i was pleasantly surprised by how much i liked todays roster when it dropped. my priorites/wishlist were most of the (generally accepted) first team- check- filled out with younger/less used/"new" guys who are deserving of a look rather than entrenched "depth" (long, ferreira, etc)- check. as i digested i started to notice more and more omissions, and i couldnt put my finger on what it was. tillman has a knock, ok, why no richards, etc. i looked position by position, and i was still happy with almost every option with small caveats (ie still no backup lb, really?) and then a couple of posters pointed out what i couldnt see... only 1 mls player. and it was like a really good twist in a movie- bruce willis is dead!?! of course he is, it makes all the sense in the world, how did i not see that? so hear me out (and dont break your keyboard smashing that rep button on principle, tash): theres reynolds (righthfully so) rather than yedlin or moore. trusty absolutely deserves a look in any roster, and im glad to see mckenzie again to see where hes at. its not last cycle anymore. i dont know what level miles is at (in terms of fitness) but hes one of those guys i wanted to have in just to keep him/get him back in the mix regardless of use. booth is about as obvious a "want" as there is, hopefully fitness allows to do more than meet everyone. no paredes is slightly a bummer, but he could be with the u20s or, you know hes still really early on (similar to tolkin). dike is finally (FINALLY) is back in the team, along with pepi (this part is important) as the "only" two strikers, meaning they will actually see the pitch. im not sold on zendejas, and i personally dont rate sonora or johnny at all but thats well within an acceptable "margin of error"- the whole never going to agree with every single selection thing. but what gives me hope, what i loved about this roster before recognizing it is these guys are going to get a look, and the reason why is they be blocked by ferreira, arriola, etc. or even a spot on the bench by roldan. its been four years since weve seen a roster like this. four years. weve seen a buttload of close to exclusively mls rosters but nothing close to (almost) exclusively not. heres where i say its not about mls vs europe: would zim make us more likely to win vs el salvador than mckenzie? probably. is it going to suck having johnny rather than acosta (without adams)? yes. there are mls guys who are incredibly important to the team... but its not incredibly important to get arriola his 51st cap. is he better than zendejas right now? beyond a shadow of a doubt in my mind. can he compete with grenada? yeah, im not really worried about that (i just said i not sold, not that im an idiot) but, i mean, so could jonathan lewis- doesnt mean we should call his scrub ass in. its an inarguable fact that berhalter gave too many caps to too many mls players and it hindered us as a national team. would it have been the difference between the world cup we had an easily beating the netherlands? of course not. could it be the difference between losing your head for a split second and taking bale down and not? it very possibly could. you hardliners still defending moore over scally? we can finally see these guys who didnt magically become deserving only after the wc (and some who have) because they are left out for roldan and ferreira and zimmerman. every single time. even the most ardent mls and/or berhalter supporter has to see some truth in that. no, there arent enough matches to find minutes for every guy who may be able to help out, who may be only a slight "upgrade", but for four years we relied entirely too heavily on domestic players and the evaluation of our pool was incomplete at best. you cant reach your full potential not knowing all of your strengths. maybe trusty isnt a (potential, if not already) upgrade on zim but hes damn sure 10 years younger. and faster. and plays at a higher/"different" level. and hes damn sure better than long. we are somewhat unique in international soccer with our domestic league on a different schedule from most of the world, so there is a fairly significant number of games/tournaments where a predominantly mls squad is simply necessary- and i dont think we should draw a solid line between mls/euro regardless. but we have been burdened by a bias for so long it was hard to even recognize it now thats its finally (hopefully, going forward) ended. its like fireflies in a jar, they get so used to being stuck you can take the lid off after a while and they wont even try to escape anymore. theyve banging their head against that lid so many times... thats how i feel right now. after 4 years that completely unnecessary lid is off the national team. that arbitrary restriction is gone. there are going to primarily mls events- and im looking foward to seeing vazquez and tolkin and yes, arriola and zim because there isnt a clear start and stop to intl careers/usefulness. but heres to a few camps, a few events where we can also see mihailovic and a fully fit booth and tillman (and richards/ccv, whatever thats about) instead. we will inarguably be better off for it for those times for our "full" team finally comes together, or even when we need two (or more) teams at relatively the same time. this is only anti-mls if you want it to be. my very first thought on realizing there was only 1 mls player was roughtly "haha, yeah, suck it mls!" even though thats not how i actually feel. its just that there hasnt been a roster that wasnt a third mls players regardless of form, ability, or even fitness in so long it felt opressive. i am extremely excited for more guys getting opportunities, for those chances being earned by more than familiarity and for a better evaluation of our entire pool than we had under the previous manager. this is, imo, the most genuinely positive development in us soccer in quite a while.
I noticed it right away.....and I loved the roster there's still a bunch of euro players that could be there that aren't too..... a lot of depth in the pool these days....
Definitely a good roster. Especially as we are in this exploratory call up phase. Of course, we can say, I would have called in so and so or not called in so and so, but no roster will ever be exactly what you would have done. Heck, I don’t think I would even have the same roster day after day. But for the most part, it’s a solid mix of giving some chances to some new guys and keeping the core together while letting some of the guys - who got a shot in January Camp - get a rest.
I have to admit, I am so confused how Zimmerman is in the same company as Roldan post-Qatar for so many. Like near everyone had him a lock on the Qatar roster and most as a starter. One penalty later and he's in the same company as Roldan? I am happy with the roster and was wishing we could have a "Jan Camp" for Europe-based players and this kinda feels like that. I'd say there is 1 player on the roster I don't think belongs. Some of these guys did "magically" become better though. Like Booth and Trusty became relevant with one window before Qatar. Maybe a braver manager calls them in but most don't make many changes that close to a tournament.
speaking only for myself zim and roldan are only "in the same company" in not needing to be on every. single. roster.
Nice roster, but I dont trust this federation. The one thing I learned from the last interim manager is that it didn't matter what they did. We had Arena come in 2017 and purge euro based guys (especially dual nationals) for MLS player that contributed to not qualifying. Sarachan's roster were a relief and did a good job getting away from the MLS/Euro stuff (I though he was actually more favorable to MLS guys but looked to be a conscience effort to appear neutral). Berhalter couldn't have watched any of it. He came in and discarded a handful of guys whonhad been performing for the USMNT for MLS bums only to finally realize they should be in the team.
zimmerman was worst on the team in Qatar in progressive passing. That matters a lot. The netherlands dared the US Cbs to pass through them and both Ream and zimmerman couldnt. There are so many young Cbs with much higher upside thn Zimmerman and playing in better leagues. Zimmerman is not testing himself in MLS...he doesnt get pressured and face the pressures that he would in better leagues. hes not the answer for this cycle. obviously. all of the MLSers in the Qatar roster are "expired" in the same way.
The gassing up of MLS players is so insane. Almost as much as the defending of selections like Trapp, Yeuill, Long, Lletget, etc. It is if technical ability has nothing to do with the game. These idiots annoint a player at the first chance they get. We wasted a whole cycle looking for an MLS player who wouldn't be a weak link and found none. Zimmerman is perfect for CONCACAF, except when he was giving the ball away, but is no where near the level of this team. The propagandist will continue to Robinson and act like he is universally a top choice. This was the guy Berhalter loved the whole cycle up until the WC. It is just shocking.... On what planet is THIS pass from Aaron Long even close to national team quality? #USMNT pic.twitter.com/8vhh4siV4J— USMNTrev (@Eyesandvibes) January 29, 2023
Euro-based players had failed more than a few times last cycle. And MLS vs Europe wasn't the issue in the Cup. Berhalter chose not to rotate the center mids and fullbacks then proceeded to press the tournament's supreme counter-attacking team. The MLS players have the Mexico match. I like the split squad approach, as more players will get tested.
MLS players failed over and over and over. So much so that on three different occasions, Berhalter finally decided he couldn't use them. GC 2019, NL 2020/21, and the WC. We had no depth because Berhalter went MLS players who didn't belong. The few MLS players who did get on the field at the WC were crap. I am glad Euro based players outside a top 5 league are finally getting a fair look after being ********ed over in 5 of the last 6 years. Of course, they can't do an all euro based camp and have prioritize Robinson over a more worthy player who was treated like crap by Berhalter. He won't get tested in these matches so people can continue to make believe Robinson is much better than he is.
7 MLS players got the start in the team's best played match against a decent opponent, the 4-1 win over Canada. Not all coaches like to use depth consistently, however. Plenty of the Euro-guys were crap during the cycle. More importantly, GGG is now gone.
That Canada was classic concacaf soccer.. Restarts and hustle. Please make it stop. ALL MLS players were crap ALL cycle.
It's good to see twice as many as players with the split squads. Hopefully, this becomes a regular thing.
I would definitely be down for using the FIFA windows for our actual players and then they can ******** around all they want with MLS players in between those windows. I would only do these non-fifa window matches if they are making money. Otherwise, it is basically a waste of time to put the effort in for these guys.
its new too....wasnt always this way....as MLS' marketing arms and propaganda machine gets more sophistaicated....its working its "magic"...also MLS owners are clueless about WINNING...they never have to, really......what would they know about doing well internationally....? but they damn sure think it is good business to have their league in the USMNT....and in the USA, rich people simply get whatever they want.
It doesn't look like anything is going to change. 4…. Yes 4 goals for Jordan Morris. No call up to @USMNT and gets the start at center forward - HUGE performance. pic.twitter.com/0tEY1X1URD— Stu Holden (@stuholden) March 26, 2023 👀👀👀👀👀 https://t.co/XdlqMWGLmn— U.S. Soccer Men's National Team (@USMNT) March 26, 2023
It is massive. Unfortunately, it is in shit league, with international players missing and one of the worst teams in the league down to 10 men. No idea why you bring of Green. Now if former teammate doesn't cool off, we will once again see a second division player outclass MLS players. If that happens, it is going to like another euro based player that Berhalter ignored. It is too early to tell (plus I'm not going to sit those games), but it seems pretty reasonable to think Tillman is better than guys like Roldwn and Arriola. My argument is exactly what I wrote. It doesn't look like anything is changing. Media are going to call for MLS players to be called into the USMNT. The USMNT (just their Twitter account in this case) are going to prop these guys up like should really be in the mix. I absolutely don't think so.
You quoted two tweets. One is a pair of objective facts: Morris scored 4, and he wasn’t called up. That’s all that’s in the tweet. The other is the official USMNT Twitter, and all it did was state a fact, that Morris scored 4. It didn’t “call” for any damn thing. You’re so married to your narrative that you are literally seeing things that aren’t there. A week ago they tweeted this HEADED TO CAMP ON A HEATER 🔥🔥🔥🔥 https://t.co/23kynBWPNC— U.S. Soccer Men's National Team (@USMNT) March 15, 2023 Earlier there was this MAKE IT TWO FOR @HAJIWRIGHT ✌️ pic.twitter.com/4AT9Of6KGO— U.S. Soccer Men's National Team (@USMNT) March 11, 2023 They do that all the time. It’s just that nobody in the pool in Europe scored yesterday for obvious reasons,