The coming boom in multi-eligible player recruitment

Hopefully he's ignoring Jonathan Gomez right now too.......................

We saw Tata's approach to young players while coaching in Atlanta. He couldn't be bothered.

 

Especially because we know he's talked with some of the other players. Gomez and Ochoa both went and trained with the full national team. Araujo was invited to do so (though he declined at the time).

Ochoa even said that it was a big deal for him that Tata Martino the former coach of Barcelona and Argentina wanted him. Araujo also said in the Athletic he had multiple conversations with Martino. So it's definitely a bit odd if he never spoke to Pepi.

 

1458983242028228610 is not a valid tweet id

 

Is he not locked in to England now that he has a cap after the age of 21? They did throw him on the field against Andorra when they called him up in October.

 

It's unfortunate for Canada as I don't think he's going to get much in the way of opportunities between now and the World Cup, and had he not played he would have been eligible to switch over right before the World Cup (and probably would have been amenable at that point).

 

I think Tomori will get plenty of looks in England squads between now and the World Cup, Southgate just doesn't want to turnover the squad to much and to quickly from the Euros (Tomori is in direct competition with Coady and Mings who while probably not as talented are quite big voices in the dressing room and both have points of difference).

 

I mean I guess the question is how likely is Tomari to go to the World Cup with England? And based on call ups over the last year I don't think it's that likely. But with Canada he 100 percent would be.

Similar situation as Musah who may have had a future with England eventually, but assuming we qualify, is absolutely certain to go the the World Cup as long as he's healthy.

 

I think he's probably 50/50, it will depend on his and his competitions performances over the next year.

England has so much competition for places, and so many dual nationals it has to be as close to a meritocracy as is possible, they can't really be guaranteeing (or making promises) World Cup spots 2-3 years in advance.

I'm assuming the US will be in a similar situation in 5-10 years time. I saw 101 players were called up for USMNT in the last 12 months, that's not really sustainable in the long term.

 

Indeed England has so much good young talent right now that it's such a hard national team to break into. It's why we got Musah and why I think we'll eventually get Balogun.

Eventually it seems like we'll be on track to be where England is, which will lead to us losing a lot more dual national battles. Which is generally the sign of a very good national team. I believe for instance that in the 2018 World Cup, 52 players were born in France.

 

Certainly a possibility, but I have noticed you’ve been burning through (bad phrasing) Striker call ups recently, Pefok, Dike, Sargent, Hoppe, Gioacchini, Soto and none were in the last squad, at some point you probably need to back two or three of those. I don’t think Balogun will be making decision until after the 2023 U21 Euros, unless we gets offered immediate Senior international playing time, which as you suggested earlier seemed to be the case with Musah.

 

Yeah I don't think Balogun is really in the picture for a senior team call until he really breaks through with his club team. Which may or may not happen prior to the World Cup.

I think with the strikers you mentioned they've all had issues of late. Pefok lost his starting job and hadn't scored for over a month, Sargent is in a not ideal situation for a striker, Soto has been in one poor situation after another, Gioacchini hasn't played much since his move, Hoppe has been hurt and needs to learn Spanish, and Dike had a poor Gold Cup (though he was injured and has played fairly well in MLS since). There is definitely room for a striker behind Pepi. I think Dike has the highest ceiling of all those guys mentioned, but I don't think he quite plays the way Berhalter is looking for from the 9. If Balogun started playing for Arsenal I think he'd rocket up the depth chart and have a legit shot at being on the World Cup roster for the US. Which probably would be enough to get him to commit.

 

Recruiting Okoh might have just gotten even less likely. Tied on points with Italy but behind on goal differential, Switzerland came like bats out of hell in the second half to score four goals in a crazy 4-0 win over Bulgaria in Luzern, booking their ticket to the World Cup. Even if Italy had won in Northern Ireland, Switzerland likely still would have taken them over on GD and the tie breaker they had over Italy (with this score Italy would have needed to win by three). Switzerland have had some absolutely incredible moments and victories between this and the Euros, so there's gotta be a ton of feel-good factor in that program. Can't help but keep chuckling at people in the USA Men forum who had no idea how good this Switzerland team was when we played them in one of their Euro tune-ups.

 

I don’t think Okoh is going to be playing for either National Team until after the World Cup unfortunately due to the torn ACL he suffered last week. Richie Ledezma had a torn ACL last December, and still hasn’t played any games since. It’s a full year injury, and even if best case scenario he’s back playing games mid-October 2022, he’s not going to do enough to earn a World Cup spot for either country, considering he only has one league game at the first team level.

 

That had somehow escaped my attention, bummer for the young guy. I still think it does something though. Switzerland has something unique going on right now and they've managed to connect with the country in a way I haven't seen before (lived there for three years up till this summer).

 

I'm choosing to take encouragement from the fact that @TLeoneJR liked this tweet pic.twitter.com/D8l4HwwSNf

— scuffed (@scuffedpod) November 19, 2021

 

Mexico is having trouble integrating 21 year olds. Are they going to integrate two 03’s into their senior NT? It doesn’t hurt us that they are integrating this guy over Mexican-American’s like Gomez.

🇲🇽 Marcelo Flores has received his first call-up to the senior Mexico squad

🗓 Our #AFCU18 midfielder will travel to Austin for Mexico's friendly against Chile next week

Congratulations, Marcelo! We're so proud of you 🥳 pic.twitter.com/1ObWCtvnBG

— Arsenal Academy (@ArsenalAcademy) November 30, 2021

 

USMNT camp opens next Mon in Carson with mostly domestic-based players (non-fifa window). Awaiting roster this week. At last check, Gregg Berhalter was aiming to bring in DCU's Kevin Paredes, 18, & Louisville's Jonathan Gomez, 18, a US-MEX youth intl moving to Real Sociedad. TBA.

— Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) November 29, 2021

 

Flores was so dominate in the Revelations Cup that this is not unexpected. He is a tri-national and I'm sure Mexico would not want to play against him if he chose Canada.

 

Christian Torres heading to Germany but hasn't been made official. As much as people here in the US and the rest of CONCACAF hate MLS and keep on saying it is a shit league, it sure is helping everyone in this area get better talent.

 

Indeed. Mexico should be approaching their December camp in Austin the same way we think of ours Dec/Jan camps. A chance to look at young and fringe players. Since this is in the US, I won't be surprised to see some young Mexican-Americans there. Heck, I won't be surprised to hear that Jonathan Gomez was invited to this Mexico camp too.