In ever increasing numbers. The U20 WC teams, by number of college players:The other key for the new under 20 generation is they are skipping college.
"The comment regarding foreign-born players, at the time I believe was referencing player development. And I was simply saying that if our senior national team program consists of a large minority of players, large majority of players that were born elsewhere, where are we going with our development? It has nothing to do with who should be playing on the national team, who should not."
"Mexico certainly came out and took control of the game early, and I don't think that should happen at home," he said. "I think the game in Costa Rica was not good from start to finish. In general, I think the theme in both games: Our back line played poorly, and I don't think they're poor players. I think they can play better, so we've got to get them organized, get the right players in the right spots and get them playing better as a unit."
As he takes over, he wants to change the Americans' mentality and consistency.
"Too many peaks and valleys," he said, moving his hands up and down. "We've got to get them to level out their performance a little bit more."
Players:"I'm not a person that digs deep into analytics because I don't think the sport of soccer is an analytic sport," he said. "I think baseball clearly is. I think football can be, obviously, basketball a little bit more. I think soccer is a hard one."
Tactics:Arena displayed a binder with 48 players arrayed in a depth chart, but he didn't allow reporters to get close enough to view the names
Arena says midfielder Benny Feilhaber could return and 35-year-old midfielder Jermaine Jones "certainly still has something to offer."
He views captain Michael Bradley as a defensive midfielder rather than a playmaker, a role Klinsmann encouraged Bradley to assume.
We need a better passer in the midfield than we have. We need to have a player in the attacking half of the field that can deliver the right ball at the right time," he said. "Who that is remains to be seen. There's a couple of domestic players that are very good at that that we'll look at in camp in January, and that to me is an area that we've got to identify. And that will help establish how we play. Do we play with one striker, two strikers? Do we play with three? How do we define our midfield shape based on that."
Has anybody seen Michael Bradley alive since the press conference?Tactics: "We need a better passer in the midfield than we have. We need to have a player in the attacking half of the field that can deliver the right ball at the right time," he said. "Who that is remains to be seen."
It's sad how excited I was reading that part, as if a central midfielder who can pass the ball is some kind of three-headed golden unicorn that shits hundred dollar bills.Has anybody seen Michael Bradley alive since the press conference?
And in Cal’s defensive third, sophomore goalkeeper Jonathan Klinsmann developed into a human highlight reel, thanks to his jaw-dropping saves in the face of danger. Klinsmann often came in clutch when faced with one-on-one scenarios and parried away well-taken set pieces to single-handedly keep the Bears in the game. The sophomore is still a work in progress who is poised to get better in the coming months, so Cal shouldn’t have too much trouble preventing its adversaries from getting too comfortable finding the back of the net.
On top of the fact that Klinsmann will be expected to come up big in his defensive duties, he will also be looked at to help start the Bears’ offensive efforts by efficiently using his goal kicks to feed the midfielders and forwards. If the sophomore can provide quality service in the offensive third, Carrera-Garcia shouldn’t have a difficult time getting possession and orchestrating the offense.
Hint, he's 18, starts for Borussia Dortmund, considers himself a natural #10, and even if most of his club starts are coming as a winger, he will often cheat inside while looking for through-ball opportunities.Do we have the CM he's looking for out there?
I don't see it.Hint, he's 18, starts for Borussia Dortmund, considers himself a natural #10, and even if most of his club starts are coming as a winger, he will often cheat inside while looking for through-ball opportunities.
We have lots of guys who can make good winger runs, and/or can poach at the far post or clean up rebounds. He might be the only one with the combination of passing vision, speed and close-control ball handling to really serve that position well.
(I do wonder if Kljestan gets a shot at that CM role though - he looked great against T&T, though there's a wide gulf between that and looking great against MEX/CRC. Probably depends on whether Arena is going to prefer more of a 4-3-3 and needs a box-to-box, or a 4-2-3-1 and just needs a good pairing for Bradley at DM)
When asked if he thought Pulisic could wind up playing that role in the near future, Arena sounded like he sees Pulisic remaining on the wing, where he plays for Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund.
"He’s still young," Arena said. "I think where Dortmund plays him he plays pretty well."
Nagbe if you want a highly accurate passer, focused on possession. Kljestan if you want someone to push the envelope a bit more, though he's somewhat sloppier.Do we have the CM he's looking for out there?
I don't think Klinsmann the Younger is an egregious nepotism case, but I wouldn't be surprised if he slips in the U20 pecking order. It's hard to know what will happen; Tab Ramos was closer to Jurgen than most.How does this coaching change affect Jonathan Klinsmann? Or was he only considered a national team player because of his father?
I saw that he had a pretty good season at Cal: http://www.dailycal.org/2016/11/29/cal-mens-soccer-potential-remarkable-turnaround-next-year/
Yes, from what I've heard it is likely that we will see Lletget in January camp.Sebastian Lletget might be a younger option than Feilhaber or kjleistan for the CM playmaker role
Yes, the Nike friendlies have produced misplaced hype for more players than just Freddy Adu. Stefan Jerome (who?) comes to mind as well. And Eddie Johnson was the co-leading scorer at the 2003 U20 World Cup.I don't recognize any of the names from the team that won the UEFA U17 in May, but that could be because they have aged out. I don't get too excited about U17 stuff, that's how we ended up making Freddy Adu a millionaire, but it's a shocking result. It's still tough to know what a non-prodigy is capable of at 15-16 years old. Even the U21 level has some high end flameouts. Nelson Oliveira won the silver ball behind Oscar at the World Cup. He's done almost nothing since to develop.
Benfica had posted that Carlos Dos Santos was going to play for the US. Pretty awesome for a kid his age getting this kind of experience.
The U17s gave up a quick early goal to Turkey, but ended up winning 5-1.The US U17s are playing in the annual Nike friendlies in Florida, which is a showcase that always has some high-profile opponents.
Tonight, they beat the ever-loving shit out of Portugal in their first game, 7-1. Turkey is up next, then Brazil.
Carleton looks like one of the best of his age group, but he doesn't have Pulisic's elite quickness and athleticism.So Carleton isn't considered in that category? Of course he and others like him don't have to be in order to raise the median skill level of the player pool, but interesting to speculate if others may be out there.
I am no doubt wrong, but I think the reason Bradley has a virtually guaranteed spot on the USMNT is his distribution rather than his position. I think Roldan would be useful as a holding midfielder who can link up the attack and defense, thus allowing Arena to construct lineups sans Bradley.I'm not sure that Roldan and Bradley are competing for the same spot. We'll have to see how Arena sets things up, but I suspect that Bradley will be given a very deep-lying DM role. Roldan is more of a box-to-box guy.
“I think (Pulisic and Kljestan playing centrally) is an obvious option for our team,” Arena said. “You play both of those players, you could look at a formation of 4-1-4-1, but there are other methods of playing both of them in the center midfield. Clearly, it’s something we’re going to look at.”
“I met with Fabian in Germany this past month and I asked him the same question,” Arena said. “His answer to me was, ‘I can play either position. I just would like to play one of them and have a little consistency in where I play with the national team.'"
Foxborough is not on the list this time. The USMNT will play group stage games in Nashville, Tampa, and Cleveland.The group stage venues and dates are as follows:
July 7, Group A -- Red Bull Arena (Harrison, New Jersey)
July 8, Group B -- Nissan Stadium (Nashville)
July 9, Group C -- Qualcomm Stadium (San Diego)
July 11, Group A -- BBVA Compass Stadium (Houston)
July 12, Group B -- Raymond James Stadium (Tampa)
July 13, Group C -- Sports Authority Field (Denver)
July 14, Group A -- Toyota Stadium (Frisco, Texas)
July 15, Group B -- FirstEnergy Stadium (Cleveland)
July 16, Group C -- Alamodome (San Antonio)
Knockout Round venues (in alphabetical order by metropolitan area):
Bay Area -- Levi's Stadium (Santa Clara, California)
Dallas -- AT&T Stadium (Arlington, Texas)
Los Angeles -- Rose Bowl (Pasadena, California)
Philadelphia -- Lincoln Financial Field
Phoenix -- University of Phoenix Stadium (Glendale, Arizona)
Game recaps here:The roster for an upcoming U-20 camp was announced today. The team is heading to Costa Rica for two friendlies against the Ticos' U-20 team.
The squad is very domestic; only Las Palmas' Emmanuel Sabbi and Veracruz's Sebastian Saucedo are based abroad (and it's quite possible Saucedo will return to RSL after his loan expires this month). Hopefully we will be able to add some key pieces from abroad to strengthen the team for qualifying. Our top RBs are all in Europe, as well as many of our best midfielders.
CCV and EPB would be a great CB pairing, but Redding/Glad/Robinson is a pretty solid fallback, too.
There are three first-timer '99s playing up a cycle with the '97s and '98s. Nick Taitague is an attacking midfielder bound for Schalke when he turns 18, who is supposed to be pretty good. Tyler Adams is a DM, which is an area of need for this team. Jake Morris (no relation to Jordan, AFAIK) is a defender of some sort, but I don't know much about him.
GK
Jonathan Klinsmann (California)
J.T. Marcinkowski (Georgetown)
DF
Marcello Borges (Michigan)
Justen Glad (Real Salt Lake)
Aaron Herrera (New Mexico)
Jake Morris (Seattle Sounders U18)
Tommy Redding (Orlando City)
Miles Robinson (Syracuse)
Auston Trusty (Philadelphia Union)
MF
Danilo Acosta (Real Salt Lake)
Tyler Adams (New York Red Bulls)
Derrick Jones (Philadelphia Union)
Sebastian Saucedo (Veracruz)
Nick Taitague (FC Richmond)
Eryk Williamson (Maryland)
FW
Jeremy Ebobisse (-)*
Jonathan Lewis (Akron)
Victor Mansaray (Seattle Sounders)
Emmanuel Sabbi (Las Palmas)
Brandon Vazquez (Atlanta United)
* has signed with MLS and will go into the draft next month