What's new
Fantasy Football - Footballguys Forums

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

US Men's National Team (11 Viewers)

Due to many of the regular Bayern players resting from the summer tournaments, Julian Green got the start today and scored the first goal of the game (a simple tap in).

 
NewlyRetired said:
Due to many of the regular Bayern players resting from the summer tournaments, Julian Green got the start today and scored the first goal of the game (a simple tap in).
Click to expand...
I'd sort of written him off... is there any real reason for optimism at this point?  Is he still playing 4th division soccer?

 
Landon had some nice comments about Pulisic

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

“Christian Pulisic is much further along at that age than I was,” said Donovan of the teen phenom who's already drawn comparisons with him. “It's really exciting for me to see someone at that age playing significant minutes for a team like Borussia Dortmund.

“At that age I was in Germany just trying to make the reserve team for Bayer Leverkusen. So that gives you an idea of how far he is already in his career, and how productive he's been in what he's doing.”

“I think the sky's the limit for Christian Pulisic and if he continues on this path, he has a real chance to be special,” said Donovan. “And I think we're all hoping for that.”

 
wdcrob said:
I'd sort of written him off... is there any real reason for optimism at this point?  Is he still playing 4th division soccer?
Click to expand...
he needs to get a Bundesliga 2 loan this year.  He is still very young.  He just turned 21 last month so I am still holding out a little bit of hope for him but not getting any real playing time this year in a true pro league would suck.

 
I don't know who our next technical director will be once the JK era is over after 2018, but I hope the first thing he does is flies to Dallas and learns exactly what they are doing at their academy teams and tries to spread that knowledge across the country.

Yesterday the FC Dallas academy teams won the national championships at both the U16 and U18 levels.  Their U15 team is currently in the national semi finals and their U14 side went undefeated for the entire season.

That is an incredible record across multiple age groups.

 
Perry Kitchen started for Hearts in the Europa League this week but was taken off after 30 minutes with a hamstring injury.  The early reports are that it does not look serious.

 
NewlyRetired said:
I hope the first thing he does is flies to Dallas and learns exactly what they are doing at their academy teams
Click to expand...
Are those all local/regional kids?  If so, that's amazing.  If it's more of a UCONN women thing, where winning a few times now lets them recruit all the best players from around the country, it's not really something that can be replicated.

 
Pulisic, and a bunch of other Dortmund players, passed their performance tests yesterday and will join the squad for full training on Tuesday.

 
wdcrob said:
Are those all local/regional kids?  If so, that's amazing.  If it's more of a UCONN women thing, where winning a few times now lets them recruit all the best players from around the country, it's not really something that can be replicated.
Click to expand...
I think it is relatively local as MLS does not allow teams to recruit outside their assigned areas.  Each team is assigned a certain radius from which they can recruit from. 

That being said, Dallas has some obvious advantages in that they are recruiting in a significantly hotter bed of players than some other cities.  LA also has a strong base, but will soon be sharing that base with LAFC.

But Dallas is still doing something better than others since Houston can't come close to their academy strength and they recruit from similar levels of talent in Texas.

 
NewlyRetired said:
If you believe the premise of this article, it is a bit depressing.

USMNT 'golden generation' with Donovan, Dempsey has already passed
Click to expand...
Meh, not buying this at all. It cites Beckerman and.....RICARDO CLARK as part of our so-called golden generation. Hercules Gomez? The guy had a whopping 24 caps and scored 6 goals. Landon and Clint were obviously all-time greats for us, but Beasley was not a transcendent talent at the senior level (great soldier with tremendous longevity, obviously). And Jermaine Jones didn't debut for the USMNT until he was nearly 30.

The current 20-23 year old group has the potential to be pretty good for us if everything breaks right(not sure if that's too wide an age group to be considered a "generation")....

Yedlin, Miazga, Brooks,Wood, Morris, Hyndman, Acosta, Rubin, Horvath/Steffan and a few others that are probably questionable at this point (Green, Arriola, Agudelo, Gil, Palmer Brown, Stanko) could form a solid core. And then there are handful of guys that are a year or 2 outside that age range that could also be a part of the team for the next 5-6 years (Pulisic, Zardes, Nagbe, Garza, Kitchen, Bacon, Carter Vickers)

So I guess its a matter of whether you prefer 2 or 3 of the best US players ever or 7-8 guys who are maybe just below that level.

 
Boyd played and scored a couple of goals in Red Bulls win in a friendly yesterday.

The goals should be ignored as this was one of the those weird friendlies Bundesliga teams love to schedule where they win by like 15 goals :)

The more important part was that he played and came out of the game healthy.

 
We have so many players overseas now that I am starting to lose track of who is where.

Would anyone be interested in a short summary for a bunch of players to stay up to date coming into the new fall season?  I figure I can jot down a few notes as I look up different players to see what their current status is if anyone is interested.

 
I haven't been paying attention for a few days but on Friday I talked to a few brits about the ENG manager thing.  They all thought big Sam would be the name called, not JK.

When asked about their impression of JK, they felt he was "a winner, with good history". I asked if they had any sense of his style of play or tactics as a manager, and they thought he'd bring an attack minded, hard working approach.  I told them he might bring those things, but he'd also alienate players, play them out of position, have little tactical awareness, and misuse his subs repeatedly in games.  They seemed surprised at my criticisms and really knew nothing about how the US had performed.

 
The Z Machine said:
I haven't been paying attention for a few days but on Friday I talked to a few brits about the ENG manager thing.  They all thought big Sam would be the name called, not JK.

When asked about their impression of JK, they felt he was "a winner, with good history". I asked if they had any sense of his style of play or tactics as a manager, and they thought he'd bring an attack minded, hard working approach.  I told them he might bring those things, but he'd also alienate players, play them out of position, have little tactical awareness, and misuse his subs repeatedly in games.  They seemed surprised at my criticisms and really knew nothing about how the US had performed.
Click to expand...
Shhh. 

Stay on message when speaking to the English about JK:  Copa semis, Blame Wondo for Brazil, beat Germany, good singer.

 
The Z Machine said:
I haven't been paying attention for a few days but on Friday I talked to a few brits about the ENG manager thing.  They all thought big Sam would be the name called, not JK.
Click to expand...
yes this seems a forgone conclusion now.  Big Sam never returned to Sunderland's offsite training after his interview.   I don't know what the FA is doing waiting to announce it unless the couple of days old rumors of JK and Howe getting interviewed this week has any merit.

Most expect Moyes will take over for Sam at Sunderland.

 
Also, the quote if the trip was, "I don't know why the US government doesn't trust you to be responsible with your wallet (read: gambling on sports), but trusts you to be responsible with an assault weapon."

Sorry to get political, but I had to share.

 
One interesting infrastructure note.

In what may be the US Mexico home match in the Hex, Crew stadium is booked all weekend with games.  I guess they host a ton of state championship games for Ohio.

The US has played every Mexico qualifier at Crew stadium since it opened and I am sure they want to try again but they are going to possibly have to work around this.  I don't think they can risk playing the qualifier at night because if it is a bad rain day, 2 or 3 games on the field before it could make the pitch almost unplayable by the time the US game rolls around.

 
Eh... our talent pool hasn't changed much in the last 10-15 years.  Probably a bit deeper now, but the overall level seems the same(ish) to me.  And it's not like Brooks or Pulisic or one of the other young players can't end up matching Donovan and Dempsey.  They've very good players, but it's not like we're talking about Maradona.

 
wdcrob said:
Eh... our talent pool hasn't changed much in the last 10-15 years. 
Click to expand...
for the top end players, you could go back much further IMO, probably more than 23 years. 

By 1993ish you had the following core of players:

Keller, Friedel, Harkes, Ramos, Caliguiri, Dooley, Stewart, Balboa, Wegerle, Wynalda, Jones and Lalas.

IMO, that core is just as good as any core that came after it.

 
Steve Bruce interviewed for the England job.  Looks like the FA is not done yet.  This article continues to keep JK's name as a possibility even though we have no real indication he has either talked or has even been approached by the FA at all.

http://www.football365.com/news/bruce-holds-talks-with-england-hull-seek-conclusion

I have no idea why the FA is taking so long.  I would be pissed if I was running either Hull or Sunderland right now.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Looks like Guzan will be moving to Middlesboro on a free.  He still has one year left on his contract with Villa but Villa need to cut payroll fast and seem to be willing to give him up for nothing.

The article I read speculated that Guzan would be the back up at Middlesboro.

 
NewlyRetired said:
Looks like Guzan will be moving to Middlesboro on a free.  He still has one year left on his contract with Villa but Villa need to cut payroll fast and seem to be willing to give him up for nothing.

The article I read speculated that Guzan would be the back up at Middlesboro.
Click to expand...
Wouldn't Guzan have a better shot in MLS?  Maybe that won't happen until January, but I'd assume he'd have some value here stateside.  Maybe even as a starter.

 
Poke_4_Life said:
Wouldn't Guzan have a better shot in MLS?  Maybe that won't happen until January, but I'd assume he'd have some value here stateside.  Maybe even as a starter.
Click to expand...
Guzan would start for just about every team in the MLS, but I like that he still wants to compete for a job in the Premier League.  Valdes had a poor season last year for ManU and isn't locked in stone as the starter.  Guzan won't go in and lie down either.  He'll compete and has a chance to win the job.  

 
encaitar said:
Guzan would start for just about every team in the MLS, but I like that he still wants to compete for a job in the Premier League.  Valdes had a poor season last year for ManU and isn't locked in stone as the starter.  Guzan won't go in and lie down either.  He'll compete and has a chance to win the job.  
Click to expand...
I agree.  I think off the top of my head there are ~4 teams in MLS Guzan would not start for: DC, San Jose, RSL, and Philly, but none of them would even want him so there is no conflict there.

Guzan would be a significant upgrade for many MLS teams.

 
From ESPN, the warming up and cooling down article returns

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


Warming up


Kellyn Acosta, DF/MF, FC Dallas (MLS)

Why he's here: After being in and out of Oscar Pareja's lineup at the beginning of the season, Acosta has started seven of FCD's last eight matches in central midfield, including the club's four recent wins.

What this means: The versatile 20-year-old played left-back during his two U.S. appearances, both of which came earlier this year. But with veteran Kyle Beckerman's decorated national team career ending, Acosta's maturing game in central midfield could put him in contention for a holding role for the Americans.

Terrence Boyd, FW, RB Leipzig (Germany)

Why he's here: Now finally recovered from the knee ligament injury he suffered in late 2014, the 25-year-old striker had a goal and an assist in his first match in 19 months, albeit a preseason friendly.

What this means: It's early yet, but regular playing time in the Bundesliga -- Leipzig clinched promotion from the second tier in Boyd's absence -- could quickly vault the German-American back into the national team picture.

Greg Garza, DF, Tijuana (Mexico)

Why he's here: The hard-tackling left-back missed nine months following hip surgery, but he returned to the Xolos starting lineup for last week's Apertura opener.

What this means: Garza played well in the 2-0 win against Morelia, and nearly scored on a long-range shot. With the left-back position wide open for the U.S., look for the Texan -- still just 24 and already capped nine times by Klinsmann -- to be recalled as soon as September if he continues to impress in Liga MX.

Julian Green, MF/FW, Bayern Munich (Germany)

Why he's here: The 2014 World Cup veteran started in Bayern's first game of the preseason and impressed, scoring once and setting up another goal.

What this means: After just one senior appearance for Bayern in 2015-16, a good first impression on new coach Carlo Ancelotti can't hurt the 21-year-old's chances of seeing more minutes -- especially with Arjen Robben sidelined for the start of the season.

Perry Kitchen, MF, Heart of Midlothian (Scotland)

Why he's here: Fresh off Copa America Centenario duty with the U.S., the former D.C. United destroyer jumped right into Europa League qualifying with Hearts.

What this means: If the half season he spent in Scotland raised his game, making Europe's second-tier club competition would provide Kitchen, 24, with even more valuable experience and eventually help him assume a bigger role with the national team.

Keegan Rosenberry, DF, Philadelphia Union (MLS)

Why he's here: The rookie right back was recently named an MLS All-Star starter following an impressive start to his professional career.

What this means: While there might be fewer depth issues at right-back than on the left, Rosenberry's emergence has him on Klinsmann's radar; he trained with the U.S. last month after the national team played a Copa match in Philly.


Cooling down


Matt Besler, DF, Sporting Kansas City (MLS)

Why he's here: Besler started two games and played well en route to the Americans' fourth place Copa finish and was also named an MLS All-Star. But the SKC captain has been an unused sub in two of his club's last three games, including last week's 1-0 loss at Colorado Rapids.

What this means: Strange as it was to see a healthy Besler on the bench,Sporting coach Peter Vermes insisted that he was merely sticking with a lineup that had played well in the vet's absence. It will be interesting to see if the 29-year-old is back in central defense for Sunday's contest against the Seattle Sounders (3 p.m. ET, ESPN).

Mix Diskerud, MF, New York City FC (MLS)

Why he's here: Not only has Diskerud not played in NYCFC's last six games, he hasn't even been in uniform. The former U.S. regular's most recent appearance was in a U.S. Open Cup loss to second-tier New York Cosmos on June 18.

What this means: It won't be easy for Diskerud to break back into Patrick Vieira's team, not with City sitting atop the Eastern Conference. But the Norwegian-American's relatively high salary makes him difficult to trade. As such, don't expect him to add to his 38 U.S. caps anytime soon.

DeAndre Yedlin, DF, Tottenham Hotspur (England)

Why he's here: Yedlin is here through no fault of his own, really; his immediate future could hinge on whether or not Sunderland boss Sam Allardyce stays with the Black Cats or becomes England's next managerinstead.

What this means: Yedlin helped Sunderland avoid relegation while on loan from Spurs, but a permanent move north is less likely if Allardyce leaves. That said, the 23-year-old proved he can play in the Premier League last season, and other suitors will be on notice if he's not going to be a regular with Tottenham.

 
I never thought Mix would be such a non entity in MLS.  I always figured he was talented enough that he would be a difference some where but not even dressing when you are making the 4th highest salary on the roster is quite a statement about how low his quality has been.

 
Supposedly Jozy left no stone unturned in trying to figure out how to prevent his non stop hamstring injuries.   Hope he found the right formula

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

Kurtis LarsonVerified account‏@KurtLarSUN

Altidore trained in an orange penny today, but I'm told he's 100% and ready to go. Should see time off the bench Saturday.

 
My recollection of Moyes is that he favored 4-4-2 that was pretty direct by modern standards.  Wide players stay wide and cross into the box.  Defenders have a priority on their defending activities.  He did play both Baines and Coleman as midfielders on occasion so maybe that's a possibility but crossing has never struck me as one of Yedlin's strengths.

I vaguely remembered Big Sam using Yedlin as more of a wingback but a skimmed a couple of articles from SAFC blogs that show him as RCB in a 4-4-2 setup.

I guess the first test is whether Sunderland even wants Yedlin now.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

snogger
I'm starting a new job and looking for insight on leading a team
Replies
37
Views
905
Phil Elliott
Phil Elliott
titusbramble
  • Poll Poll
2026 FIFA World Cup megathread
2 3 4
Replies
171
Views
2K
Sand
Sand
NewlyRetired
2024 Summer of Soccer - Euro's, Copa America, Olympics, WCQing
94 95 96
Replies
5K
Views
117K
El Floppo
El Floppo

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 9 (members: 1, guests: 8)
Back
Top