By RYAN TOLMICH
Julian Green is set to get more playing time during his loan stint at Hamburg, but it won’t come with the club’s first team.
Germany’s Bild is reporting that Green has been sent down to the club’s U-23 team. Green is currently on loan to Hamburg from German power Bayern Munich, although Hamburg said there is an “extremely low” probability that the club will look to keep Green past this season.
Green has been limited to just 5 appearances and 113 minutes with the first team this season. He was on the bench but did not appear in a mid-winter friendly last month against Manchester City in the United Arab Emirates.
Hamburg Director of Football Peter Knabel says Green should be aggressive with the U-23s to gain more playing time.
“He should impose,” Knabel said. “I expect the players to play there too. Finally, the U-23 team is not a garbage can, but the flagship of training.”
The Hamburg U-23 team currently plays in the Regionalliga, the fourth division of the German soccer and the same league that Green featured in for Bayern Munich II in 2013-14.
Green missed a chunk of time in late September and October for both club and country after suffering a rib injury in training with Hamburg. He last featured for the U.S. Men’s National Team on Nov. 14 in their 2-1 defeat to Colombia in London. Green came on in the 86th minute of the match.
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What do you think of this development? What do you think of Green’s situation? Do you see Green returning to the first team this season? What kind of consequences does this have for the USMNT?
Share your thoughts below.
Just an FYI for those that want a clearer picture…
Hamburg Reserve team plays in the Regionalliga Nord, not the Regionalliga Bayern as Green did when he was with Bayern Munich reserves; both are a apart of the Regional leagues or Regionalliga and is the 4th tier of the German league system along with 3 other Regionalliga’s.
Hamburg II is currently in 1st place in the RL Nord, a much stronger league when compared to the Regionalliga Bayern.
Jason,
Just in case anyone thinks bad loan moves destroy a player forever I give you Mikey Bradley and his loan move to Aston Villa..
His inclusion in the WC squad looks more ridiculous by the day. Here is a player that’s not even good enough for the worst Bundesliga team and yet he gets a free ticket to Brazil.
Whatever happened to earning your spot.
Randall,
Did you watch the World Cup in 2014. The one in Brazil?
Are you referring to the game where he shanked a volley so badly, it had backspin, fooled a world-class goalie who was expecting solid contact and went in? Or every other minute he’s played for the US where he gives the ball away and is easily knocked off the ball?
I saw this game!
Luckiest goal I’ve ever seen in my life. Hey, good for him, I was genuinely happy for the kid at that moment. But a piece of skill it was not.
The skill was in the way he came off his marker.
Yeah, nobody’s disputing that he scored the goal, whether or not the goal counts or how many “style” points he racked up while scoring it.
He made a fantastic run, he was in the perfect position. He shanked the shot and fortunately for him, it went in.
I guarantee you, though, if that ball HADN’T gone in, he would’ve been on Sportscenter…for the Not Top 10 plays of the week. He shanked his shot and he was lucky, that’s all anyone’s saying.
As they, say Leo, I’ll always take lucky over good.
Don’t you think Wondo wishes he was as lucky?
The skill was in how he made that run across the back line and then was able to open his hips to get his leg around to finish the play. Not a great finish, but a great goal.
But, that one great run has overshadowed (up to his demotion at least) his inability to impress his 3 club coaches to earn playing time on the field.
The kid has talent. So do a lot of other kids within the US Soccer player pool. Is Green really the best 19 year old in the system? Does he have the most potential? I don’t have those answers. But what is obvious is that he is not yet the player that Klinsmann proclaimed him to be. Green has the burden of being given a WC spot thus plays under the microscopic view of the USMNT fans. Not an easy task.
Klinsmann did Green no favors by giving him that seat to Brazil.
Manuel,
JK gave Green a chance to shine in a World Cup and he took it and scored a goal.
A very important goal.
Where he goes after that is up to him. But , unlike a Theo Walcott, Green validated his inclusion.
And don’t say JK did him no favors.
Lots of great players never even got to play one second in a World Cup; guys like George Best and Ryan Giggs would have given anything to have Green’s 15 minutes of World Cup time.
Those guys were among the best ever to play but playing in a World Cup is guaranteed to know one. That’s a burden lots of players would be willing to shoulder.
Do you think Charlie Davies would agree with you?
“Shine” is a bit of an overstatement. But, he did score a great goal. Validated because of 1 run? Maybe…
I would agree that his inclusion was validated if he had earned playing time other than as a desperate move to get fresh legs off the bench late in a knockout match. When Klinsmann needed a speedy outside wing in earlier matches, he brought in a fullback to play the outside wing position (Yedlin) rather then trust Green. Telling? Maybe, maybe not.
Was Wondolowski’s inclusion invalidated because he missed a sitter in the same match? How about Michael Bradley? Struggled the entire World Cup. Invalidated?
I know I’m in the minority, but I don’t believe Green’s inclusion was validated based on 1 run. Just like I do not believe that Michael Bradley’s inclusion was invalidated because he struggled. or Wondolowski because he missed the sitter.
Still, expectations for Green were sky high based on his World Cup roster spot. For a prospect who has failed to excel anywhere above the 4th division of the Bundesliga, the expectations were unrealistic. Would have expectations been less if he were not given a World Cup spot? I believe that they would have. Now that the “shine” is off his World Cup goal, hopefully Green can develop without a microscope over his every misstep and earn his way onto the field for both his club and the USMNT.
Manuel,
I put you on my tournament team because I think you might give me “instant offense” late in a game when we need a goal.
I put you in late in a game in the tournament when we need a goal and you produce a goal. Under great pressure I might add.
You just validated my reason for bringing you.
All that other stuff you mentioned is just noise.
Agree with you, Randell.
Every World Cup team, from every country, features a few players who look like bad/confusing decisions in hindight. Heck just look at Bradley’s 2010 roster. Dead weight everywhere.
I would actually argue that JK’s 2014 roster had far fewer of these types “misfires” than most any 23 person squad we’ve ever fielded. And I don’t even think Green qualifies. He was brought along for the purpose of being a “roll of the dice” attacking injection in the event we found ourselves down and desperately needing a goal. And he delivered exactly that. Has he been mediocre since? You bet… probably “mediocre” is being polite…. but none of that changes the fact that he was given a job and role for Brazil 2014, and he nailed it.
Sure, there were the Davis and Wondo inclusions that really added nothing positive and could have probably been spent elsewhere to better effect…. but really the number/impact of these types of selections was very small when compared against either past USMNT sides or other countries’ WC sides. If you are waiting for us to bring a 23 man side in which everybody makes a material, positive contribution, you could be in for a very, very long wait. The list of guys who over-delivered in Brazil was far longer than the list of guys who failed to accomplish what was asked of them.
What???? How is he supposed to save American soccer if he’s stuck in the German 4th division.?
Sure, Julian Green didn’t deserve to go to the World Cup last year. His goal was probably the luckiest goal I’ve ever seen in my life. But in four years, maybe he would have been World Cup quality when he declared for Germany, and everyone would be moaning and groaning about “the one that got away”. Yes, I’m looking at you, Rossi haters.
So the kid’s under-developed and underperforming. He’s a kid. This isn’t 1992 where every 17 year old phenom is making his way out on the field for every first team in Europe. Smart teams now realize that these kids get injured easily playing against each other on their youth squads, never mind playing first team soccer against grown men.
Give the kid a couple seconds to recover from his injury and do something (or nothing) before you rip him a new one. Sometimes I feel like the USMNT doesn’t deserve talented young players: all you guys do is rip them to shreds and criticize them anyway.
Right. So in the meantime let’s have him play for the U-20 and U-23 teams and prove his worth. His automatic callus to the USMNT are ridiculous and without merit.
Agree 100%.
I read somewhere that Green cannot play with the U-20’s because he competed in the same age group with the German National Team. However, would love to see him compete for a spot on next year’s Olympic Team.
Manuel
Yup he unfortunately is not eligible for the U-20s. But should absolutely be on the Olympic roster.
This setback will force him to earn his way on to the roster this time, but a better club situation next year will hopefully provide the development necessary to earn his stripes.
Leo
I’m not sure why everyone is comparing what happened at the World Cup with Green’s present issues.
Sure, it is a great opportunity to engage in SBI’s favorite blood sport, jumping all over JK, but in reality the only connection between the two is that World Cup players traditionally suffer a “hangover” into their next season due to the wear and tear of the summer tournament.
And for the younger players, they have youth on their side but on the other hand, this is all new to them.
Look at Yedlin. Does he look sharp and fit to you? Does he look like the guy who impressed everyone in Brazil? Like Green he also had to deal with the “hangover” and, like Julian, then had to deal with moving to a whole new club situation. Brooks did not.
DeAndre moved to a new country and Green moved to what has been described as a cluster f**k circle j++k.
“Sure, Julian Green didn’t deserve to go to the World Cup last year. “
Deserve has nothing to do with it as they say. JK brought him because he felt he needed late game instant offense. Which is exactly what Green gave him.
Green was set to sub as soon as Belgium scored the first goal of the game. While he was lining up to get on Lukaku scored making it 2-0. Green scored two minutes later at the 107 minute mark making it 1-0, with 13 minutes to go. I remember the US players suddenly getting a second wind and Belgium getting on their back foot a bit. I remember Clint missing an opportunity to take the game to penalties. Like Wondo, Clint normally makes those. But he doesn’t get anywhere near the flak Wondo does.
Green’s involvement in the World Cup was a success. Need an injection of instant offense to save a game? The US did not advance but it wasn’t Julian’s fault. Green did his part.
Green’s current problems at Hamburg can be explained by his injuries and by the fact that everyone seems to describe Hamburg as currently in the middle of a s++t storm blizzard that is not abating any time soon.
Or maybe Green is mentally deficient as many of you claim. How you know that who knows? Whatever the case, those of you who are writing him off are doing so more than a little prematurely.
I can tell you rushed to hit reply before reading the second sentence of my post. Oh well.
I read your sentence. So…..?
I’ve seen luckier goals and they all count. Dempsey’s goal vs England in the 2010 World Cup was at least as lucky if not more so.
This is not about style points
The handwriting was on the wall already last year. I thought that Green should not play for a men’s team. He is not fully developed physically. It would have been much better to stay in Munich and be given time to grow. He seemed to be injury-prone and over-stating his ability didn’t help.
“He is not fully developed physically.”
How would you know that? Because of his age?
Rooney was playing for Everton in the EPL at 16-17.
When Cristiano Ronaldo was Green’s age he played 40 games for Man. U.
There are countless other examples. His Hamburg issues are most likely due to his injuries and maybe to the infamous World Cup hangover.
Kid is listed at 5’8″, 130lbs. He is slight. Rooney, though not huge, was more physically developed.
It’s kind of comical how fast this kid’s stock is sinking. Don’t people know that he was hand picked by Klinsmann? I don’t blame him but do feel a little sorry for him. He was elevated too high and too fast and the talent, as we’re now seeing, just isnt there What a terrific let down after Klinsmann raised his expectations so high.
When he first showed up on the radar, he was hailed by a lot of people here as the coming of a superstar into US soccer. All because he was supposedly highly though of by Bayern. Now there is one (maybe) setback and I’ll bet it’s a lot of the same people who are ready to conclude he’s all washed up. Incredible. At the beginning I suggested we shouldn’t get carried away with his potential and now I would urge people to not give up on a young kid because he is being “sent down.”
Umm…no. He was hailed by Klinsmann as the savior of US Soccer. I’m sure there was plenty of excitement by the USMNT faithful, but for anyone here to declare Green the real deal sight unseen would be silly.
Certainly the kid is not washed up. He just isn’t as good (maybe ready is a better word?) as advertised.
Need to give the kid time to develop and in time prove to be the player he’s been advertised to be.
JK never said he was the savior. USMNT fans acted that way. All he said is that he was a special talent.Nothing more. He has said the same about a few players. Remember he said something similar Beckerman and stated something like he wished he had met 8 years or so earlier in his development. All, JK is doing is trying to collect as many talented players as possible, develop a style that fits that talent and see what talent develops.
Yup.
Truth almost always lies in the middle. It is every bit as ridiculous to write off a 19 year old as it is to crown him. I repeat…. 19 years old. A child. He is what he is: a talented prospect, judged so by many people more knowledgeable about the game in general and familiar with his ability and temperament than anyone here is- that includes USMNT veterans who were impressed by him. It is a huge plus to collect as many young talented prospects as you can as due to many reasons, only a small % pan out. The good news is…. whereas in the past we tended to have a single messiah carrying the burden, we now have a fair amount of young players sharing the load of being overhyped.
Well put, sir. Sadly most people commenting in this sit are extremists
Been thinking about what Honigstein said about Hamburg’s coach.. Kid should leave once he gets the chance.
I love Klinsmann, but does anyone else think he played a major role in ruining this kids development?
that’s insane. how was Bayern’s decision to loan him to Hamburg JK’s fault?! a decision they made after he showed some flashes for the US, including a GOAL at the World Cup against Belgium in the Round of 16.
Absolutely.
Klinsmann created expectations that only a truly elite prospect would be able to fulfill.
Thankfully Green is probably back in the development stage where he probably belongs and can develop without the burden of being Klinsmann’s golden boy.
I surely hope that this setback will prove to be a positive first step towards rebuilding Green’s development.
Whoa slow down a bit. I’m not really sure his development has been “ruined” in the first place. He is 19. He’s not even played 150 minutes of first-class competitive soccer in his entire career for club/country combined. Most players his age (even very good ones) are learning their craft on reserve teams or in the lower division. If he’s not ready, he’s not ready. Put him back in the oven for a while…. it’s not that big a deal.
One could argue that what’s happening with Green is really not that different from the case of Theo Walcott, who was controversially selected at age 17 for World Cup 2006. Walcott did not play at all, and seldom played/contributed in the ensuing season at the club level. In fact it was several years before Walcott really grew into the expectations that the WC selection had had created for him. But it happened– Walcott may not be Ronaldo or Messi but he is a very serviceable and legitimate international player, who has contributed and scored in major tournaments over the course of many years now.
Whether or not Green meets, exceeds, or fails in achieving this kind of standard remains entirely to be seen, but to suggest that a teenager has failed because he did not rocket into superstardom immediately after a WC selection is a little overboard, in my view.
that rib injury kept him out of training for the rest of 2014 according to his interview with Carlisle and reported by Joe Tansey last week. so not just September and October. in fact, it’s probably safe to say he probably shouldn’t have even seen the 4 minutes he did in November for the US.
“I trained with the team but I wasn’t 100 percent because the pain was still there,” Green told ESPN’s Jeff Carlisle in a recent interview. “I didn’t have my rhythm because one day it was better and then another day it was much worse. It was a hard time.”
it’s a real bummer that he is being sent to the U-23 team and playing in the league he was already playing at with a better team. the good news is he is now 100% and hopefully he can prove he deserves to get back to the first team.
We dropped Donovan off the World Cup roster for this kid. Awesome.
Chris…we did not. you are living in denial if you honestly think Green wouldn’t be at the World Cup with, or without, LD. at this point, it’s comical a small number truly think this.
LD was left off in favor of Davis or Wondo. there is nothing more that needs to be said. it’s that simple. Green had a golden ticket, but that ticket had nothing to do with LD. and frankly, those two moves proved painful decisions. we needed Boyd over Wondo and we needed LD over a guy like Davis.
Well said.
You believe everything Klinsi spoon feeds to you I see. Green went, Donovan didn’t. Point stands.
No, I don’t and stop trying to deflect. The two situations are unrelated and you drawing some random conclusion and stating it as fact is not a point. Then saying someone is a blind JK follower because they call out your “point” as BS shows you aren’t trying to have a conversation.
Actually Bryan I disagree with you, Chris’ point does stand. You are actually the one that is locking yourself into a “random conclusion” by saying that Green getting a spot had nothing to do with Donovan not going. I would love for you to explain your view and show how it is not a “random conclusion”.
It’s actually very simple. Let me break it down to you without any “random conclusions” in a straight-forward way. 23 players get to go, so anyone that plays the same positions as Donovan and got to go to the World Cup potentially was picked over Donovan. Donovan plays as either forward/attacking-mid/midfield-winger. Both Davis and Green were listed as wingers/midfielders. So they are both in play as players that took Donovan’s spot (along with Dempsey, The Iceman, Wondo, Suzi, Bedoya, and Mix). I don’t list Altidore because he plays a type of forward position (target striker) that Donovan can’t.
The reason people bring up Wondo, B Davis and Green the most is because from the above list, they are considered by a majority of fans and pundits to be the worst of the group. Which of three is worst is subjective and up for debate.
Now explain to me why I am wrong and you are right?
the issue with all that is Davis, and to some degree, Wondo were surprise inclusions. that is agreed upon by just about everyone. LD was assumed to be a lock, hence the outrage.
but we all knew, even with LD there, that Green would also be there. he had a golden ticket (and we can absolutely question that decision). while that means there is one less spot, the reality is JK chose Davis over LD. or, if we take JK’s word that he saw LD as a striker only, then Wondo did. it’s not about being right or wrong, it’s about not assigning blame to Green for JK not selecting LD.
Nobody in their right mind should blame Green. It was obviously egotistic Klinsmann being Klinsmann. At the time, arguably the two biggest stars in US soccer were Donovan and Klinsmann. Klinsmann likes being the star. At to the fact that he felt crossed by Donovan not giving in to his demands to cancel his sabbatical and the rest is history. The annoying thing is though he still used Donovan to win the Gold Cup and beat Mexico in qualifying, two feathers that any USMNT manager must have in their hat to be judged favorably. That was the main cowardly thing that Klinsmann did. If he knew he wanted to punish LD then he should have done it from the beginning.
UCLA – exactly! Which is why making some insane point about LD being left off over a green, which Chris claims, is ridiculous. That’s what triggered my reply. LD was left off for reasons much different from it simply being a Green over LD decision. They were NEVER competing for a spot.
Green was going even if LD had gone.
Either Wondo or Davis supplanted Donovan
You nailed it. Glad someone here is able to comprehend the situation. If Donovan and Green are both included than maybe its Davis or Wondo who get the boot in place of Green. Much easier pill to swallow than.
I cannot believe this discussion is still happening.
I also cannot understand why it even matters. The replacement of a solitary attacking substitute for another (even it was Leo Messi) would not have made us a better team than Belgium. Our needs ran (and continue to run) much deeper than this. Our finish at the WC was fair- actually better than expected. Leave it at that.
You are right, adding in the USA’s all around best player would absolutely not have made them a better team. Ha.
You haven’t seen much of Donovan in a USMNT shirt have you?
I did not say “would not make us better”… I said “would not have made us us better than Belgium”.
Save your lame self-congratulatory sarcasm for Yahoo! Meantime, learn to read the comments.
Everybody is freaking out and declaring this kid a failure because he can’t break into a Bundesliga side at 19. Despite Hamburger’s poor form, their attacking talent is actually pretty substantial. How many 19 year Olds break into first division sides regularly, regardless of team position in the table? Hint: Very, Very few. Give him a few years before you write him off as overhyped and maligned. People comparing him to Freddy Adu have lost it, or just crave for this kid to fail.
As a 19 year old, I broke into my littler brother’s U12 game with ease. I scored 8 goals in the first 5 minutes of the game, and I believe I would have scored more had the referee and opposing team’s parents not chase me off the field.
So on that logic, he shouldn’t have any issues playing.
Do you have an American passport?
Are you fit?
Haha nice
Joe Gyau couldn’t get into the Hoffenheim team, then moves to Dortmund and plays.
Harry Kane and Ryan Mason did nothing on their loans to suggest they would impact Spurs the way they are.
Green is still young, he needs games but one bad season is not the end of the world.
No news is good news. And this is not news.
Unfortunately for him Klinsmann has a very strict ” no club minutes no NT call up” right?
Boy, you declare for the USA and your EURO career goes into a tailspin.
The 19 year old isn’t cutting it for the first team in the Bundesliga?!?!?!?!?!?! THAT’S IT, EVERYONE FREAK OUT AND SAY HOW HE’S WASHED UP AND SCREWED HIMSELF AND HE’LL NEVER AMOUNT TO ANYTHING
you’re way behind….. he plays for Hamburg, NOT the top team in the Bundesliga.
could be wrong, but i thought he was referring to *any* ‘first team’ playing in the bundesliga, as opposed to a u23 team, in this case.
you are correct
Fair enough. Ambiguously worded…
Not really. It’s a common term in soccer (First team/first 11).
Loan moves really aren’t that great for young players unless the club just has no one else. Truth is Hamburg has nothing invested in him. So unless he’s a clear upgrade and going to win matches the second he steps on the field, they don’t have a real reason to play him.
Good point.
Yup. Good post. Loan moves are often overrated for this exact reason. And when the manager gets canned early in the loan (as happened at Hamburg), whatever “buy in” the club might have had (probably not much, as you have correctyly asserted) evaporates.
The last thing a new manager wants to do is build a team around a player whom he did not identify, and who will be departing come the end of the season. It offers no upside to the manager, and unless the player is so good that he clearly cannot be left out of the side for the sake of immediate results(Green hasn’t been), the manager will rate him as “low priority” at best.
Spray Dan >>> Julian Green
This is it for Green. If he couldn’t get playing time at Hamburg then Bayern has no use for him. They’ll cut their loses at the end of the season and sell him to the first BL2 team with cash in hand. He can’t say he wasn’t given a chance. There is always MLS I guess.
yeah man totally. Bayern Munich, who have spent years developing him, will just quit because he had a bad time at a bad Hamburg team. a time in which he was not training 100% because he had a rib injury. that makes TOTAL sense…
That’s kind of what happened to a kid named Jozy Altidore when he went to Villareal. And he has been useless to the USMNT ever since.
This comparison makes no sense Gary. Rob is talking about Green and Bayern; never did he mention the USMNT or say Green will now be useless to the USMNT. So while you thought you were being clever, you actually reinforced Rob’s argument because Altidore did not cut it at Villareal or any of his other European clubs except for AZ, so he found his way back to MLS.
Sounds like Gary was alluding to the fact that it wasn’t “over” for Jozy and similarly it isn’t “over ” for green as Rob said
Good call, Klinsmann.
US soccer missed a seminal moment playing on the Fourth of July against Argentina because of this.
Ahh..no. US missed ” seminal moment playing on the Fourth of July against Argentina ” because Wondo and CD whiffed on near sitters at the end of the game. You could even add that we have no one else in the pool could replace Jozy to stretch the field when he went down. Wondo (most likely) and Brad David are the guys who took his spot.
As a side note, the endless whining from USMNT fans is annoying . I felt that it got worse under Bradley and Klinsman. No objective football fan can say that USMNT is better than Belgium. Think about it, there is virtually no one in the 2014 USMNT pool that would be in the Belgium starting 11. They had Nacer Chadli, Kevin Mirallas, and Romelu Lukaku coming off the bench in that game!!! We DID not deserve to win that game. We should have won the Portugal game, though, that Cameron gave away with 2 stupid goal leading mistakes.
+1. And for the record, the game against Argentina would’ve been on July 5.
Let’s remember something else: If Tim Howard made half as many saves, we would be talking about Juergen Klinsmann as the former coach of the national team. There’s no way any coach survives an 8-0 shellacking in the World Cup.
HA! If anything it was Brad Davis or Wondo who took Donovan’s spot, and Julian Green had nothing to do with Wondo missing the gimme goal at the end of the game. Everything Paul said is right, I have no idea where this expectation for the USMNT to beat top world powers comes from, but it’s ridiculous.
I don’t think anyone is saying we are better than Belgium. But we are talking about a one off game and the best team doesn’t always win. The fact is that game was 0-0 in stoppage time and that was a sitter that wondo skyed over the bar. If he finishes that it doesn’t matter who’s coming off the bench for Belgium or that they had 20 shots and we had 1.
So which is it? Are we mad Klinsmann went with a 33-year-old-All-American MLS guy – who skied his chance when he was there for his demonstrated finishing ability – or are we mad at Klinsmann for bringing a 19-year-old who buried his first touch in the World Cup?
Make up your mind, peoples. 😉
Yes, Wondo missed a sitter that could have won. But that was more than offset by Tim Howard having the game of his life and perhaps having the best game by a GK in WC history. The game could have just as easily been 4-0 at full time instead of 0-0, so this speculating is meaningless. If the US played Belgium 10 times, I would guess the result would be something like Belgium 7 wins, 2 draws, and 1 US victory. So, it’s pretty pointless to blame the loss on Wondo or the coach, as many do. They (Belgium) were and are better and they deserved to win and they did.
This just in. Julian Green on loan to Staebek.
He should go to Portland. That’s where all the best US players get training. Caleb Porter is a genius! It would be better than starting at Munich!
It’s starting to become very apparent that he has the physical tools but not the mentality to be a top football player. Picking the easy way out with the USNT instead of fighting it out with Germany should’ve been the first clue.
I can picture a room full of Germany FC execs laughing out loud about duping the Americans into “stealing ” a good prospect.
I would say it’s more that he has the quickness and technical ability, but lacks the strength to deal with a physical league and lacks the soccer IQ to play quickly enough/move intelligently enough to make up for his physical shortcomings.
So yeah, I basically agree, but have a slightly different spin on it.
The Soccer IQ comes with time. If his IQ was really that low (or too low to improve), Bayern would not rate him that highly. VERY VERY few 19 get regular time at elite clubs. His size, however, makes it difficult to deal in the Bundesliga. Size is not the end-all be-all, but he is 5’8″ barely 130lbs and not fully developed, muscularly. He needs more physical development. Hell, I was bigger as a freshman in high school when I played (barely 145).
Are you guys his psychologists? We’ve hardly seen him play at all, I’m sure you don’t see how he practices. Ignorance truly is bliss and does nothing to stop many people from leaping to conclusions.
To which I should add, if you want to get worried about a US player in the Bundesliga, I find the situation for Fabian Johnson of concern. He was a regular starter last year, moved to a better club, had a great World Cup, and yet now hardly plays at all. He was injured for a while, but he’s an established player who should be in the prime of his career. The fact that he isn’t a regular with his club when he should be a mainstay with the USMNT is more of a problem than a young kid still finding his way.
How did they dupe us into anything? Kid is still young, give him a chance.
Are you kidding? You want to give up on a 19 yr kid that the 3rd best team in the world thinks has a lot of progress. He’s 19, give him time to develop. Are you going to give up on Zelalem. You know he’s 18 and has played less time (1 FA Cup game) for a weaker team (Arsenal).
Let the kid develop, and take you overreaction elsewhere.
It’s silly to give up on any 18 or 19 year old prospect. Julian Green will probably still develop into a very good player and hopefully a contributor to the USMNT.
What is painfully obvious is that Green is not yet an International or 1st Division level player. Poor kid had to live up to the Klinsmann hype and expectations from the past year.
Now, at least, the kid can find a team/league more in line with his current development to compete for playing time and develop without the pressure of being given at World Cup roster spot.
Can we have a Freddy Adu comparison? For old-time sake?
Cue the return of the Klinsmann/Donovan firestorm in 3, 2, 1 . . .
Cue all overreactions in 3…2…1…
Cue the cues in -1…-2…-3….
Cue the 1-2-3’s in….. 3-2-1….
Cute
I am continuing the chain of self-referential replies in 3..2..1.
What’s a Landon Donovan?
Everyone measure a period of time through ‘3..2..1’ in 3…2…1..
Is there really any doubt anymore?
I heard MLS teams are looking for US national team players
Just a rumor, nothing to it.
There are many rumors, some are true.
The LA Galaxy is a well-known team in the Major League Soccer. The team has a track record of signing soccer players. Julian Greene is a soccer player.
There’s no truth to this rumor.
I can confirm that this rumor is nor true nor false.
You would think that a team facing relegation could use a player with world cup and champions league experience
Surely Hamburg knows that Green had the best goal scored to minutes played ratio in the WC. If only they would let him take the field!
OK, that is funny.
Apparently Green is no where near that level of a player. The fact that he played 5 minutes in a Champions League match and was given (it’s becoming more and more apparent that there had to be some sort of deal USA commitment = WC roster spot) a World Cup roster spot does not make him a Champions League or World Cup caliber player.
and you are just catching on?
Julian Green: It’s not your fault.
Rob: Yeah i know that.
JG: It’s not your fault.
R: I know.
JG: No. It’s not your fault.
R: I know.
JG: No, no, you don’t. It’s not your fault.
R: I *know*.
JG: It’s not your fault.
R: Alright.
JG: It’s not your fault. [Rob fights back tears.] It’s not your fault.
R: Don’t f–k with me. [shoves Julian] Don’t f–k with me, Julian–not you!
JG: It’s not your fault…It’s not your fault.
[Rob and Julian embrace, sobbing.]
Good Will Hunting references always score high in my book
Highly* (it’s an adverb here)
Now I want to hear Julian describe the best ten seconds of his day when he knocks on the door of the training facility.
he hasn’t been 100% and wasn’t training fully the last few months which meant no playing time. info that would have been nice to have BEFORE 2015.
he says he is 100% fit now, so my guess is this is their way to get him back into shape. then, if he shows something, he can get back to the first team.
Lol, nice try..
No way to spin it, he just hasn’t been good enough.
Not that long ago John Brooks was sent down to the U-23’s, called back up, and played 90 minutes last weekend for Hertha. So, I wouldn’t give up hope just yet.
Not a great comparison.
Brooks had broken through with playing time. He had at least shown enough in training to warrant time on the field. Unfortunately, Green had yet to show enough in training (for either club or the USMNT, by the way) to get on the field.
There doesn’t seem to be any “it’s just a matter of time before he earns his way back to the 1st team” chatter going on.
In all fairness Brooks has had a longer career inside Hertha’s system.
Julian is the new guy at a much, bigger club with much bigger aspirations.
Don’t let the last couple years fool you. HSV always thinks of themselves as a champion league club
And Julian Green is younger than Brooks. All you guys are doing is speculating on the basis of incomplete information. Obviously you do not having training as scientists, either physical or social. I like to base my opinions on facts,. No, my analogy is not perfect, but then, neither are yours.
Fact #1 – 5 appearances, 113 minutes all season.
Fact #2 – Hasn’t made the 18 in 7 of the last 8 matches for Hamburg.
Fact #3 – Dropped to 4th division with seemingly no plans by Hamburg to extend the loan.
Fact #4 – Green has not consistently excelled anywhere above the 4th division in the Bundesliga.
Opinion – Green needs further development and not quite ready to contribute at higher levels yet.
Guess it’s a good thing no one’s paying you for your opinion.
lol…not for soccer at least.
Leo,
Since cannot dispute the facts that I noted, I assume that you believe (without facts) that Green is a proven commodity and just getting the short end of the stick. I’m open to any “facts”, as Gary Page requested, to support your counter argument.
All in good fun, there are no rocket scientists here (or professional soccer analysts for that matter).
Your assumptions are getting you into water you can’t navigate.
If you’re amusing yourself, you can keep it up all day long. Personally, I don’t want to hear any of your crazy talk.
Well aren’t you a clever one…lol. I’ll let you make your snide remarks since you can’t keep up with the argument.
As soon as you feel prepared and feel that you can keep up intellectually let me know.
Otherwise, I’ll assume (there I go, I assumed again) that you’re just a troll.
Haha, I have to jump in to this one. Leo, Manuel is correct, that was pretty pathetic on your part. Nobody on this comment board is being paid for their opinion on soccer, so I guess none of us (including you) should comment? Obviously you are one of those ultra-sensitive fans that gets all worked up when someone says something negative about a player you like, and then goes for an insult or sarcastic reply.
And Gary Page, what is your point? I’ve seen you on this board constantly make the “you are just speculating” or “you have no inside information” argument. I will ask you the same question I asked Leo, so should we not comment? Nobody on this board, including you, works at Bayern or Hamburg or for any of these teams.
We make observations and come up with theories off of them, that’s all any of us on this board can do. It’s simple: Green = Not good enough to be on the first team for both Bayern and Hamburg. Where did I come up with this theory? From seeing both Bayern and Hamburg jettison Green to the 4th division.
You two could just spur each other on to Clever Clever Land, all day long.
jesus; can’t they just send him back to bayern? if he’s just going to be in the youth side, i’d rather he be there than hamburg.
Why ?
Because he was apparently thriving with Bayern II in the same league. I agree I’d rather see him in Bayern’s setup than Hamburg’s in the same league, especially if there’s no long-term interest at Hamburg.
what malkin said. he knows bayern’s setup and system, and they at least have some incentive to grow him, even if it’s just to sell him on at the end of the year. hamburg’s obviously not interested in any way (and i don’t really blame them, with the problems they’re having).
Over/under for the month/year he comes stateside anyone? I predict summer ’15 NYRB.
I would if I was him. I think he’d develop faster in MLS. Whatever people say about MLS, I think it’s a whole lot more useful to get regular PT in MLS than it is to play for the U23’s in Hamburg.
Truthfully I wondered if the writing was on the wall. Pep Guardiola did not seem overly enamored with Green and his teammates did not seem to respect him…I watched one of his German teammates blow him off – incredibly disrespectfully – after the MLS All-Star Game…granted, they were all taking their cue from Guardiola and being petulant babies, but that did not impress me much.
History tells us you can be Landon Donovan and still get eaten alive by the culture at Bayern. I was also leery of Hamburg initially because they were a relegation-threatened club and history tells us that sides threatened by relegation have very little patience for developing young players; they’re too busy trying to survive. Green probably needed a Bundesliga 2 or Championship side to really get his minutes if he was going to stay in Europe; jumping from the German fourth division to the first was always going to be a big jump for a 19-year-old.
People talk about the value of “fighting your way up”, and there’s something to that, but if you’re not playing, how do you get better? IMHO the best move for Green’s career is to PLAY…and MLS would play him, and invest in him. Then when he’s 23 or 24 and has a boatload of starts and experience he’s still got that German passport if a plus situation opens in Europe….
Except that it’s not a big jump to go from the second team to the first team if you’re good enough. People were falling all over themselves to about this kid the savior of US soccer before he had done anything.
Bayern II played in the fourth division, I believe. No idea where Hamburg’s is.
It’s a BIG, BIG jump from the 4 to the 1. MLS is probably roughly equivalent to the 2…and that’s probably about where Green needs to be playing.
Green’s got the goods to play at the top levels, but does he have them at 19? Doesn’t seem like it. That doesn’t make him a waste of talent. That makes him, well, 19.
By the time he’s 22 or 23, let’s have this discussion again.
“The Hamburg U-23 team currently plays in the Regionalliga, the fourth division of the German soccer and the same league that Green featured in for Bayern Munich II in 2013-14.”
from the text above…
“Except that it’s not a big jump to go from the second team to the first team if you’re good enough.”
man, where’s captain obvious when you need him? sure, it’s also not a big jump to go from chivas usa to real madrid if you’re good enough.
more importantly, the jump from second team to first all depends on the club. one reason that you don’t see too many academy kids joining bayern, city, and real madrid is because their first teams are really, really, really good, and the gap is much further than at other “lesser” clubs (or more academy-focused clubs like barca and arsenal).
doesn’t mean they don’t produce good players, but those players usually get sold to other clubs–which, i’m hoping, is what will happen to green.
Actually, City’s academy is becoming renowned in England. They’re stealing all of United’s youth in Manchester.
MLS is the same as any league, if he doesnt perform or is physically not ready to handle the man’s game, he is not going to play. The bad thing with MLS is that for the young guys who don’t get playing time with the first team, there often is not a good reserve, U23, U21 league to play in. Being loaned to a USL side is not an improvement. He’s better staying put in Germany.
You are crazy to think that MLS would develop a young player faster and better than a professional club in Germany. The last world cup demonstrated which country is better in developing talent. It makes no sense for a young player who was developed within the German youth system and played his entire career in Germany to move to MLS. It would be pretty much a kiss of death for his career. And you obviously did not see any of Guardiola’s interviews, in which he discussed Green’s potential to become the first team player at Bayern. I agree with you re struggling Hamburg not being a good place for a loaned young player.
Hat Trick Rick >>> Green
You have made a joke that relates a contemporary advertising campaign with a real-life soccer player in an effort to elicit a jovial response from your readers.
i think i really prefer chocolate to vanilla
Jovial is not a word associated with anything on SBI
You must be a hit at parties.
Who says he gets invited to parties?
Actually, that was pretty funny