Guillermo Gonzalez, a central mid for the U17s. Plays a lot like Reyna, albeit with more attacking ability IMHO.
Another perspective. Guillermo Gonzalez, a central mid for the U17s. Plays a lot like a very skilled and more athletic left footed Mike Sorber. More a holding mid than an attacking mid. Positives: left footed, silky smooth, excellent field vision, great free kick skills. Negatives: defensively suspect, weak on the tackle, can drift in and out of games. The left footedness, and defensive shortcomings, makes Memo more unlike, rather than like, Claudio Reyna.
Mike Sorber? Please Karl. This kid is light years ahead of someone like Sorber. IIRC Reyna was not the greatest defender in the world as a youth player, and also tended to drift in and out of games. Speaking of drifting in and out of games, I have no problem with that. This 'run everything through a #10 nonsense' has no place in modern soccer. Every player should have possession and passing skills. We used to run everything through Tab Ramos too, and Leonardo did a number on him and BOOM!, everything turned to $hit. Zidane goes down in '02 and everything went to hell for France in a hurry.
Well, I did say a "more skilled and more athletic" Mike Sorber. Give me a teensy eensy beensy benefit of the doubt here. Having seen the 17s in Dallas, I can understand why some are not so high on Memo. He really is a pure holding mid, at least with that team. At the professional and international level, your central mids have to make challenges, go in strong on the tackle, and win balls. That seems to missing from his game right now. But he's a kid...and kids can improve. Of course, every player drifts in an out of games, but a center mid/field general type player -- which Memo is -- had better not do it very often, or he may not have much of a soccer career. As for your historical analogies, the reason everything ran through Tab Ramos is that nobody else in that generation COULD handle the ball under pressure. As for France? Well, you need to have a coach who knows how to select a group of players such that no ONE player is THAT important. France has those players, but the coach seemed to have some difficulty figuring out who they were. C'est la guerre -- at least one run by THAT coach.
I haven't yet seen him but have heard a lot of good things about him. However, a holding mid that is "defensively suspect" and "weak in the tackle" doesn't exactly sound too promising to me. Maybe he should try a new position.
Gotcha. I think that learning to make challenges, go in strong on the tackle and win balls is something that can be learned very easily and quickly. I don't think that having a great first touch, good passing/dribbling skill, and having a good feel for the game is something that can be learned very easily and quickly. Defense/tackling is about desire more than anything IMHO. Skill takes a whole helluva lot more than just desire and energy.
Yes, he almost pulled off a sweet move where he dribbled through two or three defenders at Dallas Cup.
I also saw him at the Dallas Cup, and this quote exactly sums it up about him--he ALMOST does alot of nice things--but never ends up with the ball after these ALMOST moves.
if flair means repeatedly trying to dribble through four defenders and giving the ball away nine out of 10 times then no, he doesn't have flair. He does understand that it's better for a team to hold on to the ball though, and he's good at that. I'd say he's the best pure passer on the team. AT the MLS Combine, he showed a real knack for finding the open player and getting other attacking players into dangerous positions with the ball at their feet. Sigi Schmid said when he drafted him that right then he was the best free kick taker on the team. He is exceptional bending and placing a ball from a set piece, and quite good on penalties as well. Understand when he's called a holding mid, that doesn't mean D-Mid, a la Chris Armas or, in the U17s case, Brian Grazier. He's actually a a-mid on the team sheet for the 17s but tends to play back in the center of the midfield, especially with Freddy coming back as far as he does from a striker position. This player's skill set give him a great chance at being the next great U.S. midfield player (thus the comparisons to Reyna - technical distinctions noted).
Memo is overated and I saw him play vs Mexico, I was not impressed at all. Corey Ashe is much more talented than him.
Yes, true...though I meant more in a positional sense, rather than an individual athletic sense. Anyway, don't get me wrong..Memo has a ton of talent, and is very smooth on the ball, but plays the central mid position is a soft kind of fashion, and is almost exclusively a ball holder. The next level requires much more physicality, defense, off the ball runs, and other things that have yet to come to the fore in his game. So we'll see. He could be great. He could be not so great. But you can say that about a lot of 17 year olds in a lot of fields of endeavor, other than soccer.