Yeah even if he didn't start or contribute to WC games, I hope he makes the team. Hes definitely a favourite amount the teammates. Everyone wants to hug him. Coincidence they played so much better yesterday with him in the squad?
I used to rate Haji, very highly. I don't know what happened to him but Vasquez took his starting spot, with the U17s. I think both, still might have a future with this team.
He was ok last night. Did some nice things. But he should be able to get a shot off on his semi break on the right side. Had a half step on his defender. Defender was on his left shoulder and he had the ball on his right and got nothing. A big dude should be able to work that into a shot.
People pay waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much attention to youth results and youth squad selection. Its one coach's pick of players amongst a vast pool of mostly unaccomplished kids. Exhibit B: Brenden Aaronson wasn't selected for our U20 squad in 2019. So what did that mean? And that was a team that beat frickin' France. Ledezma, Pomykal, and Mendez were selected ahead of him. Haji Wright was very good with the U17s. But we can't ignore that he was in the wilderness in terms of club soccer for years. It wasn't until last year in Denmark that his results on the field indicated he should be given a shot with the USMNT. Then we had a 2nd year of data this year in Turkey. Even saying that.......................if our guys in "bigger leagues" were playing well (Sargent, Pepi, and friends), then Wright might not have this USMNT opportunity.
Add him to the list of "meh" USMNT Forwards. I would not read much into first cap at the senior level. Nothing screamed inclusion of him on the WC Roster.
USA and Costa Rica’s rise respectively in the aughts and aught-teens were reflected in their performance in youth tournaments and their declines were also reflected in dramatic fall offs of youth performances. Not coincidentally our u20’s have woken up from a 6 year slumber to be dominant sides since ‘15 mirroring our current renaissance. Id agree that U17s are so far from the pro level to be nearly useless at evaluating talent but not completely useless, but in general our rising and falling has matched U20 performance pretty well and oddly the u17s as well (the ‘15 and ‘17 editions housed quite a few relevant players, ‘19 too, just as the ‘99, ‘03, and ‘05 did). It’s relevant, but I’ve learned to be more circumspect over the years, just not enough because prospects are just too fun.
There are some players that you can tell have "it" at the U17 level. Those are few and far between. Pulisic, Donovan, etc. Other than that, there's very little gap between those selected for U17 squads and huge pool of players. Standouts from that mass typically reveal themselves before the U20 level. Of course, we do have further late bloomers. Aaron Long, Matt Turner, etc. Long time posters will remember back in the day when we measured success of U17 pools simply by the number that ended up signing pro contracts. Now they all sign pro contracts. The 2019 U17 squad already 5 full senior internationals, and all 5 have a decent shot at making the World Cup (Reyna, Pepi, Scally, Busio, Bello). If you get 5 future USMNTers on each U17 squad, then you're doing pretty well. Cuz its a small sliver of the player pool. But anyway, with Haji Wright's cap we're now at 5 capped USMNTers for the 2015 U17 group (Pulisic, Adams, Wright, de la Torre, and Olosunde). We've got a decent shot at some more in that group. Brandon Vasquez, for instance was on that team. Auston Trusty. That's right, we have a totally uncapped 23 year old defender making a move to Arsenal. Amazing times we live in. [Alex Zendejas was on that squad too. Senior callups to Mexico.] Wright has always had talent. He made appearances for the US U15, U17, U18, U19, U20, and U23 national teams. He was in the club wilderness for a while, which kept him out of the USMNT reckoning.. Its not like he did much in the 2nd Bundesliga at Sandhausen. He scored zero goals in league play for VVV Venlo in Holland in 22 appearances. Zero. That's not ancient history. That was 2019-2020.
For me, nothing really stood out from his debut....other than his strength. I don't think he did particularly good or bad. He did well enough so that I hope he has more chances. The limited number of games we have might get in the way but with Pepi getting a rest, it might be possible. I think the offense seemed less potent in the second half with him in the game but he wasn't the only change either.
Haji's speed looked dangerous and frankly he felt more like scoring than Jesus before mass subs changed the complexion of the game. That said, we REALLY need someone who will put away chances like the one Aaronson served up. Jesus missed a similar one this game and we've seen other forwards miss chances like that too. Haji deserves a start this week and in my mind if he puts one or two away you've gotta think he deserves starting consideration as he definitely does bring something that others don't.
I thought Wright looked good and, importantly for a tournament where guys will be spending a lot of time together (hopefully) on the road, he seems to have good chemistry with the group. Not surprising, since he has played with a lot of them at the youth level and for club. I think that is a big factor for Berhalter. I expect him to be on the World Cup roster. Right now, I would expect Wright, Pepi, and Pefok to be the CFs on the World Cup roster, with Ferreira included too because he can also play on the wing
I've seen people cite Haji's speed, but he's not playing very fast. He got run down at least twice in dangerous situations -- the Moroccan LCB was clearly faster than Haji even without the ball. With the ball, he had a step and a half on the dude on the edge of the box and couldn't get the shot off on what would become the penalty. On another player, he had a straight footrace to a through ball and the LCB simply beat him. Morocco isn't a slow team, but he's not fast at a World Cup level.
Actually, he was as fast as those guys, and Morocco is a pretty fast team. Considering that Wright is 6'3", and pretty thick, I thought he showed good speed. He is not as fast as Yedlin, or Weah, but almost nobody is.
He was slower by at least a step. It is what it is -- the Moroccan player ran him down from behind on one, and beat him to the ball on the other. I would not characterize him as fast for a striker. He's not beating anyone at higher levels on speed from what I could tell. Morocco is fast, though, so maybe a slow team. He's big, though; that is an asset. I have no idea how you have that performance as a lock, though.
Wasn't Morocco's LCB the one the stayed pretty much even with Weah over maybe 35 yards in space in the first half. Might not be remembering correctly as I didn't rewatch, but I though that was impressive. Thought Haji in whole was ok. He looked pretty static off the ball and didn't make the runs or drop into the build-up our other guys minus Pefok do. He'll get more chances this window though, which the other 5-6 guys (other than Ferreira) he is competing with won't. So we'll see what happens but right now I don't really see it. Another variable that I think is kinda important with him is where is he going to play this fall? Does Antalyaspor have a binding option to buy him? Otherwise I don't think SønderjyskE has any reason to do best by him after what happened this summer. If he goes to a bad situation and is not playing or playing in Denmark's second division, he's not going to make this team.
Angles. Wright was going to have to cut inside on the first one. Angle was way too sharp if he took a shot. Second one him and the cb were shoulder to shoulder and Haji was holding his run for the pass. He’s no world class burner but to me he looks clearly the fastest of the #9s we’ve tried of recent.
Yes, dude was fast. Just saying I've seen a bunch of folks call out Haji's speed as a big asset and like, I'm not sure how you get that from this game. Exactly. Some good, some bad. Have to see more. I just don't get the group that seems to be placing him right at the top of the list as if he brought something yesterday. Perhaps I am missing something, or perhaps it is the usual "he's in Europe" sort of thing. At this point, I'm sure he'll find a spot. I doubt SønderjyskE has any reason to really not just take some money and go even if he's in contract. European teams tend to be pretty pragmatic despite his forced exit, but who knows, he could find himself like Soto did. I'd like to see more -- he's big and not unskilled. But there's just a lot of rosy glasses on him. I mean, compare his debut to like, Pepi's. This was, okay, maybe I see something. I get that Pepi slumped, but Pepi showed a ton more and his bad games weren't indistinguishable from this. Wright had a nice one touch pass in the build up; Ferreira had a gorgeous assist and two others that should have been converted in WCQ. Like, people have Wright on the plane to Qatar for one pass and a mediocre pen? And he's big? At least when Pepi-mania was on he had like 3 goal contributions in a must-win WCQ match on the road.
I think he had a perfectly fine angle on the potential shot -- he's just not fast with the ball. He got beat by the LCB on the other. It's really okay. I just don't see speed as an asset for him in the sense that it is going to reliably create danger. Neither Pepi nor Ferreira nor any of the other strikers are all that fast, but against good comp, you're either fast enough to create separation or you aren't. I don't think he is. A quarter step on Pepi or Ferreira isn't that material to me. It's the same with Josh. He's sneaky fast, but he's not fast enough to get clear of a defender reliably, so, eh, is it that functionally beneficial? Do you think he's faster than Dike on a dead run? I just really don't know how anyone walks out of that 45 minutes going "that's clearly our #1" which some people seem to have? We'll see next game.
I'd bet dollars to donuts Jesus is faster. Haji looked on the slow side, to me, but he is a bigger guy so that'll happen. I didn't see what you and others saw, which is a fast player. Not at all. Having said that, I'm hopeful some of that was first cap jitters. He showed a slow first step, that could be something to do with being unsure. And it seems he didn't run as hard as he could have in general, so maybe he has more to show.
I'm a bit surprised to see the feedback here -- I thought Haji looked pretty good, particularly for a first cap. His hold-up play and combination play with the midfield was really good. It helped initiate several attacking sequences. He had a couple decent shots, including one moments after coming on. I also thought he made very progressive runs off the ball, which is something I have not seen from a lot of our strikers during the past couple years. I see some potential here and am looking forward to seeing more of him in the next few games. Jordan Pefok has been a prolific goal scorer for his club, but Wright appears to be more mobile, a harder worker and better in combination play from what I saw.