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Pulisic, Sargent, Bradley headline USMNT roster for October friendlies

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The U.S. Men’s National Team continues their rebuilding process with another youth-heavy roster for head coach Dave Sarachan, though this time around Sarachan has called in some veterans who are returning to the team for the first time in a year.

Michael Bradley and Brad Guzan have been called back into the USMNT, joining Christian Pulisic as call-ups in a 24-man squad that will face Colombia and Peru during the upcoming international break.

Pulisic returns to national team camp after sitting out the September friendlies with a leg injury. The Borussia Dortmund midfield comes in riding a wave of excellent form after missing all but one USMNT match over the past year.

“I’m very excited to have Christian back in with this group for a variety of reasons,” said Sarachan. “First and foremost, his ability to change a game and influence our team in an attacking sense goes without saying. He’s in good form with Dortmund at the moment, and I know that he is excited to be back and a part of things. As we move forward, the timing couldn’t be better to have Christian back with us.”

While Pulisic’s return is no surprise, there is at least some surprise at Sarachan’s decision to bring back Bradley and Guzan for the first time since the team’s World Cup qualifying failure in Trinidad and Tobago last October. Sarachan views Bradley and Guzan as important veteran players in an otherwise young roster.

“When you are building a team, at some point there has to be the proper blend of youth and experience. As we head into these last four friendlies of the year, I felt the timing was right to begin that transition,” Sarachan said. “I think it’s important to do it earlier than a week before the Gold Cup or a World Cup Qualifier. Bringing in players like Michael and Brad, who have a vast amount of experience and can be a great resource for our younger players – both on and off the field – is an important step for us at this point in time.”

Joining Pulisic is fellow Bundesliga attacker Josh Sargent, who skipped the September camp to try and break into the Werder Bremen first team. Sargent has three caps with the USMNT, last appearing in the USMNT’s 1-1 draw against France ahead of the World Cup.

Timothy Weah, Weston McKennie, and Tyler Adams all return for international duty after appearing in both September friendlies, while Reggie Cannon, Ben Sweat and Jonathan Amon will all take part in their first USMNT camps.

Even with veterans like Bradley and Guzan on the squad, the average age for the 24-man roster is still just 23 years, 168 days. Fifteen of the players on the roster are 23 or younger.

The USMNT will face Colombia on October 11 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa before traveling north to face Peru at Pratt & Whitney Stadium in East Hartford, Connecticut.

Here’s the entire 24-man roster for the USMNT:

Goalkeepers: Brad Guzan (Atlanta United), Ethan Horvath (Club Brugge), Zack Steffen (Columbus Crew)

Defenders: John Brooks (Wolfsburg), Reggie Cannon (FC Dallas), Cameron Carter-Vickers (Swansea City), Aaron Long (New York Red Bulls), Matt Miazga (Nantes), Antonee Robinson (Wigan Athletic),Ben Sweat (New York City FC), DeAndre Yedlin (Newcastle United)

Midfielders: Kellyn Acosta (Colorado Rapids), Tyler Adams (New York Red Bulls), Jonathan Amon (Nordsjælland), Michael Bradley (Toronto FC), Julian Green (Greuther Fürth), Weston McKennie (Schalke),Christian Pulisic (Borussia Dortmund), Kenny Saief (Anderlecht), Wil Trapp (Columbus Crew), Tim Weah (Paris Saint-Germain)

Forwards: Andrija Novakovich (Fortuna Sittard), Josh Sargent (Werder Bremen), Bobby Wood (Hannover 96)

Comments

  1. Bradley didn’t make the 2018 World Cup team, he eliminated himself.
    Now he has had a terrible year, where his team won’t make the playoffs in spite of being the highest paid team out there.
    .
    If there was ever a time to move on, and there always is, it is now. Thanks for the huge contributions, time to move on.

    Reply
    • My thing is he is 35. Learn the lesson from Beckerman and Jones and Howard and Co. last cycle. Don’t depend on people who basically have to age out before we could possibly get to Qatar. It’s a crutch.

      If you really think he is so smart and a resource for the players, that is what a coach does. Hire him as the new coach’s assistant.

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      • Or have him show up and talk to the team in November when TFC is eliminated. Why do veterans have to be called in their offseason, or play? Why can’t they show up and give a talk at the camp? Join the kickarounds as a ringer? Why do they have to burn a roster spot.

      • i mean 35 in 4 years. There is no way he is still playing at an international level in Qatar.

  2. Think MB was added because of the old boy soccer network in our country,he adds nothing! Veteran presence, that’s BS ,he allowed his team to loose to a T+T B team. He should be put on the “reserve” roster and only brought up if we don’t have eleven healthy players available.We need to establish which players will be going with us to 2022 WC ,MB won’t be on that roster.

    Reply
    • I’ve evolved on Bradley, he’d be 35 end of cycle and shouldn’t be brought in as a player/. Right now you need to know what all you have in the pool, and he only impedes that. And he is basically “Jermaine Jones” if you rely on him at the start of the cycle to try and get results, there is zero guarantee he can play in 4 years.

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  3. For the record Morales has played like crap for the us you can’t just overlook that because he starts in the Bundesliga. Is he deserving of another. Maybe, maybe not but to pretend like he’s the answer is completely naive

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    • Remember when everyone said Villafana was the answer because he never got called in, or that Bradley was the answer if he was just played as a #6, or that Jordan Morris was the replacement for Altidore. The grass is always greener.

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    • The Answer is not ignoring in form players who are regular starters for club in a top five league. But the real Question is: Why do our managers continue to ignore Bundesliga starters in favor of MLS players? What other country or manager would rate players at lower club levels above players at higher club levels on what appears to be a routine and regular basis? No South American or European manager would think this way, yet somehow we overcredit form and play in MLS and discount form and play in a top five league.

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      • Being a regular starter in a top 5 league and not playing on your national team is pretty common. France, Germany, Italy, Spain and England all have a very large number of native players in their top league who never will get called up to the national team.

        This makes perfect sense since even in the best leagues, only a few teams are routinely in contention for Champions League spots, the other 15 to 20 teams have a total of over 150 regular starters of whom a large fraction are native to the nation the league is in. Most of those 75 plus players never get a sniff at their national team roster.

    • I haven’t seen anyone say he is the answer or anything close to that. The issue is that other players in lesser leagues get called in, but he doesn’t. Why is that? Saief hasn’t been playing much so far this year, plays in Belgium, a second tier league, so why is he called in but Morales isn’t? And while the MLS has improved greatly in the last 3 or 4 years, I doubt any MLS team would last long in the Bundesliga.

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      • Hopefully because managers watch film and don’t make roster selection based on what league someone plays in.

      • One difference is we already know Saief can play. You can’t ignore country play based on club form, that’s like we know it works in practice but can it work in theory.

        But I think part of the issue is apples versus oranges, how does a MLS starter compare to a B.1 bench player, hard to say. Why not put him on the field and actually see. Hmmm.

        Personally I feel Morales is likely a weaker option it’s just to me this is supposed to be the part of the cycle where you experiment with the pool and find out what all it offers, not confirm and reaffirm a few times that certain players can play. We already know that and when the games start counting we’ll need them almost every time. So instead of calling in Steffen or Weah again for the 10th time, or Bradley who will be 35, let them chill and call in some people you don’t know about.

    • I don’t think he is the answer per se but the question, rosterwise, is how he rates relative to Trapp, Acosta, some of the other options, and I’d prefer to see it on the field in a game that doesn’t count, as opposed to just assume. I grant you’re saying he’s off form and if he comes in and stinks up the joint that’s the end of his cycle.

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      • Overall, these are good observations, but I definitely disagree that Weah should be allowed to stay home. Sarachan hasn’t played him near regularly enough to be able to make an assessment, in my opinion. Last outing, though Weah started the match, he barely touched a ball in the first half due to Eric Lichaj’s awful service. Only when Julian Green entered the match did Weah begin to get creative. For that reason, I don’t feel we have seen the best of him and I’m hoping that having Pulisic on the field will open up more space for he and Green to exploit defenses. Think about it: what would a Pulisic/Green/Weah/Robinson/Yedlin lineup accomplish on the offensive front? I’d really like to see that.

      • I think Weah has played well enough he goes over in the “keep/interesting” pile. I grant he is not as much of a lock as Pulisic or Steffen, but who is? To me this should be run like a college/HS/select tryout day. They come in, they look good enough to make the team, you pull them off the field and leave the ones you are not sure about on the field. You don’t start composing the lineup and figuring out where Weah fits when this should be just the tryout camp stage. He plays a little, he impresses, he gets pulled off the field, he’s “made the team.” Only after the 30 or so in the serious part of the pool are identified, and we hire a new coach, do we go through and start making tougher decisions. But right now it’s, are you in the 10 best mids on the team. Check, done, off the field. Try out someone else and see how they stack up relative to Trapp or Zardes or one of the weaker options.

        I mean, there is no point in starting to cohere “The Best” into “The Formation” until we hire the new coach to do so. Otherwise what happens is Sarachan picks his team and starts teaching them his way, and then we reboot all that and they have to be fit into a new coach and system in a couple months. Since we shouldn’t be wasting time acting like Sarachan will really coach, and we don’t have full player availability, this should still be experiments. Save the getting serious for the new year with the new coach. He can figure out if Weah is forward or wing, starter or sub. But for our purposes what we know so far is enough, he’s good and better than most of his cohort. So instead of beating that drum more and proving the same thing over and over, bring in someone new and see if they can beat out a more marginal player.

    • I don’t think he has played like crap. I think he was never played at his optimum position. Even when played in Jones’ position he did ok, never crapped the bed. In fact, he was part of the lineup that beat the Netherlands and Germany friendlies.

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    • IV: The national team is not a tryout, where everyone gets a turn. You have to show something either with Youth Nat teams or with your club. Name one national team player that was not good for their club that was good for the national team. We don’t need to waste time “trying out” sixty different players.

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      • You don’t need to play them just because they get invited. Training should be where you try them at their position. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

  4. I think the debate about who should or shouldn’t be here is missing a big point. Sarachan, hopefully, is not going to be the next USMNT coach. It’s time we get a permanent coach brought in who can look at the players, go with his choices, set up his system and style. All this is a waste if the new guy decides to change a lot about the team, the formations, etc. The most important issue is hiring the new manager, Earnie. Get the manager in there and let him choose the players he wants. What and who Sarachan wants is irrelevant.

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    • +1, but I have this bad feeling Berhalter is alreadytheir guy and they’re just wait in for him to finish the season, which of course is a whole other issue if true.

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      • My theory is that Earnie Stewart already has a deal in place with an MLS coach, but they’ve agreed to keep it quiet until the MLS season is over.

    • I agree that all this effort may prove redundant. The new coach will likely come in and want to do the same prospect experiments while implementing his particular system.

      However, I don’t like what Sarachan is doing because some tape on new players could help evaluate, while calling in second rate veterans and noobs who are starting to accumulate caps gels them in the wrong formation(s) and doesn’t give the new coach the tape they could use.

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  5. Not a single player of Latin descent (is Acosta? I know he’s part Japanese) tells you a lot about where we are at as a “footballing” country considering that’s probably the biggest ethnic talent pool we can pull from.

    Reply
    • That has been Paul Gardner’s claim for decades.

      You might be tempted to think that this is due to bias by USsoccer, but my limited experience on that matter is that like it or not, even MLS Development Academies rely on parents to deliver kids to them for practices and tryouts. (You would think that LA, Dallas and Houston would do better, but those are big cities and getting to the training sites from where the Hispanics live is not trivial for those of limited means. Coaches rarely spend much time working with players who can’t make it to practices and no time if they don’t even attend a tryout.) Relatively well-to-do white kids are still the norm for DAs, and colleges.

      An Hispanic acquaintance of mine whose son is very talented did not consider an MLS DA, or even Junior College, but he is playing in the Brazilian 4th division. I really do not know how good he is, but that was what his father and he preferred. The dad was leery of MLS and college was out of the question.

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      • As a Houstonian I am going to respond that the issue is parallel leagues outside the suburban USYSA umbrella. I used to come home from college on breaks and when I wasn’t playing with my club team U19 I would sometimes play for a Hispanic league team. There are piles of leagues outside our traditional club system and the deal is for cost and location they never feed into the traditional pipeline.

        I also think that while the suburbs are well covered — I had a choice of teams — urban areas are not, and cost is an issue if you try to play select. I played on “scholarship.” And then with the MLS academies, in a really big city like Houston you are asking players to make 1 hour plus drives in rush hour traffic across the city to go to practices. The suburban kid who doesn’t do an academy doesn’t have that drive unless they sign up for it on purpose.

    • It would matter specifically who we are talking but I recall there being some U19/U20 Mexican American dual nationals we should consider trying to cap tie. That being said, I don’t want to see Orozco, Gonzo, Ventura, Gringo is too old, Corona and Rubio strike me as mediocre mush, I think Guido is the only one we really haven’t seen. What am I missing?

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      • Are you trying to slide back into your you can cap tie in a friendly again? Next cap tie opportunity is the Gold Cup next Summer. It was a good sign that US Soccer actually attended the Alianza tryouts last week.

  6. As long as none of these kids regress or get injured this is the core of the team for the next 4 to 8 years with the exception of a few other players no matter the manager. I don’t see Adams, Mckennie, CP, Weah, Brooks,Yedlin, Miazga, Robinson, Steffen and Sargent not in the team so this is basically an A team in the making that should filter out a few of the older vets by next summer after the gold cup. And I hope none of the Euro based players play in the gold cup so they can look at MLS players and get their rest. Yes there are a few players I wanted to get get called in but didn’t but I’m ok until a new manager comes in and fills the gaps a bit for those few extra pieces

    Reply
    • My problem is that bedding in the core is not really the point right now. You want to identify 25-30 players who can play. Deciding who the core is should come after you know which part of the pool you like. Put differently, my worry is if a secondary player like Trapp gets included in with Weah and Steffen and Co., they get the same sort of incumbency, without being challenged by other prospects. I think some of you have made up your mind on who to bother with, and while true of some players, other players I think you have wrong. So I don’t like settling straight into a lineup right now. I think you’re repeating Arena and Klinsi’s mistakes of not looking deeper at what is available.

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      • Who Is going to take those positions right now now, lets be realistic. I’ve got a few but if I put them out there a fan boy.

      • I am not talking about contesting Steffen, I am talking about challenging the less certain players in the pool, Miazga, Guzan, Moore, Trapp, Zardes, Novakovich, Wood, Acosta, etc. Right now it shouldn’t be, can you start, it should be do you look better than one of the more frustrating players already under consideration. I think y’all are assuming that every possible “Robinson” or “Sargent” surprise in this pool is identified, and every “Trapp,” while frustrating, is better than their competition. I don’t buy it. I want to see us keep trying people and give everyone competition, and not assume the conclusions.

        To me part of the problem in USSF right now is we have to blatant a pecking order and incumbent players don’t have to earn it every night out. Miazga or Brooks can allow goals and start the next game out. Trapp can be hot and cold. Novakovich can do very little for us and keep earning back from club form he doesn’t do here. There isn’t enough accountability to country performance. You know how you get that? At this part of the cycle you keep trying people until satisfied.

      • They were posted elsewhere on the thread. And what you’re missing on “debate” is that in the experimental phase of the cycle, you don’t guess or assume or debate whether players are better, you call them up and watch for real. Guesswork is for we get to Year 3 in the cycle and we need an emergency left back. But right now you don’t argue the question, you call them all up and objectively see who plays well and who sucks.

  7. The other player I was hoping to get called is Fafa Picault, he is a winger with excellent speed and is having an excellent year for the Union.

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    • Already have 5 players that can play wide midfield in Green, Pulisic, Weah, Saief, and Amon so not sure he would be better than any of those but I do like him.

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      • You’re assuming your conclusion, as Amon hasn’t played a minute for us yet. Why not have him and Picault play and see it on the field?

        And while I agree we have a few options already, I don’t get “cutting off” looking to see how many more we have. The idea is to find out who the good players in the pool are, not to find 4 and satisfy yourself you have enough. If some get hurt or decide they just want to play club, you want to know who 5, 6, and 7 are too.

        I mean, people rip on Arena for just going with Gonzo at Gold Cup. This is the same sort of thing. You’re making up your minds early and not just seeing what all we have. There are no games that count. We have plenty of years and games going forward to gel. This is just the first few months of the cycle.

      • Because we have plenty of tape on Picault and he’s 27 turning 28 in February. You can also bring him in in January when the European players are unavailable. Maybe fans have a hard time determining a player in this league vs a player in that but the coaching staff are professionals they don’t need Fafa and Amon on the same field to evaluate them.

  8. For the most part I am OK with the roster selections. There are a few names I would have liked to have seen included (Gall & Gooch), and some names I which hadn’t been called in (Bradley & Guzan).
    A little puzzled by the inclusion of Sweat, as I haven’t seen many NYCFC games. What position does he play? Is it worth bringing in an older player (27 yr old) w/ No international experience, and limited general experience?

    Hopefully the coaching staff won’t make some of the same mistakes as the last set of friendlies (4 DM’s at the same time), or take away important minutes from the young guns by giving excessive minutes to guys like Bradley & Guzan.

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    • Horvath is pretty baffling for me. He doesn’t even start for Club Bruges. He gave up a howler to Portugal last year. There are lots of other keepers that don’t play either that are no less qualified like even young Klinsmann, Yarborough, etc.

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      • Horvath to me is emblematic of Sarachan’s conservatism and perseveration. (a) Watch what happens on the field and judge it. (b) If a player isn’t playing well for us, and then can’t get minutes in club, why are they being called? It’s basically like his mind is made up regardless of how they play. That is awful coaching.

  9. We are still favoring mediocre MLS talent in Acosta, Tripp, and MB over a player starting in a top five league in Alfredo Morales.

    We continue to do this on a regular basis. No other serious soccer federation ignores players in its pool playing in top five league’s unless it’s Brazil.

    It’s like the Yankees overlooking it’s Major Leaguers and instead calling in its Triple A players to play in the playoffs.

    The league where you play club ball matters and indicates your level of quality as a player.

    Will puke watching Will Trapp and MB together in central midfield this window.

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    • Bradley’s a better player, Trapp is a better passer. Other than playing pretty well in the run up to that doomed Olympic bid, don’t see that he’s actually proven himself an undisputed call-up.

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      • “Trapp is a better passer.”

        LOL. Really I don’t know if I should laugh or cry at this statement.

      • You can’t compared them because they don’t play the same position for club. Morales is an attacking 8 that also helps on defense. Trapp and Bradley are 6s.

    • Morales has 13 caps playing 544 minutes. The fact that most people don’t realize he played that much should tell you how unimpressive he was in most of those minutes. Morales is in Germany because that is where he was born and lived his entire life. Fortuna is likely to be relegated so they paid for vets that could help but who were cheap. If Bradley were available on a free transfer for much less than his 6 million a year salary he would likely by in a top 5 league as well. I wouldn’t have included him but just because a player is MLS isn’t an indication of skill level. Acosta was said to have offers from Europe but Dallas blocked them over several transfer windows, Morales never had that issue because he was not in MLS. When Hertha the club he’d been with for over 10 years said you are going to play for us in the Bundesliga they let him go to find a spot with Ingolstadt who earned promotion he wasn’t the reason they earned promotion nor the reason they were relegated two years later. Beyond that Morales does not play the same position as Trapp or Bradley. He’s an 8 they are 6s. He could play next either but he wouldn’t play in place of either.

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      • Sorry too long of a reply to type on a phone. I wouldn’t include Bradley and Morales wouldn’t have played for Hertha in the Bundesliga.

      • Johnny, we’ve been here before on this same subject I think. I’m not saying Morales is the answer to anything, what I’m making a point of is that we can’t ignore in form players starting in top five leagues while favoring MLS auto starters(of which Trapp seems to be the next anointed one), maybe I sound like a broken record on this subject over the past year.

        I just want our manager and federation to call up and utilize the players who are playing the best at the highest level possible and the highest level possible is not MLS right now anyway. In the case of Acosta and Trapp both have resumes far weaker than Morales, and yes I realize some of that has to do with where they were born but it doesn’t change who’s been playing at a higher level.

        I also believe that how a player performed 2 years ago or even earlier is not necessarily indicative of how they will play now and recent club form should be weighted more heavily in our assessment of their use value to the NT.

        Again, I’m pretty sure we agree on most of this and are just splitting hairs here, but what drives me insane is this question: what has Trapp or Acosta done in their career relative to Morales that makes them get the call up instead of Morales? All have plenty of minutes with the NT at this point none have been stellar but one is playing at a much higher level currently and currently in form. Yes, they don’t play the exact same midfield position but I’ve got to drop someone, who’s it going to be? And why do we keep ignoring Bundesliga starters in favor of MLS players, do I need to go there again?

      • I seem to recall that just a few days ago you were bemoaning the lack of quality in the midfield outside of Pulisic, Weah and Adams. You said we should have players in top leagues to provide our depth. Morales has started a lot of games in the Bundesliga, so some coaches in the Bundesliga must rate him pretty well. You dismiss his purchase by Dusseldorf by saying he came cheap. I’m sure there are a lot of cheap players in Bundesliga 2, but they chose Morales. We know Morales is good enough to start in a top 4 European league, We don’t know if guys like Will Trapp are and presumably Saief is not that good either since he’s spent a lot of time in Belgium without being offered something better.

      • Gary, Morales would have been a really good player for us in 2010. I don’t want us to play like that anymore, where we hope to beat a weak team, draw a good team and hope for a lucky draw to get us to the quarters. When we have two or three complete players at each position then we can talk depth. Morales has a good work rate and he isn’t going to lose you many matches, but he isn’t going to win you any either.

    • Sorry but that’s a FAILED analogy. NFW are we the Yankees. We don’t have a single championship in a FIFA sanctioned event. AFAIK, the Yankees have like 30 titles. We’re like a team that fluctuates between the bottom five in the EPL and the top 10 in the Championship. Yes, on any given day, we can beat Germany or Italy, but lose to T&T when we only need 1 point. Inconsistent, and hardly championship caliber.

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    • Morales is 28. It’s not like he is some young hotshot with tons of potential. Timmy Chandler is the same age, just for perspective, and I don’t hear anybody arguing that he should be here just because he’s starting in Germany. Morales got some looks and he disappointed. There is no reason he should be in this squad.

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    • Cause Acosta is better.
      .
      Bradley shouldn’t be included. Sarachan loves Trapp.
      .
      You are kind of in love with a marginal nat team guy, while calling others like Bradley who have played in many World cup cycles mediocre. I wouldn’t take Bradley, just pointing out your mediocre level seems to jump around a bit.

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    • Guys, my point is we can NOT ignore players starting in top five leagues and instead continue to rely on MLS players. We tried that last cycle with BA why are we repeating it? I don’t care who the player is or his position or what his name is or isn’t if that player is starting in a top five league he needs to at the very least be called up. No international manager(someone not tied to MLS) would ever consider not calling in a Bundesliga starter in favor two players who are likely to be MLS lifers.

      Why are Trapp, Acosta, and MB spots guarded yet a Bundesliga starter currently in form doesn’t even called called in?

      Reply
  10. I think that it takes more than 4 games to fairly evaluate defenders who are close in talent and athleticism. That does argue for a more or less stable back line. Right now Brooks, Miazga, and Long seem to be the centerbacks to choose from. I do not think there is much to choose from as outside backs and hesitate to name a clear frontrunner other than Yedlin.

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    • Really? You can’t tell how well a guy can mark, run, head, from a game or two?

      I think it’s a sneaky pro-incumbent argument. Give them a few games and see. Next thing you know you have starters and then you figure out one or two of them give up goals every time. And because you gave them 10 games to gel no one else got tried, and time is running out.

      Nope, bad idea.

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  11. Jozy is presently still the best forward, if he were not injured so often. But injuries are part of the game and too often determine who actually contributes
    Bradley has played out of position for TFC this year. He is still one of the best midfielders , but is getting older and his time will end in a few years. Meanwhile, he will continue to add value to the squad. Eventually I think he will start coaching and in 15 or 20 years we can read the Imperative voice and Bizzy continue their rants against him.

    Reply
    • Since he’s injured and not in form, he’s not currently our best forward. IMO, our best forward is who’s healthy and in form. Since these games don’t count, I’d like to see what the future is like Gall and Novakovich. Yes, Altidore is young, but he’s injured and petulant. Time for new blood.

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  12. Enough Bradley, Acosta, Guzan, Sarachan….YES Sarachan. Wasting another minute on the three I named, and throw in Trapp, is exactly why Sarachan has to go as fast as possible. Lets hope he has the nads to not pick Bradley for the game day roster.

    At least no Zardes and Antiscore

    Reply
      • There is always that. Facts seem to have a way of shedding light on opinions that are just opinions and nothing more. BTW, what was the same stat for Dempsey or McBride?

      • Dempsey is the best at 2.45, McBride is right at 3. CP is at 2.33 but with a much smaller sample. Wood 3.4, Morris is 5.00. Wynalda 3.12.

      • Jozy rarely scores in world cups (heck, he can’t even stay healthy then) and generally scores in friendlies or weaker qualifiers. I still think he should be in the top 5 or so when games count, but the future is Sargent Weah Green etc. and at this juncture I want to see new players. We basically know what Jozy can do.

    • To me Wood is more perseveration, he’s not playing much and performing poorly. Kind of like Horvath. Unlike Horvath we know he can play internationally, but like Jozy at Sunderland he’s slumping.

      I would call someone else because we are not going to fix his problems. Him getting loaned or transferred is what will solve them. Until then he’s going to be a rusty out of shape mess.

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  13. Honestly, I can’t understand the Bradley inclusion or the Kellyn Acosta inclusion. The purpose of these friendlies should be to test the younger and reasonably untested players that we see leading this team into tournament play over the next couple of years and into the next WC Qualifying campaign. Acosta hasn’t been good enough in MLS for international inclusion, and Bradley simply shouldn’t be taking up roster space unless he’s going to be on the bench (which he won’t be). Additionally, it seems that Bradley was a part of a relatively toxic environment (and one of the leaders of it) that embodied the group in the last qualifying cycle, and I am not keen on letting him “coach up” these younger players given that. I remember when Bradley bristled and went after Wynalda at a presser because he’d been criticized as not playing well enough. We don’t need the thin skin – the same kind of thin skin that resulted in a “tough” loss to T&T – and that kept us our of the WC in Russia.

    This is why Sarachan should be sacked and a permanent manager should have been installed months ago. It’s impossible to build, to allow the new manager to learn his best team/tactics/etc., or to move forward with so slow of a transition. Total incompetence by US Soccer.

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  14. Some different ideas, if we wanted to know more what we don’t know:
    J. Gonzalez Melia Hamid
    Cannon Long Sweat Zimmerman Glad CCV EPB Moore Olosunde Robinson Parker
    Amon Gall Tillman Sabbi K. Scott Parks Morales Adams Delgado Canouse McKennie Green Saief Weah
    Wright Sargent Manneh AJ (who is just 27)

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    • Canouse is deserving for sure but DC has matches the 13 and 17th with the US playing the 11th and 16th. Technically Sarachan could still call him in but it would be a pretty bad move and create bad blood just for a friendly for a guy who isn’t the coach.
      —————————————————————————————
      AJ is still hurt and I believe Sabbi is because he hasn’t dressed the last two after starting the first nine and scoring 5 goals but its Denmark so who knows. Maybe I should learn Danish?

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  15. People are giving me grief on pushing “experiment” but the fairly experimental and young France side we had did well, while the veteran B team mush from the first half of Mexico stunk. To me it is typical of Sarachan to be sort of confused and halfway in between an A Team playing to win and an experiment playing to teach us something. He can’t possibly call in a veteran A team right now, and he didn’t call in enough new players to teach himself, or his successor, much that they wouldn’t know from tape of the last game, or the game before that, etc. There are maybe 3-5 players in the call sheet, who will likely see limited time, who we don’t know something about, and can learn about and see how they fit. The rest, yeah, wow, Weah can play, and Horvath looks like a rusty mess. Wow, we learned a lot from 2 hours.

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    • The side that played France was almost identical to the side you are ripping for playing Mexico. I am trying to understand, what am I missing? Twelve players played in both matches.

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      • Not really, the France game they had Parker and Robinson starting with Adams, Green, and Wood in the attack. Versus Mexico he brings back Lichaj as back and Acosta and Zardes in the attack. He puts Green and Robinson on and magically we can play. This is why I am like quit reverting to older veterans, keep looking for new players who don’t already disappoint. I think Sarachan has a reflex towards conservative and towards the people he and Arena had hopes for. I really don’t see the point in giving Acosta and Lichaj 20 million chances. I see Guzan, Horvath, Acosta, and Novakovich in this spirit. You should already have a pretty good idea. We don’t need to give them another chance right now. Try some other kid who doesn’t have a “book” on them already.

      • Since when is Acosta, at the lowly age of 23 an old veteran?? Comments like these are beyond logic and smell of hating for no reason other than to pout about a bunch on nothing. Kellyn is a o e of the best young midfielders in MLS with ability to pick out a dangerous pass in the fi al third, a proven ball winner and is deadly on free kicks, so he should be called in. The Trapp inclusion i disgree with because of his penchant to play negative passes against athletic and technical teams and just an overall lack of athleticism. Acoata was one of the USMNT better midfielders in qualifying last year before injuries came into play, and i can recall John Brooks having more bad games than him but you don’t see people calling for his ouster but i guess its because he plays in the Bundesliga, right? The europe versus domestic league spat is dumb and tiresome, if players are good enough, regardless of league they should be called in and there is a reason none of us are coaching professional soccer players at the highest level, so let the pros decide who should be in the side instead of pouting about being disappointed!

      • Ronniet, I miss your logic and evenhanded evaluation of situations. I really wish ASN would bring back its comment board, I even kind of miss our Russian Mole friend who would scream racism at all times.

      • ronnie t: Kellyn Acosta has already had many chances with the NT and was part of the team that failed to qualify. He has 1 international goal I can think of, and this season in MLS 2G 2A. So he is not Mr. Offense. Nor is he a defensive stopper. What exactly is it he does that prompts your hyperbolic defense? I’d rather see someone else new and not give mediocre mush more minutes.

      • I mean, did you watch him and Trapp and the rest getting their butts kicked by Mexico B? Where on earth does your passion for the guy come from.

      • well i seem to remember him dealing with a string of injuries that will take the form away from any athlete, and imho opinion he wasnt given enough of a chance when he came back to Dallas FC, so a move was needed but lets behonest he had been their best players for a few years as a youngin. And my passion for him is no more than for any other player that i see people diminish on here simply because they were apart of the WCQ failure. Its childish to still have that mentality but more importantly fans are talking about players as if they were responsible for everyones play, and Acosta has sure had more good games than bad for the USMNT.

  16. I’m mostly fine with this roster, except for the obviously ridiculous inclusion of Bradley. I don’t carry the hate that other posters have for him a year later; my only concern is MB will take up valuable playing time from one of the young guys. We have enough midfielders that we are trying to size up and fit together. We finally have Pulisic back, and we get to see how McKinnie and Adams play with him. So who sits to make way for Bradley?

    Not to mention how tone deaf this is almost to call Bradley back up almost 1 year to the day of the TnT fiasco? I don’t care if Bradley scores a scorpion kick from midfield and wins every ball in the middle, he is not going to be on the plane to Qatar. For those who want to talk about helping short term next summer, who cares how we do at the 2019 Gold Cup? Most USMNT fans don’t care about winning that trophy; we have bigger aspirations than that…

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    • I would rather Bradley be called when the full A Team is available in the spring, and under the supervision of the new coach. This to me is pointless because we don’t have enough vets to be a veteran core side, they are not playing under the new coach, and they are not in their new system. This way you are forcing the older players back in even though except Guzan we don’t know how they’d fit into the plans of the new coach.

      I’d really prefer this to be, new coach with new system runs out kids in planned approach, then blends back in the veterans he likes and feels are superior, or who fill holes. Failing that, if the A Team cannot play, this should be experiments to go on tape for the new coach to watch. Otherwise I don’t understand “reintegrating” the vets with no coach, no system, and we still haven’t seen 1/3 of the prospects play.

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      • Hate to tell you, but this is more or less our A Team. I mean, besides Altidore, who else is missing? The starting 11 out of this group is probably who starts at the GC.

  17. I think I figured out why I really don’t like it. So many MLS are not going to get called because this is the MLS stretch run that using these particular friendlies to bring back the veterans seems dense. Do it in November or next year. This is a waste of time because it is neither full experiment nor serious A team exercise with new kids sprinkled in.

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    • The november friendlies are all in Europe, so for me this was the right time call in more MLSers. It serves no purpose to get all riled about one camp roster that has enemy#1 on it, Bradley and other veterans will have a part still to olay with the NT and people need to wrap their head around that because this is how its done everywhere. It’s adorable to say certain players shouldnt ever wear the jersey again but these coaches are getting paid to make these decisions, not any of us, and there is a way to go about bridging the gap between veterans and youth players. Our youth players have been called in since the T&T debacle and many of them have not looked the part, whuch means they still have developing to do at club level where many of them are juat not getting first team minutes right now. The NT is not where development takes place, the sooner people realize that the better, also instead of pouting about who is included and not included on rosters maybe fans should ne more irate that th e youth players arent doing enough in their club environments to garner first team minutes.

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  18. So glad Guzan is here to mentor the other two on how to kick the ball out of bounds, and distribute the ball directly to the opposition.

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  19. CP is better on the wing and Green has been played all over the front line this season and probably isn’t a natural attacking mid, so where is that going to come from? And maybe the new manager wants to see if Bradley and guzan can keep up with theses young guys and they were just called in to evaluate cuz that lame excuse doesn’t make sense to me. And that’s me assuming they have a manager who will be at the game watching

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  20. Good news that MB90 is back! He can definitely mentor the young players on how to excel at jogging. And he will help Sarachan determine which dual national players are American enough to be a part of the team.

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  21. Get this turd out of control of the US team. The forwards are already getting called every time, regardless of performance. Horvath isn’t even playing for club. Guzan is an inconsistent waste of time. Acosta, Trapp. etc.

    I am glad Amon, Saief, and some new backs got called but there is not enough novelty in the call sheet and the vets coming back are not ones playing particularly well.

    He’s starting to settle in on his team. He’s a caretaker and a mediocre one at that. In this phase of the year your job is to run tryouts not settle on a team.

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      • I would either go completely experimental or A Team. Since the A Team won’t be available since MLS is in stretch run, don’t bother with A Team. Go experimental. And I don’t mean, try the same kids. I mean bring in more players along the lines of Amon, etc. This is instead some weird half-cooked B veterans plus a couple experiments plus a lot of kids we already like. I think that we will learn very little NEW about the players from this.

        You’re like, but Bradley is good, I like Weah, etc. etc. The point in the experimental part of the cycle is not to reaffirm the ones who showed well. It’s to figure out the rest of the players who should fill out a 30 man preliminary roster if we had to do one. Perseverating on Horvath, Trapp, Novakovich, and Guzan doesn’t identify new ideas that play well. Calling in Bradley, Weah, and Co. doesn’t tell you much new either. It’s only the Siaef/Amon/Sweat/Cannon/Long calls that teach you something you don’t already know.

        I feel like Sarachan’s desire to campaign for the job is overriding our need to learn about the pool with a team that didn’t qualify with the veterans and needs as many talented kids to come in and take spots as possible.

    • Just curious who you think should be called up that was left out? We have 2 Champions league players (4 if you want to count Saief and Weah) and they are all on the roster. Every player that starts for a European top league or is even just a talented prospect owned by one is on the roster. The rest of the spots are filled out with young guys from all over, except for Bradley. And the only other forward I can think of that isn’t there is Jozy.

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      • Ha. Good luck getting Imperative Voice to actually name players he wants to see called in. Dude’s like a broken record with this “new faces” argument, but when pressed for details he just becomes vague. Terribly predictable.

      • X% of the kids are new and we like them. Y% of the kids are new and meh. I don’t understand re-calling meh. I don’t understand recycling the ones you like. Pocket the positive and negative observations and call a new set of players in.

        I then don’t get bringing Bradley and the others in if so many of the rest of the vets are unavailable. It’s not an A Team. It’s not an experiment. It’s a hodge podge intended to seek competitive results, not an experiment that will teach you more about the pool. Most teams in October of year 1 of the 4 year cycle are not already back around to, ok, let’s go back to the veterans already. This is the part of the cycle before the games that count when you can try something.

      • I have actually listed them before. Since you’re pressing me on it, and pretending I have never listed any — and I have — I will re-list some tonight.

        And my point is not that they are the best, but rather that at this phase that doesn’t matter. This phase you call a bunch of total noobs in around a few reliables and test things. There are very few real tests in this call up.

      • The flaw I see in the argument of bringing in a batch of somewhat random guys to see if they deserve to stick on the roster or not is that players are supposed to prove they deserve a shot with their clubs. From what I can tell we have been calling in the top 30-35 mainly younger guys for these friendlies. I don’t disagree that we’ve seen plenty of many vets that we know exactly what they bring to the table, but still don’t know many names that are deserving of a call up either. We have a pretty shallow player pool and there aren’t a ton of guys who are producing at club level to deserve a shot with the national team. As much as there is little value to the “re-treads” on the roster I think there is much less value to “different” guys who have less talent and aren’t standing out with their club teams.

    • I disagree with this notion that Sarachan is campaigning for the full time job and that is influencing his decisions. He knows 100% he has no shot at the job. There is nothing he can do, literally. He could pull out a couple of 6-0 wins in October, and he still will not be considered. He knows that.

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      • I disagree and the big example is that lineup he trotted out for Mexico. He actually thought that would work and was chasing a stalemate result. it blew up in his face, and when he did a couple subs the team magically got better. But I think his first instinct as an Arena assistant is to go back to Lichaj, Brooks, Miazga, Trapp, Wood, Acosta, etc., and re-debate why last cycle didn’t work.

    • I think the issue is you are viewing a game or two as an adequate sample to determine what guys can do. That seems unreasonable to most.

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      • I think 30-60 minutes in a pair of games is the traditional cup of coffee new players get to prove themselves, fair or unfair, “reasonable sample” or not. Pulisic got 10 minutes his first game. You gonna act like he was short changed? These chances are what you make of them. He supposedly stood out in camp, immediately looked good with the team. Quit crying about your minutes and show me something. Novakovich has many more minutes than Pulisic did initially and shown nothing. That’s your difference.

        And what we need is Players, stand outs, not just competent hustlers. Many people last cycle were adequate. So what.

    • It takes multiple games to fairly evaluate defenders (unless they are clearly not up to the task). Switching them in and out willy-nilly like you seem to want is a recipe for failure. In the end it was what doomed JK’s tenure as USMNT coach. (To be fair, injury dictated some of his changes, but he, like you, seemed to like change for change’s sake.)

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      • No, what hurt JK was he never thought outside the box on defensive choices but rather rotated the same set of people. It was not the rotation. They stunk. The problem was he never just got rid of the stinkers and tried literally new ideas like Parker or Opara. To me going around in Villafana/ Brooks/ Cameron/ Gonzo/ etc/ circles was the problem.

      • I am not saying rotate in games that count. I am saying right now you want to identify a large set of great, good, or at least competent pool players. Part of the problem later in the cycle is if you only trust a half dozen players and some get hurt. Then it’s like what do I do, no one else I trust has gotten a cap. Oh well, guess I call Gonzo in, he’s a regular. And then he gives up 2. So try a bunch of different stuff now. Then work on chemistry later.

      • No player at this point should be handed permanent “starter” — except maybe Steffen and Pulisic — because we should just be evaluating talent. In that sense arguing “change for change sake” is malarkey. No one should be owed incumbency yet.

        As a defender I also disagree they need to bed in and feel like it’s just a sneaky pro incumbent political ploy. Give them games. Give them more. Oh, but he’s a starter.

    • I cannot read minds, so I don’t claim to know Sarachan’s motivation. But he would have to be a complete idiot to think he has a chance at the full time job. None of the numerous interviews I have seen/read with him suggest he is such an idiot. AS such, I really don’t think he is thinking along those lines at all.

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      • He has left the door open to the full time job. He has done things like chastize Pulisic in the press that are more the prerogative of the full timer.

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