tearing up MLS for FC Dallas and will play for @USMNT later this week. 📸 @El_BBC @915soccer pic.twitter.com/a1fAO2TcuM— Colin Deaver (@ColinDeaverTV) September 1, 2021
Fotmob Team of the Week --------------------------Bruin(8.8)MOTM---------Lewis(8.5)2nd* --------------------------------------Aaronson(8.0)2nd***------ ---Gutman(8.4)MOTM---Davis(8.1)4th---Bassett(7.5)6th**---Harriel(8.5)MOTM** -------------------Nealis(8.2)2nd---O'Neill(8.2)6th---Rosenberry(7.7)5th -------------------------------------------Freese(7.5)4th*---- Player of the Week: Bruin Lewis Harriel 23 and under: Lewis Harriel Aaronson 20 and under: Harriel Aaronson Bassett 18 and under: Aaronson Impressive showing from the yanks, given the handful of teams playing. Matuidi, Higuain, and Pizarro. Collectively, for the money spent, and the trouble taken, they have been the worst DP acquisitions of all time. Colorado scored 3 unanswered goals after picking up a 57th minute red card. Fraser is making a push COTY.
I think Colorado also has one of the lower payrolls in the league...................... At least at the start of the year, the two highest payrolls in the league were Toronto and Inter Miami. Egads. We know what the deal is with TFC. They sold their future a few years ago to win trophies. And it worked. So they were stuck with a bunch of bad long-term salaries. Inter Miami has just gotten everything wrong. I suspect, though, that Bruce Arena has his hands on the COTY trophy already. His record at the Revs is now 40-21-18. Awfully good.
They might finally give Schmetz COTY since we've played the entire season (Lodeiro got like 200 minutes before needing another knee surgery) without 2 Best XI players and are still top of the west...plus him not having ever won it before after years of high performance. Fraser is completely deserving since that Rapids roster is probably a couple tiers worse than Revs/Sounders in quality yet are still massively exceeding expectations. Call up Atencio in January Gregg.
Would have to go with Schmetzer. Winning without Seattle's two top attackers has been incredibly impressive. Minus the contracts of Lodeiro and Morris, Seattle would have one of the lowest payrolls in the league.
I like Schmetzer. His team is 8 points behind Arena and New England in the SS race. Maybe I'm just biased because I live in Boston and saw how utterly atrocious this club was under Brad Friedel. Its remarkable how quickly Arena turned it around with many of the same players. A Seattle coach has never won coach of the year. Its even named the Sigi Schmid COTY award now just to placate Seattle fans who think everything should about them.
Let's hope after selling Buksa and Buchanan Arena gets to work leveling up some high level domestic players. Poster, Jones, Kessler have been good but no attackers. I've been curious how it would look to call up all the Americans starting for the top three MLS squads and drop them in Panama. Would a Turner Jones-Kessler-Zimmerman-Farrell-Bye Polster-Roldan-McCarty Bruin-Sapong Lineup really be worse than we saw yesterday? Just from 3 teams in reasonably good form. Would never happen and would probably break USMNT twitter, but this team would scrap.
Personally I don't understand how a team full of solid MLS lifers can crap the bed so badly in WQC yet there are still people out there who go "Well maybe THIS team of MLS lifers would have performed better!" I still think there is an unwillingness to accept that maybe being good at the MLS level does not automatically translate to the international level. ... that being said ... I would not bet against Sapong, Polster, Jones and Bye being immediate upgrades to what was in their positions last night either .
Yeah, I hear that. I'm just thinking of trying to prioritize cohesion by choosing pods of players who play together regularly instead of one role player from 7 teams. As a thought experiment if you look at the top teams and pick a squad of Americans that start for them, it looks more competent in a battering ram way than what we put out yesterday. The 'international-level' we are talking about is a team that got out worked and looked disjointed against Panama, who aren't scrubs but aren't France either. We don't just need to out-dual them, we need a team set up to play cohesively and to our players strengths with an agreed upon strategy. This team could do that. Last night's team was a Frankenstein's monster of personel and tactics. The Revs or the Sounders would beat Panama, IMO
Its long past time we start treating nations like Panama with respect, and not like they're Andorra or Lichtenstein. That's a big part of the problem on these boards. The American Revs and Sounders players would beat Panama? Nonsense. Utter nonsense. I watched Henry Kessler struggle at the U23 Championships. Don't tell me he's superior to what we used last night at CB. You think 34 year old Dax McCarty is superior to what we used last night, when he barely showed that for the USMNT when he was in his frickin' prime?
Yep, it's our fault. We couldn't trap a ball last night. You're deflecting to avoid criticism for the program and staff. We had never lost to Panama in competition. Even drew w/ them on the road the cycle we didn't qualify. The previous one we beat them w/ our b-team. History determines expectations and in turn respect. So the proper respect was to think we should win or draw with them yesterday. To not do so is their failure, not ours, and warrants our ire. Anything else is apologia.
The same applies to Euro-based players. Look at the performance in El Salvador. A lot of duds. Weah was one last night. Aaronson this time. Musah was needed but shoddy. Zimmerman was the much better to the two cb's. Our best performance is still at Honduras, which doesn't fit this narrative. The claim to fame for the one that does is a 2-0 at home v. the worst team in the ocho? Last cycle we were victorious 4 or 6 to 0. Standards ironically drop for supposedly more talented players. But club performance isn't translating overall for many period. Busio went immediately from being bullied at home in CCAF to playing pretty well in Serie A. The problem is we have a dearth of proven players for us internationally, period. Many MLS lifers don't cut the mustard. But we sure miss ones who have like Morris & Long. As well as Reyna & Pulisic for these matches. Miles Robinson likely would have been the largest upgrade yesterday. It takes a mix, historically. Not all this small-mindedness & short-sightedness. The MLS select team has proven utility every cycle. Somehow MLS was blamed for not qualifying last cycle. Klinsmann's Euro crew got him fired and laid the groundwork. In addition to a mix, it takes properly utilizing players, domestic and abroad, which is one reason so many look worse internationally than for their clubs.
Panama isn't Lichtenstein. Mexico and Costa Rica had already played in Panama City...............and neither won. It was always going to be a tough game. Should we have done better? Yes. Those guys we used are actually better than that. They've all played better in a USMNT than they did last night. But I'll judge the window after the Costa Rica game. If by resting our best guys for the Panama game, we end up winning the Costa Rica game...................then I walk away believing we're still on track.
The "lost generation" of players isn't helping either. The National Team has very young players, and much older players. There aren't many in the 26-30 yrs old sweet spot with international experience this cycle. That's hurting this team. Also, not having Reyna and Pulisic for this window isn't helping. Those two, Pulisic especially, can create a moment of magic when all else is failing. One bad instance of set piece defending lead to a loss instead of a 0-0 draw. Concacaf is much, much tougher than most care to admit.
I think a group of players that knows how to play together would look better than what we saw last night, not because of talent but from familiarity. The problem last night was as much with our approach and cohesion and asking players to play outside their ability. Of course this is a ridiculous lineup that was kinda the point, but if we are running out 7 MLSers we can at least have them be organized/familiar playing together and from teams that are playing well. Should we settle for that? No. But my point is exactly that Kessler would be more effective with Polster and Farrell than he was with Glad and Yueill in Olympic Quals.
We're not on track regardless of what happens v. CR. We'll just have avoided complete disaster again, like last window. But in our recent history when we qualify, which in all cases was comfortably, would be 3 points behind standard. Won 2/3 of road matches v. bottom 3 in the hex from '06-'14 cycles. We've won 1/3 so far, w/ a loss, vs. worse teams on average. And we drew 1 of 2 home matches, neither v. Mexico. That's bad. I don't care what the standard is for a random CCAF team qualifying. Them living on the edge is fine. And we are living on the edge. This was 2 of the 3 easier windows of qualifying. Last one is brutal. Middling point totals aren't cutting it. Then you'll be saying, what, should we win @Mexico or @CR? That's unreasonable. So make it happen, NOW. You're trying to control narratives to deflect criticism, and it ain't working anymore.
I agree it would have been a tough game even with a competent gameplan that suited the rotated players. But talent deficit wasn't the issue. We chose a gameplan ill suited to the players available. But its because this 2nd string can't play compelling possession soccer even when Acosta can trap the ball. Is this the personnel I would choose if we were going to try to smash and grab, bunker and counter? No. I would choose a group that is more familiar with each other and are in the habit of winning right now. Take the lineup I posted and swap in/out Pepi (Bruin), Yedlin(Bye), 45mins of Adams/Musah (McCarty). And this team could execute a gameplan better than we saw yesterday.