Top Stories

Jonathan Gonzalez: No contact from USMNT ahead of Portugal friendly

In November, the U.S. Men’s National Team began a new era by calling in a youth-led roster for a friendly against Portugal. Jonathan Gonzalez was not involved, despite being one of the program’s top prospects.

Speaking to Soccer America, Gonzalez said U.S. Soccer did not approach him about the friendly, which came right in the midst of Monterrey’s push for a Liga MX crown.

“I wasn’t called in, in November,” Gonzalez told Soccer America. “Personally, nobody came and talked to me and let me know about that friendly. I just wasn’t called in.”

Gonzalez broke through in a big way with Monterrey this past season, earning honors as a Liga MX Best XI selection while guiding the club to a Copa MX crown. However, his international future remains up in the air as he is eligible to represent both the U.S. and Mexico at the senior level.

Both programs are certainly interested, and reports have stated that Gonzalez remains committed to the U.S. However, Goal USA reported in December that Gonzalez was unhappy with the decision to leave him off the roster for the Portugal friendly.

“At the moment, I really haven’t thought of (my international future) much,” Gonzalez told Soccer America. “I focused on my club because of the finals and all of that.”

Comments

  1. On May 24, 2015, Bornstein scored the goal that sent Querétaro F.C. to their first ever Liga MX final. Are you all suggesting that Bornstein was snubbed like you believe Gonzalez was?

    Reply
    • You’re joking, right? When was Bornstein voted to the best XI of the season? At 18, In central midfield where players usually don’t peak until they are much more experienced in their reading and understanding of the game. You don’t know much about this sport, huh?

      Reply
      • I can’t imagine why Liga Mx that is run by the Mexican Football Federation might make Gonzalez part of the Bext XI.

    • All of the comments in this entire section are a hoot. It is just another echo of the old Julian Green / Gedion Zelalem / Aron Johannsson (the list goes on….) conversations that happen about an uncommitted youngster with high potential comes under the microscope during a lull in activity. Nobody here is “right” or “wrong”, and whether Gonzalez goes on on to become a USMNT regular, a MX regular, or a nobody doesn’t prove that anybody here is clairvoyant or ignorant or anything. Everybody relax already!

      Reply
  2. Right now, he is a superior player to captain Michael Bradley. He is better in every aspect of the game except Jogging. If we lose him to Mexico, I hope some people get fired immediately. He’s a Norcal kid who somehow wasn’t identified early on.

    Reply
    • Truly classic SBI comment. Now that we are officially out of people to fire, we are now calling for the head of “somebody”.

      Firing people — the solution to everything!!!!

      Reply
    • I get f tired of the hyperbole that ever new player is better than Michael Bradley. Did you watch the MLS final, which midfielder fulfilled his role better? I have no doubt that one or even several will prove to be better than Bradley in the future, but that time is still the future and certainly not 2010-2017.

      JK, Arena, and Vanney all saw fit to use Bradley (and Altidore for that matter) in a position that was arguably important to their team’s success. SBI commenters seem to simply like to strike out at the most visible players and claim that those players are clearly inferior to their favorite young kid. It is like playing whack-a-mole to try to bring reason to the knee-jerk comments people put forward here.

      Which players really let the USA down? well the defense was pretty bad, but there were clearly lots of blame to go around and to his credit Bradley took the blame for his downfall in qualifying.

      It is time to stop whining because you are disappointed, and time to stop claiming every new face on the scene is the answer to your prayers.

      Reply
      • I watched MLS final and I watched Gonzalez in Liga MX playoffs and final. I am basing my judgement on that play I see with my own eyes and as current as you get. Bradley is still a very sold MLS player (so was Beckerman for many years)… but Gonzales is currently a best 11 player in a better league than MLS. Facts and recent performances speak for themselves.

  3. IMO, this seems like a planted story by the Mexican media so that Gonzalez will make the One Time Switch in order to play for El Tri in Russia.

    Seriously, why would we call up a guy who: A) Had a Liga MX playoff game that week and B) Was not going to be cap-tied since it was a friendly?

    Also, isn’t there a club team playoff exemption for national team call ups during FIFA approved dates anyway? Meaning that even if we were in a playoff with Australia, his club did not have to release him since he had a Liga MX playoff game.

    Reply
    • Not sure how Mexican media, got Soccer America to ask Gonalez a question about the friendly. Whether Sarachan knew it wasn’t worth calling him in given they had a Copa Mx Semi-final the day after the friendly and a critical for seeding match on Saturday or not someone should have contacted him and said “Hey we know you’re busy we’ll see you in March.”

      Reply
  4. Having no contact at all in the lead up to the roster announcement is the most damning thing about what Jonathon has said. Other than Bedoya, I don’t see a bad midfielder to leave off that roster and we got good looks at Adams and McKennie. IMO we shouldn’t have called up Sargent who has never played a minute professionally and instead called up JG. But having no contact is a pretty absurd regardless of who the interim manager is at the time.

    Pretty easy, pick up phone. “Hey, Jonathon we have been watching you and are very interested in you and if you keep playing well its very likely you’ll get a call up for the March window. We should have a new manager by then and will be going thru a major youth movement that you could be a part of if you continue to play well. Happy New Year, USSF.”

    What if Kathy Carter goes on and hires Peter Vermes after she wins the election and then Vermes decides to keep starting MB at the 6 and auditions McKennie and Gonzolez to be his next “pairing” who can take all the blame when our midfield gets bossed. Oh wait that’s what they’ve been doing for 10 years.

    I ultimately think JG ends up playing for the US because that what he’s said he want to do in the past. You can almost feel he’s was somewhat hurt by not getting called in with all the other youth in Nov and really wanted to be their with the guys who along with him could be the core group going forward. If that’s the case its good because it means he wants to be a NAT and has heart, and we need all the heart we can get.

    Reply
    • This is in response to the people knocking Vermes not necessarily Joe D. I know Vermes gets a bad rap because people wanted him to play EPB more (its not like Besler and Opara weren’t good MLS defenders, SKC gave 8 fewer goals than the next closest team in GA using those two as their primaries and EPB filling in), but SKC played U21 players the 4th most minutes in MLS. Tata seems to be the fan favorite and he played U21 players 500 less minutes. He’s clearly a better manager, but the knock that Vermes will automatically play older players doesn’t hold water.

      Reply
    • Who was supposed to “pick up the phone”? Dave Sarachan? Sunil Gulati? Lame ducks both, and I’m pretty sure it would not have made a good impression to have either of them call.
      ****************************
      Pretty much everybody on this site wanted US Soccer frozen until elections. Welcome to the unintended side effects.

      Reply
      • That’s true but someone called McKinney, Gooch, Adams, Horvath, and others that hadn’t been national team regulars so someone was making phone calls.

  5. Was the Portugal game on an international date? If not, Monterrey would likely have not released him.

    Still a brief call saying we are interested in you would make any young player feel better about his situation re the USMNT. Not sure such a call from an interim coach would mean that much though (but it does not cost much).

    Reply
    • Yes it was a FIFA date. While there is the case for not having called him into the camp (Liga MX play-off game), there is NO reason what-so-ever for there not to have been some kind of contact with him.

      Reply
  6. I remember that some here have said we should wait until after the WC to pick a coach since morfe will be available then. Well, this is a good reason why we should pick someone sooner rather than later. You need a permanent coach in there with a staff to see that things like this don’t get overlooked. After Gulati’s replacement is selected, that person should make picking a new national team coach the first priority and get it done by the March FIFA dates.In the meantime, someone from USSF should be on the phone apologizing to this kid and explaining how it is a result of vacancies in crucial positions and how we really want him, etc.

    Reply
    • Exactly who is supposed to do anything? In the midst of the “fire everybody!” mentality that claimed Klinsmann and Arena and effectively left us with a lame duck USSF managment and caretaker coach, this is what we are left with…..

      Reply

Leave a Comment