Eurosnobs are pressing their advantage while MLS apologists are clutching their loved ones. You know where this is going.
City purchased EPB, despite the 'limited minutes'. EPB starred for the U20s; he was very effective for them.
Not everybody in MLS is so lucky as EPB to get that youth nt opportunity, especially the guys who came out of college. Then EPB really ran with it by being named player of the CONCACAF tourney and best xi per some in the u20 WC. His career progressed despite no senior nt opportunity and little MLS one. That would make him a rarity. I really don't, because Dolo spent his whole career in Europe, and Yedlin started in MLS.
They also loaned him out for a season to Porto and provided them with a very reasonable transfer option. I don't think SKC expected him to come back for this past season. Once back he did happen to be stuck behind the MLS Defensive Player of the Year and a US international.
Sure, but the same thing is true of Miazga and Chelsea, CCV and Spurs, etc. He's going over there, will be loaned out, and we'll see how it goes. The last rumor we saw was that Man City was trying to line up opportunities in Holland for the spring. This, unfortunately, is how modern football is going. These big clubs just hoover up talent to keep them in their stable. Last year Chelsea had over 30 players out on loan.
Don't say I didn't warn you when the hordes of eurosnobs pour across your front lawn with torches and pitchforks.
Technically, MLB controls players for 6 years. After the first 3, a player is arbitration eligible, meaning that if he can’t agree on a contract with the team, they both present how much they think the player is worth and then go to an independent arbitrator who decides who wins. But the team still holds his rights through those 3 extra years.
Yedlin got good at Newcastle, with good coaching from Rafa B. Stop. Please. It's clear to everyone that there's more talent and better coaching overseas. That's snobbery to some, fine. But it's accurate and not a slam on the MLS, or leagues in Turkey, Israel, etc. We're going to get a few good USMNT players who are 100% MLS born and bred. Our best players will be groomed in Europe for the time being.
At first, I was upset that Keaton Parks didn't get the call for the friendly, it turns out, it may have been a blessing in disguise, he ended up training with Benfica 1st team and today he was called up to play for them, probably just for their next game because of the FIFA break but nevertheless, is a good sign the coach thinks highly of him.
Yedlin was a good player before his Newcastle transfer. He had a good run on loan at Sunderland in the EPL. Obviously, he would refine his game as he gained experience in a good environment.
As a long time Revs fan, I can honestly say that Lee N is by far the best player on the Revs and the fact he has not been given a fair shot at the NATS shows just how stupid they have been ......from JK to Arena.
I am not a hater and I relish sharing opinions with others who do not agree with me. I wish there was much more of that around, btw.
Agree. And it was that refinement that makes him so good now. Something just seemed to click with Benitez. Maybe it was just time in England and a normal evolution.
Great piece. I don't really disagree w/much of anything other than that I don't think anyone rational and informed thinks we can stand toe to toe with Spain and Germany other than in a one off, one day "Villanova beats Georgetown/NC State beats Houston kind of way," in a major tournament. Like you the performances we've seen from undermanned U-20 squads in 2015 and 2017 have been very inspiring, especially when one considers that the '17 side was missing probably 4 of the best 6 players in the side and landed in one of the toughest groups and started a 17 year old at Forward during the tournament who many were surprised was even called up for it (maybe it was a combo of his talent, and lessons learned from being severely undermanned at Forward back in the 2015 tournament). As others have mentioned in the youth forum, one of the great delights of the performances of the '15 and '17 U-20's and the '17 U-'17's has been the way these teams were built on differing levels of a First XI. The '15's had strength in the midfield and to a degree on certain aspects of the defense and at keeper, the '17's featured a strong midfield and attack at the U-20 level, and a better defense and midfield for the kids (I think I'm remembering right, correct me if I'm wrong on which had which, I'm a bit busy right now and can't do the research). So essentially we are producing a giant pile of prospects born between 1995, and 1997-2002 with ample supply for the defense and midfield, and at least a couple of promising forward prospects. Other than Steffen, not sure about the keepers though. If they can come through at the average rate, or even a bit better we should see potentially 4-6 starter caliber players from these groups and a ton of legit depth that could develop as well. That could do wonders for a team that got virtually nothing out of the 1990-1994, and 1996 birth years. Barring injury, I suspect we will be looking a USMNT in 2019-2020 which features a First XI with only 2-3 starters from the 2016-2017 qualifying campaign and very little of the depth utilized from that failed endeavor. On the T&T question I agree, and I also agree with bshredder's piece about the odd paucity of talent from that generation. I don't agree w/anyone's potential argument that the players weren't there to be found (an idiotic take of the highest order of Arena's in that post game interview though not specifically addressing this generation necessarily), there's way too much circumstantial evidence suggesting there should've actually been more, this was, after all, the generation raised from preschool with World Cup '94 and middle school with WC '02, and High School with Champions League, and EPL etc on televison w/wall to wall WC and Euro Coverage to boot, and all while the NFL, NBA and MLB all suffered some bad years (NFL had good ratings but bad teams and a ton of retirements, the NBA suffered a ratings decline post-Jordan that only started to rebound with LeBron and to a lesser extent the end of the Kobe-Shaq era, and MLB has been suffering declines in interest especially among minority participation for years). A new league, hosted world cup, quarterfinal run, classic youtube moment in 2010, 10x as much coverage as the 1980s and 1990's etc. You just can't tell me that with all these things in place working as catalysts, we suddenly produced fewer prospects? That strikes me as less likely than the Browns winning the Super Bowl in 2017. However even w/all these issues in place there was zero excuse for the T&T defeat. It was beyond inexcusable. Several things seemed to have played a role from coaching hubris, to bad luck, to complacency, and maybe even fatigue from Bruce's terrible decision to start the exact same lineup after only 3 days of rest for a lineup that was largely erred on the older side of the scale. However when you compare the effort, the quality of play, the desire and hunger of the team that played on Tuesday, that had mostly zero experience playing together to the team that played on the night that shall live in soccer infamy that had a ton of experience playing together both in the hex, as well as the Gold Cup and even other qualifying campaigns. How is it possible for them to lose to a glorified rec ball league out of T&T? The answer is it shouldn't have been. But it happened, which for me is a fundamental indictment of the leadership of the team on the coaching staff, and on the field, and of the veterans on the field that were supposed to understand how crucial the game was but clearly did not. This really works to reinfoce the losing idea that we should shunt nearly all of the vets to the side and replace virtually all of them just to remove the cancer before it metastasizes and effects future generations. We've all seen teams in sports that seem to carry a black cloud, and letting too much of that team return can only help engender more of the same. I like your last paragraph as well. I definitely think it's crucial that MLS figure out how to incentive you development more effectively, building those 2nd league squads, insuring that teams collect a full fee on transfers to motivate them to develop and actually use the players. We can have more Eric Palmer Brown, Chris Durkin and Carleton situations where players pick up splinters instead of meaningful minutes because coaches would prefer to play safer veterans. If this continues our best prospects are gonna work double time on avoiding MLS entirely or avoiding longer term contracts that are hard to get out of. It needs to be fixed or they risk flushing down the toilet a growing asset base that could be huge. There's no shame in becoming like Brazil, or smalller leagues in Europe where players typically have "starter career's" with a PSV or an Ajax before moving onto the big clubs for their prime and it can be quite lucrative for the league as well, but when you waste an Eric Palmer Brown and lose him on a free? How does that make any sense whatsoever? That's a perfect example of a broken system. There may be no perfect fix for these issues, but there sure as hell should be a genuine effort to address it intelligently, and there definitely seems to be a lack of push in certain areas of youth development that would be much easier to address than others.
I'm very high on Keaton. 20 years old, 6'4 defensive mid, who has a feathery pass, and a high soccer IQ. Keaton is pretty much at the same point that Weston Mckennie was at this time last year. The only reason he's a year behind on his development, is because his former team (Varzim, Portugal 2nd division), refused to let him train with them. Keaton had to take Varzim to court, just so they would release him.
Eric Palmer Brown got a chance to learn from the most consistent US defender of the of the 6 years, Besler, and the current MLS Defender of the Year, Opara. Over the past 5 years, SKC has had one of the top defenses in the league. Seems like he was in a solid environment and received a decent number of league games. Accumulating 80 games by age 20 isn't the be all and end all, especially if the player is in a great environment.
His bad timing is being an ACM when JK gave that role to his latest experiment...Bradley at the ACM position.
Good point. The only thing I would add is he may be more suited to be an ACM. If you look at his videos, he always looks for the forward pass first. and when he does pulls the trigger is usually a perfect pass.
Try again. Klinsmann played MB90 as a pressing box to box midfielder at the tip of the diamond (similar to the way KPG was played at Milan) from the Aril 2014 Mexico Friendly through the end of WC2014 in July 2014, a period of 4 months. Lee was brought into camp in Nov 2014. MB90 reprised that role a couple of times at GC2014 and finally at CONCACAF Cup 2015. MVLee had 6 caps under Klinsmann and just was not good enough to displace Deuce under the striker or have the 2-way work-rate required to play the wide attacking roles the way JK wanted those slots played.
Nguyen is 31 now, so I'd be more prudent to build around Agudelo, Rowe, and Fagundez. Nguyen is no less athletic than Zusi. JK could have moved Dempsey to lone forward. JK simply errored in not integrating Williams, Kljestan, and Nguyen.