Curious what others think, but this is one of those cases I truly feel simplicity is the best policy. Zimmerman and one of Trusty/McKenzie. Why? Ream, CCV, Richards, and Mrob are probably all Copa. Nothing helps a young team more than a sturdy, experienced backline. Zimmerman has captained for us in the past two, and I feel is the perfect player to lead that young team and young back line with poise and composure. Who would I pick of Trusty or Zimmerman? Probably Trusty, barely. Plays left side and slightly fewer brain farts in the national team jersey than McKenzie. I feel our midfield depth is so stout at this age group it would be wasting a spot there. Number three? Vazquez. Homie is on a rampage right now and this is the perfect event to build his profile IMO. Big man who can throw his body at problems.
3 center backs: Walker Zimmerman, Auston Trusty, and Mark McKenzie. Because our u23 center backs are atrocious. Because if we bring a full strength u23 side, we could have a very solid 532 formation: ————-—Pepi——Balogun——— ———————Gio———————— ———-Musah——-Cardoso———— Paredes———————-———Scally ——Trusty—-Walker—-McKenzie——- ——————-Slonina———————— Bench: Schulte, Reynolds, Cobb, Busio, Tessmann, Yow, McGuire [Missed Out: Kochen, Brady, Harriel, Davis, Tolkin, Bello, Brown, Lund, Wiley, Jon.Gomez, Dietz, Campbell, Neal, A. Morris, Atencio, Q. Sullivan, McGlynn, Bassett, Ku-DiPietro, Fletcher, Vargas, Leyva, Puktsas, P. Aaronson, Cowell, Gutierrez, Esmir, Luna, Cremaschi, Booth, Zahiroslalem, Joh.Gomez, Downs] Either way, we must bring 2 center backs. And the other option must fill whatever area of the field we need the most. That will still need to be determined.
I feel this would be the perfect opportunity to call up John Brooks. As far as we know, the main reason he hasn't been called up to the senior team in over 2.5 years is due to issues between him and GGG. Since Mitro is the U23 coach, not GGG, I think Brooks would be a great veteran presence to have and a better CB option in my opinion than players like Zimmerman, McKenzie, and Trusty.
man when you put it like that the Center back options do suck. I could absolutely get talked into all three being center backs bud that you say it like that
my assumption until very recently has been 2 cbs and a st, so thats what ive considered. zim and trusty for steady leadership and reps, respectively. i really wish we were investing in trusty at the sr level, but here we are. i expect ccv with the copa squad and mckenzie here (with zim), though up top vazquez has been my pick as a pure finisher and hold up guy we can play off of well. this spot is the one that has become more questionable with the possibility of pepi being involved, in which case i would go with luca de la torre. i agree we have a ton of quality and depth in the middle (and our wide attackers are a strength), but i worry about the front 3 being disconnected. aaronson has a ton of potential but isnt really there yet, and you could say busio is fairly like-for-like but luca is just better. we dont have a reyna whos going to do it single-handedly (well, we obviously do but we need that with the sr team), i think de la is a really good fit. im not sure of the chances of his release, though, if it even gets to that.
I would disagree that all U23 CB options are poor. Neal is pretty good, unfortunately he's been on a long term injury list lately. He should be coming back soon so hopefully that gets addressed.
I hear you, but at this point, we just have to write Neal off. This is no longer a knock or hiccup in his career. This is a potentially career damaging injury that he may never recover from, or at least, not reliably recover from in time before the Olympics. I would put more faith in Cobb, Dietz, or Campbell before Neal at this point.
Fair enough. Only time will tell. Fortunately (as a Galaxy fan) he should be ready to go real soon. He got some competitive minutes last week with "G2" so he might be at least available on the bench.
brooks, pulisic and an attacker, maybe mckennie, maybe dest, maybe vazquez...depends on how the rest of the roster shapes up
This is really quite simple. To win the Olympics we only need The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Nothing short of divine intervention will give the USA any chance. Of course the same can be said for the Copa.
Well shit might as well only take part in Gold Cup's then and shrink the World Cup field down to 6 teams. Also FWIW non soccer powers compete for medals all the time. Mexico got bronze in Tokyo and Gold in London. Honduras made the semis in Rio, and the bronze medal match year was between South Korea and Japan. Nigeria got Silver in Beijing, Iraq made the semis in Athens and we made the semis in Sydney. We could very well crash out of the group stage, but we're projected to advance. At that point you're a win away from the medal rounds. A medal for this team is absolutely realistic
Sands and Trusty. I think Sands's ability to play as a DM too is helpful in an 18 man roster I still think Pepi needs to be in The Copa America team. If he can double dip, great, but if not Vazquez needs to be the third If Pepi does go to Paris though, that opens some room for flexibility though
It really comes down to what Pepi is doing. The first two picks are easy enough. You take the two best centerbacks now on the Copa team (which will probably be Zimmerman and McKenzie). If don’t take Pepi you need a 9, whether that’s Vazquez, Ferreira, or Pefok. If you do take Pepi that opens up alot of different options but there’s also the question of whether Reynolds get bumped up to the Copa team or not (as in that case you might want an overage centerback). Depending on his injury status DeJuan Jones might be a good pick in that scenario.
Agree with the consensus that the first 2 are CBs, assuming MRob and CCV are the backups on the Copa America team that means 2 of Zimmerman/McKenzie/Trusty. Probably the first 2, although I wouldn't be shocked to see the 2 younger guys make it and Zimmerman out given how much experience they have playing together, albeit not in several years. For the 3rd pick, if Pepi is on the team you don't need a 9. I wouldn't mind seeing Kellyn Acosta--versatile (important given small squad size), would be the best set piece taker on the roster, and good locker room guy.
I understand where you're going with that, but central midfield is the strength of the group. Tessmann, Busio, McGlynn, Morris, and company. I'm watching Vargas right now for Seattle, and that kid isn't going to get a sniff. [He's eligible for the U20s] I think we've basically had this right for months. Two CBs and a #9. People taking DeJuan Jones as an overage, but one can argue Harriel is having a better year in MLS anyway
2 CB's doesn't mean both have to play only that position, or even primarily. That's where Sands comes in. He can cover you in CM & CB. And C(D)M is not a strength in proven complement + quality. A flawed Serie B midfield, who can't defend well, like Busio-Tessmann, isn't a formula for major success at this level. Venezia had a mid-table defense even in their 3rd rate league. Sands complements Busio better, and we saw them play together to some success in the GC. They're not the reason we didn't go further. As for the 9, we don't need an over-age, if Pepi's going to be allocated here. Then, we might be able to use a rb like Jones, if he's not going to be up w/ the seniors. He's relatively proven internationally, unlike Harriel, whose performance is shoddy. I don't care what Jones is doing in MLS anymore. Miles Robinson in recent years probably had worse performances than 20+ American cb's, & yet he's always best w/ the seniors. Class>form. I might want Celentano to start at the Olympics because he hasn't had an int'l showcase due to multiple factors, one being he's always unfortunate w/ age cutoffs. He's having a better season than Schulte, which actually matters at their level of proof & experience. Out-played him last night. None of this is straight-forward, other than we'll need at least one over-age CB.
I'm of two minds about this. Part of me is open to this, because we took a kind of A/B/C team to Europe to play France and Guinea, beat Guinea 3-0 (though it sounded like Guinea created plenty of chances, it wasn't like a dominating performance, more just we finished, they didn't according to reporting), and then played France, I don't know if we played the best France, but we did play them in France, they are the best team at the tourney, and yet we were unlucky to not be up 1-0 or 2-0 early, multiple chances not finished, free headers by like two guys, a nice cross, wasn't finished, and then France found their footing grabbed a goal, and then a 2nd in the 2nd half, and then we blitzed them the last 15 mins after subs, getting on Yow etc, and boom 2-2, and were quite threatening. What does that mean? I'm not sure, but the big problem for us is that the weighting of opponents is heavily towards our side of the bracket (which will happen when there are only 3 proven powers: France, Spain and Argentina, after some surprising results), and as a result, we'd face 2 of the strongest 3 sides in the tournament before we even kicked off a semifinal match....so...realistically, it does seem like we're donezo pretty early, and yet, how good is Argentina really? We already tied France....We'll see. But Yeah, I'm skeptical of a medal run, feels better than '08, but not 2000 (which had a WAY easier road).
Its hard to know. Guinea didn't take an "A" team to that U23 friendly either and has the ability to name 3 very good overage players if they want to. Unlike the US, they shouldn't have any tournament conflicts this summer. They can name their "best squad" across the board. [They have two WCQers in early June. That's it.] Our expectations should be....................skeptically optimistic.
2 CBs plus a 9 was based on the idea that Pepi would be on the senior team though. If he isn't (and we have a capable backup in McGuire) I don't think you need to use an overage spot there. Of course Sargent's injury if serious could throw another wrench into this, as Pepi may be needed at the Copa America after all. If that's the case I'd probably also drop Vazquez to the Olympic team and replace him with a winger.
Not only is there Ricardo Pepi, not only is there also possibly Folarin Balogun, not only is there Duncan McGuire, but there is Damion Downs and Kahveh Zahiroslalem too. Using an over age spot on a 9 isn’t the worst idea. But it’s not the best idea, in my opinion. Now, we know that we need to use at least 2 over age spots on center backs. Must. If we don’t take 2, then, we are shooting ourselves in the foot. There is a good argument to use all 3 over age spots on center backs. But we might not need to do that. At this point in time, it seems, the best idea would be to use that last over age spot on Tyler Adams, as he’s not quite physically ready for the Copa America (you could assume) and because Johnny Cardoso is ready for the Copa America.
I think the problem is that we don't have 9's at all that are age eligible and good enough other than Pepi, who being in the promo shots is if not a HUGE TELL, at least a moderate sized tell that the fed/berhalter have told Pepi that he's their first choice for the olympics and as always a choice for the Copa America. I think it's pretty simple, I'd 100% take him to the Copa and start him at striker period. he's the best performing striker in the pool since 2021 consistently. No question. But, seems pretty clear to me that Berhalter has Balo ahead of him, and may have Wright even with him or ahead, and Sargent might be even w/him or ahead too, and Pepi doing promo work for the olympics again is a tell. I'd send Pepi, so we can have more flexibility with the 3 spots if Pepi isn't top 2 on the striker board for Copa America. I expect 2 guys to be CB's, and 1 to be either a mid or a striker. Traditionally we send a keeper, but we have no stud keeper vet to send, and we do have 3 legit young keepers, so I don't think they're using one on keeper, 1 is likely to be a striker, 1 to 2 CB, and then, 0-1 something else.
I read somewhere that although Balogun is age eligible for the Olympics he's cap tied to England at youth levels (also read Lund is in the same situation). If that's incorrect Balogun is another option, as I have Pepi above him on my senior team depth chart at the moment (but the gap is minimal enough that I'd rather make Pepi the centerpiece of our attack in Paris than get at best 10-15 minutes off the bench in the Copa). Otherwise I'm 100% fine with Pepi and McGuire as 9s for the Olympic team. Of course if Sargent is going to miss the Copa then Pepi is likely needed there, and in that case it would be smart IMO to drop Vazquez to the Olympic team and replace him on the senior squad with a winger.