There will be some misses for sure but so far they've done a decent job. I thought Wright was a weird choice for the WC but he's having another good season and has seemingly turned the corner into a reliable goal scorer. What I'm most afraid of is a player switching and always putting extra effort in when playing us and scoring a goal that beats us.
We have been lucky, so far it seems like no dual nat we haven't won has come back to really bite us, from the Rossi/Subotic days to various Mexican Americans like Jonathan Gonzalez, Efrain Alvarez, David Ochoa, three guys who are barely relevant as professionals forget international soccer... the biggest worry is Julian Araujo if he ends up a legit Barcelona player one day. But then again when was the last time any player from El Tri really hurt the US throughout their career? Forget the current guys who can't win a game, even the previous far more talented generation... Gio Dos Santos had that goal in the 2011 Gold Cup final, Chicharito had a goal in the 2015 CONCACAF Cup that seems less bad now that it's not a regular event... that's about it. Vela had two goals against the US that mattered somewhat, Jonathan Dos Santos had one, 2019 right before the tides turned. None really hurt the US with any consistency. The current guys, none of their big attacking players, Jimenez, Lozano, Gimenez, Martin, etc. have scored against the US in a big game or otherwise. The two that scored in the 2021 Nations League final, Corona and Lainez, are no longer getting national team call ups and may finish their careers with one goal each vs the US (certainly Corona will, Lainez is still young)...
Araujo will almost certainly never play much more than a token for Barca, but he's still a quality player. But as a mostly defensive fullback, I don't know that he's going to be that viscerally a problem. But someone will bite us someday. It may be Barajas; it may be Jude Terry; it may be Gutierrez or Kimbrough or whomever. Someone will simply wants to play for Mexico more, or perhaps someone who sees a logjam and develops or is simply good. There's too many chances for it to occur not to occur. Though I shed no tears for Alvarez or Ochoa; it was clear from the jump it wasn't going to be a problem. Too much smoke about work ethic for the former, and when I read Ochoa's comments that he didn't like that the US goalkeeping team wanted him to be disciplined in goal ... have fun with that.
Its the nature of the beast. Our pool is expanding and expanding and expanding................but the number of opportunities at the youth levels and senior USMNT aren't So USYNT/USMNT staffs have to project and choose guys. Sometimes we'll get it wrong. Like the Netherlands got their evaluation of Sergino Dest wrong. Then they tried to come back and recruit him for the senior team, but it was too late. What you've gotta ask yourself is where Gutierrez would play on the national team. Are Pulisic, Reyna, and those guys going somewhere? Probably not. There may come a time when he thinks there's a better opportunity with Mexico than the US. Maybe if Mexico had an Olympic team, he'd already have made that decision. Maybe Luna would have too. I don't know. ..................and the player development moving sidewalk isn't stopping. There will be the "next" group after this U23 cohort of attacking players. Good players are going to fall by the wayside. And as the years go by, the caliber of those players is going to increase and increase and increase. And yes, a rising tide is going to life all boats. Honduras, El Salvador, Jamaica, Canada, etc. are going to pluck good players off. [Just like how North African team pluck players from France and Spain.]
Young stars in the making. 🤩🗒️: https://t.co/8bUdEltJDb pic.twitter.com/w2AOGXOK1O— Major League Soccer (@MLS) April 9, 2024
Sweet Redemption It was the worst of times for Patrick Schulte and then it was the best of times as the U.S U-23 goalkeeper comes up massive in a shootout (2 saves, including this on Gignac) as Columbus advances past Tigres pic.twitter.com/ajJ0eRs5QP— Brian Sciaretta (@BrianSciaretta) April 10, 2024 ANOTHER SAVE FOR SCHULTE 🧤 pic.twitter.com/Ctb27SKUdk— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) April 10, 2024
Habroune start Our XI in Utah 📋#Crew96 | @EaseLogistics pic.twitter.com/3M1JpJalTs— The Crew (@ColumbusCrew) April 14, 2024 A Massive Moment ✨Taha Habroune makes his initial MLS start for the Crew as the first player in our Club’s history to progress through and play for the Academy, second team and First Team. pic.twitter.com/tEzhLbeFg6— The Crew (@ColumbusCrew) April 14, 2024 Gozo bench 🇺🇸 Diego Luna (20) starts for RSL tonight against Columbus Crew. Gavin Beavers (18) and Fidel Barajas (18) are on the bench alongside Zavier Gozo (17), who could get his first MLS minutes of the season 🇺🇸 https://t.co/cK3PTePtiN— American Ultras Talk (@ameriultrastalk) April 14, 2024
Habroune getting some love from MLS PR Habroune’s rise to the first-team featured several milestones over the past year:April 13, 2024 – Makes @MLS debutJan. 17, 2024 – Signs Homegrown dealOct. 22, 2023 – Starts in @MLSNEXTPro CupJune 29, 2023 – Selected to @MLSNEXT All-Star GameApril 9, 2023 – Named GA Cup MVP https://t.co/2Kevsy3xSP pic.twitter.com/u8VFFKzqH2— MLS Communications (@MLS_PR) April 14, 2024
Really gutted for Peter Stroud. I thought he was tremendous to start the season for RBNY. It's kind of hoping against hope that it's not as bad as it seems. Even if he didn't suffer the injury, it would have been too late for him to make the Olympic team. But if the Olympics were in 2025, he'd be in the mix.
My biggest issue with that club is injuries. They just have too many for it to be all coincidental. Currently Ngoma and Mitchell are both also on injury watch from this week.
"Caleb Porter continues to sit Revs kids" MLS 🇺🇸 U21 Impact Rankings: Matchday 8▫️ Guti, Sullivan, McGlynn & Wiley solidifying themselves at the top ▫️ Wiley banger▫️ 05s: Cobb, Vargas and Tsakiris continue to start ▫️ Caleb Porter continues to sit Revs kids▫️ Benja is backhttps://t.co/feNZGK7ydT— Marcus Chairez (@chai_asc) April 15, 2024 Perhaps that's for the best, now Porter can't blame the kids when he inevitably gets fired...
Way back in his MLS debut we were thinking (even excited) that the top college coach would be good for development in MLS. LOL. He turned out to be the worst.
And Arena won and he's already on the hot seat. For all the love Porter gets here from some for his two MLS Cups, he missed the playoffs four out of five years in Columbus and two of five years in Portland -- meaning that with two pretty talented teams (talented enough to win titles), he did get those two, but missed the playoffs 6 of 10 years.
Shout out to Columbus Crew on their nationwide HGP scouting. They are getting quality minutes out of Morris and Zawadzki which was key for their championship run. Looks like they have other interesting HGPs getting ready. Obviously all this is post Caleb.
Tim Bezbachenko (sp?) is probably the best executive in MLS, even over Lagerway, who gets more press. He took a completely hapless Toronto FC team and made them the best team in CONCACAF. Now they're shit again. Now he's taking a Columbus team that isn't payroll poor but isn't the biggest spender and has won a title, might be the best team in CONCACAF, is making a case for pretty soccer, and is challenging a LOT of assumptions on player development. Schulte was a college guy, but him, Zawadski, Jacen Russell-Rowe was a Toronto cast-off, Will Sands has contributed... these guys were not big prospects except JRR, who wasn't trusted by Toronto. They put together a C2 squad that was a bit more veteran but still young and then turned them into a title winning team. I'm not even counting Morris as I think he'd have been considered a prospect most places. There's always been a logical theory that best format for winning MLS consistently would be in prime stars + strong development pipeline. And there's been hints of it -- New England last year, Columbus, Seattle tried it but the homegrowns took a while and then their stars started to age, Atlanta is trying a bit... NYRB look good this year adding Forsberg. But no one has successfully pulled it off for a few years in a row. Will be interesting to see if Columbus, with a core of Nagbe, Cucho, Rossi plus a few TAM guys plus filling out the roster with youth can establish a bit of a dynasty.
His track record in both Portland and Columbus showed he's pretty averse to playing kids. There are exceptions - Aidan Morris probably being the most notable - but for the most part Porter likes veteran players and he likes foreign ones. That's his pro M.O. Kinda ironic for a guy who made a name for himself coaching college soccer but it is what it is.
We're about a fourth of the way through the MLS season. Right now the league is on pace for the lowest % of minutes given to U23 field players since 2019 (19.51%, down from 24.51% last season) and lowest % to U20 players since 2017 (3.94%, down from 5.08%). What's going on? We're about a fourth of the way through the MLS season. Right now the league is on pace for the lowest % of minutes given to U23 field players since 2019 (19.51%, down from 24.51% last season) and lowest % to U20 players since 2017 (3.94%, down from 5.08%). What's going on?— Paul Harvey (@Thundering165) April 17, 2024 the replies Not entirely sure, but would guess it’s a combination of ‘06s not being ready (+no u20 WC this year removes some urgency to play them), and the level of MLS increasing somewhat.— We Are Being Overrun in Midfield (@OverrunMidfield) April 17, 2024 There have been quite a few injuries to young guys who were expected to play big roles & I think teams w/ MLS Next squads in Open Cup were trying to maintain eligibility for some guys. Hopefully it’s a blip & not a long term trend.— MLS Box-To-Box (@MLS_Box2Box) April 17, 2024 The guys that are supposed to step up have had some key years in their development disrupted by the pandemic. And also, for some reason I do not understand, Noel Buck has barely played— Alessandro Acquistapace (@Acquis_view) April 17, 2024
Marcus Chairez weighs in From a 🇺🇸 perspective, I think it is a couple of things: ▫️ 2006/2007 class lacks blue-chip prospects that are ready to contribute at a young age▫️ 2004/2005 class lacks depth▫️ Many of the top older prospects have already moved abroad▫️ Many clubs are taking less risks on… https://t.co/eBl7gUnqTq— Marcus Chairez (@chai_asc) April 17, 2024 good question Is this data looking at the same quarter of each year? I would imagine younger players get more time as the year goes on once veterans need rest/are injured— footyfriend (@GeekedOnSoccer) April 17, 2024
Cowell was sold, Cremaschi and Neal are injured. Ferreira, Sands, Celentano, Murphy, etc have aged out. I don't have everyone's minutes but I don't think the 2001s will make up the 2000s minutes. As mentioned above the 2006s aren't having the same impact as the 2005s had last year.
I haven't looked into it for this year, but despite the % often looking high, just a few players can really shift the numbers. Players getting sold, injuries, etc. have a very real effect. Caleb Porter can have a very real effect -- not just Buck, but Esmir and Panayatou got big minutes last year (and there was another young midfielder as well). And if you look at the data, there's also just waves of good years and bad years -- one year drops off and another replaces. I'll take a look.