I'm not much of a connoisseur of keepers. I will say that with Marcinkowski, San Jose's backline has looked so much more organized. And he's been pretty aggressive.
Just want to say that Hollingshead deserves a callup but in this last game he did something he used to do but hasn't in a while. He passed back to the keeper but the pass was off and right to the left winger who was between him and the keeper. He made a pass and Minnesota scored the first goal. He used to do that one or two times a game but it usually didn't result in a goal but could have. With mistakes punished even more in national team games it was what kept me from thinking of as that type of player. I bet i will be two years before he does that again so I'm ready to see him get a chance now.
As an alternative to IEs position based ranking, here's one based on the overall whoscored rating and them fitting into a reasonable(generally one start at a position required) line-up. 1st team: -------------------------Dike-------------------------- ---Morris------------Bassett-----------Mueller--- -----------------Roldan---Bedoya----------------- Hollingshead--McKenzie--Pines-----Duncan -----------------------Maurer------------------------- 2nd team: -----------------Zardes----Bunbury---------------- ------------Aaronson-------Mihailovic------------- ---------------Lletget--------Nagbe----------------- Lovitz---------Sands-----Zimmerman--Herrera ----------------------Johnson------------------------- 3rd team: ----------------------Shelton-------------------------- ------Busio-----------------------------Araujo------- -----------------Dotson-----Davis------------------- --------------------Williamson------------------------ Lindsey-------Long------Kessler---Rosenberry ----------------------Turner--------------------------- HM: Lima would make the 3rd team but both LB and RB were full and he didn't play anywhere else.
Yea, we saw. It was a horrible pass. Don't even know what he was looking at. Right to the opposition. But then, as usual when he makes a mistake he tries to run thru a wall to make up for it. This game it involved a remarkable recovery tackle to save a probable goal, other key blocks, hitting the crossbar one time, & forcing a spectacular save another. So it allows him to show his character. Ideally he would clean up those big mistakes out of aggression though. In fairness, this is a very modern approach. You see a lot more errors at the back in trying to keep possession or win & go.
Good interview and insights from Jim Curtin. Interview starts around 20 minutes in, lasts about 20 minutes as well.
JT has poise, seems to communicate well and isn't a bad distributor. But I'm not seeing much in terms of reactions, shot stopping, etc. I don't see the upside there that leads to a top level keeper, but I'm far from an expert. If I had to guess, he's much closer to the top of his potential than someone who has immense physical tools but needs to learn the mental side.
Bedoya understands how his teammates play and complements their play. Quantifying that is not something you will find on opta but it is how Supporters' Shields are won. And Cups of all kinds, for that matter.
Bedoya absolutely does. But his game, at this age, is also one that requires certain things out of his teammates to keep him from getting exposed. He's absolutely very smart, still very skilled, and he seems like a strong leader. But I don't think he's a top 3 American midfielder right now or fast enough anymore to contribute to the USMNT.
Basset has really opened some eyes. He has more goals plus assists per 90 minutes from the same position.................as Brenden Aaronson. The golden child. Cole is also a year younger than Brenden Aaronson. And let's not sleep on a player that's still younger. Caden Clark sure made a difference to NYRB in that position. Let's hope that next year its Bassett that continues his growth and makes that move to Europe. There have been German clubs that have shown an interest apparently. I'd also just note that we talk about Bryan Reynolds a lot on these boards. But its also true that we have a number of good Olympics-eligible right backs in the league. It should be no surprise that Duncan and Herrera are rated highly. Araujo is probably up there too. My personal opinion is that if it wasn't for his significant injury, we'd all think of Duncan the same way we think of Cannon.
He scored highly for 'concentration', which underlines the sense of poise and organization we see. He had a low score only on the stopping of long shots, which is not surprising given his height. Few major weaknesses. High soccer IQ. Perhaps he can carry that up a level or two.
Aaronson, like Clark, has some really noticeable skills that look like they will translate well to the next level. Aaronson's aren't quite as flashy as Clark's, but they are still there. I really haven't watch Bassett a ton -- and that last assist was a beauty -- but he definitely seems more of a steady, right place, right time guy. I'm not sure if that actually translates as well or if people will notice even if it does.
I don't think he's super high upside keeper because of the lack of physical tools. That said, there's plenty of room for improvement from where he's at, because I think his anticipation is mediocre too, which compounds the range issue. He should go from covering one post to sliding his feet all the way across on a cross. Instead he comes halfway to get beat on the other side. Also he's not on the balls of his feet, allowing him to get good spring to better cover distance on a diving save attempt. He could be making up for the physical tool disadvantage w/ his anticipation 7 technique, but atm he doesn't. Could be for lack of experience. He's just getting his chance now. As for his reaction time, this is elite. He's very alert & reflexive. And his distribution is way better than not bad. It may be the best I've seen from an American keeper. Very good presence in the box as well. Communicates to teammates. In addition he's very authoritative in dealing with balls in the air. A lot of our national team starters even have struggled w/ this. These are the things he has to build on.
I'm not calling for him but Mexico had an even slower midfielder (Marquez) who had a better pedigree play much longer than I though he could and he helped them somehow. The wily veteran can add something the youthful player doesn't have at times. It just how much athleticism are you willing to trade?
He was also even older and slower which is what the poster faulted Bedoya for. I was just trying to show that at times savvy can make up for that. I wasn't advocating for it. To Bedoya's credit he was one of the few that seemed pissed about the game in Courva. If you weren't I didn't want you back.
MLS award finalists have been announced: https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2020/11/11/mls-2020-year-end-awards-finalists From a USMNT perspective, the most noteworthy nominations are Jordan Morris for League MVP, Mark McKenzie and Walker Zimmerman for Defender of the Year, Matt Turner for Goalkeeper of the Year, and Brenden Aaronson and Daryl Dike for the newly created Young Player of the Year award (for players aged 22 and under). I expect an American will probably win Defender of the Year, as usual. Aaronson and Turner have shouts for the awards for which they're nominated, but both are competing against players who have been nominated for League MVP (Diego Rossi and Andre Blake, respectively), so they may be out of luck.
From what I saw today vs Wales, MLSers are going to be awfully hard pressed to break into the squad in any midfield slot or right back. We are pretty stacked there if none of those guys flip jerseys. If youre a forward, left back, a right back who can play left back reasonably well, a goalkeeper, or centerback, you still have a shot. But from what I saw, we'ved moved on from the Roldan, Yueill, Hairston, Hairston, Acostas of the pool barring injury calamity.
The depth from MLS is needed pretty much all over, & you'll probably require to call upon it with typical attrition. In the starting unit we have holes at striker, 2nd cb after Brooks, maybe even wing, depending on where you play Gio or Sargent. Morris is a made man at striker or wing, imo. Long or the MLS contingent at athletic cb next to Brooks are very live, until Richards gets off the ground. Mark McKenzie & Miles Robinson come into the picture. Don't know if Big Zim can play next to Brooks. Some of the same questions as Miazga, though may just be a better cb. My most common front 4 would be Morris at striker, Pulisic creative wing, then maybe Sargent at ss/combining wing, w/ Reyna at the 10. But this still leaves a-wing quite open. I'm not sold on Sargent. That's best of a bad situation right now. Aaronson could be the answer, so at times we'd have two in the Pulisic style, taking on their man. I'm not penciling in Mueller anywhere, but I'm interested to see how he looks w/ these guys. He's sort of a hybrid between creative & combining wing. Incidentally, coming off his great season, TM lists him as a free agent. If true, we could see trials in Europe.
I agree if everybody is healthy and released but since that is virtually never in my 19 years of fandom, I am sure we will see some MLS mids playing for the USMNT.
There are several MLS players who would be in our best 23 today. There are not many who would be in our XI, likely just 1 (Morris) whose spot could be tenuous in the years to come given the level of young talent in attacking positions. There’s also a lot of very young talent making waves in MLS which would be a big boon for squad depth. On these boards depth seems to be underrated in favor of obsessive best XI chat; whereby folks go crazy when players are unavailable due to injury or something else. We should expect consistent absences from our best 10-12 players, in particular as a couple seem to be injury prone. The best sides in the world go 30+ deep; for us to have really meaningful depth we need many MLS players to be in the mix and developing so the drop off isn’t cavernous. We should always be calling domestic players into the side to round out our depth, identify fast rising talent that may move abroad, and ensure familiarity/lineup optionality.
I don't generally disagree, but I think right now there are probably 3 places you could make an argument for a specific MLS Player: Striker: I'd pick Josh, but Zardes and Altidore both have a reasonable claim still RCB: I did not see anything from Miazga that makes me think he's ahead of Zimmerman, McKenzie or a number of MLS options. RW/CAM (depending on Reyna): Morris or a some MLS 3rd midfielder options still seems to be very possibly the best choice.
I think we have to give a gentlemen's nod of approval for what Philadelphia has done with their academy this past year or two. Theyve become the east coast standard of growing their own. They're well on their way to the FC Dallas blueprint, and its paid off. Great for them.
To be honest, haven’t really seen enough of McKenzie (4-5 matches maybe) to know if he’s a better player than Miazga or Zimmerman.
I have developed a crush, so I might not be the best scout here. But he's fast, quick, and always seems to be in the right place. If you watch a Philly Union game, he's the dude who is always breaking up the cross, heading away the corner, etc. He's fast enough to play a high line. He's a very good passer and pretty good on the ball. He's right footed but can pass well with his left. He's the main CB distributor for Philly and runs the back. On the downside, he's not tall for a CB and while he's not a twig, he's not super big. He also still makes a mistake every once in a while. So he's not faultless. But he can dominate a game defensively from the CB spot at the MLS level. You don't see a lot of games where you are wowing at the CB, and he can do that. It's time for him to move on. I'm not CB expert, so maybe I am missing something, but I would think more than Celtic should be lining up for him.