Villafana is OK. But he was a big part of the moon ball party last night. He had trouble dealing with the high press. He did get forward, and he's a little faster than I thought - not a speedster, but fast enough to get forward and recover.
That was the Panama game, the one Zusi started. In the Honduras game he shut down Najar, who was subbed out, and Elis didn't have much joy from the RW area he likes to work in.
I almost don't even want to say his name for fear of jinxing it, but that guy we are all talking about will have such a positive domino effect on the rest of our roster if he can keep this up. He may never rise above mediocrity and could still go down as the GOAT left back in USMNT history! Amongst a prestigious list of competitors that includes, but is not limited to; Jonny Bornstein, Edgar Castillo, DeMarcus Beasley, Carlos Bocanegra, Jonathon Spector, Jeff Agoos, Chris Albright, your grandmother, Wade Barrett, Gregg Berhalter, an actual traffic cone, Dan Califf, Bobby Convey, Ramiro Corrales, Todd Dunivant, Frankie Hejduk, Cory Gibbs, Eddie Lewis, John O'Brien, Heath Pearce, David Regis, Ryan Suarez, Jonathan Spector, Greg Vanney. Just stay healthy and don't pull an Agoos kid.
Yeah, every left-footed kid in the USA ought to be training to be a left back. There is glory to come some day for the youngster that slips in to become the greatest ever.
Sign of respect, in that he is and always has been a midfielder/winger playing out of position imo. Although I hypocritically included my favorite US midfielder of all time to pad out my list of LB names, John (oh what could have been) O'brien.
Right now, Fabian Johnson is the only guy who's played LB for us at the International Level. Villafaña promises, but we have to see more. Lichaj may be a ghost, one of those guys whose reputation grows because he doesn't play for the NT. Besler, the emergency guy for when we have a midfield with width on the left and can tolerate a CB playing LB. Where the situation is bad is not LB, but DM.
Villafana has done well in every game he's played so far. Maybe grass is greener thinking or dogmatism to not be satisfied w/ him and prefer an alternative, blind, who doesn't even play in a top league yet and is not a natural fb unlike the incumbent. If we're lucky, Saief is as useful as Fabian Johnson, who probably is not as good of a fb right now for the usnt as Jorge.
I mean depth, flexibility, and options are good things. If Saief works out we've all of a sudden got 3 quality left-sided players between him, VIllafana, and FJ. Lichaj can provide cover at LB too if he works his way into the squad. So even if Villafana doesn't end up starting at LB for us in Russia (which I think he will if we use a flat-back 4) his emergence and hopefully that of Saief are very good things.
I think we are going to start seeing a drastic change at LB. The LB's in the younger age groups are nearly as good as the players in any other position. 2000's best defender is a LB, 2002's best defender (and maybe the best player) is a LB, One of 2001's best player is a RB who is left footed (probably a LB eventually), along with a number of other intriguing LB's who I think will also factor in somewhere. So while we might not have much talent at the NT level yet, the talent is coming in the next two cycles, I think.