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Report: Jesse Gonzalez turns down USMNT call-up to join Mexico U-23s

Photo by Tim Heitman/USA TODAY Sports
Photo by Tim Heitman/USA TODAY Sports

The most recent U.S. Men’s National Team roster was released on Wednesday, and featured just two goalkeepers. Absent was the name of FC Dallas starter Jesse Gonzalez, whose change of heart reportedly saw him removed from the squad.

According to Goal USA, Gonzalez has opted to join Mexico’s Under-23 camp after previously accepting an invitation to join the USMNT for January camp. Gonzalez, who was born in North Carolina and raised in Texas, has previously represented Mexico on the youth level.

El Tri’s starter at the U-20 World Cup, Gonzalez would not have been cap-tied by merely attending the January camp. He would, however, have had to file a one-time switch if he were to want to represent the U.S.

Prior to his decision to remain with El Tri for the time being, Gonzalez was viewed as competition for those involved with the U.S. Olympic team, including Cody Cropper, Ethan Horvath and Zack Steffen.

With Gonzalez’s exclusion, the USMNT heads into camp with Bill Hamid and Luis Robles as the two goalkeepers on the roster.

What do you think of Gonzalez’s decision? Think there’s any chance he ever opts to play for the U.S.? How will he fare with Mexico’s U-23s?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. I am also amazed that we have let FIFA define who is an American when our country is already doing a pretty good job of that.

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    • WE THE PEOPLE,

      You really either need to stop posting or stop or think before you post. I say this because you clearly are not thinking through what you write and, thus, exposing your own foolishness or stupidity.

      “I am also amazed that we have let FIFA define who is an American when our country is already doing a pretty good job of that.”

      FIFA is doing NO SUCH THING. FIFA lets the everything define what their own citizens are. In fact, they restrict their ability to switch teams. If anything, dual nationals have a gripe because FIFA does not allow them to switch teams as much as they want even though their dual nationality. For the last time, EVERY GUY THAT SUIT UPS OF THE USMNT IS A US CITIZEN AS DEFINED BY FEDERAL LAW!

      Take your ignorance elsewhere!

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    • He, like most dual nationals (including myself), can vote in multiple countries. So…clearly, you failed at basic civics.

      Reply
  2. Smart kid. If there is one thing the US knows how to produce…that is goalkeepers. Tim Howard and Brad Guzan are not showing any signs of slowing down regardless of age, Rick Rimondo and Luiz Robles are winning awards in MLS and then you have Cody Cropper, Ethan Horvath and Zack Steffen. Smart kid, go where you have a chance to make a name for yourself……away from Klinsmann

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  3. Caution Jesse: Wait until good ole loyal Mexico’s coach gives preference to Mexican’s born IN MEXICO and who play IN the Mexican league.
    He will be fighting an uphill battle. Unless he is good enough to prove himself in European league, he likely will always be a 5th or 6th option — at best. Tough lesson coming his way.

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  4. Good. I’m glad he turned us down.

    Look, i love us getting dual-nationals, but this guy had gone VERY far down the path with Mexico already (won a U-17 world cup with them) and plus we are so deep at keeper, i’d rather him stay committed to our arch-rivals. No thanks.

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  5. With his roots in the US, I wonder if Mexico fans criticize the Mexican federation for accepting a player who is not “Mexican enough,” as some posters here do with USMNT players who are allegedly not “American enough.”

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    • Yes they do. But with that being said it is not a fair comparison. Players like Jesse Gonzalez grow up with two Mexican parents, and grow up in a Mexican culture (California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas have a huge Mexican population as you all know). Also Jesse Gonzalez has come up with involvement in the Mexican national team youth set-up. I am not here arguing whether or not someone is “American or Mexican enough”, I am simply saying perception matters.

      Comparing the cases of players like some of our German-Americans and Jesse Gonzalez is night and day. But for FIFA purposes and national team purposes all that matters is the passport.

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      • (Disclaimer- I have nothing against our dual-nationals and actually like the fact that they play for the USMNT)

        Shawn, first of all, their fathers were in the military, not the players themselves. I always laugh when people use the fathers’ service and try to transfer that onto the sons. Lets also remember that the majority of these players had no relationship with their fathers whatsoever.

        Secondly, I’ve never been one of those people that thinks serving in the military makes someone more patriotic or American than someone that didn’t. I am not a veteran and am plenty patriotic. Still though, kudos to those that have served in the military.

        This is going to come off as condescending but I don’t mean it like that. The vast majority of people join the military right out of high school, and they join not because of patriotism or honor like the commercials would like you to believe, they join for financial reasons. Anyone that has ever dealt with military recruiters knows that their pitch is all about financial benefits, and they target the students who aren’t going to college. Remember that I said MAJORITY not ALL. I am sure there are plenty of exceptions to this rule (Pat Tillman comes to mind), but from my experience this is how it is in general.

      • when they asked me why i wanted to move up in the military, i said i joined because i love my country and wanted to defend the flag and all the BS. i just wanted more money.

      • UCLA, I liked and agreed with your first post on this thread, but your second comment, while rooted in a lot of truth, misses the mark. . .along with Shawn’s comment.

        (Disclaimer – I was in the US military, and I’m Mexican-American)

        First off, allow me a little preamble exhalation. I hate when I see veterans drop the fact that they’ve served in attempt to gain some hollow credibility for topics completely unrelated to the military. This has been weighing on me because I’ve seen it happening more frequently on Twitter and YT regarding this Oregon Bundy Situation. Like you said, being in the military doesn’t make the person more patriotic. Being a vet doesn’t make us possess more intellect or integrity, or even mean we’re braver than your average civilian. The ratios of dimwits, dirtbags, lazies, cowards, etc. seems to be about the same. E.g. rape in the US military occurs at basically the same rate as among US civilians.

        Not everyone in the military is a hero, but knowingly or not, they’ve all had to make sacrifices. I could go into these sacrifices, but I already feel this comment is going to be too long, and I have a couple other points to get to.

        It doesn’t matter why they joined the military. Most people I’ve interacted with did so for multiple reasons. Making your family, community, and country proud is something most people strive for regardless of what they choose to do.

        Appreciating the fact that a child is born from a member of our military isn’t praising the offspring for having a parent who was willing to sacrifice their life for their country–by definition of their oath and contract–but it’s honoring their parent, even if they failed at being a decent, present parent. I could go on here as well, because these children usually do have to make sacrifices. Ask your local Army brat about the sacrifices they were forced to make to their childhood friendships, parental contact, etc.

        All this and I haven’t reached my point.

        It doesn’t matter if their parent was shit or great, served or didn’t. An American grown-up makes American babies by the letter of the law.

        Now–I’m getting close to ending, I swear–when we talk about these dual-citizens, we should first acknowledge that their devotions cannot be judged by the devotions of their parents. However, children of those serving this country are perceived as “more American” than those kids of US civilian ex-pats. Slightly hyperbolic example: If Thomas Jefferson has a kid in France, and Benedict Arnold has a kid in England, TJ Jr. is more American even if he only speaks french and never met his dad. Maybe not fair, but that’s how it is.

        Back to Jesse Gonzalez. He was born to two Mexican parents, speaking Spanish, in a territory that used to be Mexico, and was brought along by the MFF. He is most definitely “Mexican enough.” Now if he would have chosen to play for the USA, I think questioning his deep, subconscious allegiances to Mexico would be reasonable enough, although perhaps misguided.

      • “Lets also remember that the majority of these players had no relationship with their fathers whatsoever.”
        “didn’t fabian or wlliam once said that they haven’t met their father”

        Actually, only a couple of the current US pool players aren’t close with their fathers. Boyd & Chandler are the two most obvious ones. Jones reconnected with his father as an adult (he was in military prison for a long time). People may be confusing Goetz and Toljan (his father died when he was young), but they aren’t in the US pool yet.

        But Williams, Johnson, Brooks, Green, Wooten & Morales very much have their fathers in their lives. Many of them are divorced, but that comes with the bi-cultural territory.

      • Military or no military, yes they are American citizens, but there are always degrees of truth in everything. These kids we’re brought up in Germany not as Americans, but as Germans (besides Mix Diskerud) and before they joined the NATS, didnt know the culture or language all that well and who could blame them?

        Landon Donovan and Abby Wambach may have spoken a little ignorantly to the press but I dont think they are racist or xenophopic and would only have a good reason for saying some players raised in central europe dont care as much about the team like an American raised on American culture would. I think if anyone would know whats going on with that it would be their teammates in the locker room.

        And in turn who could blame the HG Nat for feeling left out to dry when a player like Timmy Chandler keeps getting called in when he easily and clearly doesnt give a damn

      • I liked your comment, OMRW, but do have a big gripe.

        So someone is brought up in a certain culture, with a certain language. . .that doesn’t speak at all to their passion/devotion to those constructs. I know plenty of people that don’t like key aspects of their culture for one reason or another, and I’ve seen hundreds of people disgrace the english language, self included.

        “I dont think they {LD and Abby} are racist or xenophopic and would only have a good reason for saying some players raised in central europe dont care as much about the team like an American raised on American culture would.”

        You’re setting up “some players in central europe” vs “an American”. That’s neither fair nor reasonable. Are the players in Central Europe that think like this the majority or minority? Do all Americans view the national team the same way?

        It’s difficult to assume things about a person based on their choices and actions, and more difficult to judge a people based on where and when they originated.

      • To AMphibian, you wrote,

        “However, children of those serving this country are perceived as “more American” than those kids of US civilian ex-pats.”

        That comment is basically why I responded to Shawn the way I did. That may or may not be the perception, we’d have to do a scientific poll or something to find out, but I completely disagree with that statement. Why are they “more American” because of what their dads did? It makes no sense. Patriotism can be taught no matter what. That comment you made is making certain assumptions:

        1. That the service father was more American or patriotic than the ex-pat father.

        2. Since the service father was more patriotic, he instilled those values onto his children making them more patriotic than the ex-pat children.

        I dispute those assumptions as a blanket statement. I am sure we could find a bunch of anecdotal examples that go both ways.

        In most cases, going to college instead of the military can be more beneficial for an individual’s future career prospects and earnings. Also, working in the private sector usually pays more than working in the public sector. There are many many reasons why a patriotic American might avoid the military or public service.

        Going back to our German-American players, they did not grow up with their fathers, so they didn’t benefit from any patriotic values that their father’s might or might not have instilled in them while growing up anyways.

        When it comes to our German-American USMNT players, bottom line is they have U.S. passports and are eligible to play for us so that’s all that matters. We can question their patriotism but we don’t know how they really feel so our assumptions would be baseless, but we also shouldn’t use their fathers military service to their benefit either. The military service of their estranged fathers is irrelevant.

      • All the reasons you gave why someone would go to college instead of enlist are selfish ones. Not to say both sides don’t have multiple motivations, I just thought it was odd from an argumentative standpoint. “Someone might be just as patriotic as a soldier, but decide to go to college instead so they can make more money”. I’m sorry but patriotism is something proved through actions. If you love your family you do things like cook food for them, you don’t just selfishly cook only for yourself. If someone else is cooking you find another way to help the team. That’s love and a strong community. You can’t just say that you love your family as much as the the other members, when they are serving that family and you are not. So you sit there and say this: Well, people who serve are mostly just doing so for selfish reasons. That may be true, but you have no right to pass that judgement.

        The sacrifice that comes from serving your country/family in some capacity is typically honored. It’s honored because it’s required for our welfare and existence as a community.

        You seem to want to make this about patriotism, while acknowledging that’s really impossible to judge. I don’t care if two of these german-americans (you try to make it sound like it’s more) didn’t have their father around to indoctrinate their malleable minds.

        I don’t understand why you think it makes no difference if their father served or not, and then make a big deal about if their father was fundamental in raising them. Either we judge a person and don’t consider their parents, or we do consider their parents; you can’t pick and choose what matters.

        Finally, I think perception of someone’s father does color how people are viewed and treated in most societies, to what degree I can’t pretend to know. Did you read my example about if Thomas Jefferson had a kid in France and Benedict Arnold had a kid in England? One of those kids would have to change his name if he wanted to return to the US. The other would have a million US twitter followers for no real reason besides his dad. . .I mean, if Twitter was alive back then. 🙂

        So what about the son of a slime ball meany guy? You’d like to not pre-judge that kid since you don’t know them, but humans naturally make assumptions. A kid of someone who decided to put their life on the line to serve the US is going to be perceived different than a kid of college graduate. And I think that’s good for everyone. We applaud a college graduate more than we applaud a lifetime fast food worker, and that encourages us to value being smart and disciplined. We applaud our troops because our ability to defend ourselves is vital.

        And yes, the kids do have to make sacrifices too, ask most Army brats.

        It’s not about thinking these dual-nationals are better or worse, more patriotic or less, more American or less. It’s simply about respecting the fact that they are American.

        I know you do, but quite a few people were tough to convert. They were mostly German to them.

        That’s where and why this whole military thing comes into play, fair or not.

        A US CEO and a US President both have a kid (each!) in Brazil and then abandon that kid. One of those kids is going to have less push back from the US citizenship when they want to claim American benefits. Offspring tend to get a few passes when their parents do things that serve us.

  6. This happens at the national team level with dual nationals. I am not sweating it. Goalkeepers is the one position, I am not really worried about. I have only seen him play in limited circumstances, but I definitely put him behind Hamid, who is 5 years older (but really young for a GK). The issue how does he compare to Cody Cropper, Ethan Horvath and Zack Steffen who are either his age or 1/2 years older? Steffen and Cropper aren’t playing a great deal (due to injures or level of competition), but I would like to see both play regularly.

    Between Raúl Gudiño and Jesse Gonzalez, the Mexican program has 2 very good 20 year (well 19 and 20 year old).

    Reply

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