Yanks Abroad Flavors of the Week: 2022-2023 Thread

I guess Pep wants a strong left foot to put long crosses in to Haaland. Otherwise it's a head scratcher.

 

I suspect though that if Marsch can find a way to fit all of them on the field at once, it might end up tying the record for the most USMNT players starting alongside each other at a single European club. Even with Fulham's 5 Americans, I believe they never started more than 3 of them in any single game together (though there was a game where all 5 of them played).

And just off the top of my head, I can't think of any other European club that would have had 3 USMNT players starting for them at the same time.

 

I believe the 5 Fulham players on the same squad were McBride, Dempsey, Bocanegra, Keller, and Eddie Johnson.
2008 I believe (but could be wrong)

I think McBride got hurt on the opening day of the season, and didn't contribute much until the spring.
Eddie Johnson rarely played. So it probably was rare for more than 3 of them to play at the same time.

Starting with Eddie Lewis, I think we're up over a dozen USMNTers that have played for Fulham's first team. Eddie Lewis..............also a cult hero at Leeds!

 

what the titanic is going on here...

 

richards and steffen make 5...

 

Man City has Nathan Ake, a CB, playing at LB and has Sergio Gomez on the bench, who Pep doesn't trust. They just shipped out Cancelo at Cancelo's request, sooooo .... they need bodies with the deadline looming.

Big pay bump, learn from a great coach, and definitely a challenging style of play for Jedi that could push him to improve what are middling ball skills and passing accuracy.

But I could see him sitting the bench and then Man City going out and buying a LB in the summer.

 

And he helps with the English quota to boot.

 

Twitter fans are saying Walker was sort of like Jedi is now and improved a lot under Pep. Could be like Turner at Arsenal and just what the doctor ordered. He doesn't need to be starting every game right now but if he can improve a lot of his weaknesses even if he moves on he could be a much better player for the US.

 

Nathan Ake is a good blueprint for the kind of role Robinson might have at City. Ake has played in 22 games this season. 27 games last season. Its true that for the most important games, we don't see Ake. But City has a ton of games across four competition.

Would I rather Robinson be a full-time starter at Fulham than a backup at City? Yes. Of course.

But hell....................we've come to the point when USMNT fans are concerned about which Premier League clubs its players are going to.

Anyway, I'll believe it when I see it.

 

Chance for Yank-a-palooza in the next round of the FA Cup.
Leeds will face either Fulham.......or Sunderland (who embarrassingly only feature one American. For shame). Auston Trusty and Ethan Horvath are the other USMNTers still in the draw.

Here is your #EmiratesFACup fifth round draw 👇

Which tie are you most looking forward to?

— Emirates FA Cup (@EmiratesFACup) January 30, 2023

 

I thought Jedi would be on to bigger clubs soon. I didn’t necessarily mean THAT big.

 

The fact that he was a bad medical away from moving to Milan like 3 years ago says this isn't crazy and underlines why so many of us thought the soft selling of him over a Brazil issue was absurd back in '18-'19. Guy has clear technical issues here and there, but his skills are such that top end teams in Italy and elsewhere have been interested in signing him for 3 years. He's legit, for the most part, w/some obvious holes in his game. At his age (25?), I don't see him suddenly becoming more technically sound and completely reliable, but what he's done since fall '21 has been spectacular. Just wish he hadn't been run into the ground in November, if Scally or somebody had subbed him off, does the D hold up, and we keep it 2-1 with 15 left in regulation or so? Probably, but that's another story. Very happy for him and for us to have another cycle of him in his prime.

 

Also, a lesson USMNT fans know all too well......................good left backs aren't easy to find.

I mean, the guy does start for the 7th placed team in the Premier League. A club higher up the table than Liverpool and Chelsea.

I'll believe it when I see it, though.

 

So what other yanks can we eventuality stash at Leeds. Miles Robinson just getting healthy, give him a full year see if his Achilles recovers. Austin trusty has been wonderful league below.

Their keeper is supposedly a target for bigger clubs too. Maybe get Steffen or Turner in eventually. Slonina loan maybe

 

I don't really understand how the whole work permit deal works post-Brexit.

But anyway, I'll play. I think Leeds is pretty set everywhere, but could use help at LB. So I'm going to do something stupid, and instead of putting Antonee Robinson on Man City................I'll send him to Leeds. Yes, down the table for him.

 

Jack Elliott and/or Philippe Sandler.

 

The big difference is that EU players now have to qualify too.

It's basically a points system and if you play for a team in the FIFA top 20, as long as you've played in one competitive match over the last year you should have no issues qualifying from MLS. McKennie has played in more than enough matches with the US that he automatically qualifies based on that alone.

You get points based on the quality of your league, minutes played, whether you played in a continental competition and the quality of that competition, and where your team finished in the league standings.

If you don't have any international caps or if your team is ranked poorly in the FIFA rankings, it becomes very difficult to qualify from MLS. That's why Kai Wagner and Andre Blake both fall short (though not by a ton given how successful Philadelphia was last year).

It's also fairly easy to qualify if you are coming to England from another top 5 league and even from countries like Belgium or the Netherlands.

The most relevant part of our FIFA ranking this cycle is that staying in the top 20 makes it much easier for guys to qualify for work permits to play in England. Longer term the hope is that MLS moves up in the league "bands" which means you get more points for just league play and guys would hopefully be able to qualify just from playing in MLS.

 

Just to add to that, right now, with the US ranked in FIFA's top 20, a USMNT player can automatically qualify for a permit if he has played in at least 40 percent of available competitive games over the past two years (or the past 1 year if he's a Youth Player, i.e., he was born in 2001 or later).

The US has played 28 games in the past 2 years (and 10 or 11 games in the past year). So anyone -- like McKennie -- that's played in at least 12 of those games over the past 2 years (or 4-5 of those games over the past year for youth players) will auto-qualify. Gio Reyna actually qualifies because he's a youth player, and he's played at least 5 competitive games over the past year. (Well also he was born in England, so I'm guessing that alone would be enough.)

If you don't automatically qualify based on international caps, you need at least 15 points to qualify. Appearing in just one competitive match over the past two years for a top 20 international side automatically nets you 7 points. Playing in a league better than MLS will automatically net you another 8 points, which will then be enough to qualify.

Alternatively, playing in MLS will automatically get you 6 points. And playing at least 50 percent of an MLS club's minutes over the past year will get you another 2 points, which again adds up to the 8 points you'd need to qualify, if you also have a competitive international appearance. There are a lot of MLS players who have appeared at least once for the national team in the past two years who will qualify on that basis as well.

The math gets a little trickier if and when the US falls out of the top 20, but it's still more than doable for our best players.

 

I like Weston, I like Leeds. I don't like Weston at Leeds. Hope I am very wrong.

 

Actually, why not, I'll just run this again as if we were just outside the top 20 right now.

In that case, a USMNT player would need to have appeared in at least 20 percent of available competitive games over the international reference period to net 7 points. That means at least 6 games over the past 2 years, or at least 2-3 games over the past year for Youth Players. After that the league math works out the same as above, where pretty much any USMNT player who meets that international criteria would probably be able to net the 8 additional points he needs through league status or minutes.

So I suspect anyone in Qatar (other than maybe Sean Johnson) would have still been able to qualify for a permit right now even if we were 25th in the world instead.

 

Best time to test your limits. Go Jedi, go!

 

You're not wrong but nobody will notice. Leeds should just scrape by in the relegation fight because there's so many competing to go down. Nobody seems to know what need he fills at Leeds but everybody knows that he has 95 games at Juventus, he's a HarryPotter kinda guy, he's a big deal signing at Leeds who is breaking records for spending, he's a great athlete, he's a big personality in the locker room, Leeds have never signed anybody like McKennie before, he's a different kind of player, he won't do there but he's great if they play him here, he's USA's best player, he was on Arsenal's list of prospects, he's versatile, he has played in the Champions' League.

What more does anybody need to know? C'mon. He puts ranch dressing on his pizza.

 

Haven't heard much about Haji Wright's move lately...

Less than 24 hours until the Winter Transfer Window closes. ❗️⏰

Joshua Wynder, Haji Wright, Tim Weah, and Konrad de la Fuente have been heavily linked with a move this window. Let’s see if either of them will be able to get a transfer before the window shuts. pic.twitter.com/3QK3j8YFX6

— USMNT Otaku 🇺🇸 (@USMNTOtaku) January 30, 2023

 

I don't understand this complaint, unless you're from Buffalo and get upset about people choosing ranch over blue cheese.

 

McKennie might replace Aaronson in the XI.

And it would be fully deserved.