Resuscitating an idea from 18 months ago for analyzing the evolution of the US player pool ... by looking at similar players produced ten years apart, we can hopefully see some patterns. https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20845 In retrospect, some of the ten-year comparisons in the original post look horrible ... Ryan Suarez vs. Marcelo Balboa -- what was beineke thinking? Anyway, here are some newer comparisons. Hopefully, some will stand the test of time a bit better... Eddie Lewis ('74) vs. Justin Mapp ('84) Tony Sanneh ('71) vs. Chris Albright ('79) Brian Maisonneuve ('73) vs. Kyle Beckerman ('82) These all shed light on the effectiveness of getting players into the pro game. The newer players above are a bit more talented than their precursors (e.g. Mapp can cross with either foot), but the big difference versus ten years ago is that they're an awful lot more experienced. Claudio Reyna ('73) vs. ??? Will Convey ('83) fill this slot? Frankly, there aren't many contenders, which is a bit discouraging. Then again, ten years ago Reyna was still breaking into a lacklustre national team. Earnie Stewart ('69) vs. Landon Donovan ('82) Increasingly, Donovan has been specializing in the intelligent off-the-ball running that Stewart used to do. I haven't seen LD do much in the playmaking role lately, which is where he might really outshine Earnie. To the extent that this comparison is valid, it's a little disappointing. Jeff Agoos ('68) vs. Carlos Bocanegra ('79) Greg Berhalter ('73) vs. Chad Marshall ('84) David Regis ('68) vs. Cory Gibbs ('80) Eddie Pope ('73) vs. Gooch Onyewu ('82) Carlos Llamosa ('69) vs. Jim Curtin ('79) Younger defenders show a major upgrade in size, physicality, without sacrificing the mental side. O'Briwn ('77) vs. Szetela ('87) Similar to the defenders above, we may be adding brawn without losing skill. Chris Armas ('72) vs. Ricardo Clark ('83) No question, Armas has a worthy heir. Will Clark be better at keeping possession? Jovan Kirovski ('76) vs. Freddy Adu ('89) A world-class prodigy in place of a better-than-average ManU prospect. Hope is alive and well. Some matches discussed in the original post ... McBride ('72) vs. Casey ('81) Cobi ('70) vs. Beasley ('82) Keller ('69) vs. Howard ('79) Wynalda ('69) vs. Twellman ('80) Any good matches for ... ? Gaven ('86) Magee ('84) Quaranta ('84) [Kirovski is taken.] Johnson ('84) B. Davis ('81) Noonan ('80) Buddle ('81) N. Garcia ('79) [Lapper?] R. Pierce ('79) [ditto] Califf ('80) J.-M. Moore ('70) Lalas ('70) Chung ('70) Balboa ('67) Olsen ('77) Wolff ('77) Mulrooney ('76) Mathis ('76) Ralston ('74)
this is a pretty obvious conclusion, the older you get the more experience you have and you know what your opposition might do, the younger you are the more of a risk taker, faster, energetic but flawed in tecnique.
I think the problem with finding correlates for all these guys is that US soccer's depth has grown exponentially between 65 and 75 (birthyears), and even more between 75 and 85. If we keep trying to find similar players to all these guys, one is going to see a steadily widening talent gap between the younger player and the older player. Additionally, with guys like Gaven, you're simply not going to see enough guys who play like him born 10 years earlier to come up with comparisons...I searched through MLS's rosters and came up with Ralston, Quill, Lisi, and Ian Russell. Each has so many qualities that are different (and inferior) that it's pretty much impossible to choose. But, then again, maybe I'm just not as good at this exercise as you are. For Magee, I might (might) suggest Pete Marino. For Buddle, perhaps Dante Washington.
I hope so ... it'll be great if we can compress the ten-year window to a shorter time period and find more illustrative comparisons. For now, though, I'm not sure that works. Things are very patchy, and we still seem capable of passing an entire birth year while producing very little noteworthy talent ('75, '78, possibly '80, '85). Below is a list that's intended to identify the most noteworthy player born in each year. (It's a first pass, some entries are very premature, and I'd be happy to make improvements, in particular in the vacant years.) US Players of the Year, 1957-1989 (by year of birth) '57 Fernando Clavijo '58 Ricky Davis '59 '60 '61 Thomas Dooley '62 '63 Hugo Perez '64 Paul Caligiuri '65 Peter Vermes '66 Tab Ramos '67 John Harkes '68 Jeff Agoos '69 Eric Wynalda '70 Cobi Jones '71 Brad Friedel '72 Brian McBride '73 Claudio Reyna '74 Eddie Lewis '75 C.J. Brown '76 Clint Mathis '77 John O'Brien '78 Sasha Victorine '79 Tim Howard '80 Cory Gibbs '81 Conor Casey '82 Landon Donovan '83 Bobby Convey '84 Eddie Johnson '85 Arturo Alvarez '86 Eddie Gaven '87 Danny Szetela '88 '89 Freddy Adu