By AARON CRANFORD
Ventura Alvarado still has the option to play for Mexico or the United States, but he told ESPN FCÂ on Friday that he’s committed to representing the latter.
The Club America center back appeared for the U.S. Men’s National Team late against Denmark on Wednesday, but the game only provisionally cap-tied the dual national. Alvarado could still choose to play for Mexico in the future if he were to be called in by Mexico head coach Miguel Herrera’s side in the future, but the Liga MX starter has made decided where he wants to play.
“I want to stay here,” Alvarado told ESPN FC. “I was happy to wear this jersey and I’m really motivated to be here and keep working. I’m looking forward to getting another call-up.”
While Alvardo sounds more than content with the decision, it appears to go against some of the wishes of his friends and family.
“I was undecided, because my parents, they’re Mexican,” Alvarado said. “They wanted me to go with Mexico. My teammates at Club America, they all wanted me to wait for the Mexican national team.”
Even with everyone around him urging him to play for Mexico and despite a pitch from Herrera, the 22-year-old Alvarado was confident in his decision to play for the U.S.
“When I talked to the coach, he said, ‘I’ll probably call you up,'” Alvarado said. “I told him, ‘No, I want to go with the U.S.'”
Alvarado made his international debut Wednesday, coming off the bench and playing the final 10 minutes of the U.S.’s 3-2 loss to Denmark. He earned a yellow card in the match.
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What do you think about Alvarado’s comments? Will this end Miguel Herrera’s pursuit of the Liga MX defender? Hoping he gets a longer look against Switzerland?
Share your thoughts below.
Reason why USNT needs to more games vs C level teams: nerves issue, develop understanding between players and coach, continue experience playing types teams and players.
Decisions like this are a lot easier to make when you only have one option.
Rimando isn’t a leader like Friedel or Keller organizing the defense. Remember Rimando vs Catolica? or Pumas?
So much for the story by the moron Andrea Canales, who said Alvarado and Yarbrough will probably choose Mexico because they saw how bad the USA is. Pendeja. Don’t know why ESPN employs her. She spent days on Twitter talking about how lousy Howler magazine is for running a great story about Miami MLS expansion. But when she has to do her next story, she turns in a piece of crap that is proven to be wrong immediately.
Mexico hasn’t beaten the USMNT under JK and there’s no reason for them to think they are ahead of us. They aren’t.
Mexico is ahead of us and so is Costa Rica, their WC and post WC performances clearly show it, we were better in 2013 and that’s it.
I am fan of Mexican player development. Mexican has produced better technical players going forward. However, overall, US was better in 2013 and up until the World Cup. The US also has less depth in terms of very good/excellent players. If you envision yourself as one of these, you can see more opportunity.
Rightly or wrongly, I would argue that US is a higher profile team than Mexico. However, Mexico is thought to have better technical, attacking players.
Glad someone brought that up. Canales’ piece was an utter embarrassment. How she could beat the ethics-in-journalism drum one minute then post a piece that contained zero reporting, was based on zero facts whatsoever, in which she actually presumed to know what two people she’s almost certainly never spoken to might be thinking is downright astonishing. Oh, btw, Denmark is better than the U.S. They have better players and are ranked higher for a reason. A 3-2 loss ON THE ROAD should not have been remotely unexpected to anyone who knows anything about soccer.
Alvarado looked very cool, poised and relaxed from his very first touch. Granted, he came on in the most difficult of circumstances (dysfunctional back line, under pressure, at the close of the game) and made some marking errors. He may very well be one of the few backs in our pool that can relax and deliver calmly and efficiently out of the back. I say pair him with Orozco against the Swiss and see how he does. Hope JK runs him out again soon.
I’m hoping Klinsy pair Alavardo with Orozco, Brook is a disaster, Gooch 2.0.
lol this is so very wrong. What makes brooks an attractive prospect is that he is big AND fairly technical – never a strength of Gooch’s game
Gooch was very technical and very skilled with the ball before the injury. Gooch basically had Italy in his pocket, in the World Cup.
Brooks seems to have become the regular starter at Hertha Berlin. That is in the Bundesliga which is one of the toughest leagues in the whole world, much better than League MX. Brooks is also young, about the same age as Alvarado. He has already played in the World Cup and scored a goal. Your assessment of him is at odds with that of most coaches and observers.
I think someone from MLS should get him but probably he’s making good money down in ligaMX, probably like DP money.
This is also brings me tommy next point, why in the world is Omar Gonzalez a DP when galaxy can find another talented center defender for a cheaper price.
If you think about it, galaxy got screwed by Omar, he is never living galaxy and will stay with galaxy for easy money and against easy opponents.
Galaxy thought Omar would leave but he instead saw the sunny LA weather and got afraid of Europe. He might end up in Mexico buts it too late. Didn’t club America wanted to buy Omar Gonzalez but now club America has the new Omar Gonzalez, karma Gonzalez.
I say but next CBA, MLS introduces a goalkeeper DP spot and defender DP spot, that would make wonders for MLS, steal young and talented goalkeepers from the world and defenders then sell them.
So, galaxy drop down Gonzalezs salary.
Omar did go to Europe but tore his ACL in his first practice. And if LAG don’t think he’s worth the money, they shouldn’t have signed the contract.
The reason that Omar gets DP money from the Galaxy is that when Omar has been out of the lineup for extended periods of time they have lost lots of game Also, given the fact that the Galaxy are the current MLS Cup holders and had the best defense in MLS, I would say the DP deal has benefited both parties.
“… the game only provisionally cap-tied the dual national.”
I wouldn’t use the term “provisionally cap-tied” as this match doesn’t cap tie him at all. He can switch between the teams for friendlies as often as he (and the feds) like. He’s not tied at all.
The term is generally used for dual national youth who play in a competitive match that ties them to their federation until they file a one time switch.
I think that can’t switch back and forth, but rather has a 1 time switch left to play. I may be wrong and if you or anybody else knows for certain, please enlighten me.
I’ve done a lot of research on this & I think I have a pretty good grasp of the FIFA statutes. The limitations revolve around competitive matches (youth or full NT). The only time a “one time switch” is required is if you play a *competitive* youth match.
Technically, you can bounce back & forth for friendlies, but you are not likely to find a competitive FA that would be too happy about that. It’s a little more common at the youth levels as FAs are willing to let players experiment a bit.
OK. Thanks for the info.
+1 he could play for El Tri as early as April 15th.. and then come back to Gold Cup squad for either team.
hope he doesn’t. glad to here he is leaning towards the US and we are getting value out of his roster selection.
I blame Troy McClure and his lesser known instructional videos, such as “So, You’re A Duel International And Need Help Choosing A Country?” and “For Love Of Country Or Family, What’s A Footballer To Do?”
+1 Million.
That’s a great comment
It would appear that the Germans choose love for their family as why the choose to play for the US instead of Germany, the Mexicans on the other hand choose country over family — seems kind of sad.
Maybe you are over simplifying the decision process a tad.
they all chose the best career path for them, playing for a NT is always good for your pro career, the USMNT just offers them an easier path.
Here’s a radical idea I keep proposing, but a lot of people here don’t seem to think much of their country. Maybe they choose the US because it’s a great country and they prefer to live here and represent what we stand for. Crazy, I know, but some of us love our country and think a lot of it.
My favorite Simpson’s personality!
RIP Phil Hartman!
Dude was born and raised here. Why wouldn’t he suit up for the USMNT?
Because his parents wanted him to play for El Tri…
Who gives a f**k. Most parents of first or second Mexican-American generationals want their kids to play for Mexico. It’s the sitting on the fence s**t that makes me hesitant about wanting a player on my team, i.e. Timothy Chandler.
Plus he told Miguel Herrera to f**k off, so there’s that
Maybe he thought suiting for Mexico was a form a gratitude for everything they have given him?
his parents are mexican and his been living in Mexico for quite a while
Awesome….because if there is anything that Liga MX is known for, it’s stellar defense.
hes a defender, so he will play an attacking role for Jurgen
+1 lol
Well Orozco & Garza outperformed their German-American partners on that particular night so i don’t know if what your saying makes sense.
I blame Klinsmann
With pressure from peers, parents and every thing in between…in these unique circumstances it’s not hard to understand the difficulty with making such a big decision that will impact his career and life (inside and outside of soccer).
People can speculate all they’d like but I don’t fault him for being indecisive as a 22 year old man. We all are/were.
Horrible first cap, basically Alvarado gave way the game, but Alvarado still has room improve, and experience playing outside the Americas and dealing with Vikings going berserk on USNT.
I think horrible first caps are to be expected given JK’s commitment to experiment while simultaneously playing tougher games on the road. I would prefer that the schedule alternate between minnows (where the new guys can be thrown it and evaluated) and tough games where the veterans can be tested.
Hopefully JK’s more practiced eye could detect something in Alvarado because all I saw was a guy that was overwhelmed and learned only that he could not yet be thrown in against good competition on the road, which probably could have been guessed anyway.
it’s easy to blame the defenders but when the midfield can’t hold on to the ball for more than a few seconds it’s only a matter of time before the defense breaks.
This game was lost by the midfield.
USNT’s midfield has been losing war since the World Cup.
The lack chemistry in defense major problem, Garza was being destroying by the Vikings, and Alvarado really looked horrible in 10minutes.
Before the World Cup. Remember the Turkey friendly before the World Cup? We won the game, but they torn through our midfield in that game. We don’t have the ball-holders to go 4 in the midfield.
In South Africa 2010, the midfield was best part of USNT. Weird how USNT regress in midfield both defense and creative.
Thank you for pointing out the elephant in the room. Our midfield play has been terrible on both sides of the ball.
Finally a voice of reason. Give Rob more cyber time
Ahhh… pretty inconclusive all things considered- very thankless extremely difficult scenario. First cap nerves. Few days into a new side. New line mates. New system. New Coach. Fresh off a plane across the world. Cold. Wet/slick field, away game. With all the above in tow, inserted in the closing minutes of a match with team under siege/bunkered in. The body of work for a very good club with high standards, eye test- the guy is quality and an exciting prospect for the US. Bienvenido Ventura!!!! Stoked to have him.
Well, we all know Omar Gonzalez is overrated.
He’s loving the LA life and never leaving.
Down in ligaMX, there’s a bunch of good center defenders who would come to MLS, but their paycheck is too high for MLS teams.
Fast question, who is the best center defender in MLS? Does MLS even have a top center defender, I don’t think so and galaxy is paying Omar DP money, no good galaxy.
MLS is a powerhouse of creating goalkeepers and defenders, why not just sell them and push them to be the best in Europe.
This guy Ventura, is way better than Gonzalez, that’s why he plays for club America but like I said before, ligaMX have very good center defenders,from the weakest to the strongest team in ligaMX, they got their Center defender.
Lol @ “MLS is a powerhouse of creating goalkeepers and defenders”, remind me how many top keepers has the MLS produced?
Brad Freidel, Tim Howard,Brad Guzan, for starters.
Not to mention MLS has quality and very talented goalkeepers playing in the league. There’s a reason that Scolari supported Julio Cesar going to MLS. Around the world people know MLS does produce very good keepers. People respect American keepers, but not as much American field players.
He had a rough patch last year but…. honestly, I don’t know that Omar is all that over rated. He actually gets his fair share of grief. Truth is- he has been pretty damn good with Galaxy at doing what they ask him to do and for all the criticism his way with the Nats, he had a very good WC with a defense that was constantly under seige.
As I said- Ventura is quality. I think the comparison between he and Omar, and MLS and Liga MX are congruent. They are somewhat prototypical of the leagues they play in. A CB is not a CB. Within different styles of play/teams, different skills and physical attributes are needed. Place a very good CB from one school into the other and they may be exposed.
Omar for the most part, is a classic, big bodied, back to goal dug in defender controlling crosses/the air… suited for MLS and USMNT style of play in the past and….. the last WC. Alvarado is a more mobile, technical passer suited to high line, pressure D, passing out of the back.
MLS is in the process of slowly changing in the direction our national team aspires to- a style of play more suited to Alvarado. Fits and starts for the Nats- they seem caught between 2 minds and against better teams it has yet to apply at all. Given his young age,if his development continues on the same line along with the game of the US I think he just may be the right sort of player at the right time to have a solid international career. That’s all theory at this point.- time will tell.
good analysis… well said.
I am a Galaxy fan so I am biased BUT…..Omar plays extremely well in the games that count. During qualification started in all 9 games before qualification in which the USMNT allowed 6 goals (0.667 GAA). He played as well as anybody in the WC and he led the Galaxy last season to a league leading (1.08 GAA). No way is he over-rated and if we take the time to remember how some of the games elite centerbacks disgraced themselves this past WC, we should thank our lucky stars that we have a guy of his quality on our back line.
As a long time Galaxy fan, my take on Omar is that he was very good by his second year, came back from his injury improved, but has plateaued since. Still, he is a pretty good defender who saved the bacon for the US time and again in the Germany game. His main problem seems to be a lapse in concentration sometimes late in games.
I concur with this statement. I think Omar Gonzalez has become somewhat of a diva and his play has been slacking.
Giving away the equalizer when he was marking David Horst against the Dynamo is the most recent gaff i can point to, but there have been many.
Considering that, I’m glad Klinsmann dropped him
Scott –
Vikings?
Yes. Vikings (wink.wink).
Gave away the game? You don’t know what the hell are you talking about. The only responsible for those goals were : Brooks, Orozco and Garza. or you’re blind or an a$$ hole that do not understand anything about soccer/football.
Alvarado came in for Orozco and then two goals came in.
Normally I don’t respond to people without some knowledge of soccer like you. Facts are that you never watch the game. When Alvarado came in for Orozco ( 78:50 ) was to reinforce the back line, responsible for the Danish goal . The score was US 2 DEN 1. Then at 83:25 bad clearance by Brooks goes to N. Bendtner and is 2 – 2. Then at 90+ again a bad defensive mistake by Brooks and somehow Rimaldo is 3- 2.. So,, how Alvarado is responsible to this? Better watch the games before posting irresponsible comments on the web, little a$$ hole.
Yellow Card to Hector for unsporting/ungentlemanlike conduct. One more and it’s o the showers big boy
Chandler was horrible defensively and so was Brooks. Orozco had to cover for their sloppy play all night.
If Jozy was man of the match, then Nick Rimando comes in second and Orozco a definite third.