American's Next Cycle

America's Next Cycle:

The Wold Cup is over for the Americans and there's a lot of criticism towards the team for their performance. I would like to remind everyone that we weren't predicted to even get out of the group of death, yet we did, and we did it playing without the one player we couldn't afford to lose. Yes, Jozy Altidore was the one player that the Americans revolved around, not Dempsey, and not Bradley like the media would have you believe. Altidore was the key to the American's success in holding up the play and allowing the wide players to get on the flanks. As soon as he went down, we were doomed to lack of possession and limited opportunities. Bedoya and Zusi were deployed as wide guys, but they had huge responsibility on the defensive end of the ball. In order for them to be productive on the attacking side of the game, we had to have someone with the ability to hold the ball up top, and stretch the defense when necessary. That's where Jozy comes in, he's the only player on the roster who can do this effectively against any team in the world. Without him, Bradley couldn't find the point man (Dempsey, playing out of position) and then his second option out wide wasn't there either, because they were still in their defensive positions.

Dempsey was not the solution, nor was anyone else on the roster. The team was forced to defend and hope to catch the opposition on the counter. So why did we play so well against Portugal? It was largely due to the fact that Ronaldo, and Nani don't defend. Once we won the ball we were able to easily find the wide players, because the two aforementioned Portuguese players would not track back. Once we established some possession in their half we were able to find Dempsey through the gaps that were created by the threat of open wide players.

The Germans, Belgians, and Ghanians defended the flanks, and thus we were forced to settle for possession in our own defensive third, or counter when ever possible. We could've gone more attacking minded and thrown out a 4-4-2. We would have been put in 1v1 situations on the defensive side of the game, and more than likely allowed more goals against than we put in the opposite net.

The Americans did very well with what we had, and the good news is the talent pool is getting better. American players are now entering the professional game at a younger age, and the MLS is starting to become a real league for developing talent. The Academies in place are starting to produce top level talent and the next cycle for the US is promising. Here is a list of players I think we'll see called into camp within the next two years.

GK:
Sean Johnson, Bill Hamid, Cody Cropper, Zac McMath, and of course Brad Guzan

Defenders:
Omobi Okugo, Chris Klute, Sheanon Williams, Kofi Sarkodi, Will Packwood, Ike Opara, Kevin Ellis, Erik Palmer-Brown, Connor Lade, Matt Besler, Omar Gonzales, Timmy Chandler, DeAndre Yedlin, Shane O'Neil, Alfredo Morales, and John Brooks   

Midfielder:
Mix Diskerud, Joshua Gatt, Joseph Gyau, Michael Bradley, Will Trapp, Harrison Shipp, Darlington Nagbe, Gyasi Zardes, Jose Villarreal, Luis Gil, Benji Joya, Jose Daniel Cuevas, Perry Kitchen, Julian Green, Junior Flores, Danny Garcia, Alejandro Guido, Dillon Serna, Dillon Powers, Gedion Zelalem, and Brek Shea

Forwards:
Jozy Altidore, Terrance Boyd, Erik Hurtado, Aron Johanssen, Teal Bunbury, Juan Agudelo, Jack McInerney, Will Bruin, Mario Lopez, Rubin Rubio, Ben Spencer, and Shawn Parker

Of course there are many others out there that may or may not emerge from the depths of our reach, but these are just a few players that I can see making a name for themselves. I still have a special place in my heart for Freddy Adu, and if he can get on with Bob Bradley he might finally come of age. 

U-23 Winter Roster

Here is a link to the USsoccer Roster Announcement:
http://www.ussoccer.com/News/U-23-MNT/2011/12/Porter-Names-28-Player-Roster-for-December-Camp.aspx



There are a couple of players missing from the most recent Olympic roster, but not to worry, there is still time to impress the new manager. You would have to assume that players like Brek Shea, Timmy Chandler, Danny Williams and Jozy Altidore have already booked their tickets, but what about Terrence Boyd or Josh Gatt? Gatt is more than likely still at home recovering from a Hamstring pull and that could be the reason why he is not on this roster, but what about Boyd? The kid is a beast and can finish in front of goal, sort of a Jozy Altidore so it will be hard to see him making the final roster, I do like him as an option for the future and if the USSF is smart they will be calling him into camps early and often. Here is Boyd bullying past 2-3 defenders during a friendly back in November, he makes it look easy.

So here is the lineup for the Olympic camp that just got called up:

Goalkeepers: David Bingham (San Jose Earthquakes), Bill Hamid (D.C. United), Sean Johnson (Chicago Fire), Zac MacMath (Philadelphia Union)

Defenders: Gale Agbossoumonde (Eintracht Frankfurt), Royal-Dominique Fennell (Stuttgarter Kickers), Sebastien Ibeagha (Duke), Kofi Sarkodie (Houston Dynamo), Zarek Valentin (Montreal Impact), Jorge Villafana (Chivas USA), Andrew Wenger (Duke), Sheanon Williams (Philadelphia Union) 

Midfielders: Freddy Adu (Philadelphia Union), Bryan Arguez (Montreal Impact), Joe Corona (Club Tijuana), Danny Cruz (Houston Dynamo), Mikkel Diskerud (Stabaek), Dilly Duka (Columbus Crew), Jared Jeffrey (Mainz), Sebastian Lletget (West Ham United), Amobi Okugo (Philadelphia Union), Michael Stephes (LA Galaxy)

Forwards: Will Bruin (Houston Dynamo), Teal Bunbury (Sporting KC), Jann George (Nurnberg), Joe Gyau (Hoffenheim), Jack McInerney (Philadelphia Union), Andrew Wooten (Kaiserslautern)

Should Modric Leave

So as you know I am a huge Tottenham Hotspur fan, and there are quality players in our side currently. Spurs do not pay their players the wages that the big clubs can offer, so quite freaquently those big clubs come in and take our best players away from us. Luka Modric is one of those players and is attracting a lot of attention from Chelsea, Man U, and Man City, they are all offering him at least double his wages. It is reported that Modric wants to leave to play Champions League Football, but I think he is seeing dollar signs. So the question is, should Spurs cash in on him or force him to stay? My thought is to let him go, it is never a good idea to have a player in the squad that is not happy. He will infect the entire group and the season will become a wash. Spurs should get the most money they can for him and use that cash to buy a top quality striker, something they need more right now than a midfielder. We have Huddlestone, Sandro, Van Der Vaart, Pienaar, and Kranjcar already, and they are pretty good. We also have Jenas, and Palacios, but they look like they might be sold to get fresh blood in. And, they could keep Giovani Dos Santos and convert him to an attacking mid. He has been playing out of his boots for his Country, and if Redknapp could get a little of that form out of him for club he could be a good player for them.

anyway, what do you think, should they sell Modric or fight to keep him?

Giuseppe Rossi to Tottenham

Being a big US and Tottenham fan I can honestly say I do not know how I feel about this rumor going around, apparently Harry Redknapp is trying to buy Giuseppe Rossi from Villarreal. In case you do not know, Rossi was born in the states and moved to Europe to play soccer professionally. He snubbed the US for his Native Italy and has become a prolific striker, so part of me wants to see him at Tottenham because he is a good striker and the other part of me wants to see him fail and not be at my club. Hey, if he scores goals for Tottenham then I am ok with him, I guess.

check out the article I ripped out of the Daily Star:

HARRY REDKNAPP has urged Daniel Levy to splash the cash on Giuseppe Rossi to make ­Tottenham title contenders.

Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp believes Villarreal striker Giuseppe Rossi, 24, has the firepower his side need.

Leandro Damiao from Brazilian club ­Internacional is also a target – and boss Redknapp insists Spurs chairman Daniel Levy needs to invest to keep pace with their rivals.

Redknapp said: “I love Rossi. We tried to get him last season when he was £18m and that looks cheap now.

“It’s up to the club and Daniel but if you want top players they cost top money and they are not cheap. Top wages and fees.

“You need miracles if you’re going to keep ­picking up people who are bargains and they ­become worth mega-money.”

Gulati - Please Get the Hint

Saw this article by Mark Zeigler and agree completely, being a youth soccer coach I see what he is talking about first hand. I have told my parents over and over again that their kids need to watch soccer on the tube and start playing as much as possible. We are too far behind other countries when it comes to the culture of soccer at home and focusing on the technical part of the game. And I also agree with hiring a foreign coach with playing experience, I am a good coach and will get better, but I have never played professionally and therefore do not have that experience to rely on. I think that a high level coach, in most cases, needs that experience. I have played semi pro and college and know my stuff, but put me in the locker room with a bunch of MLS guys and they might not respect me when they learn that I have never played at that level. The Most I can hope for in my career is to be either a Director of Coaching for a youth club or a Youth Director of an MLS Academy. Either way, I am living the dream and helping shape the next generation of American Soccer Players. Hats off to Bob for what he did, but it is time to take the next step and get better.

Six ways to fix American soccer

By Mark Zeigler

9:28 p.m., June 28, 2011

As preparations were being made for the trophy presentation at the Rose Bowl following Mexico’s 4-2 win against the United States on Saturday night, U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati sat on the bench and stared blankly at the jubilant Mexican players.

He was alone, and alone with his thoughts.

Maybe he was merely disappointed with the U.S. performance, blowing a 2-0 lead after 23 minutes. Or maybe he was suddenly overcome with the realization that there are major problems in his empire, that an era of meteoric ascendancy in American soccer has reached an apex, that a cliff may await on the other side.

Here’s how to avoid falling off, or at least how to open a parachute.

1. Admit there is a problem

Before it can be fixed, there must be an admission that it is broken – something the power brokers of American soccer have been loath to do.

The national team also lost to Panama – Panama – in Gold Cup group play and was underwhelming in its victories. And before that, it won one of eight games since the 2010 World Cup.

The under-20 team failed to qualify for the U-20 World Cup out of arguably the planet’s weakest region.

The under-17 team just lost to Uzbekistan and tied New Zealand 0-0 in the U-17 World Cup in Mexico.

The U.S. women’s national team, with more high-level players than the rest of the world combined, nearly didn’t qualify for the World Cup and is at its most vulnerable point in the program’s history. The women’s U-20s were knocked out in the quarterfinals – their earliest exit ever – by Nigeria. The U-17s failed to qualify.

Yeah, there might be a problem.

2. Fire Bob Bradley

This is less about tactics or techniques than timing.

History has taught us that national coaches who hang around for a second World Cup cycle almost always fail, and of all countries, the United States should know that. Bruce Arena guided the 2002 team to the quarterfinals. He stuck around for 2006, and the Yanks didn’t win a game.

Everything that history told us would happen has happened: the team has gone stale, players lack motivation, Bradley has lost the locker room, inferior teams are beating now it. As one person close to the team put it: “The players are miserable.”

Another issue is Bradley’s son, Michael. He was a key piece of the 2010 World Cup team but clearly has lost something – a step, his composure, an edge, something. Yet he played 535 of a possible 540 minutes during the Gold Cup, and the whispers about nepotism, warranted or not, are growing.

The biggest problem, though, is what Bradley represents. He is an exponent of the very system that has delivered a roster of robots to his national team: the youth clubs, college soccer, Major League Soccer.

Having him at the top sends the message that the status quo is acceptable.

3. Hire a foreign national coach

Then tell him there’s no need to find a house in the States. Let him live in London, or Berlin, or Amsterdam, or some quaint European town with a train station.

This accomplishes two things. It brings a fresh, cosmopolitan perspective to a moldy product, and it positions him to place the most promising U.S. players with European clubs.

Because let’s face it. The best American players are based – and have blossomed – in the caldron of European soccer. MLS may one day be a fertile ground for developing and maintaining national-team talent, but it’s not right now. Over six Gold Cup games, just 15 percent of the U.S. minutes came from MLS players (and that includes the Los Angeles Galaxy’s Landon Donovan, who should still be playing in Europe).

This has been done before, basing a non-European country’s national team in Europe. Dutch coach Guus Hiddink did it with Australia for the 2006 World Cup. African countries do it all the time. And imagine how much more productive training camps would be if players didn’t have to fly back and forth across the Atlantic.

4. Reinvent youth soccer

Assemble an international, and fully independent, committee to examine a dysfunctional youth development system and then provide it with sweeping powers to implement change -- not just issue mindless directives that merely perpetuate the problem.

The obsession with winning under-10 State Cups needs to be de-emphasized, along with the influence of parents and the premium placed on raw athleticism at the expense of technical skill. Youth teams are grouped strictly by age level, which gives those who mature early an inordinate advantage and leaves behind the late bloomer, no matter how good he or she is with the ball.

You have to wonder: Would Argentina’s Lionel Messi, a skinny tyke for most of his youth, have been passed over in America?

5. Tweak the college game

NCAA rules severely restrict practice and playing time for college teams, while kids everywhere else in the world are already on pro clubs that play year-round.

And what about eliminating college soccer’s idiotic multiple substitution rule? It creates a hectic, crazed, high-octane mess of kick ball – again, at the expense of technical skill – and players never learn how to properly manage the game and their aerobic resources like they would with the international three-sub limit.

That carries over to MLS, which consists largely of former college players who know only way to play: fast, furious, frenetic.

6. Embrace a soccer culture

It is the great equalizer, and the reason a country with the population of San Diego County (Slovenia) can tie a nation of 313 million in the World Cup.

Kids everywhere else grow up living, breathing, dreaming soccer. Here, kids in the suburbs go to regimented practice twice a week, play a game in front of screaming parents on the weekend and that’s it. No soccer on TV. No pickup games on the neighborhood vacant lot, honing their skills on a bumpy dirt field while dribbling around cinder blocks and tree roots.

Just trying stuff, without an overbearing coach in sight.

There are basically two choices here. Either suburban kids put down their Xboxes and start playing street soccer (probably not happening anytime soon), or U.S. Soccer embraces the ethnic communities that do.

It’s no coincidence that the most promising player on the under-17 national team, the most creative, the most inventive, is midfielder Alejandro Guido.

Who grew up in Tijuana and Chula Vista.

US, Can We Re-Build Now?

Found this article on line written by Bill Barnwell… it pretty much sums up my thought on the USMNT… it is time to re-build and it starts with a new coaching staff and getting the youth the necessary experience to compete. Let Edu, Adu, and M. Bradley lead the way. I am fed up with a Donovan who consistently avoids taking players on, if he is truly our best player he would be taking on defenders and wearing them down. Instead, he opts to pass the ball back and never sees that the 1-2 is on. The US is too one dimensional and easy to defend, just ask everyone we played in the Gold Cup. There was not a single team, until we played Mexico, we should have struggled with. And one last point before I give way to Bill, Bornstein is our worst player, but Bradley constantly goes to him, if that is not proof enough that he does not have what it takes to take the team to the next level I don’t what does.  

Losing 4-2 to Mexico in the Gold Cup final was the best thing that could have happened to the United States men's national soccer team. It's time for the USMNT and its fans to grow up and realize that progress

is not measured by narrow victories over Central American countries or avoiding embarrassment at the

World Cup. The solution to what's wrong with the team is bigger than putting Jonathan Bornstein on a slow

boat to Honduras. It's even bigger

than firing Bob Bradley.

What should the goal of the national team be? Should it be to win as many games as possible? To defend the country's honor and foster a sense of civic pride? To get Landon Donovan on late-night talk shows? The goal of the USMNT should be very simple: To win a World Cup. Every single decision Bob Bradley and U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati make should be considered with that idea in mind. Instead, the minds in charge of the USMNT have consistently employed a strategy based around quick fixes and short-term victories.

If the United States had beaten Mexico and won the Gold Cup, that mentality would have been rewarded. It was plain to see on Saturday night that the American team was making superheroes of Giovanni dos Santos and Andres Guardado. The USMNT was overmatched on Friday, but the team's deficiencies stretch far beyond Saturday's results and have bearings on the future of U.S. soccer.

In naming his roster and setting his starting lineup, Bradley blooded two relatively new 29-year-olds into the side, center back Clarence Goodson and midfielder Jermaine Jones. Goodson had 18 caps before this tournament; if he was really a player of international quality, he would have shown it before now. Jones is unquestionably talented, but he's a German transplant who's never played with any other members of the national team at any level. Talent trumps chemistry, but by the time Brazil 2014 rolls around, Goodson will be 33 and Jones will be 32. By then, they will be past-their-prime question marks, not lynchpins of a great team.

Bradley's decision to include Carlos Bocanegra and Steve Cherundolo as regular starters was also questionable. Both Bocanegra and Cherundolo will be 35 by the time the next World Cup rolls around. Only one defender older than 35 started all of his team's games at the World Cup in South Africa, and that was 2006 FIFA Player of the Year Fabio Cannavaro. Neither Bocanegra nor Cherundolo are anywhere near as talented as Cannavaro, and as we saw with Cherundolo on Saturday night, older players are at a higher risk of getting injured after a full season of club football in Europe.

Meanwhile, the core of what will likely be the 2014 World Cup team sits on the bench. Twenty-four-year-old center back Tim Ream is the next great American export to Europe, capable of turning defense into attack in a moment with his potentially brilliant distribution from the back. After Ream gave away a penalty in the Panama match, Bradley benched him for the rest of the tournament, even turning to Bornstein ahead of Ream in the final. Ream's partner in central defense will likely be mammoth L.A. Galaxy defender Omar Gonzalez, 22, but Bradley called up Goodson instead of Gonzalez for the Gold Cup. Jones played ahead of Maurice Edu, who was a regular contributor to Scottish power Rangers this past season at the age of 25. Those are players who will be peaking when 2014 comes around, but they need the experience of playing competitive international football together now to be ready for Brazil. That experience doesn't come from sitting on the bench.

Bradley the elder has brought in some youth, but only grudgingly. After Bocanegra took Ream's spot halfway through the Gold Cup, 22-year-old Eric Lichaj moved into the lineup at left back. He looked bad when he was moved to right back against Mexico on Saturday night, but those are the growing pains should be tolerated at this early stage. Bradley started the tournament with Jozy Altidore and 18-year-old Juan Agudelo at striker, but replaced Agudelo after two games with once-capped 28-year-old Chris Wondolowski, who, during the Panama match, miraculously punted the ball over the crossbar from three yards out. In the final, Bradley opted for a 4-6-0 alignment, with Landon Donovan and Freddy Adu as the players furthest forward. Adu was arguably the team's best player. Bradley needs to give Adu a few matches in a row to prove his worth, not pull him out of mothballs every two years like an old toy.

You might excuse Bradley's decisions if this was an isolated incident, but he's consistently struggled to keep the big picture in place as team manager. Back in the 2007 Gold Cup final, the U.S. roster included Pablo Mastroeni, DaMarcus Beasley, and Brian Ching. None of those players made the World Cup squad. Bradley ran out older nonentities such as Eddie Lewis and John Thorrington in early World Cup qualifiers before narrowing down the player pool, but he never found a midfielder to work alongside his son Michael. This roster instability ultimately ended up tanking the team's chances in South Africa. Bradley started with Ricardo Clark against England, benched him after one game, and then went back to Clark for the Ghana match. Clark promptly gave the ball away for the first Ghanaian goal and was subbed out for tactical reasons after 31 minutes. You don't find a midfield partnership in the World Cup. You can find it in the Confederations Cup, but Bradley started seven different midfielders in five games there, too. The best place to forge a national team partnership is in the World Cup qualifiers and the friendlies and international tournaments that precede them. That includes the Gold Cup.

There would have been no shame in losing to Mexico with a young, developing team that could take the experience into the World Cup qualifying phase next year. Instead, Bradley clearly believed that he could win the Gold Cup with another run from his team of veterans.

The fact that he failed at both is a catastrophe for the current USMNT and its future. Let's hope, though, this humiliating and counter-productive loss to Mexico will finally be the wake-up call U.S. Soccer has needed for years.

US vs Panama

I don’t know about you, but Adu’s performance last night was inspiring. He was the only one with the speed and creativity to give Panama trouble. At 22 years of age Adu he is still very young, it looks like he finally is starting to make an impact in his career and hopefully will be a part of the USMNT more often. I cannot wait till Adu and the young players become our regulars, I am so sick of players like Donovan and Bocanegra. Don’t get me wrong, these players have done a lot for US Soccer and are very good at what they do. But Donovan hardly ever runs at players with success anymore and is more likely to look to pass the ball off then to run it down the flank and try to get by a defender. You see players like Agudelo, Adu, Bunbury, Mix, Cruz (I like this player and think he will make an appearance for the Men’s team soon), and a lot of the younger players coming up through the US system with more confidence on the ball and willing to take on defenders and combine creatively to break down the defense. The US right now are to one dimensional and do not possess the creativity to break down the center of an organized defense with some 1-2 passing and moving. Watching the game last night was frustrating, you do not see the ball moving fast enough and you never see a 1-2 pass that penetrates the center of the defense. Everyone was standing around waiting for the cross, Agudelo was the only one willing to run and he had no help. Again, cannot wait for the old guard to fade away and the new to come into the mix.

here is a line-up I want to see in the future – and when they all come of age and have the necessary experience it just might happen

                                                              Guzan / Johnson / Hamid

Chandler/Lichaj/Alston    Reem/Gonzalez/Agbossoumonde   Opara/Kitchen    Wallace/Loyd/Sarkodie/Ashe

                        Cruz / Gyau / Gatt                       Holden / Edu                    Bradley / Mix / Lletget                  Okugo / Adu                           Shea / Molano / Gil

              Jerome / Bruin / Bunbury / Agudelo / Altidore / Salgado / Ruelas / Wood / McInerney / Rowe

I know there is a lot of guys here, but when all these players have the experience it is going to be a fun team to watch! And there are some that I have left off this list like; Zahavi, Doyle, Huerzeler etc. some of these guys have not made a decision on whether or not they are going to play for the US or another country so we will just have to wait and see.
Below is an article I pulled from mlssoccer.com about Adu’s performance last night…  enjoy.
HOUSTON — After a near two-year absence from the US national team, Freddy Adu made a shocking second-half substitute appearance Wednesday night against Panama at Reliant Stadium.
And arguably the most talked-about American player ever delivered in the most improbable way.
With his team needing energy, head coach Bob Bradley chose to insert Adu into a game that was starting to slip out of the US’ control.
“Bob said, ‘Go in the game, bring a lot of energy and make a difference,’” Adu said after the 1-0 win that saw the US advance to Saturday’s Gold Cup final. “That was my instructions and I tried to apply that.”
Adu’s impact was felt immediately with his creativity, passing and ability to find space behind a tiring Panama back line. His crowning moment came on a sublime outlet pass from the middle of the field that set fellow second-half sub Landon Donovan up to deliver the game-winning assist.
The playmaker finished the game with a few more positive sequences, holding the ball well to help kill off a semifinal victory. From the postgame comments, his performance caught the eye of his teammates and coach, but for Adu, it was a signal of a change in mentality.
“He didn’t start this camp well,” Bradley said of his young attacker. “There were days early on where he gained in confidence but there were days where it didn’t go so well. But over time, he started to get better and better. He came in with a good mentality and he’s matured along the way and he earned a good opportunity.”
That hard work and maturity paid off with Adu’s standout performance Wednesday. His play and composure show signs that the ballyhooed youngster is starting to turn the corner.
“I didn’t know what was going to happen, but mentally you always have to be prepared,” Adu said. “It’s been a long road back to playing with the national team again, and you really have to be prepared when you get that chance to be out on the field. This is where you want to be, representing your country at this level, which is where you want to play at.”