As for 1, we should care. Sargent’s development and, thus, the national team’s development is best served by him playing consistently and thriving at WB and hopefully beyond. We’ve seen enough instances of NT forwards getting opportunities in top five leagues (especially the Bundesliga), but getting hurt and/or falling out of favor and then sliding down the European hierarchy to smaller clubs in less competitive leagues, which ultimately stalled their development. Sargent is off to a promising start, but he still needs to fully establish himself. Expecting him to play 75% + of the minutes for the NT at this stage has more downside than upside for me, but whatever. 2. I don’t really disagree. That said, that fact doesn’t make the others better options. Toye and Ebobisse are going to get their shots with the Olympic team and in qualifying and hopefully in that tournament. Soto and Vasquez might too, but neither is playing enough. I will say, I was actually glad to see Vasquez move from Atlanta to Cinci. He should get a lot more minutes with them. Weah will get his chances if he is healthy. He’s got to get and stay healthy, though. The rest have a way to go to go. As for Sapong, he’s gotten a few shots at the NT and he ain’t at that level. No reason to go to a 30 year old who isn’t even at Zardes’ level. What you really hope is that in a year or so Zardes is pushed further down the depth chart by one or (hopefully) more than one of these guys. I can’t fault Berhalter for playing him at times right now though. That same feeling doesn’t extend to guys like Lovitz, Trapp and to a slightly lesser extent Roldan.
Sargents issue is that he is largely anonymous in the time that he's on the field. He's not finding the game. He's putting in effort, but it hasn't clicked for him yet. Berhalter is giving him a looong leash, in my opinion. He's getting opportunities in a similar way to the way Trapp was before Trapp was beaten out. When Altidore returns, I fully expect Altidore to take minutes from both Zardes and Sargent and it will be up to Zardes and Sargent to claim the important minutes behind Altidore.
The limbically binary "yay" v. "boo" debates are as interesting as a child's developmental preoccupation with the word "no". Kinda cute, but I'm just not interested in debating that child on the merits. It's not interesting at all. I didn't say anything about "deplorable", its just not interesting. People want their hatred for this or that echoed about, but sorry...I'm not interested in echoing a bunch of hatred. Not. Interesting. I don't care about your "we hate ______" club. I don't need to be affirmed by a mob. Sorry. Thread about lineup selection: BOO Berhalter. Thread about a 4-1 win: EXTRA BOO Berhalter. Thread about a bad 2-0 loss: MEGA BOO Berhalter. Thread about sasquatch migration in the northwest: HATE-BOO Berhalter. You replace Berhalter with "Donovan", "Dempsey", "Demarcus Beasley", "Michael Bradley", "Jermaine Jones", "MLS", "Bocanegra", "Tab Ramos",or "German-American Players"...it has all been equally boring.
This is probably for "Unpopular opinions tread", but as of now Sargent is the only forward who has potential to get into Altidore range, the rest have potentials to get to Zardes range. We just don't have anyone in 20+ age groups. Sabbi, Ebobisse,Toye that's all wishful thinking. One can be better in this camp, another in the next one. One can play better in March, another in November. The only ones that we don't have enough info about are Morris and Weah as strikers. The rest are palliatives. If GB likes Zardes better let him use Zardes, if somebody obviously better comes, we all will know it, as we know about CP, Adams, Wes and Dest. NT doesn't develop players it's selects them, untill we don't have enough obvious starter level palyers we are a shit team.
That "Zardes is our second best striker" and "Sargent may get as good as Altidore" are two sentences that, even though true, fill me with dread.
A "loooooong" leash? Opposite. He is confined within the system. I would rather he not get called up so he can concentrate on his club career.