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SBI MLS Spotlight: Omar Gonzalez

Omar Gonzalez (HowardCSMith)

Photo by ISIphotos.com

Los Angeles Galaxy defender Omar Gonzalez is just in his second year as a professional but it could be quite a while before he ever has a week like the one he just had.

Over the course of eight days, Gonzalez played in a friendly against Real Madrid, earned his first U.S. national team cap by starting against Brazil, then started and played well against French star Thierry Henry, helping lead the Galaxy to a 1-0 win against the New York Red Bulls.

SBI caught up with Gonzalez after the Galaxy's win at Red Bull Arena to ask him about the week he just had. Here is our interview:

SBI MLS Spotlight: Omar Gonzalez from Soccer By Ives on Vimeo.

Comments

  1. “Robbie Rogers is overrated”

    By who?

    I regularly come to this site and most of you think he’s garbage.

    There’s no denying he has enough talent. Whether he can do anything with it is debatable but I did say “it’s possible” not a certainty. He should switch to left back.

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  2. Oooh thank you Ives. My head was hurting as I wikipediad acronym and tried to figure it all out. Great explanation
    And yeah, I think that phrase sounds absurd as well

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  3. I thought he was very well composed in the interview, especially for a young lad. Honeslty, I did not even notice the “you knows.” For a professional athlete, he sounded like a freaking Rhodes Scholar.

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  4. Gale Agbossoumonde (18) and Ike Opara (21) are the future of US centerbacks. Ike needs to move to Europe once he gets his college degree. He has the talent to play abroad.

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  5. If AJ Dela Garza develops it’s possible the USMNT roster in 2014 could have AJ, Gonzalez, Edu, Robbie Rogers and Chris Seitz on it. Would that be some kind of record?

    Go Terps!

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  6. Agree with you about “the MLS” sounding silly Ives but I’ve even heard some league people say it. You hear “the NBA”, “the NFL” and “the NHL” quite a bit too but for some reason not “the MLB”.

    I guess it’s something to do with if the acronym is considered a noun that needs a definite article or something? I dunno, maybe an English professor can enlighten me. Just some grammatical ruminating

    (SBI-Yes, it’s the acronym. The NFL is National Football League, so when you say the NFL, you’re saying “The League”, when you say the NBA, you’re saying “The Association”. It doesn’t work in MLB or MLS since the final letter in both doesn’t stand for the organization, so you’re basically saying “The Baseball” and “The Soccer”, which is incorrect. It’s not a huge deal, but generally speaking when someone says “The MLS” it sounds like they don’t know much about MLS. Maybe that’s just pet peeve, but as I said in the original comment, it’s better to let him know than to have him saying it incorrectly.)

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  7. Omar is the starting center back for the best team in the MLS (he being one of the reasons). He won rookie of the year last year. I think as he plays more international teams he will become more comfortable and show all you doubters that he’s the real deal!

    (SBI-Come on Cali fan, before you wag your finger at doubters you should drop “the MLS” from your vocabulary. It’s just MLS. Pet peeve, sorry, but the sooner you stop it the sooner you’ll avoid sounding silly.)

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  8. Sorry but I didn’t realize that the kid was being considered for an anchor job on the 4 letter or as a substitute panelist on the McLaughlin Group.

    Lighten up, already. We can’t all be as articulate as you apparently are. Maybe the kid actually wants to think before he opens his mouth and that is how he manages to buy himself some more time…

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  9. You Know – you do realize that he’s 21 right? Has been a pro for 1.5 yrs in a sport this country doesn’t really take seriously. Give the kid a break. In a couple years he’ll have improved his interview style and be as good a spokesman as Donovan, Boca, and the other faces of the USMNT.

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  10. I’ll take 3 “you know’s” over ONE “you know what I”m saying?” ANYDAY of the week.

    Watching Omar in person at all him home games and on TV for the away games leaves me very impressed with his work habits, his character, his willingness to learn/listen to the veterans and THEN implement on the pitch, his calm demeanor on the ball and chasing their strikers just leaves me so happy about our future. If Ream is as good as Ives thinks he is, the US CM should be locked down by O.G. and T.R for a few WC cycles!

    That is exciting.

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  11. I have heard alot about these 4 players, have seen most of them play and to me, I’m not sold on Ream yet, Buddle ate his lunch on that score against NY. But then, its early on, we will see in the next 1.5 years how they develop.

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  12. Nice feature – future looks good at center back for the USMNT. Maybe they won’t all become big stars, but Gonzalez, Opara, Ream and Agbosoummonde certainly have shown enough so far to make me think this could be a strength for us by 2014.

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  13. Yea, I think that Omar Gonzalez did fine, and This was not a “B” Team for Brazil, anyone of those guys could have slotted into the World Cup Team. They are some of the Best players in the World, Why Else would Chelsea & other Clubs be interested in Neymar? That Brazil Squad has arguably the most talented youngesters in the World, I would say more than Half of that roster will be playing for Super Clubs in the next few years, half of the guys on the field already are. Ramires – Chelsea, Robinho – Man Citeh, Dani Alves – Barcelona, Pato – AC Milan, Lucas Levia – Liverpool and David Luiz – Benfica. Omar Gonzalez did quite well for a first outing in a US Jersey, He will be in the race for 2014, no doubt. I mean the guy has less 1.5 yrs professional experience and he will learn lots in the coming years. He will be a quality Ctr Back. Remember Defenders get better with age, unlike attackers. Defending is more a learned art, rather than, Attacking; which is more intuition.

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  14. I saw Maryland play a couple times his last year there and thought he was too slow, and argued loudly on the boards here that he was a bust waiting to happen. Yum, crow, he’s been fantastic.

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  15. Because of the lack of depth, the U.S. needs their true A team on the field to do well against a team like this Brazilian side. Hopefully, the U.S. can develop the depth they need for 2014 and the future. I would like to see both these teams go at it again in a couple of years, maybe in the next Confederation’s Cup as well. Omar did fine for his first cap.

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  16. Omar is a hard waorker. I think that he is one of the best products to come out of the Terps soccer factory in a long time.

    if you ever get the chance to talk to him, he is also a really nice guy.

    I am hoping for big things from him.

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  17. Seems like a humble guy. He needs a little more confidence and some swagger and make that next jump to consistent national team contributor. Hopefully that will help him keep up with the pace and talent of the international game.

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  18. Gonzalez was given a “5” out of 10 by the analysts…. Players who received lower rankings…Bornstein (3.5), Findley (3.5), Edu (4), Bedoya (4), Buddle (4.5).

    Overall an average performance of 5 in your first NT appearance where you go 90 Minutes against Brazil’s “B” team (equivalent of most nations “A” team) is an acceptable result to me.

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  19. Speak up, Ives. I can barely hear the questions. Great interview regardless.

    Omar is creeping on Holden’s hair style. Time to go Scottish mullet, Stu.

    (SBI-To be fair, it wasn’t originally our intent to have the questions air with the answers, so I didn’t really use the mic for the questions. I’ll do so in future interviews for the MLS Spotlight.)

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  20. He wasnt that impressive against Brazils B side. If Bedoya hadnt stunk up the place Omar wouldve been the biggest disapointment. I would say Bornstein but everyone outside of Bob Bradley knows he sux.

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  21. Very exciting the younger players playing in MLS right now. Virtually every team has a player like this.

    “Why hasn’t Mr. xxxx xxxx been called up yet ?”

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  22. Haha thanks. But if Boca is 6 feet than DeMerit has to be 6’1. Plus I remember Hodgson saying 1 of his nitpicks against Boca was not wanting a “5’11 or so centerback starting”. so that’s why I asked.

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