My guess is there's more to the story. On one hand, he has a chance to go to the World Cup, showcase his skills and stop the pressure from where he lives to join Mexico. On the other hand, he can wait behind washed up midfielders until it's his supposed turn and another five years to play in the World Cup. I'm pretty livid about this but I can't blame Gonzalez from a personal or professional choice. Athlete's careers are short and can end in an instant. He has to take care of himself and Mexico is offering far more than USA can at the moment.
All valid points, and I think the sales job is tougher given our circumstances. That said, the pitch goes something like: 1) You're an amazing young player and your ability and style is going to be valued by any coach we end up choosing in the future. 2) Osario can promise you a chance at this World Cup, but he's not going to be around next cycle and you should really be choosing the best long-term fit for your career. 3) We have an exciting young core to build around that's well positioned for future success and you can be a part of that. 4) The US is a more structurally attractive program going forward as our increased investment in youth development begins to pay dividends. There's almost zero reason to believe that the Mexican NT is going to get much better as there is limited room for improvement. The point is, you stay in communication so you can listen to his concerns and address them. Good for Tab for trying, but I'm not happy that Sarachan dropped the ball on something that should have been obvious.
Yup. There's a lot of anger being shown to the US staff here. However, Jonathan Gonzalez' allegiance to our program appears to have been nonexistent. Where is the anger directed at him? One might note that the US recently convinced a provisionally cap-tied player to switch from the US to Mexico. That was Jesse Gonzalez of FC Dallas. We also just had a Uly Llanez switch back to the US from Mexico at the youth level after Mexico convinced Edwin Lara and Efrain Alvarez to switch from the US to Mexico. There seems to be this recruiting battle going on behind the scenes. By picking up Jonathan Gonzalez, Mexico has pulled ahead in that struggle.
The US federation gets more than 20% of the blame and that goes beyond the Portugal screw up. At this point, if one has options, why pick such a dysfunctional and incompetent federation that makes the stupid decision at nearly every turn? That said, piss on him. I couldn't care less about the turncoat and hope he loses every match, as I do for all Mexican matches. In the end, he could have been a part of a nice regeneration of US Soccer with a solid group of prospects, but chose to be a part of the federation where he'll be just another player. I don't think he chose the wise decision, in the long term, but it's water under the bridge now.
Great sales pitch but it makes me wonder about DWill's "platform for MLS" comments. Mexico can say "The reality is you're good enough for the top team in CONCACAF or you can take a seat behind Dax McCarty."
The articles were almost daily about how he along with CP, Mckennie and Adams were going to be our foundation to the future. It's not like no one ever talked about him not being apart of the team.
Gonzalez should've been called in for Portugal. I've seen a few comments questioning his "commitment to the program." Some of them seem to be made in almost a "good riddance" tone. I don't really like that attitude. Being born as a dual national, and being tempted by another (more successful) country's program doesn't make one any less of an American in my book. And I want US Soccer to fight, scratch and claw for all of the best American players they can get. We had a chance to secure a promising young kid that may turn out to be a nobody, or may turn out to be a star for years to come. Either way, I'd rather have him in our pool than in somebody else's, and it's a shame we didn't lock him up when we had a chance. I have no idea who is to blame, but I'm sad it happened.
Wow! Some are acting here like we lost Pele in his prime! The kid is 18 for cryin' out loud, we don't know what he will or will not become as a soccer talent eventually. I'm willing to bet the farm that he's NOT the USMNT savior, we missed out.... time to move on. Our being in disarray sure helped Mexico here but he's 18 and I remember that Navy recruiter selling me a bill of goods at that age too! HA HA! He's off my radar and don't let the door hit you in the arse on the way out!!
I trust you mean that sincerely, because he was publicly miffed about it, and that mirrors reactions from recruits in college sports where they weren't shown much love even if temporarily. People are very fickle at that age. He'd be more a man of convictions 10 years later probably, but we had to address the circumstances now. The amount of confidence we'd clearly maintain his services through missing the World Cup and then not making more of an effort to integrate him into the program or even keep regular communication with him was ignorant. The last 2-3 managers (Sarachan is an Arena puppet) have been a train-wreck for the program and we're bleeding because of it. This is yet another failure in a series of them for USS, and if they think they can keep they can keep the status quo by hiring Kathy Carter, they have another thing coming. Donna Shalala was right when she said there needs to be a revolution here too.
Screw Gulati and Arena. Hard. Can't blame the kid at all and to claim he was never all in is BS. Who wants to join the cluster F that is the USMNT in 2018 if they have a legit shot at a winning program? Faux nationalists need not reply.
Can't blame him. We've no head coach in place, just an interim. New President in Feb. And according to Gonzalez we didn't even contact him back in November! Not even a "Hey we're going to let you stay ahead of MX playoffs, but we're still very interested. We've been monitoring your progress etc." Good to see a majority of the anger is at the fed and not him. I do want some closure. Was it a series of events? Sargent getting called in over him? Not calling him up for the Nov. friendly? Or was it a combination of Mexico scout coming to house and pushing hard, way harder than US, to show how much they wanted him. Not qualifying certainly didn't help us. Maybe living in Mexico and some of his teammates encouraged him to switch. So initially 80-20 to play for US but that slowly dwindled over time and recruitment? Big loss and embarrassing. Has been in the program for years! Never played for Mex youth teams. Shameful by USSF.
Nobody said he was any more or less American for making this decision. We had him in our program this summer by the way, as we called him up to the U20 CONCACAF Championships. By the way, the US won that tournament. The truth is that if Gonzalez probably wasn't even the top choice for a callup to the Gold Cup for a young midfielder this summer. McKennie and Adams might have both been considered ahead of him in the queue. Gonzalez' rise has been REALLY rapid. Not just for the US, but for Mexico. There's been very little time in between his debut for Monterrey and this international tug of war for his allegiance. I wonder if behind the scenes the USSF has known for a while that Gonzalez' first choice was Mexico. Ramos called him in "up a cycle" to presumably convince him to go the US path. It didn't work.
Here's my take: Many will point to the non-contact and non call up before the Portugal game as the reason why Gonzalez has decided to switch to Mexico. Perhaps that might have been part of his decision. I just think it goes deeper than that. In saying this, I'm not relieving the USSF's responsibility in not contacting him. However, I find it hard to believe that that incident by itself caused him to change his Int'l affiliation. My work with youth players in the L.A. area brought me in contact with many Latino players, and in particular Mexican-American players. I would often hear discussions about what national team they root for. I estimate that 80% rooted for Mexico. The connections to Mexico in so many ways is very strong and very profound. That Gonzalez played for U.S. YNTs and indicated always wanting to play for the U.S. is admirable, but it's also easy to show allegiance when it's the only game in town. I don't know at what point FMF started contacting him, but I'm certain it was way before the Portugal game. They observed his progress with Monterrey and decided he might have the potential to play for the Mexican National Team. Once that decision was made they went into full time recruit mode. They know how to appeal to players, exactly what to say, etc. Gonzalez had to do a lot of soul searching once he realized that Mexico was in play for him. He now had to look inside himself to see where his heart really belonged. It was here that those deep roots really had an effect on his decision. That more Mexican-American players haven't chosen Mexico over the U.S. is mostly a function of Mexico not expressing interest. Think about all the Mexican-American players who have played for the USMNT. I can't name one that I would consider a major talent. Suppose someone like Omar Gonzalez was such a good player that major Euro clubs expressed interest. Mexico would be in full recruit mode, and Omar would have a difficult time withstanding their recruitment.
People are underestimating the influence his family and cultural experiences have on this decision. Every aspect of his life is pushing for him to play for Mexico but up until this year, Mexico was not interested and the US was, so of course his allegiance lied there....his only option. After the World Cup disaster. He probably thought now I will be called in to show what I can do. He wasn't and for a kid, that sort of thing can really sting. Combine that with living in Mexico, parents pushing him for Mexico, all of his teammates pushing him and then Osario calls. I think we could have kept him....I really do. But this goes back all the way to JK, Bruce and USSF because if we weren't in a desperate situstion, maybe youth could have been experimented with in qualifying and we could have cap tied him. But don't worry everyone, we are going to have a MLS, Gulati backed president soon so things will get better.....
Yup. Jonathan Gonzalez represented the US at the U17, U18, and U20 levels. This whole idea that we weren't "committed to him" because we didn't call him up to the full USMNT this summer is a little odd. We DID call him up to the U20 CONCACAF Championships this summer UP A CYCLE. Two years ahead of schedule. He represented the US over 20 times since 2015. This isn't a Giuseppe Rossi situation, as he never appeared for us at any level. This isn't even a Neven Subotic situation. Neven was a refugee who wasn't born in the US. This is a US born and bred player who's been in the program for quite a long time choosing to switch allegiances. Folks can certainly blame the US coaching staff and the USSF all they want. There's plenty of blame to go around. However, one should ask how all of that investment the USSF made in him over the past 5 years has mean nothing to him. Seems like it. Because we didn't call him up to one friendly against Portugal? Certainly can't be. And Sarachan called up two young central midfielders to that event for their first caps: McKennie and Adams. He didn't call up Parks either. Luckily for us Parks can't go to another national team. I guess if we don't call up every youth dual national to every meaningless friendly from now on then we're going to risk losing them. Inane.
Previously you were excited about Gonzalez' future with the program. You were acting like it was a foregone conclusion. There was nothing to be worried about. He was 100% committed to the U.S. Him not coming to Portugal and not even having it explained to him why wasn't a big deal. People should calm down. You pretty much say whatever quells criticism for the staff at the time, and then you bury yourself in the long run because they are indeed incompetent.
I don't see the need for a scout to visit when he has contact with Mexican players every day. Klinsmann took grief when he subbed out Pulisic and cap tied Gooch in Costa Rica. That move did two things. It stopped our best player from being pummeled and tied up someone with potential. Not looking like a bad decision today.
Sorry but loyalty doesn't end when one party is in disarray. Through thick and thin. Jona didn't exhibit this, so hes clearly been thinking about this from more than last year. Easy to blame the shitty USSF punching bags.
Wow this sucks. Glad I missed most of his games but sucks for those of you who followed him closely only to have all that time wasted. It feels like we did a poor job communicating with him after failing to reach the World Cup because it was a bigger fish to fry.
This is part of the problem. We place experience over quality. Playing your best players is not experimenting no matter their age.
Romantic as this is, we don't know what has been happening behind the scenes. You are viewing this from a fan's perception.