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US Men's National Team (2 Viewers)

Granted it's a tiny subset of his US work, but Sarge did also look good in the World Cup before he got hurt, so you can at least see potential there. I wouldn't be averse to trying Pulisic or Weah up top instead, though.
 
Granted it's a tiny subset of his US work, but Sarge did also look good in the World Cup before he got hurt, so you can at least see potential there. I wouldn't be averse to trying Pulisic or Weah up top instead, though.
Pretty sure that Weah at least has played as a striker in two striker setup at Lille for a while.
 
I have to imagine Poch will bring in the available guys and decide who's right for what he's trying to do after seeing them in training with the rest of the team. Sarge obviously won't be handed the spot... Even though he's basically last man standing. Only other guy I think will push is Vasquez
Granted it's a tiny subset of his US work, but Sarge did also look good in the World Cup before he got hurt, so you can at least see potential there. I wouldn't be averse to trying Pulisic or Weah up top instead, though.
It would get our best players on the field, which would be a plus.

The negative is that both of those guys are best running at goal, not playing with their back to it. That said, Sarge isn't particularly good at hold up play either, but has done better (from limited viewing of the other two thee) working in those areas.
 
The fixtures of the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League Playoff Knockout Round for USMNT players.

🔘 Borussia Dortmund (Gio Reyna & Cole Campbell) 🆚 Atalanta.

🔘 AC Milan (Christian Pulsic & Yunus Musah) 🆚 Feyenoord.

🔘 Juventus (Weston McKennie & Tim Weah) 🆚 PSV (Richard Ledezma, Sergino Dest, Malik Tillman, & Ricardo Pepi).

🔘 AS Monaco (Folarin Balogun) 🆚 Benfica

🔘 Celtic (CCV & Austin Trusty) 🆚 Bayern Munich
 
I have to imagine Poch will bring in the available guys and decide who's right for what he's trying to do after seeing them in training with the rest of the team. Sarge obviously won't be handed the spot... Even though he's basically last man standing. Only other guy I think will push is Vasquez
Granted it's a tiny subset of his US work, but Sarge did also look good in the World Cup before he got hurt, so you can at least see potential there. I wouldn't be averse to trying Pulisic or Weah up top instead, though.
It would get our best players on the field, which would be a plus.

The negative is that both of those guys are best running at goal, not playing with their back to it. That said, Sarge isn't particularly good at hold up play either, but has done better (from limited viewing of the other two thee) working in those areas.
I thought that was a strength of his. :kicksrock:
 
As some one who believes that how soccer is played in the US has a direct correlation to the future of the USMNT, I am posting my thoughts here:

========

Soccer in the US is teetering on the verge of the biggest landscape change, arguably ever, and certainly the biggest since MLS launched almost 30 years ago.

Two huge items have the chance to change the way soccer is played and players are developed here in the US

1) MLS appears to be inches away from making the switch to the fall/spring schedule

2) US Soccer is getting closer and closer to extracting college soccer from the NCAA and placing it under a professional umbrella


Lets place some talking points for each:

MLS Calendar change

* As MLS has slowly morphed as a business from drowning, to barely surviving, to breaking even, to turning a small profit, to making real money, they have invested in the business consistently. They have slowly added stadiums, training facilities, and academies across the league.

* From all the stuff coming out now, it appears a large majority of the owners feel the next evolution of the league is to finally align with most of the worlds calendar. The feeling is that this will make MLS teams stronger in the traditional transfer windows, both incoming and outgoing. I think MLS fully understands the development model (academies, developing and selling players) was a key component in the leagues growth and if they want to take another step up the ladder (say from a top 15 league to a top 8ish league), they have to make the schedule transition.

* Normally sponsors and TV partners would be extremely quick to kill an idea like this, not only because of the risk (attendance and game day revenue is still a HUGE component of the leagues revenue and the weather is going to cause problems), but also due to lack of tv windows to show the game. I think having Apple as the main provider of games and Apple having no American football content makes things a lot easier for the switch.

* There is probably way too much that needs to happen to make the switch in time, but I would not be shocked if they are trying to figure out how to get this in place by WC 2026. In a perfect world, having MLS be in the offseason during WC2026 instead of having to take a league break would be ideal but I don't think they can pull it off in time.


College Soccer becoming professional

* The general idea is that US Soccer will take as many colleges as want to sign up and place them some where in the pyramid (most likely USL 1).

* Instead of barely a 3 month schedule, the idea is that they will play 9-10 months of soccer under the new plan. The 3 month season has long been derided as why college soccer can never be depended upon to develop the key ages of 18-22.

* We all know that while the academies are fabulous, there are simply not enough of them to cover a country our size. I am convinced we are missing out on kids who fall through the cracks, and or mature physically/mentally later than other kids and eventually end up in college.

* For the kids that fall into the previous bullet, they tend to go on to college and stop developing in a path that could lead them to a pro career. Many of these kids mature late in high school, but by that time they have missed the academy window and there is an EXTREMELY low % of American parents who are going to tell a kid to chase him dreams in the depths of Europe as opposed to college. This change would now gives those kids and their parents a way to do both.

* One very interesting thing to consider is that most of the current USL 1 facilities are absolute garbage. While on the other hand, many many Div 1 college programs in the US have very nice soccer facilities. Adding these facilities to USL 1 will help all teams even the ones that have garbage facilities and fields as they will at least get excellent playing surfaces when they travel to the college teams.

=================

I think both of these ideas are far from slam dunks in terms of being successful but I am cautiously optimistic that 25 years from now we may look back as this time period being crucial to the sport in our country.
 
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that was interesting to watch... makes his living working hard and smart as a fox in the box. only a handful that he generated on his own (beating a man or opening up a shot for himself. I was thinking as I watched how similar his goals are to Pepi's- except Pepi generates more of his own off the dribble inside the box than Sarge who definitely relies on service.
 
I guess I just dont get how MLS continues to expand financially if they move to a traditional schedule. Puts them up against the NFL and basketball......fewer people are going to want to attend in cold weather. Fewer overseas stars are gonna want to come over if they have to play through a North American winter (I know that the league isn't as dependent on this as they were 20 years ago, but I think it still moves the needle)

I think I understand all the potential benefits, but short term it seems like it be a fairly big negative that they'd have to recover from.
 
I guess I just dont get how MLS continues to expand financially if they move to a traditional schedule. Puts them up against the NFL and basketball......fewer people are going to want to attend in cold weather. Fewer overseas stars are gonna want to come over if they have to play through a North American winter (I know that the league isn't as dependent on this as they were 20 years ago, but I think it still moves the needle)

I think I understand all the potential benefits, but short term it seems like it be a fairly big negative that they'd have to recover from.
all good points. Here are some comments:

1) I think the idea to mitigate the winter issues will be to take an ~6 week break from early Dec to late Jan time frame and then on the back end of January, have most of the southern cities host games coming out of the break. It will be far from perfect but I think they can safely mitigate some of the weather issues but I am also very concerned that it is FAR easier for a family to attend a game in July as compared to late November/early February no matter where it is played. I think they are going to have to bake in at least some attendance drop into their calculations.

2) The domestic sporting competition for MLS hits its nadir during the summer, when only baseball is around. For the vast majority of the MLS season they compete against NFL, College Football, NBA, and NHL. The swap of the calendar will trade the two quiet months in the summer, for getting MLS playoffs and championship games away from college football and the NFL. Removing those two behemoths from the competition of their biggest games may be worth trading the lower competition summers when only baseball is playing.

3) Removing the summer from the season schedule actually opens up interesting revenue possibilities for the league. The teams would now be available league wide to host the enormous amount of Euro/South American teams that come to play in the US in the summer. Instead of missing out on that revenue every year, they can likely start getting their taste.
 
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I guess I just dont get how MLS continues to expand financially if they move to a traditional schedule. Puts them up against the NFL and basketball......fewer people are going to want to attend in cold weather. Fewer overseas stars are gonna want to come over if they have to play through a North American winter (I know that the league isn't as dependent on this as they were 20 years ago, but I think it still moves the needle)

I think I understand all the potential benefits, but short term it seems like it be a fairly big negative that they'd have to recover from.
'I'm not disagreeing, but curious how foreign players like going through our summer. and if there's any comment on that vs winter.

I was thinking our winter isn't much different than a lot of Europe's- but our winter varies so much because of our sheer size and varied climates. so it might be true for the North-East (comparable to Europe), but there are obviously worse spots and better spots.
 
that was interesting to watch... makes his living working hard and smart as a fox in the box. only a handful that he generated on his own (beating a man or opening up a shot for himself. I was thinking as I watched how similar his goals are to Pepi's- except Pepi generates more of his own off the dribble inside the box than Sarge who definitely relies on service.
One thing that opened my eyes was how good he is in the air. He does not have the vibe of a pure athlete but he is significantly out jumping the CB's on many of those strong headers.
 
I guess I just dont get how MLS continues to expand financially if they move to a traditional schedule. Puts them up against the NFL and basketball......fewer people are going to want to attend in cold weather. Fewer overseas stars are gonna want to come over if they have to play through a North American winter (I know that the league isn't as dependent on this as they were 20 years ago, but I think it still moves the needle)

I think I understand all the potential benefits, but short term it seems like it be a fairly big negative that they'd have to recover from.
'I'm not disagreeing, but curious how foreign players like going through our summer. and if there's any comment on that vs winter.

I was thinking our winter isn't much different than a lot of Europe's- but our winter varies so much because of our sheer size and varied climates. so it might be true for the North-East (comparable to Europe), but there are obviously worse spots and better spots.

I have heard many more complaints from the Euro players on the heat than the cold. But then again the South/Central American players are the opposite.

With a league with as global a community as MLS, I am not sure there is a one size fits all for players and weather.
 
that was interesting to watch... makes his living working hard and smart as a fox in the box. only a handful that he generated on his own (beating a man or opening up a shot for himself. I was thinking as I watched how similar his goals are to Pepi's- except Pepi generates more of his own off the dribble inside the box than Sarge who definitely relies on service.
One thing that opened my eyes was how good he is in the air. He does not have the vibe of a pure athlete but he is significantly out jumping the CB's on many of those strong headers.
he gets to those WAY better than he does trying to win a header at midfield against those same CBs.

I also like his Zlat-lite goals.

but mostly he's running into or around the 6 to finish something first time.

to be clear- I approve of ALL goals.
 
This is excellent news! While he was not a great head coach, he is generally given credit for the large amount of talent that came out of the FC Dallas system (Weston, Richards, Cannon, Reynolds, Pepi, Jesus etc etc).

==================

https://x.com/tombogert
Tom Bogert

@tombogert


Luchi Gonzalez will take over as San Jose Earthquakes academy director. Gonzalez was first team head coach until being fired the middle of last year. Good to see both sides held no animosity because this is an excellent hire by SJ.
 
This is excellent news! While he was not a great head coach, he is generally given credit for the large amount of talent that came out of the FC Dallas system (Weston, Richards, Cannon, Reynolds, Pepi, Jesus etc etc).

==================

https://x.com/tombogert
Tom Bogert
@tombogert


Luchi Gonzalez will take over as San Jose Earthquakes academy director. Gonzalez was first team head coach until being fired the middle of last year. Good to see both sides held no animosity because this is an excellent hire by SJ.
I''m trying to think of bay area players... Cade Cowell, Caden Clark.... I'm sensing a theme.
 
I guess I just dont get how MLS continues to expand financially if they move to a traditional schedule. Puts them up against the NFL and basketball......fewer people are going to want to attend in cold weather. Fewer overseas stars are gonna want to come over if they have to play through a North American winter (I know that the league isn't as dependent on this as they were 20 years ago, but I think it still moves the needle)

I think I understand all the potential benefits, but short term it seems like it be a fairly big negative that they'd have to recover from.
all good points. Here are some comments:

1) I think the idea to mitigate the winter issues will be to take an ~6 week break from early Dec to late Jan time frame and then on the back end of January, have most of the southern cities host games coming out of the break. It will be far from perfect but I think they can safely mitigate some of the weather issues but I am also very concerned that it is FAR easier for a family to attend a game in July as compared to late November/early February no matter where it is played. I think they are going to have to bake in at least some attendance drop into their calculations.

2) The domestic sporting competition for MLS hits its nadir during the summer, when only baseball is around. For the vast majority of the MLS season they compete against NFL, College Football, NBA, and NHL. The swap of the calendar will trade the two quiet months in the summer, for getting MLS playoffs and championship games away from college football and the NFL. Removing those two behemoths from the competition of their biggest games may be worth trading the lower competition summers when only baseball is playing.

3) Removing the summer from the season schedule actually opens up interesting revenue possibilities for the league. The teams would now be available league wide to host the enormous amount of Euro/South American teams that come to play in the US in the summer. Instead of missing out on that revenue every year, they can likely start getting their taste.
Maybe I'm totally off base, but I would assume families with kids playing soccer drive a lot of the attendance. Dumping all the games into a window where the kids playing and travelling could really hinder the ability of families to attend.

ChatGPT wasn't much help....

While specific monthly average attendance figures for Major League Soccer (MLS) are not readily available, we can observe general trends in attendance throughout the season. The MLS regular season typically runs from late February or early March through October, with playoffs extending into November.

Historically, attendance tends to be higher during the summer months (June through August), coinciding with warmer weather, school vacations, and increased tourism. Conversely, early-season matches in March and April, as well as late-season matches in October, may experience slightly lower attendance due to cooler weather and the overlap with other major sports seasons.
 
College Soccer becoming professional

* The general idea is that US Soccer will take as many colleges as want to sign up and place them some where in the pyramid (most likely USL 1).

* Instead of barely a 3 month schedule, the idea is that they will play 9-10 months of soccer under the new plan. The 3 month season has long been derided as why college soccer can never be depended upon to develop the key ages of 18-22.

* We all know that while the academies are fabulous, there are simply not enough of them to cover a country our size. I am convinced we are missing out on kids who fall through the cracks, and or mature physically/mentally later than other kids and eventually end up in college.

* For the kids that fall into the previous bullet, they tend to go on to college and stop developing in a path that could lead them to a pro career. Many of these kids mature late in high school, but by that time they have missed the academy window and there is an EXTREMELY low % of American parents who are going to tell a kid to chase him dreams in the depths of Europe as opposed to college. This change would now gives those kids and their parents a way to do both.

* One very interesting thing to consider is that most of the current USL 1 facilities are absolute garbage. While on the other hand, many many Div 1 college programs in the US have very nice soccer facilities. Adding these facilities to USL 1 will help all teams even the ones that have garbage ones as they will at least get excellent playing surfaces when they travel to the college teams.

=================

I think both of these ideas are far from slam dunks in terms of being successful but I am cautiosly optimistic that 25 years from now we may look back as this time period being crucial to the sport in our country.

While this would help, I see some major issues.

1. This would squarely make the college kids employees making any scholarship funds potentially taxable.
2. NCAA does have restrictions on the hours of participation.
3. You'll see some push back on university funds being used to support facilities that are making private owners money. This would be like the Hornet's G-League team using the Tar Heels facilities but reaping all the reward for the player development.
 
This is excellent news! While he was not a great head coach, he is generally given credit for the large amount of talent that came out of the FC Dallas system (Weston, Richards, Cannon, Reynolds, Pepi, Jesus etc etc).

==================

https://x.com/tombogert
Tom Bogert
@tombogert


Luchi Gonzalez will take over as San Jose Earthquakes academy director. Gonzalez was first team head coach until being fired the middle of last year. Good to see both sides held no animosity because this is an excellent hire by SJ.
I''m trying to think of bay area players... Cade Cowell, Caden Clark.... I'm sensing a theme.
Cade's little brother, Chance Cowell :)
 
that was interesting to watch... makes his living working hard and smart as a fox in the box. only a handful that he generated on his own (beating a man or opening up a shot for himself. I was thinking as I watched how similar his goals are to Pepi's- except Pepi generates more of his own off the dribble inside the box than Sarge who definitely relies on service.
That fix in the box, non-creator CF role would never work in GGG's system, since service was starved other than crappy crosses put into bad spots. Pepi did better than Sarge in this because he is better making something out of nothing. But really, only Balo (of our recent strikers) has shown the ability to create his own shot, beat a man on the dribble, create separation, etc. Perhaps Weah could do that. I'm certain Puli could, but would he try to do too much, drop too deep, and what would we give up by not having Puli on the ball more?
 
This is excellent news! While he was not a great head coach, he is generally given credit for the large amount of talent that came out of the FC Dallas system (Weston, Richards, Cannon, Reynolds, Pepi, Jesus etc etc).

==================

https://x.com/tombogert
Tom Bogert
@tombogert


Luchi Gonzalez will take over as San Jose Earthquakes academy director. Gonzalez was first team head coach until being fired the middle of last year. Good to see both sides held no animosity because this is an excellent hire by SJ.
I''m trying to think of bay area players... Cade Cowell, Caden Clark.... I'm sensing a theme.
03 Cade Cowell
03 Diego Luna
05 Niko Tsakiris
06 Oscar Verhoeven
06 Cruz Medina

These are all guys that at one time were among the highest rated players in their class. The only one that appears to be living up to his potential is Luna who left the San Jose Academy early.

San Jose has consistently had big prospects (KK Spivey being the latest) so hopefully Luchi can help develop them.
 
Poor Richie must be wondering when his turn will come :(

=======

Dest is not yet in group training, made progress this week. Juventus too early for him. Tillman recovering in Germany. Out a long time, at least a substantial part of the season is expected. PSV without Pepi for a long time. Out more than weeks. We will be without him for a long time." - Peter Bosz​

 
Bundesliga today
* Tolkin starting for Holstein vs Bayern (believe this is his first start)
* Sands starting for St Pauls vs Noahkai Banks who is starting for Augsburg
* Scally starting for Gladbach vs Stuttgart

Reyna, Campbell on the bench for Dortmund
 
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Banks comes out on 78'. Overall I'd say he was good with a few real brain farts. He had an own goal and yellow card. Augsburg are a pretty dreadful watch but they did score almost immediately after removing Banks (and changing formations).
 
I was not expecting something like this....

======================

https://x.com/tombogert
Tom Bogert
@tombogert

BREAKING: Houston Dynamo have acquired USMNT midfielder Jack McGlynn from the Philadelphia Union, per sources.

Houston will pay a cash fee, not allocation money. Philly retain big sell-on clause.
There was speculation that he was moving due to being the only Philly player released for Camp Cupcake. Surprised to see him more across the league for sure though.
 
I was not expecting something like this....

======================

https://x.com/tombogert
Tom Bogert
@tombogert

BREAKING: Houston Dynamo have acquired USMNT midfielder Jack McGlynn from the Philadelphia Union, per sources.

Houston will pay a cash fee, not allocation money. Philly retain big sell-on clause.
There was speculation that he was moving due to being the only Philly player released for Camp Cupcake. Surprised to see him more across the league for sure though.
This is an interesting side effect of MLS becoming more modern. Because teams can now use real cash to get players within the league (instead of exchanging monopoly money). Houston ended up offering better terms than from teams in Italy and in the Championship that talked to Philly.
 
Rik Elfrink
https://x.com/RikElfrink
@RikElfrink

Pepi geeft ja-woord aan PSV, waar hij binnenkort het langste contract van alle spelers tekent en als eerste tot 2030 verbonden is. De club kan dat binnenkort bekendmaken, nu er een mondeling akkoord ligt.

Pepi says yes to PSV, where he will soon sign the longest contract of all players and is the first to be tied until 2030. The club can announce this soon, now that there is a verbal agreement.
 
his ability to sprint at his top speed no matter what the game time or state is something so special. He never seems to get tired.
That does seem to be a lost art. At the professional level you'd think it shouldn't be but very impressive still to be able to hit ite level speed late in a game.

Being able to play 90 at an elite level in itself is fantastic. To be able to hot top speed late is elite.
 
I know we've tracked a few young GKs that have made the bench at big clubs but 2006 Julian Eyestone is on the bench for Brentford today.

So that's...
2006 Diego Kochen (Barcelona)
2006 Julian Eyestone (Brentford)
2006 Adam Delplace (Lens)
2007 Georgio Di Marzi (Roma)

Delplace and Di Marzi were both born in the US and moved abroad at a fairly young age. They have never been called into a US camp. Obviously Kochen and Eyestone have as they are the 1/2 keepers on our U20 side. There are a couple of more keepers in this age range that aren't at big clubs that are decent prospects (06 Beaudry (Colorado), 05 Beavers (Brondby), 06 Rick (Phil), 06 Ferree (SD FC))
 
I was not expecting something like this....

======================

https://x.com/tombogert
Tom Bogert
@tombogert

BREAKING: Houston Dynamo have acquired USMNT midfielder Jack McGlynn from the Philadelphia Union, per sources.

Houston will pay a cash fee, not allocation money. Philly retain big sell-on clause.
There was speculation that he was moving due to being the only Philly player released for Camp Cupcake. Surprised to see him more across the league for sure though.
This is an interesting side effect of MLS becoming more modern. Because teams can now use real cash to get players within the league (instead of exchanging monopoly money). Houston ended up offering better terms than from teams in Italy and in the Championship that talked to Philly.
I don't pretend to understand all the ramifications of this because the TAM/GAM thing is completely lost on me.

But from my POV, McGlynn is a much better fit in Houston who play a possession oriented style. They lost Hector Herrera so there is an obvious hole in their midfield and McGlynn is a somewhat similar player.

Meanwhile in Philadelphia, this opens up playing time for 2006 CJ Olney and 2009 Cavan Sullivan. Almost certainly they would have created time for Cavan but Olney has been stuck at MLS Next Pro where he's been the best player in the league for 2 years now. McGlynn and Quinn Sullivan (among others) have been blocking his promotion to MLS.
 
Chris Richards starts and goes the distance as Palace win 0-2 at ManU. He's started 6 matches in a row and Palace have steadily moved up the table in that span and are solid mid-table now.
I saw some highlights of Richards little brothering Garnacho all game. Having finally take his spot as the #1 CB is going to help things immensely if this continues.

A best case scenario of Richards and Banks for WC2026 both playing well would be wonderful.
 

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