Official Tommy Thompson Thread [R]

Big Tommy fan but I think he had a bit to do with TFC's second goal. It's a long season, there will be more good than bad.

 

We had the ball. Tommy was pushing up on the right, (and wide open), then Yueill makes a horrible giveaway in the middle. Tommy actually bust ass as fast he could to get back and try to make a play, and almost does. I don't see how you can put blame on Tommy for that goal.

 

I just think that he is greatly misused at FB as he's clearly an offensive minded player and it shows with his defensive miscues.

His strengths are agility/pace and technical abilities...traits that would be much more useful in a central midfield role that we are clearly missing. With Judson back in the fold to support our defenders and cover the gaps, I would replace Tommy with Eriksen and let him and JY play alongside each other while Vako and Espinoza man the flanks. With Eriksen in the middle we have absolutely no creativity as he is just to slow with the ball at his feet as well as without. The one aspect that TT can provide to our game (that Eriksen cannot) is to take on players 1-on-1 and dribble past them which would add another dimension to the team and thus make it tougher on defenses. Right now even Stevie Wonder can make out the fact that all of our offense is generated through the flanks with Espinoza being the primary threat. We need to get more diverse with our offensive game or else it will be all to easy to focus the defense on neutralizing Espinoza if you want to suffocate the Quakes.

 

Stay at home challenge! I’m sure there are a lot of youth soccer players out there not able to practice like they would normally. Here are some fun skills I used to work on at home. Send me videos once you get them down and I’ll share them. Stay positive and get to practicing! 💪🏻 pic.twitter.com/vC32rxfmxA

— Tommy Thompson (@tomthom11) March 15, 2020

 

Nice article in Sports Illustrated about TT, Quakes, and learning Spanish:

https://www.si.com/soccer/2020/05/2...ra 052920&utm_term=SI Extra - USE THIS - List

 

Awesome.

 

I have downloaded Duolingo and paid for a year of Duolingo Plus, having been inspired by TT. I’m on a ten-day streak and am already noticing an improvement in my Spanish vocabulary and verb-conjugation.

 

I tried Duolingo last season after Tommy revealed his use of it. But I gave up after 2 weeks. I just didn't like the gamification

 

I've been using it pretty steadily over the last few years, just ten minutes a day and my Spanish has improved. I get the gamification thing, I just kind of ignore it.

 

Nice interview with Tommy this morning on KTVU. Mike Mibach, the anchor, mentioned he watched the last game and seemed to be a Quake fan. Not sure if there is a link of the interview but I'll look around...

 

Save your career and go to Sacramento please.

 

Just in case someone here hasn't seen his official youtube page, he does have some quality stuff for your kids to do at home.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2zeMHIiHcFoc2eUBvITkyQ

 

He has played a lot of minutes under Almeyda, what's your proof the pasture will be any greener in Sacramento?

 

I just finished reading Bruce Arena's book "What's Wrong with Us". I thought it was great, as his career covers so much recent history of US Soccer and MLS. The last few chapters cover what's wrong with soccer in the USA, and one of his points is that MLS has shifted to international players, so that Americans are not being developed in their own top tier domestic league. He notes that at the beginning of the 2018 season, Americans made up only 29% of starting positions, and of these he felt only 25 would be in the NT pool.

In another way to prove his point, from the 12 teams that played in the first games of the 2017 MLS playoffs, he lists all the MLS American starters that were eligible for USMNT. This made 45 players, 10 of which were GKs. He said only 14 of the 45 would have been in his plans if he had remained MNT manager.

From the Quakes, Arena lists these eligible starters: Andrew Tarbell, Kofi Sarkodie, Shea Salinas, Wondo, and Tommy Thompson.

So Tommy got mentioned in Bruce Arena's bio. He might have been mentioned one other time as well, but since I'm reading a print copy, i can't search it.

 

I take Bruce's comments because they are often self servicing. I do agree with him on the number of US players in MLS is impacting development, but that is only part of the story (see fragmentation of youth development and relatively young youth programs with MLS Teams).

As far as list, it's obviously outdated (would include Lima and Yuell who have actually played for team). Just curious. Did have a chapter on what is right with US Soccer?

 

Really, for a team with the USA's aspirations (i.e. getting out of pools at the world cup each time), MLS isn't good enough to be the development league. The academies can be the starting point, and maybe up until age 18 for those that can't finagle a Euro passport. MLS just needs to do whatever it can to grow and get stronger financially, until it can be that place. That means getting international stars and working on the brand for the sake of sponsors and patrons. Right now, anyone who has hopes of being good enough needs to get themselves to Europe, even if that means Belgium or Sweden and not Germany or England. Not because Belgium's league is dramatically better than MLS, but because of the exposure that gets to a better league. If you can't hack it in Sweden, then you aren't good enough for USMNT, and head on back to MLS at age 24 and give it a go for a domestic career. Nick Lima, TT, and JY just aren't good enough for USMNT. And USMNT's available players might not be good enough for our aspirations. Sad but true.

 

Took the words right out of my mouth. MLS in nowhere close enough in talent and skill to provide an adequate developmental base for the young Americans coming through. At this point, all young American players coming through the academy systems should try to (if possible) obtain a European passport and move abroad by the time they turn 16 or gain as much first team experience in MLS as possible before turning 18 and move abroad then when the laws allow them to transfer as is the case with Philly's Aaronson. Cade Cowell needs to greatly improve his technical game in order for him to take his game to the next level and he will not accomplish that here so he, too, should be looking for opportunities abroad.

That is why it's imperative that MLS teams solely focus on improving the league and bring on board the best possible players be it American or international. This will greatly increase the skill level accross the board and, in turn, provide much better developmental opportunities for young American kids. If we instituted a quota on international signings and force a much greater inclusion of American players then you would have teams full of the Beason's and Skahan's where the level of play would simply be a glorified NCAA/USL level.

 

OTOH, Bruce pointed to Liga MX, which around that time had tightened up its international player rules. So if players got their Mexican passport (I think it was a passport, not just residency) past the age of 19, they were still counted as international players. I guess this might have been one reason why Omar Gonzalez came back to MLS - because he no longer counted as a Mexican player in Liga MX.

Liga MX also has rules about starting Mexican players, and I think he wrote that there are also stipulations about playing young players.

Another example is the EPL, where they changed the rules because the Lions were getting weaker and weaker in international play. Look at England’s team now. It worked. It took awhile, but it worked.

Another analogy is Equal Opportunity. When they squashed equal opportunity, what happened? Fewer blacks and minorities (other than Chinese) got promoted into positions of authority. Few blacks and hispanics got into colleges.

Yes quotas to achieve a result may feel artificial, but sometimes it works. In soccer, we can’t just expect every player to go to Europe at 16 to become good, we need to build them up here in the USA. As Bruce pointed out, MLS was started as a requirement for the USA to get WC 1994. FIFA wanted MLS because they wanted to grow the game in the USA. FIFA didn’t want to grow the game in the USA just to benefit MLS owners. US Soccer helped finance MLS. But along the way, Don Garber hijacked MLS’ original purpose to benefit his bosses.

 

I think neither of those is comparable and stating that limiting foreign players is what has helped England as if it is fact is truly begging the question in the clearest way.

If the MLS was one of the strongest leagues in the world, and we thought that nationalism was a key component of the league's goals, and we allowed the question to be begged... maybe? And for the other... the system we have in MLS is merit based. The system that EO was and is working against was anti-merit based.

It is far from clear that more minutes versus worse opponents is what our pool needs to get better.

 

This would be all fine and dandy if the MLS were a strong league where instituting such limits and quotas on foreign players would be justified.

 

Obviously, with so many factors involved in a NT's improvement (e.g. the coach) you can't show causation. But I think correlation is pretty good in this case.

 

I really like Bruce Arena. His success is high and his failure is low. He's got a good solid coaching tree and he's gotten a lot out of US based players.

I do agree though MLS needs to start more US based players but that takes time and we have to get over the fixation of internationals > Americans.

 

I couldn't read this book until now -- too much resentment over the failure to qualify. But he's got a lot of great examples of how he coaches/man-manages, and I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in college or pro-level coaching. Also has good insight to how he determined USMNT rosters. Very interesting stuff and it read very quickly.