Yeah, it was a pretty good showing for January camp, which is notorious for disjointed, ugly performances. With lots of kids on the field, there's a lack of consistency throughout the 90s minutes — a big part of development in the late teens and early 20s is learning how to use your skills to consistently influence games. But these guys have solid fundamentals, make good decisions quickly, and were able to have some nice, snappy interplay.They look....(relatively) good?
God willing.First dates for the Hex are on labor day weekend. Just get some decent FIFA windows where they're mostly healthy, to play together and gel a bit, and February won't matter.
And assists on the second goal.Reyna is on the field in the CL vs PSG replaces Hazard.
Haland is good at football. Reyna just may be as well.And assists on the second goal.
He had assist on Dortmund's second goal.Reyna is on the field in the CL vs PSG replaces Hazard.
The settle and turn up-field while pinned to the sideline by two defenders (one of whom had to drag him down) at about :45 was seriously good. He looks fearless, with several good touches under pressure and a knack for turning up field. Very limited viewing of course.Don't know how long this will stay up, but someone already made an every touch video. He had some nice moments beyond the (fairly basic) assist. It's wild to see how solid he looks on a field of BVB and PSG players at his age.
View: https://twitter.com/USMNTvideos/status/1229888076404740103
This is sadly true (bolding mine):“Bruce Arena, with all due respect, is the worst coach I ever had in my whole career. The worst. And he’s like the No. 1 American coach.”
“Everything we are doing here is run like a family business,” Jones says of soccer in America. “It’s like: Who do I know and who can help me out? Bruce Arena’s son [Kenny]? Come on, he’s not a coach. But then straight away he’s a national team assistant coach. Gets kicked out, and then he gets to LAFC because his dad has a friend, Bob Bradley. He has another job, and you’re like, goddamn, how is that possible?”
Yeah, that piece made me sad and concerned for him. I loved the way he played and always appreciated that he was honest to a fault. But ol’ dude needs to get himself together right now.I was all about Jermaine’s coaching career until approximately halfway into the article (the AR-15 part). Correct as he is about the US setup, not sure his judgement and maturity is where it should be yet. Hopefully he stays out of trouble and gets things in order - a focused JJ at 50 with a bunch of coaching experience could be formidable.
Did someone say Gio Reyna? Well, turns out, the US isn't the only footballing nation interested in him...Paul Arriola tore his ACL and will miss the entire MLS season and a bunch of USMNT games. I think this will expedite the process of integrating some of the young guns like Llanez and Reyna into the team, although the Olympics will be a factor in how the USSF juggles player availability.
There's more, about how FIFA takes a dim view of this sort of prospect-hoarding, and the sheer number of people affiliated with the English FA who are now following his every professional move. But it underscores:...Reyna is starting to shine and looks set to enjoy a bright career for club and country.
But which country that will be remains undecided and The Athletic has learnt of the steps being taken by the English Football Association to potentially bring him under their flag in the future. Reyna was born in Durham in 2002 while his father Claudio played for Sunderland and a transfer to Manchester City kept the family in Britain until 2007, when they moved to the United States.
He has turned out for USA in junior age groups — ironically netting the winner against England in the prestigious Torneo delle Nazioni final two years ago — and is also eligible to wear the colours of Portugal and Argentina via grandparents, which may produce a four-way tussle for his services.
In the absence of a declaration or competitive senior cap, Reyna is among those subject to close monitoring as part of an FA system that follows every player capable of qualifying for England. It is a sophisticated set-up led by the Player Insights team at St George’s Park, which tracks a pool of roughly 1,000 talents and escalates any deemed to be credible long-term options.
Reyna falls into the latter category and is now on a priority list of around 25 players the FA is paying particular attention to. That involves a more advanced screening process thought to have seen him scouted in person on about 15 occasions and by video in the region of 30 times.
Don't forget that Reyna's mother played for the USWNT as well back in the early 1990s.I dunno, if your upside with the USA is "WCF R16 and a nice pat on the back", and if taken seriously by England it's "be a leading contender for the world title", that'd give anyone pause.
Then again, his dad is a US legend, former technical director for US Soccer, and director at two MLS clubs. His parents live in just about the poshest part of Westchester County, bordering Greenwich. Reading about their family, you'd be shocked if Gio did anything except what he's "expected" to do.
But it's still England. How many Germericans have chosen us only once it was clear the Mannschaft wasn't in their future? Or Sergino Dest with the Dutch? You have to imagine that decision could go the other way, if the soccer superpower chose differently too.
Dude, we just locked down Dest. Let us enjoy a nice thing for a little while.I dunno, if your upside with the USA is "WCF R16 and a nice pat on the back", and if taken seriously by England it's "be a leading contender for the world title", that'd give anyone pause.
Then again, his dad is a US legend, former technical director for US Soccer, and director at two MLS clubs. His parents live in just about the poshest part of Westchester County, bordering Greenwich. Reading about their family, you'd be shocked if Gio did anything except what he's "expected" to do.
But it's still England. How many Germericans have chosen us only once it was clear the Mannschaft wasn't in their future? Or Sergino Dest with the Dutch? You have to imagine that decision could go the other way, if the soccer superpower chose differently too.
Let's face it, there is a clearer path to becoming the best player we've ever had than there is to be a mainstay on some of these other teams.Dude, we just locked down Dest. Let us enjoy a nice thing for a little while.
Plus, the English national team is currently awash in great young forwards - Sterling, Sancho, Rashford, CHO, Greenwood, Nelson, maybe Grealish since he's been playing wide for Villa this season.
Portugal has a much shorter bench of young forwards - Joao Felix and Diogo Jota jump out - but they have so many great young midfielders. I would say that their best post-Ronaldo XI has 4 mids and 2 forwards.
In other words, there is a much clearer path to the USMNT starting XI than Reyna's other options.
With all due respect to Mia Hamm, well put.Let's face it, there is a clearer path to becoming the best player we've ever had than there is to be a mainstay on some of these other teams.
Man, how I wish we could field our absolute best lineup for the Olympic qualifiers and Tokyo, and give all our U23s (plus, what, 3 selected older folks) a chance to go shine on the big screen. How awesome would that be? Incompetence robbed us of a world cup two years ago, but we can return them some measure of satisfaction and repayment this year if we wanted to. Look at friggen Neymar playing Rio 2016, right? There are only 2 CONCACAF bids to Tokyo, and we're in a pool with both Mexico AND Costa Rica which is pretty much a worst-case scenario, so we'd need to take it seriously in a month. I guess the good news is, if we can beat one of them, we won't have to face the other in the do-or-die semifinal.Gio should be capped soon regardless. I'd bring him in next month given that BVB probably won't release him for the Olympic qualifiers that would be occurring at the same time.
He'll be 20 for Qatar. A midfield pair of him and Keaton Parks would have to be the tallest there.Reyna ended all speculation and committed himself to the US.
Eddie Johnson, former Fulham, Seattle Sounders and U.S. teammate: Mark Hughes came and was our new manager (at Fulham). We were away, playing against Blackburn, and Mark Hughes gives the lineup the day of the game in the meeting room at the hotel. Dempsey wasn’t in our starting 11. Before the coach can even talk about set pieces and give his final coaching points before we get on the bus to go to the stadium, Dempsey interrupted and said, ‘If you don’t think I’m one of the best damn 11 players in this team, you need to sell me right now.’ I would never have the balls to do that. I’d be worried about them getting rid of me or fining me or never playing me again.
Tim Howard, former U.S. teammate: When I think about Clint, I think about 2010, when we were in South Africa. We were in Irene, call it a resort or a compound. Every day — and they were long days, because we didn’t do much — we trained, and then we had some food and watched some video, and that’s it. And every day, there was a pond in the middle of the complex, and we would see Clint posted up in this lawn chair and a camouflage bucket hat, just fishing.
Landon Donovan: I think people forget how tough that guy was and is. We were at camp, and he had his toenail stepped on when he was playing in England before he came to the U.S. He asked the doctor to look at this nail in the training room and the doctor asks him if it’s hurting, and he goes, ‘Yeah, a little, whatever.’ And I remember the doctor pulling off his shoe, and his toe was mangled. I would have been crying constantly if that happened to me. The doctor, as I was sitting there next to Clint, grabbed some kind of sharp device and pulled his whole toenail off right in front of me. And Clint sat there with a little grimace on his face but never said a word. There was no Novocain, no anything. They literally pulled his whole nail off, and he just sat there and took it. I’m just like, ‘holy shit.’ It was like a trainwreck: I didn’t wanna watch it, but I couldn’t turn away. I turned to him afterward and just said, ‘You are a fucking man, dude.’
2010 WC:70th anniversary of USA 1-0 England in the 1950 WC in Brazil.
My hot take: we need those kits.
Not sure how I forgot about that, I watched that WC intensely. Not intensely enough I guess. Should go back to that, I love the sash. Carry on.2010 WC:
They wore this shirt in the first two games, but a plainer white kit against Algeria and Belgium, which are the two likelier of the games of the four to pop up in short highlight vids on social media, etc.Not sure how I forgot about that, I watched that WC intensely. Not intensely enough I guess. Should go back to that, I love the sash. Carry on.
I curse the name of Koman Coulibaly to this day, even if that draw did pave the way for an all-time great USMNT moment.I'm still incredibly incensed about the whistle on Maurice Edu's goal against Slovenia, especially considering the fact that it didn't end up affecting the tournament outcome at all.