Alfredo made his debut for the professional team, starting the game and playing 69 minutes in Hertha's 1-0 loss to 1860 Munich. http://translate.google.com/transla...D=8740&cHash=aa3a40de4fdf50001ee4722cf7519ae4
It's progressions like this that are going to allow American soccer to move to the next level. We are building depth and player networks around the world. This is awesome for him, especially since we aren't as deep in centerback prospects as other positions
If by ours, you mean American? Yes. If by ours, you mean has he been capped by either side, no. But he was called up to the U.S. U-20 camp in 2008. So, IMO, he's 90% ours.
To clarify, I meant is he likely to play for US national teams at any level... so question answered. Thanks.
To me, he actually looks like a darker version of Stuart Holden. Has he ever gone out on loan or anything? Its nice to see an American player stay in one place for an extended period of time and go through the natural progression.
It wouldn't have made any sense to send him on loan anywhere. He's right on track. A young player getting playing time at the reserve team, and moving up to the first team; that's the way it goes.
Well that was my point. So often lately we've seen young American players bouncing around in search of immediate playing time. Morales and Lletget look like they're doing it right.
Hertha are currently tied for first in points and are second because of goal differential. Theyre in line for automatic promotion if the season ended tomorrow. Unfortunately for them BL2 has 7 teams just 5 points or less away from first. They need to keep pace and it shows how highly Babbel thinks of him to give him a 70 minute debut as an unproven 20 year old.
http://www.tagesspiegel.de/sport/hertha-bsc/alfredo-morales-der-us-peruaner-aus-wedding/3689068.html Interesting german article about Alfredo Morales. Father from Peru, mother from Bavaria, currently playing for the USA (father served in the U.S army) Sees himself as german, already had an invitation for the german U-20, but couldn't accept it because of problems with the papers. But his heart belongs to Peru and his father also wants him to play for them. Very confusing
Quick translation: Alfredo Morales was born and grew up in Wedding (Berlin), "of course I'm German, my mother is from Bavaria". But his father is from Peru, and he'd like to see his son playing for his national team. First contacts were established, "the Peruvians know about me". The German football federation is interested too. In Spring 2010, Morales was called up to a German U20 game against Italy, the train ticket was already on his way, however a protocolic problem prevented his debut - because Alfredo Morales had already played in international games. For the USA. How the Americans beacame aware of him is still unknown to him. Somebody in the office of the US soccer federation must have found out that father Morales had once served in the US army and thus had American citizenship. This was in 2007 and Morales was in the subway when his mobile phone rang. Hmm, American number, weird, but he still answered the call. It was the coach of the American U20 national team: There'd be a tournament and maybe he'd be interested in joining the U20? At first he believed this to be a joke, then the line went dead. A 2nd attempt led to them exchanging email addresses. Soon after that, Morales was officially invited and became an American youth international. The Americans are trying to develop a team for the Olympics 2012 in London. Morales would indeed like to be part of it, and it looks promising. He'd be minimum as proud if he got the chance to represent Germany, but his heart is set for Peru. "It's my blood, somehow I'm a Latino".
so I guess that whole 90% ours thing isn't exactly accurate. It's obviously up to him, he's pretty clearly more German than anything else, but he'd get more time with the US if he developed into something really promising and Peru's federation seems to be a mess although obviously he'd get to playing time for them as well.
Well, I'm pretty sure BigSoccer found out about him because his nationality was listed on his profile page on Hertha's web site and smithfan started this thread in 2006. So maybe that's how U.S. Soccer found out too...
Is his heart set on playing in a World Cup? He's not in the Germany scene and Peru hasn't qualified since '82. Like most players once reality settles in he'll make the choice. To some players it doesn't matter, who knows.
Morales gets four minutes in Hertha's 4-2 win over Düsseldorf today. http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/...cht_hertha-bsc-29_fortuna-duesseldorf-13.html
Hertha signed two young American players, Bryan Arguez and Ellis McLoughlin, both of whom were also in the US youth system. Alfredo started playing for us just after that time. I'm guessing one of his teammates might have had something to do with it.
I'm trying to figure out how Morales is considered cap-tied to the US. To the best of my knowledge he hasn't played for the US in qualifiers or the U20 WC. Here's a link to the US roster for qualifying from two years ago. http://www.ussoccer.com/News/U-20-M...irst-Match-Of-CONCACAF-U-20-Championship.aspx Here's the link to the roster for the U20 WC. http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/u20worldcup/egypt2009/teams/team=1888304/squadlist.html Morales isn't on either of those. So, barring something I don't know about, I don't see how he's cap-tied to the US.
Perhaps I am misremembering, but I think I remember an article about Morales shortly after he was called up that said the same thing -- it was the teammates. Morales is definitely not cap-tied. He only appeared in a few U-20 camps.
Well he is the option of the bench at 20 on the Top BL.2 team at the moment. I would call him up to the Egypt Friendly.