The most skillful? Tab Ramos. The most talented overall? Landon Donovan. But because of his heart and desire, the greatest has to be Clint Dempsey.
This is really hard to say because the first WC team might have had some great players but we basically no nothing about them. They finished third but not all teams were there and who knows how they'd compare. The 50's team that beat England also might have some players in the conversation and we know a bit more about them but still so long ago. Players in the recent era need to be split into keepers and field players. Three great keepers who might all be the best players we've had. After that Donovan / Dempsey.
This question always comes down to how you weigh club versus country. If we're only talking USMNT, Donovan takes it. He not only leads the USMNT all time in goals, but also leads the USMNT all time in assists. It's shocking what percentage of goals the USMNT scored in the decade of the 2000s that Donovan either scored or assisted on. If you favor club play more, then you probably favor Dempsey. Its really tight. If you answer either of those players, you're not wrong in terms of field players. I do think we have a bit of a nostalgia for Friedel, and recency bias against Tim Howard. 5 years from now when we have even a little more distance, I think Tim Howard will be viewed as the best USMNT keeper ever. Cuz statistically it ain't actually close. And he played the same number of Premier League games as Friedel.
This was cool. I disagree with some of the voting and think defenders and earlier players are undervalued but it's fun. My top 5 non-GK: 1 - Donovan 2 - Dempsey 3 - Ramos 4 - Reyna 5 - Pope GK Rank: 1 - Friedel 2 - Keller 3 - Howard 4 - Meola All three top GK's are close. Friedel didn't do it as long but his 02' performance puts him over the top for me. I think if Keller and Friedel didn't have so much overlap, they'd both be thought of even more highly. Howard was great but never as consistent as the other two. I don't blame him for the US not producing a keeper good enough to take over for him for 15 years.
Whatever order you want to put Donovan and Dempsey in is the right answer. I think it was perfect they ended up tied in goals for the NT.
Statistically, Howard was just as consistent and excellent as the other two. There's a recency bias against Timmy. As far as I'm concerned, Tim's performance at the 2014WC was just as excellent as Friedel's in 02. If Wondolowski scores that goal against Belgium (sweet Jesus)......................Tim's performance in that game would go down as the stuff of absolute legend. But we lost, people have been depressed since, and some of those performances in the 2014WC have kinda been ignored. Let's look at the stats for the USMNT. And yes its an actual fact that Guzan has 3 more wins for the USMNT in 21 fewer appearances than Friedel. Wins: Howard 62 Keller 53 Meola 37 Guzan 30 Friedel 27 Clean Sheets: Keller 47 Howard 42 Meola 32 Friedel 24 Guzan 18 Appearances: Howard 121 Keller 102 Meola 100 Friedel 82 Guzan 61 By the way, in club soccer soccer Tim Howard played just as many games as Friedel in the premier league. He played on teams that were just as good as Friedel's. If people want to base this evaluation on one tournament, that's fine with me. The 2002WC was epic. But other goalkeepers had good performances in really important events. Do you know what's forgotten? Some of the epic performances by Keller in WCQers leading up to the 2002WC. But anyway............... Kinda like how people treat John O'Brien like some sort of legend. He played less than 100 career club soccer games. He only had 32 caps for the USMNT. This is in fact true, John O'Brien played in fewer USMNT games than Brek Shea or Mix Diskerud. But that one 2002 World Cup performance seems to have obscured his essentially non-existent career. Tyler Adams is 20. He's already played more first team soccer games than John O'Brien. For me the player that kinda gets the short end of the stick on the survey is Eddie Pope. A player who was so good that the reigning Champions League winners submitted a transfer bid for him (Dortmund at the time). DCU even accepted it. But Eddie chose to remain in MLS to help build that league. Before his injuries took their toll, he was amazing. I would probably rank Eddie Pope 7th or so on this list.
I love Tim Howard so I'm not going to argue vehemently against him. I do think it's unfair that he is remembered by his last year and a half because the truth is, we should have had a keeper older than 22 ready to take his place by then. However, Howard and Guzan happened to be the keepers when our team was really, really good (until the sad end). It's not really a fair comparison to value what they did from 06'-16' the same as what Friedel did during the 90's and up through 2002. Keller was also great during this time period but he was able/willing to extend his USMNT career through the 02'-06' period when we were probably at our best. For me regarding Friedel, I have never felt more comfortable with a US keeper than I did with jhim in the 02' World Cup. His distribution that tournament was absolutely massive for us as well. Totally right on Eddie Pope. Massively undervalued when these lists are made. John O'Brien is the all-time what could have been for the USMNT. He really was that good but it doesn't matter when you can't stay healthy. We were fortunate he was healthy for the 2002 World Cup but he doesn't belong on a list of all-time greats. It's amazing how many good center-mids we had through the 90's and early 00's with Ramos, Reyna, O'Brien. We really haven't produced anyone capable of such great two-way performances since, maybe Holden for a brief time.
while it is quite clear that those two have been at least in the top four or five that have played for the US they both were simply players/goal scorers/assist makers but they did not make the player around them better by being on the field. That is when they played there was one position that was top notch and the remainder were exactly the average players they were before. A truly great player makes everyone better by always providing a good target and providing good passes and receiving even poor passes well. Remember "You cannot give a great player a bad pass." It always seemed to me that neither Donovan or Dempsey were truly great but I do not think Messi is a great player for the same reasons. They cause other players to watch them with a "golly gee" expression on their faces and not work for advantages created. If I had to pick a "great" player out of the list provided it would be Reyna because, mostly, the whole team was better when he played. Unfortunately raising bad players to OK does no make teams win. It just makes them lose or tie without embarrassment.
I'm also a baseball fan, and when a lot of pundits discuss baseball greats they take about a "ten year peak." So you're not evaluating them as ballplayers by their inevitable decline. [Sometimes reeeally drawn out like Albert Pujols.] I don't know if ten years is the right number, but we should evalute soccer players by their peak years. Not by their last 5 years. People can badmouth the 2016ish to present version of Michael Bradley all they want. His peak 8 years (say 2006 to 2014) suggest he's the best central midfielder in US Soccer history. Who else is starting an entire season for a top 4 team in Serie A? Claudio Reyna is also one that really suffered in the estimation of fans based on his declining years. Kasey Keller DEFINITELY suffers in this regard. When Keller started for the USMNT at the 2010WC, he was 41. Well past his prime. Even if people start judging Keller by the 2006 cycle, they're judging him past his prime. I think there's a whole group of newer fans who don't necessarily know how good the young Keller was at Millwall,Leicester, Rayo Vallecano, etc. was. Kasey Keller in La Liga for Rayo Vallecano was AMAZING.
We have plenty of threads discussing Michael Bradley but suffice it to say, I disagree and so did Roma. The Jones/Bradley pairing is the last time we had a midfield that could hold their own against good teams but they were both terrible at controlling the tempo of a game, something Reyna and O'Brien were masters at. Interesting point on the "ten-year peak." For soccer players, it's probably a little shorter but still good to put it into perspective. Like you, I'm old enough to remember prime Keller and Reyna which is why I had Reyna at #3 on my list and gave Keller the slight edge over Howard. It was frustrating to watch Reyna during his decline and I remember having conversations with some of my newer to the sport friends that thought Reyna sucked. And I thought Keller was still pretty darn good almost to the very end. I'd throw Howard at Everton into this underappreciated category as well. He was the keeper for a team that always seemed to overachieve and he was definitely a part of that. It also took some guts to go from Man U to Everton and be willing to earn your way into a starting role. That move crushes a lot of players. Geoff Cameron at Stoke when they were consistently mid-table EPL also comes to mind as a recent but undervalued YA achievement.
The most undervalued are still somehow to this day.......................Steve Cherundolo and Carlos Bocanegra. Defenders kinda get short shrift in lists like this. Cheundolo played almost 450 games for Hannover. From 1998 to 2014. Most of those seasons in the Bundesliga. And has 87 USMNT caps. 5th most caps all-time for a defender. The problem for Cherundolo? Its easier to remember key impacts of forwards and attacking midfielders. Goals, assists, etc. But when you ask folks to start listing memorable Steve Cherundolo games or plays for the USMNT, they usually don't get very far. He was just good and steady. Reliable excellence. Bocanegra's 8-year peak in the Premier League with Fulham and Ligue 1 with Rennes/Saint Etienne was pretty damn good. And his impact for the USMNT should be self evident. He should be thought of as one of the best captains in the history of the program. Incredible on set-pieces. The USMNT was always a danger on set-pieces with Boca in the lineup. He is our highest scoring defender of all-time. He has the same goals per game rate for the USMNT as DaMarcus Beasley.
Way too many questions lol... This is my ranking: 1. Landon Donovan 2. Clint Dempsey 3. Christian Pulisic (trending up) 4. Tim Howard 5. Brian McBride 6. Claudio Reyna 7. DaMarcus Beasley 8. Michael Bradley (trending down) 9. Tab Ramos 10. Jermaine Jones 11. Carlos Bocanegra 12. Eddie Pope 13. Cobi Jones 14. Eric Wynalda 15. John O’Brien 16. Brad Friedel 17. Jozy Altidore 18. Steve Cherundolo 19. Kasey Keller 20. Earnie Stewart 21. Marcelo Balboa 22. Clint Mathis 23. Wes McKennie (trending up) 24. Tyler Adams (trending up) 25. Geoff Cameron 26. Frankie Hejduk 27. Fabian Johnson 28. Tony Sanneh 29. Oguchi Onyewu 30. Thomas Dooley 31. John Harkes 32. Joe-Max Moore 33. Alexi Lalas 34. John Brooks 35. Pablo Masteoeni 36. DeAndre Yedlin 37. Charlie Davies 38. Jay DeMerit 39. Preki 40. Kyle Beckerman 41. Eddie Lewis 42. Paul Caliguri 43. Graham Zusi 44. Gregg Berhalter 45. Matt Besler 46. Tony Meola 47. Eddie Johnson 48. Bobby Convey 49. Josh Sargent (trending up) 50. Tim Weah (trending up) 51. Jonathan Spector 52. Brad Guzan 53. Jimmy Conrad 54. Alejandro Bedoya 55. Matt Miazga 56. Zack Steffen (trending up) 57. Benny Feilhaber
That bolded reason you gave as to why Landon is not truly great but instead it is Reyna? That bolded statement is exactly right. And that is why Donovan is truly great, and Reyna is not. Landon's play was almost always constant flow; engaging and enabling his team-mates throughout a match. He was far more consistent on this, over a longer span of time, than was Reyna. I admire Claudio's play, but if only one of them, in their prime, could play for me it would be Landon, [If anything, for Landon, his achilles heel was being too focused on the team: not being selfish enough at key moments].
Donovan is #1 in my book, but I immediate some bias due to his club days at the Quakes and two MLS trophies. I put GK in a separate categrory. Kasey Keller would be my #1 followed by Howard at a close second. The best USMNT GK performance ever was Keller against Brazil, even better than Howard against Belgium.
The blind save against Romario in that game might be one of our best ever. Just flat out goalkeeper instincts, and then the talent level to make the save. Highlights of that game are just Keller save after Keller save. This was Keller in his prime. The Romario save in the 2nd half was incredible. Incredible. Also..............I consider the Preki goal here to be the best USMNT goal call ever. Chills for us old timers.
If work rate and tenacity and simple effort were the main factors you would be correct. Hejduk has not been equaled on the national team.
Romario's worst nightmare. Thanks for posting. Great memories! I also think of Tab Ramos goal in Portland (against Costa Rica?) as one of the best ever.