I didn't expect much. They finished 3rd in Serie B and barely made a mark in the transfer market spending €13 million to Como's €49 million.
I don’t think we’re in danger of being serious contenders right now. I’ll be surprised if we have 0/26 players from MLS in 2026. I also think the market is efficient enough that guys who are good enough to make a difference in big 4 leagues will mostly get there. MLS isn’t holding back any Juve or Dortmund starters.
They might be content to be a yo-yo team.I hope Busio plays well enough to stay up, even if the team doesn’t.
This is absolutely true, but the bottom of the table is the weakest I have seen in Serie A in ages. There are a bunch of BAD teams, and I thought that would give us a chance. But........prognosis is not great
Zendejas goal ALEX ZENDEJAS GOOOOOOL 🦅🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/nP8OKxu2es— USMNT NATION (@USMNTvsHaters) December 9, 2024
Alejandro Zendejas with the Golazo for America! He’s been one of Club America’s best players for some time now. His club level has been elite. I wouldn’t be surprised if that translates to more under Mauricio Pochettino. #USMNT pic.twitter.com/G5aMsFcCwG— herculez gomez (@herculezg) December 9, 2024
Not sure how your response relates to your original statement "MLS is where the most USMNT past and future players are. I keep an eye on NYCFC for just that reason, same with RBNY, Seattle, Philly etc." I don't see any player from any of those teams making the 2026 WC squad. Could a Miles Robinson (Cincy) or a Timmy Tillman (LAFC) who was the MVP of last year's January camp and the last player cut from this year's Copa make the roster. Sure, they have a shot if there are a large number of injuries, maybe.
I said past and future for a reason. I don’t stop following guys as soon as they fall off the USMNT. The future is hard to predict. I wouldn’t have expected Turner,Walker Zimmerman or Tim Ream to be starting at the World Cup if you asked me this far ahead of the tournament.
Reynolds(RB in 4231) and Westeros lose 1-0 at Dender. Strong numbers from Bryan, though. 54/69 passing 5/9 long balls 2/2 dribbles 8 recoveries 5/6 duels 1/2 fouls/fouled SofaScore(7.8)2nd
It’s not misleading to anyone who follows the game seriously enough to post here. We all know that most leagues have less teams.
You're not necessarily looking for players at the next World Cup but the one after. You can be watching MLS looking for the next Tim Ream, Tyler Adams, Joe Scally, Caleb Wiley, Mark McKenzie, Cade Cowell etc and wondering if a. they'll be good enough for a. top 5 league club to come for them and b. if they'll start to make noise at NT level. The 2022 squad featured at least 13 players with MLS experience and another 3 or 4 that has featured at MLS academies. I don't watch RSL that often but each time I do I wonder how Diego Luna isn't integrated into the NT at least as a fringe player. At NYC we have Chris McFarlane who's with England youth at the moment but could switch. Cavan Sullivan is obviously one to watch but Philly and the Red Bulls in particular have produced a bunch of NT youth regulars and you wonder if and when those players will take the next step. Seattle too are producing excellent home-grown players.
Just Cavan Sullivan (who I expect to move abroad summer 2026). But I could also see someone like Matt Freese or Schulte if they don’t get a European move in the next year and a half. There’s also the possibility that a young guy really surges enough to make a team but before a European move.
You think Cavan Sullivan will play in the 2026 World Cup? He'll be 17. He could be the next Pele. He could be the next Andrew Carleton.
I think if there’s a 26 man roster he’ll be on it as the last man on the roster (assuming he continues to progress and doesn’t get hurt or anything). I don’t think he makes a 23 man roster though. I don’t think he’s the next Pele or the next Andrew Carleton. But I do think at a minimum he’s a Pulsic/Renya level prospect.
City's last 4 MLS imports as I remember: Zach Steffen Jack Harrison Erik Palmer-Brown Mix Diskerud That last one was admittedly was just a ruse to get him off NYCFC's books (City's books that year still being under investigation).
We are 18 months out. Given the state of our pool the only surprise newbies are likely to be high ceiling YAs who may have never played a minute in MLS. Last cycle those players were Reyna, Dest, Jedi, Musah, Weah and Balo at the tail end. Of course neither McKennie nor Pulisic played in MLS. I hope a high ceiling prospect like Peyton Miller moves up the global pyramid ASAP or he will be stunted like Dejuan Jones. This is the USMNT YA thread after all.
I don’t see any reason to think that the youth talents like Miler won’t move early. I think the only reason Tolkin hasn’t moved is because he’s not a flashy athlete like Miller, Wiley, Paredes or Reynolds. From what I’ve heard reported by the 3rd Degree (FC Dallas Blog) is that the Euro scouts are looking for special athletes.
Adams was a month shy of his 20th birthday when he joined Leipzig, right? He was already the player he is today and walked straight into their first team. Admittedly having your old coach as boss helped. But if you go to a big club when you turn 18 it's a bit of a lottery and most of our prospects fail and by that I mean they end up going to a lesser club or league, or end up on permaloan, or even (the horror) back in MLS. I keep using Haji Wright as an example but if he'd stayed at the Galaxy and scored 20 goals he would have gone to Europe as a prospective starter, maybe not for Schalke (at the time) but maybe in Ligue Un, Eredivisie or where he is now, but 5 years sooner.
Something really seemed to have clicked for Haji in Denmark and he’s been a consistent scorer in 3 different leagues now. I’d love to hear that story.
The reality is that there's a lot of soccer players out there. And European teams have a lot of in country and often in club options. An American player may be just as good as many young players at the club or in country, but acquisition cost, immigration laws, acculturation (including language) and transition time are all reasons why you are going to take a current player or a local player over an American option. (I think people tend to ignore the risk factor. You don't want to take on the risks of a new player -- that you evaluated them poorly; that they can't adjust to league or culture; that they aren't coachable or lack work ethic, etc., for a bench player or a defensive minded player, etc. You take those risks on for upside.) Why buy John Tolkin when there are fifty German John Tolkins? It doesn't mean Tolkin can't hang with them -- he might even be 5% better (not Tolkin in particular, but just anyone). But that's not worth the cost and risk to improve. So European teams are looking for upside, and since the developmental landscape is very strong there, the upside tends to be in physical athleticism -- something you can't teach and train. It's much easier for Caleb Wiley to be faster than English options than it is for Jack McGlynn to be more skilled. As American development gets better, there will be more and more guys in MLS who can hang just fine in many European leagues but simply aren't enough better to justify the cost. It works the other way as well. Once there, there's good inertia for Americans once they are at a club and hanging as long as they have their EU/UK work permits, but the instant you might start to get expensive, the conversation is going to be different.