Two major WTFs in there. Jozy is widely noted for physical domination of CBs. This is super wrong. Jozy is a great finisher and a far superior passer to the kid.
Yet they are both very good goalkeepers with good experience for just being 24 yo. Both have also played quite well for the usmnt. Horvath isnt not playing because of his performances. I'd say the position look similar to how it looked in the 1998 cycle.
Berhalter and Stu Holden have recently commented that Sargent has to learn to be in the goal scoring areas. It seems that he's going too far afield looking for the ball.
He needs to read the defense better and be in the most dangerous place the player with the ball can get it to him at. It’s not easy. Sometimes he’s in very dangerous spots that his teammates can’t get the ball to him in, and other times he’s not in the dangerous spot that a teammate wants him to be in. With experience that will get better. The good news is he has the skillset he will need as he learns the game. In comparison Zardes will never have the skillset he needs to an international player even though he has the soccer IQ.
That's a really good point about staying in goal scoring areas. I've seen a lot of strikers want to drop deep into the midfield when starved of service just to get touches on the ball and stay involved. But often, they are better off fighting for more attacking positions so that when they finally do get touches, they are in position to actually be effective instead of being another body trying to do the mdfield's work and just cluttering things up and not taking up the positions they should. It's hard work fighting for position in a crowd all game with little service, but sometimes that's the job.
It is interesting to look at USMNT center backs in the modern era. The best have been Pope, Onyewu and Brooks. We can argue about which was best in his prime but I think they are pretty similar. They have been paired with a variety of journeymen over the years: Agoos, Berhalter, Bocanegra, DeMerit. Now Long follows in this lineage. Hard to see improvement coming from the current generation. Will Richards turn out to be better than Pope, Onyewu, Brooks. Maybe. Maybe not. Will the pipeline simultaneously produce two center backs of roughly the quality of Pope, Oneyewu and Brooks. Maybe. Maybe not. But looking unlikely at this point. Will the pipeline produce an upgrade in the quality of the "second guy". Maybe. Maybe not. At least at the center back position, improvement is not readily apparent.
So we are down at goalie. Treading water at center back. Treading water at forward. There is hope for improvement at fullback and midfield. In Pulisic, McKennie, Adams and Dest, we have something to build around. But it is not clear yet that this group will be better than the core group of Donovan, Dempsey, Onyewu and Beasley, who defined the previous "Golden Generation."
The relative ceilings of the current players to their global peers is significantly above our previous Golden Generation. What remains to be seen is if they are able to not only achieve those ceilings in the USMNT context but also to be better than the sum of the parts, which the Golden Generation (and others) were.
Yes. Right now we can only go by the parts. It will take a while for the results, or the sum of the parts, aspect of the story to play out. A large part of the sum of the parts element had to do with the contribution of role players like Sanneh, Heydude, McBride and others. The quality of the role players and their contributions is another way the team could improve. I alluded to that earlier in this thread by arguing we should be focused as much if not more on the back half of projected WC rosters and how that compares to prior squads.
I beg to differ, on many occasions, Jozy will fall looking for a call, especially inside the box and when he doesn't get it he begins to foul.and get carded. I have to go back to 2009 vs Espain when he had his way against a quality CB.
I remember him smoking Jaime Carragher in the 2010 WC. Muscled by him for a shot that went off the post.
Your previous argument was about depth and now you are keeping it to the top four players? If you look at both generations in total, it is hard to not see this crop will be much better. 1 GK Delvin Countess 9 January 1982 (aged 22) Dallas Burn 2 DF Jose Burciaga 16 November 1981 (aged 22) Kansas City Wizards 3 DF Ricky Lewis 29 May 1982 (aged 21) Los Angeles Galaxy 4 DF David Stokes 28 May 1982 (aged 21) D.C. United 5 MF Kyle Beckerman 3 April 1982 (aged 21) Colorado Rapids 6 DF Nat Borchers 13 April 1981 (aged 22) Colorado Rapids 7 MF DaMarcus Beasley 24 May 1982 (aged 21) Chicago Fire 8 MF Logan Pause 22 August 1981 (aged 22) Chicago Fire 9 MF Brad Davis 8 November 1981 (aged 22) Dallas Burn 10 FW Landon Donovan 4 March 1982 (aged 21) San Jose Earthquakes 11 FW Alecko Eskandarian 9 July 1982 (aged 21) D.C. United 12 MF Brian Carroll 20 July 1981 (aged 22) D.C. United 13 DF Zak Whitbread 10 January 1984 (aged 20) Liverpool 14 DF Chad Marshall 22 August 1984 (aged 19) Columbus Crew 15 MF Bobby Convey 27 May 1983 (aged 20) D.C. United 16 DF Chris Wingert 16 June 1982 (aged 21) Columbus Crew 17 MF Eddie Gaven 25 October 1986 (aged 17) NY MetroStars 18 GK Doug Warren 18 March 1981 (aged 22) D.C. United 19 FW David Testo 7 August 1981 (aged 22) Richmond Kickers 20 FW Edward Johnson 31 March 1984 (aged 19) Dallas Burn Add Onyewu and Johnson, Clark, and Dempsey from the 2003 u20s. Comparing today vs LD's generation there is a chance that the current generation has a player that is better than every single one from previous one. I think this is already true with Pulisic, Adam's, Mckennie and Dest. I think that there are five that could end up being more influential attacking player than Dempsey and Beasley, but who knows. Even if there isnt a better defender than Onyewu, there will be a couple of solid center backs. CB - Onyewu vs CCV, Richard's, EPB OB - ??? Vs Dest, Robinson, Cannon 6 & 8 - Beckerman, Clark vs Adam's, Mckennie, Yeuill, Servania, Durkin, Servania 10 - Donovan, Dempsey vs Pulisic, Ledezma Wide players - Beasley, Convey, Davis vs Weah, Reyna, Llanez, Ferreira, Sabbi, Lewis Forwards - Johnson vs Sargent, Soto
See what we are doing? we have to think back a whole decade to confirm that he has his way with top CBs
He wins his share of penalities. That's not playing small. 1065683775953223686 is not a valid tweet id This is also not playing small.
He bodied the Mexicans before missing the shot at the GC this year. For all the criticism he gets,fair and otherwise, the lack of power play is one of the stupidest.
The four players you listed were in 2 two year youth cycles. I just looked at who had been called into the u23 recently. To be apple's to apples, remove Llanez and Reyna or add Spector, Feilhaber, Kljestan and Nguyen. If we do the latter, there are quite a few players in this u20 cycle that look promising. The players you listed look to be born in 82 and 83. I guess the equivalent would be 98 and 99, but that seems limiting given the solid players from 2000. I'd consider 17 to 21 be "young players" which is what this thread is about. I think I might of let some 22 yo in?
And this critical weakness affects the entire teams shape. It is folly for us to play with one DM and two attacking FBs when our center pairing is not up to snuff.
not playing gotcha...I come here for good faith discussion...but I want to make sure we are doing apples to apples