Photo by ISIPhotos.com
With the travel to South Africa making a trip there a burden for overloaded starters, and with several key MLS-based players still taking part in the MLS playoffs, Bob Bradley has a limited number of options for selecting his roster for the U.S. team's upcoming friendly with South Africa. It's a situation that is looking more and more like it will lead to a look at some very young options.
Sources have told SBI that New York Red Bulls striker Juan Agudelo has been selected for the U.S. roster that will face South Africa on Nov. 17th, and now Norwegian media are reporting that midfielder Mikkel Diskerud (pictured) is also being called in for the match.
Agudelo is currently a member of the U.S. Under-20 national team and only recently made his professional debut with the Red Bulls. Neither he or Diskerud has made a U.S. senior national team appearance.
Sources have also told SBI that highly-regarded U.S. Under-20 national team defender Gale Agbossoumonde is also in the mix for a call-up for next week's match in Cape Town.
While the call-up of young players may come as a surprise to some, it wouldn't be the first time Bob Bradley has called in new faces to play South Africa. In the 2007 Nelson Mandela Challenge Cup, Bradley gave Jozy Altidore his first cap and Freddy Adu his first start.
Agudelo is coming off a very impressive showing in the MLS Playoffs, where his first two professional starts came in strong showings against the San Jose Earthquakes. Despite being just 17 (he turns 18 later this month), Agudelo showed no fear and impressive speed and technical ability.
While Diskerud's name may seem unfamiliar to those who don't follow the U.S. national team closely, he has long been regarded as a long-term prospect. Diskerud last wore a USA uniform at the 2009 Under-20 World Cup, where he saw some playing time but failed to impressive as expected. In the time since that tournament, Diskerud has enjoyed a strong career for Norwegian club Staebak and his status as a dual-eligible international player (he can also play for Norway) is likely to have played some role in having him come into U.S. camp now after the end of the Norwegian club season.
What do you think of these developments? Excited to see some new faces? Looking forward to a potential Altidore-Agudelo forward tandem?
Share your thoughts below.
hahaha baaazzinnng…that was pretty good
Very true. Again, my issue is with the USSF taking games that out player pool, for one reason or another, cannot support. My issue in this game and the Copa ’07 was not with Bradley, but the USSF.
Yeah, I agree also.
this is your comment on this thread? wow
Bradley tried that during the 2009 Confederations Cup. But then a funny thing happened, the US almost won the tournament and Bradley never found the time for a rusty, out of shape Adu.
Doubt it. He’ll play for Congo, most likely.
I say great. Why the hell not! More experience for these young players, and the coach gets to see them in action.
exactly. Agudelo/Altidore…would like to see it, hope we do
Eddie Gaven is the man! He’s quite underrated.
I love the direction Bob is going, post WC. This is the ideal time to dish out first caps.
What you didn’t mention was that BB felt he had to load his best players onto the Gold Cup team that year and , I guess, it was felt that the clubs wouldn’t let him take his best guys to both tournaments. Given our performance at the Confederations Cup, which was the reward for winning the Gold Cup, you’d have to say BB made the right choice.
The US has often turned down invites to Copa America due to the MLS calendar and if they had been invited this year they would have faced the exact same dilemma as in 2007, the need to win the Gold Cup.
That doesn’t matter.
What matters especially for such a young guy, is getting into the mix, seeing what a long trip like that with the USMNT is like, doing the practices. I’m sure ,if he gets called up, he’ll learn a lot even if he doesn’t get a minute.
It’s also worth noting that this is an attempt to win some World Cup votes and to honor, in some fashion, Nelson Mandela.
Losing would not be a problem but sending a bunch of Under 20’s ( like Agbossoumonde who hasn’t played a competitive game in quite some time) to be “rolled over” might be interpreted as being disrespectful. And as other’s have pointed out it’s very hard to evaluate new guys playing with other new guys while they are getting pasted.
This is a poor idea. Call em in for the full month of January. 3 days isn’t gonna tell anyone much of anything.
Hey whats happen to Dilly Duka the number 10 star of the u20 national team, i know it wasn’t any of these players, now it really looks like they are covering up Duka in the crew and for the national level, hes an American born talent and not giving a shot
+1 haha
Nobody said anything about “only” going with youth. Obviously Bob Bradley is: A. The last coach in the world who would do that, (and)
B. Smart enough to find a balance.
This is all in response to Ive’s article that a few new faces, such as Mickey and Agoudela, will make the flight. And I, for one, would much rather see those two men flying up and down the field than say a Rogers and a Beasley. If I really wanted just youth, I’d ask Bradley to take the U-20 team on the plane to South Africa. But, unfortunately, they aren’t all that great either.
It shows that going to play in Europe at a young age is nopt always the right choice. I have a feeling his career would have went better if he just signed with DC United.
Actually, Kljestan got his first cap against China and kicked it off quite well by assisting Benny Feilhaber’s first goal.
I’m sorry, but why is mixing in inexperienced players with experienced players so bad again? It’s not a novel concept and it’s most definitely not one without success, particularly for this team. Bringing in veterans to smooth over the transition into the national team? Sounds great to me. It’s hurting the USA to bring in just young players and just throw them out there because it’s wasting chances to see how they would function alongside the current batch of starters and wastes chances to see different formations/tactics with the starters in them.
Get over it, we could’ve done better. We should have done better. It’s about time we start holding our team to a higher standard.
If you want to be average at everything in life go to Canada. If you want to be great come to America.
Please don’t put together Indie Rock with hipster culture, they are totally separate. Otherwise, funny comment.
Step 1 Go to class………………………..
Step 2 Invite girl to watch game……………
Step 3 Profit
Actually. it’s not a one free pass rule. Depends on whether you have other national options at the time. If you do, then you don’t lose your eligibility for the senior team by playing for the other youth teams. If you don’t have other options, you are committed when you pull on the shirt. To me, it’s arse-backwards, but that’s the rule.
90 minutes this year. Thank you very much.
Is Braun getting a cap v. South Africa?
Gale “Born to Run” Agbossoumonde.
Injured. Just just started walking again about a month ago
I am still confused on why Bryan Arguez was cut from Miami. He was signed to Hertha Berlin and got loaned to a div 2 Portuguese team and did not even play a first team match then went to Miami in the Div 2 league and got cut. His career went from being good to okay to horrible. He would have been a good choice, if he wa still at Hertha Berlin. I wanna see Adu also and Sasha.
Ha, I have no doubt!
Yeah finishing second in the Confederations Cup and then advancing out of the group ahead of England in the World Cup was a real heartbreaker…
There are a million fish in the sea but only 1 USMNT! The choice is obvious.
What kind of nat. team has a manger named BOB BRADLEY? They must surely be a clown team.
Damn, I really want to see Agudelo play. Now I have the dilemma, go to class and talk to cute girl, or go to Mulligans and watch the friendly. Decisions, decisions.
I find it hard to take the Nats seriously when players like Bornstein and Findley are called to the World Cup. It’s constant heartache and agony being a US fan.
Please, no Ricardo Clark. Anyone but Clark.
Or England has expressed interest. Or he’s getting sold. Or maybe Sounders have decided to go with a normal color jersey next year? Any of these would help his career.
ya I don’t see anywhere yet where it says Bradley will field a full team of newbies and kids. Looking much more forward to this game now.
The wasted friendlies earlier this fall truly did zip for the program and can be forgotten, but now it’s time to really start the WC 2014 process.
He’s an Arsenal fan and used to use their badge as a band symbol of sorts… so he’s probably a great passer but gets knocked off the ball easy!
But seriously, his music was great back in the day.
Steve Zakuani had something on Twitter about how he just “received some good news for his career.” Might that be a USMNT call-up?
Will be interesting to see. I doubt Bradley tries a shotgun approach, but new faces are always good in a setting like this
So Adu is the new O’Brien?
I like it. He really is stepping into big shoes at a ripe young age!
We could cap Matthew Good, if he wasn’t Canadian.
I have no idea of his nationality.
Or his soccer ability.
Wasn’t this guy cut by DCU? I remember him going to Europe and coming back for a trail and DCU didn’t sign him.
This is what I was getting at. There is a group of players that are skilled, veteran, and still factor in to “the big picture.” (The players I chose are part of that group, but admittedly, the weakest examples. Josh’s list is probably more solid.)
I wouldn’t mind seeing 6-7 experienced field players and 3-4 “youth” out there in either half, with all six subs being used.
I believe Guzan, Gooch, Spector, Clark, Beasley and Jozy could hold a game together (for the most part) while the others get acclimated to the speed of the game.
Could you imagine having 11 guys running around looking like Brek Shea did in the Colombia friendly? (No offense to Brek…)
Yikes.
It is safe to assume Convey will get a national team call up sometime soon? Obviously not this time since San Jose is still playing
This is a funny comment. Lichaj too valuable to Villa? Yes, I can see that value has manifested itself into a grand total of….
…wait for it…
0 minutes in the league this year.
Hmmm…I think there’s a shot he gets called in. Although maybe thats an indictment of the player pool at this stage. We’re desperate for young defenders and the best we got is a reserve player from a bottom half side.
I agree with you Matt. That Fooo down below is really a closet John Harkes fan; he hates taking risks that might actually make American soccer reputable in the long run. 😉
Thanks Ives, I am sure that will be the case.
My issue was with international perception, the USSF’s history of scheduling games that do not make sense (non FIFA dates), and historical mismanagement of the roster in seemingly unimportant games.
In this case I am excited to see young players and vets who have earned a look. I think this is the right time for that. I believe this roster will be well handled. I think they will get spanked.
The concern with perception is that we are playing the game to get votes. Is merely going to SA enough to get votes or should the squad be competitive? Are we as likely to get votes with a top notch squad as we are with a squad of lesser known players? If the quality of the squad undeermines the ability to get votes, why make the trip? I do not know that it will, but it is a question on my mind.
Regarding scheduling of games that do not make sense, you have the Brazil game after the WC and this game already this year. A Wednesday game in the middle of soccer nowhere during MLS playoffs is a bad idea. I hope that this game does not become like the 2006 US v. Germany game in Germany on a non FIFA date. A nice mix of vets and fringe players came in second.
Regarding the Copa, here is the Ives link on that roster:
http://njmg.typepad.com/sbi/2007/06/usas-copa-ameri.html
That team did not have much of a defense and had no midfield. The chance of learning anything about the forwards was very slim. Davies played only 26 minutes total (in the last game). Gomez played 66 minutes combined in games 1 and 3. More was learned about Gaven, Nguyen, and Clark
Yup. That squad had Feilhaber, Sacha, Davies, Guzan, Bornstein, Gomez, Demerit, Clark and Pearce on it.
Comparing CD to Agudelo is not fair to either player. Agudelo is only 17 and doesn’t need all the pressure of being the next “Charlie Davies-like rising star.” Let him develop before we start putting our 2014 hopes on him. As for Davies, comparing him to a 17 year old, in my opinion, takes away from the hard work he put in over several years to sharpen what he does best