Think the last part is a little strong. Neither Malik or Acosta have done it at the international level or against high level opponents.
What are the mental health issues Luna has been dealing with? I love this player and really hope to see him on one of the rosters this summer. It was a bummer to see him excluded from this roster.
Was at the Rapids game tonight. Steffen looked pretty cooked. Vines/Basset/Milhailovic looked good at times but they can’t stay at this level if they ever want to get back into the usmnt.
i think these are appropriate cases for the "comfort of home/getting paid" arguments. they all made moves to marginally "higher" levels and none had the patience, ability or (in vines' case) luck to catch on. all 3 have a lot of time ahead of them (though 25 doesnt leave a ton of room for "upward mobility"), that door isnt completely closed by any means. but none are dominant in mls. relatively top tier americans, an mls first 11 or two arent out of reach for any of them- but that level isnt high enough to be in the national team picture without adding additional factors (position scarcity, availability due to league calendar, etc). its bs (in all manner of speaking) stupidity that that is considered "anti" mls, but its the truth. even if our most promising domestic players (say aidan morris, for example) move to an eredivise/ligue un level and to whatever degree "make it" they are still looking up at 5 cms legitimately playing and contributing in serie a, la liga (not to mention tillman already at that "secondary" level, and the conundrum that is reyna). vines' second biggest problem- behind his fitness betraying him time and again- is that weve seen him be entirely too pedestrian at the low-concacaf level "enough" times. so he doesnt even have that veil of ignorance a timmy tillman, or a duncan mcguire do. you can argue that they deserve chances with the nats, but frankly thats more of a stretch than any exaggerated, "you just hate mls", eurosnob bullshit. i think there are a handful of mls players who genuinely deserve a real shot with the nats beyond off-calendar camps and gated gold cups. other than possibly bassett (simply by being a couple of years younger) i dont think those colorado guys are even at that level. and those very few, very top guys still arent deserving enough to push out luca, or malik. the margins are incredibly thin. all the "mls vs whatever" nonsense is just noise. but heres the really, really important thing- that "second tier", well, according to me since im talking right now- is incredibly vital to us soccer. i am a national team over everything else guy- ive never pretended to be anything else. but american soccer needs a strong, much improved and what inarguably has to continue improving mls. we need a strong, deep, experienced upper-middle class for the crameschis and the schultes to have to fight their way through. we need mihailovics and gutierrez...es. not being national team level isnt a damning label. we need vines' and lletgets and miazgas who went as far as they could abroad to raise the level here. we need bradleys and altidores towards the end of their intl careers. thats all to say i dont think "if they ever want to get back into the national team" is all that relevant. i think people play entirely too fast and loose with the idea of "you never know, some guys are late bloomers". even if you see mls on a straight upward trajectory and believe thats gonna last forever i cant imagine a time when anyone can reasonably argue a truly top 4 level contributor with an mls player minus "other" considerations (again, positional need, playing out a contract, etc). thats where some of the mls "side" is unreasonable, with plenty to counter that on the other extreme. i think we need to look at mls and the usmnt more independently of one another than we do. minus substantial changes (in both their own performances and any number of outside factor) those guys dont belong in the national team discussion. they are extraordinarily unlikely to get there, even less so if they play out their careers in mls. that just shouldnt be the bar for everyone. and a whole lot of people need to realize thats not in any way a negative- it was a purely false positive (premise) in the first place. every kid cant grow up to be president, and every american soccer player cant grow up to be a national team level player.
Luciano Acosta vs Malik Tillman. One player is a specialist a-mid who has been running laps around MLS. The other mostly plays wing or central midfield in the Eredivisie. Tillman has had very few starts at a-mid for PSV. He has excelled 'at a high level' in UCL, just not at a-mid. Brenden Aaronson, on the other hand, has had quite a few starts at a-mid for the Union, Salzburg, Leeds, and Union.
Pick the best players, regardless of league. Of the 28 players Colombia have called up for the friendly, only 9 played in Top-4 leagues. Yet, they're firm favorites against the US.
According to the reporting done on this, this was simply a coach's decision by Mitrovic. This U23 group is really strong on the wings in terms of numbers. If Luna was included and Paxten Aaronson, Booth, Yow, Esmir or Paredes were left it out it would have been equally eye raising. Ultimately, it was Yow's unexpected rise that had to kick somebody out. And it seems like it was Luna. There are only so many spots. And at some point, you don't need 10 wingers at the camp to play 2 games. So he basically made cuts of Luna, Gutierrez, Kamungo, etc. even before the camp. Daniel Edelman of NYRB is another guy who could have made it. Just another strong part of the field for this group. When one looks at this camp, the place where we need overage players really should be obvious. Reyna and Tillman aren't the positions we need help at. So all of that talk is a little confusing to me.
The guys in the mid tier leagues. Luna: 3 goals 7 assists 942 min* Esmir: 0 goals 1 assist 680 min Aaronson: 4 goals 0 assists 1254 min Booth: 5 goals 0 assists 874 min Yow: 6 goals 4 assists 1513 min Esmir should've been left to focus on the U20s. Booth and Yow play on the right. Aaronson plays centrally. * = minutes of league play in mid-tier leagues for the 23/24 season
I don’t really put a ton of weight in terms of the friendly as both teams may be trying different things or not have their first choice lineup (though if there’s a quarterfinal matchup that’s a different story). I do think we have a talent advantage over Columbia, though it’s not overwhelming. Most of them being favored is their ELO rating and the good run of form they’ve been in, but in my mind the teams are close enough that it’s the sort of game that can go either way. I’d expect that if we played Columbia ten times both teams would each win roughly the same amount of times (with some ties sprinkled in). And I do think the result in a potential quarterfinal matchup is relevant. I don’t think losing a hard fought game is a fireable offense for instance, but if we were to play terribly and lose 5-0 or something like that it would raise a lot of questions.
Well at least myself even if they are I personally view it as the sort of game that can go either way.
It sure seems like Cowell was picked over Luna in terms of left winger/forward as well. I personally would have picked Luna over Cowell, but Cade has been a core call-up for this team from the beginning.
If they bring Reyna as an overage player, Luna is kind of redundant. Is it fair? No. This is sports at the highest levels though, and fair has nothing to do with it.
Yeah my bad, he's been around forever it seems. Point still stands though. If they bring Reyna, Luna is redundant.
According to TransferMarkt, this season Malik Tillman has played: 15 games at LW 15 games at AM (9 starts, 5 of those in the CL + 2 more CL sub appearances) 7 games at CM (I would argue at least a couple of these were dual AM/Free 8 setups) Career in the UCL Tillman is a .18 npxG+xA/90 attacker with .12 npG+A/90 and 2.69 Shot Creating Actions. This season it was .17 and .18 respectively. In league play* he is .84 npxG+xA/90 and .81 npG+A/90 and 5.67 SCA/90. Malik has improved relative to the CL level of competition but he’s not good at that level. He bosses the Eredivisie but gets knocked around in the CL. *advanced metrics almost solely from the Dutch league. His Rangers number was .50 npxG+xA/90 but I don’t know what the SCA were.
He'll improve a bit next season. But after that he needs to move to a Big 4 league to reach his potential.
1. I don't see this as anti MLS. 2. I think it is a very good post. MLS (like any other league/team) is what it is. What it is is an improving second tier league. (IMO, the top five would be first tier and anything below that is second tier or lower). I believe that we now have a national team that is, at the very least, improving and on the edges of first tier. I don't know how many countries could be considered to have top tier national teams but I believe that the consensus would be quite a bit more than 5 (maybe 10ish). I'm not going to check, but I really don't think I would be wrong to say that the vast majority of the players in the elite tier probably play in top 5 leagues. Period. That leaves MLS out as a direct supplier for USMNT. Of course there are exceptions to every rule but the reality is that there are almost certainly future USMNT players and stars playing in MLS and or MLS academies right now. Ironically, MLS is partly to blame for the fact that it is becoming less relevant (at least for now) as a direct source for the USMNT. MLS products (directly from MLS or their academies) are now playing in top 5 leagues, which is now becoming the major talent pool for USMNT. Do I think MLS will ever become a significant part of the USMNT pool? Yes...I do, but it will take quite a while. How long, I'm not sure. another 10 yrs? 15? more? I'm more optimistic than many so I'll go with 12.5 for now because I think we have hit an inflection point and the Dax McCarty and Sascha Kjlestans that we need will be more numerous and made up of guys that are 14-17ish now and the Bradleys and Dempseys returning from Europe are also more numerous and still only 18-20ish. For now, MLS is what it is, but that isn't a slight. It is a second tier league that is improving. Along with it's academies and USL play a crucial role in the growth of our national team.
I found the Dutch league to be the weakest I’ve ever seen it but it was still a step up from Scotland and Malik improved. It’s hard to see him doing better statistically on a per 90 basis next year so in the league it’s about playing more minutes, becoming more of a central figure in the team, and working on rounding out his game as a creator. In the CL it’s about adapting to the higher level of intensity and physicality those teams bring along with the smaller windows and less frequent openings or potential for an opening. I thought he did grow as the campaign went on.
Of the Colorado guys, Cole absolutely should give it another kick. Kids good While we don’t know for sure, Gutierrez and Brady not getting called up gives further idea to the notion this is a Chicago dumpster fire problem more than a Gregg problem
I'm quite skeptical about Malik. IIRC he scored against some of the weaker Eredivisie sides and had one of the most enviable positions in world football getting to play as a primary playmaker/attacker for the most dominant side in perhaps the most attack minded league in the world. Don't recall him particularly impressing in the CL.
It don't think the issue with Gutierrez and Brady have anything to do with the USSF or some great challenge with the Fire organization. Other players were simply selected. Schulte and Slonina were simply selected over Brady. And its not like that's some crazy decision.
I think that is fair. But one guy was league MVP for the Shield winners and is again the best player on the #1 team (PPG) in the league. MLS does not have elite level teams at the top (Ajax, PSV, Feyenoord), but top to bottom is a better league than Holland. To connect the dots, PSV play a lot more games vs clubs that are vastly outmanned, outspent, and outgunned. A lot more blowouts. A lot more stat padding. Credit to Tillman for earning a starting spot for them and holding it down. But Acosta plays in a much more balanced league. Games are tighter. Opponents are comparable to his team. And he still puts up better numbers. He is the difference far more often than Tillman is for PSV. In my view, anyway. YMMV, of course. This is all moot, for now. Acosta cannot play. But in a hypothetical 26 man Copa roster, I'd include Acosta every time. 23 is tougher.
The thing about Cowell is his unteachables are top tier and so far it has translated to the NTs much more than club.
In 433, he played as an 8. It could be transfermarkt sees that as an amid. I consider a cam as the '1' in 3412, 4411, or 4312. And there's obviously cam in 4231.