Let's do it. I'm in. The future is us. pic.twitter.com/fVpBn1aupb— Yunus Dimoara Musah (@yunusmusah8) March 15, 2021
I never want to lose any player, but this kid is a regular for a top European side. Alvarez has shown some flashes in MLS. World's apart currently, but understand your point.
Bits of info on the recruitment are reminiscent of how high school football players are now recruited in college football: coach maintains contact even when initial player interest is a bit apathetic; and, peer players include the recruit on group chats and keep up the contact and to establish relationships. That second part is a bigger and bigger key to recruiting in this technological age we find ourselves in.
Can Berhalter be my college basketball coach? With all these recruitments, he's the same level as Coach K.
We will always win some and lose some when it comes to dual nationals. The key is to recruit the top end, and make sure to maximize the return there. Gregg has been great at that. Musah, by the way, is reportedly really good friends with Balogun. I'm not convinced that Alvarez will end up being good enough for either the US or Mexico. He's only 18, though, so who knows. People should remember the epic meltdown on these boards when Jonathan Gonzalez switched to Mexico. Again, not good enough currently for the US or Mexico. At no point was that worth the emotional energy that people spent freaking out about it. LIke when Sarachan called up both Adams and McKennie for their debuts against Portugal, and left off Gonzalez. The board had a collective seizure. People should apologize to Sarachan for that one............................(he's now the head coach of Puerto Rico, and swiping dual-national kids left and right from under our noses. Well, dual-nationals isn't the right word as they're all American citizens.)
This Musah commitment is Berhalters finest work yet. Dest was huge, but we were still in the driver's seat after supporting him for years before Holland came calling. Nobody was even talking about Musah being an option until like a day before the roster came out and he was on it. Unreal work. Agreed with most of your points, but I will say the gonzalez issue still irks me. Not so much the decision, but the process. He was regularly starting at CM for Monterrey during the same time we were trotting out Bradley in 2017 due to his "experience". If that's handled differently (and many here were calling for his inclusion), we likely make the world cup and gonzalez commits to the US. Everyone will scream and argue about that, but whatever. Can't convince me otherwise!
Life is all about relationships, so I would be interested to hear what country(s) his extended family feel tide to. They didn't move to England till he was 9 so do his parents and brothers have emotional connections to England? Mexican-American duals are a different story since their extended families have very tight connections with Mexico.
We can all argue about Berhalter's ability from a technical/tactical perspective as a coach. One cannot argue with the fact that he's created an atmosphere around the USMNT that these talented young players want to be a part of. After the horrible team chemistry of the 2018 cycle, this accomplishment can't be overstated. We may lose Alvarez. We may lose Akinola. We may lose Hernandez-Foster. The list is endless. We will always lose dual-nationals. But we're going to become like France and Holland. Did France worry about losing Weah? Nah. Their pipeline is stacked. Did Holland worry about losing Dest. Nah. They know more prospects are on the way. The USMNT is going to develop into that type of squad. And all of CONCACAF is going to start peeling away prospects, even good ones. But no worry. The pipeline will always keep moving. We just need to retain the elite "difference making players."
But Gonzalez was from my hometown. That felt gut-punch-ish... Nevertheless, this is excellent news. Though he's currently in a bit of a slump, I'm very bullish on this kid. He, McKennie, and Adams can make up the most dominant central midfield unit we've ever had... And Balogun now perhaps becomes a possibility?... (Not holding my breath on that one.)
Both Musah and Reyna hit the proverbial wall. Reyna talked about how exhausted he was when the winter break hit. These are kids in their first year of major 1st team football. Its not just physical fatigue, its mental fatigue of playing football at this level week-in and week-out. Worth noting that both of these two are so young that they'd be eligible for our U20 national team (if the cycle wasn't cancelled). That U20 national team is nuts. Just missing some centerbacks in that age group, although they tend to break out a few years later.
Given the way the US apparently wants to play (attacking fullbacks, wingers tucking inside, high pressing), Musah is the better fit for this team. Honestly, I can see Alvarez going to Mexico because he'll likely have better opportunities for playing time with Mexico's aging squad in the midfield roles. While I never want to lose a good player, particularly to Mexico, Musah is easily the bigger get at this point in time.
The melt down was about the total incompetence of the fed, and the lying far more than it was about the individual player, but I cede your point. As an anxiety ridden neurotic by parentage and genetics, I make no promises going forward lol.
https://www.espn.com/soccer/united-...ection-with-coaches-and-belief-in-the-project This article highlights a couple underrated factors in his decision. For one, USMNT assistant coach, and former Valencia reserve team manager Nico Estevez. Like most recruiting battles, relationships played a key role, and the bond between Musah and Estevez took on immense importance. Musah says that from the moment the U.S. first made contact, he and Estevez spoke at least once every two weeks. Berhalter added that there were times when his assistant and the player spoke as often as every other day. Estevez's knowledge of Valencia helped Musah navigate his way through his first season with the club's B-team, as well the player's initial foray with the first team in the 2020-21 campaign. He helped him adapt to life in a new country as well: Estevez would talk Musah through his games and send him video clips. Berhalter recalled that the level of trust between the two was such that Musah began soliciting advice and video from Estevez instead of the U.S. assistant being the one to reach out.
No doubt, and it changes the complexion of what this team can be on the defensive and attacking end, he's definitely a force multiplier on both sides. No doubt this season has kinda gone sideways for a good chunk of our midfield (everyone except Adams and McKennie), but I do believe this will right itself soon enough and never in a million years did I picture our midfield potentially being this good going forward after Couva and before WC '22. Even the corrupt evil shenanigans of Fifa, and Qatar have benefited us because it gives these kids more time to really gel together and get back on track for Qatar in late '22.
And then there’s this, straight from Musah: You played a part. 🤝🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 📝: https://t.co/oUWM2ch7M6 pic.twitter.com/YpRByfDsbC— U.S. Soccer Men's National Team (@USMNT) March 15, 2021
The issue with Gonzalez was that he completely deserved a call up based on merit (although that was largely due to others sucking) but was completely ignored. at least now, even if Musah hadn’t chosen the US, he was recruited hard, and we have plenty of other talented players. Musah isn’t even likely to start, IMO.
When it comes to Gonzalez................there was no fed. At the time of his decision there was no USSF Prez, no technical director, no full-time USMNT coach, no U23 coach, etc. etc.. That was a major part of the problem. The U20 coach, Tab Ramos, was the only one left in the building. He couldn't give the player an assurance regarding a role moving forward. And it should be noted that we have an enormously high retention rate of young dual-nationals that we actually want. If you can name the "difference making" kids that represented USYNTs and left for other programs................on one hand...............then we're probably doing a great job. Right now we seem to have a community of leaders at the USSF (Stewart, McBride, Berhalter, Kreis, etc.) who all seem to be rowing in the same direction with regards to the scouting and recruiting of dual-nationals for the USMNT. They've established a culture in the program that these young players seem to want to be a part of. Of course, these dual-nationals wouldn't be committing if it weren't for Pulisic, Mckennie, Adams, etc. in the squad. They see a base of talent that they can add to. So the process keeps building on itself. We can also add that for most of these cases the recruitment starts at really young groups. So we need player identification, scouting and recruiting of the 14 and 15 year olds. A player like Dest probably doesn't represent the USMNT in long run if we didn't start calling him up as a U17 a while ago. So its more than just Berhalter.
All Arena had to do was cap JoGo. Throw him on at the 80th minute of a blowout home Qualifier. That was all that was needed. The player had wanted to play for the US. That wasn't a Fed issue.