Brenden Aaronson is one of several U.S. men’s national team stars linked with a potential European move this summer, but his club future is something that is going to have to wait for the time being.
Aaronson is with the USMNT ahead of Thursday’s Concacaf Nations League semifinal showdown vs. Mexico in Las Vegas. The Leeds United midfielder endured a tough debut campaign in England, suffering Premier League relegation and struggling to find any consistency during the second half of the season.
Alongside fellow USMNT midfielder Tyler Adams, Aaronson is one of several Leeds United players that will likely be on the move in the coming weeks, with both players hoping to get back into one of Europe’s top flights. When asked about his club future and what went wrong during 2022-23 at Elland Road, Aaronson admitted that international duty is his main focus.
“I’m sorry, but I’m with the national team, so I just want to focus on that and that’s where all my thoughts are right now,” Aaronson told media Tuesday. “That’s the only thing I’m focused on at this moment. I’m just focused on the next game in Mexico and trying to win this one so we can go into the next one.
“It’s been a long season, it’s been tough in a lot of things,” he added. “But coming here and being with the guys, it’s great. I’m really enjoying it. We’re having a great time as a group, and we’re looking forward to defending our title.”
Aaronson hit the ground running in his second spell with Jesse Marsch, helping Leeds United start the season unbeaten in four-consecutive matches, including upsetting Chelsea 3-0 at Elland Road in mid-August. The 22-year-old’s first Leeds United goal kickstarted the shutout victory and gave him some early confidence following his transfer from Red Bull Salzburg last summer.
However, the early-season success didn’t last for Aaronson, Marsch, or Leeds, who only won two additional league matches before Marsch’s firing in February. Leeds United eventually suffered relegation, with Aaronson mainly featuring off the bench under both Javi Gracia and Sam Allardyce.
With the dismal season now behind him, Aaronson has focused on getting back to his best on-and-off the field, knowing he has another opportunity to lift a Concacaf trophy by June’s end.
“We don’t really talk about personal things,” Aaronson said when asked about him and his teammates’ pending club futures. “I think coming into camp, it’s about having fun and seeing the guys for the first time in a while. I know a lot of you guys outside know that we like to get into golf, so we’ve had days to go out, enjoy ourselves, not focus on other things.
“We’ve been able to just get out and enjoy each other and enjoy the training sessions and really now it’s now full focus on the next game and Mexico and treating that like a final and then on to the next one.”
Aaronson will be fighting to get into B.J. Callaghan’s starting lineup on Thursday as the USMNT aims to claim its fourth head-to-head victory over Mexico in the last six meetings. The former Philadelphia Union homegrown scored once for the Americans in March’s 7-1 group stage win over Grenada and also logged 30 minutes against El Salvador as the USMNT clinched top spot in Group A.
Where Aaronson ends up by summer’s end remains to be seen, but a positive showing against Mexico, and possibly either Canada or Panama could play a key spark in what’s next for him at club level.
M. IV,
Croatia and the Netherlands are looking forward to Euro 24. That does not mean that the Nations League in Europe is not played at a higher level than our NL.
“and, sorry, but based on the few minutes i caught, that game looked like it was being played half speed.”
You know the game is 90 minutes long.
You never told anyone when you were going to be watching.
But then you’re famous for that kind of myopic, arrogant know it all leap to conclusion.
Teams like those two are capable of slowing the game down to take a breather. Which, given the fact that it’s the end of the season and everyone is, at some level , pretty tired, makes sense.
The UEFA Nations League was criticized in some quarters for being just one more injury risk , cash grab but once they got on the field, the high quality of the opponents kind of took over and has led to some pretty good matches. It’s still downplayed somewhat and everyone is more focused on prepping for Euro 24 and not getting injured so those guys aren’t going to run their asses off for 90 minutes just to impress you. But maybe if you had just contacted someone they could have put on a show just for you.
I saw the match. Brozovic, Modric, Kovavic have been together for a decade. Their offensive stats for their clubs are modest @ best. All 3 with a skillset to complement each other. What’s interesting about Modric; his best assist season & his most goals scored season for Real Madrid happened 2 and 3 years ago at & after age 35. I’ve been telling my brother for the last 3 years ( When I started watching Champion Leagues with em, he’s def a CL fan, now) that KDB is the best midfielder in the world. If someone says Modric, I won’t debate them. He’s never had double digits in assists or goals in Spain, yet his influence on every game he’s in, is like the power stone of the infinity saga. Must be those humongo calf muscles. I can see it, if a player passes or shoots with the outside, of the inside of their foot, it’s gonna be called the Modric! He’ll be retired by then, when ever that is.
I just watched Netherlands vs Croatia. I don’t get it. Croatia played 37 yr old Modric, he’ll be aged out for 2026 right? Neither team trialed journeyman from Hungarian or Serbian leagues. Virgil didn’t take the match off to rest. We’ve been told these would be all things “smart” people would do.
Lol. Totally…. Apparently many on this forum think that once you turn 30 you age 50 years and therefore need to retire from soccer and enter the nursing home. Other think people need to be coddled into the team like they’re 5 year olds.
Play your best players based on history with usmnt (those who showed they can elevate to international game) and club form (as in actually playing well in a competitive league).
USMNT ain’t no training academy.
mat: be serious. this was a xerox list. i wish this was the best players recently in the shirt. this is the people who played this spring got it again, plus balogun. this is circular reasoning to be sure it’s the best we have. it’s the only ones we bothered to play. some played horribly like neal. best we have my tookus.
trust me there will be some new faces when the new coach comes in.
someone needs to be set straight. holland’s team is composed from like 5 total leagues, mostly holland and england. they don’t “travel” like we do. i count 5 players over 30 on the roster. 1 of the O-30s started, 2 were subs, 2 dressed but didn’t play. their goals were scored by players aged 23 and 24.
croatia is dominated by 3 leagues, italy germany and their domestic. they rostered 6 O-30s. they got 2 goals from 20-somethings and 2 from their O-30s. all totaled that’s 2/3 of the goals from both teams from their 20-somethings.
you want to advocate betting on 37 year olds, fine, whatever. it’s a dumb bet. subtle thing you’re missing, madrid were runners up in spain, semis in UCL, croatia were 3rd. in both cases that’s worse than the season/cycle before. both teams had decent success but have some older players and maybe need some freshening if they want to compete better.
btw even modric describes himself as “too old” to, say, go to spurs. most players peak 30. my knee was a mess at 30.
most players retire 34. 37 is nuts. more power to him but it’s a silly way of conceptualizing US rosters. let’s make the exception like it’s the rule. history is we do best when some beasley or donovan breaks in and not searching for one more world cup out of reyna.
Beasley and Donovan were 20 when they played their first WC in 2002. The US had 3 players 20 or younger in Qatar. The NL squad has 6 guys 21 or younger. Donovan and Beasley didn’t get a NT cap until after the 2000 Olympics and weren’t involved in qualifying until after U20 WC. They graduated from one step to the next.
Croatia’s 20 something goal scorers were both 28. 8 players started the WC semi final and NL semifinal. There is no rotation or revamping of their rosters that you’ve been droning on about. Only one player for Croatia who played today wasn’t on the WC roster. This how “smart” teams operate the bring a few at a time while trying to win their regional competitions.
———————
The Netherlands only had 5 starters who started vs the US. Only two that started against US are not on NL roster, Klassen and Memphis (who was injured). That’s with a manager and formation change.
———————-
Average age of this weeks squads according to transfermkt
US 23.8
Netherlands 26
Croatia 27.4
Mexico 25.8
Panama 27.5
Canada 27.6
Your idea that the US isn’t using young players is false.
Mr Voice,
Modric is out of your experience. Madrid just extended his contract and told him he can stay as long he stays productive.
You would have had him put to sleep.
What is interesting about him is that, as you point out, Croatia have no “succession ” plan for him .
There’s no younger Modric waiting in the wings. And that’s because Modric is a once in a life time player.
Croatia and Argentina have very talented players but Modric and Messi are about a lot more than talent and skill. They have seen it all and done it all. Players gravitate towards them, listen when they talk and follow their lead.
It takes time for a player to get that status if they even can.
You have no respect or understanding for that sort of thing. You don’t understand that a team is made out of people and that those people need their leaders if you want something done.
I’m not in the locker room but in watching Croatia and Argentina, it is obvious who those players turn to when they need leadership.
Croatia treat Modric exactly like Argentina treat Messi.
Use them as much as possible as long as possible until they are done then you move on.
When a player has proven that they are that otherworldly capable, you’d be an idiot not to. Or more likely you’d be Jerry Krause who got rid of Michael Jordan maybe just a bit too early.
For some twisted reason you’re so worried that the USMNT will go down that same depraved path.
They already have.
For the years between the 2002 Word Cup and the 2010 World Cup the USMNT did nothing of worth unless Landon was on the field.
The best thing that happened during JK’s tenure was that the team actually did something worthwhile without LD i.e. in particular win the Snow Bowl and in general qualify for the World Cup in 2014.
Pulisic remains the team’s biggest playmaker and is certainly vital but he’s not as dominant over this team the way LD was over “his ” USMNT.
It’s all well and good to try to plan for the future but the USMNT has a hard enough time dealing with the present. You’re laboring under the delusion that the unpredictable can be prepared for. The best thing to do for the USMNT is to hire the best manager possible. And that means someone who can figure out how to deal the wackiness of being a national team manager meaning :
1. The player pool is out of their control.
2. This team is an ad hoc committee, and entity established for a particular purpose, in this case a particular tournament. And once that purpose, that tournament, is done, the team, the committee dissolves. When the next tournament comes up you start all over again .
3. The continuity you speak of is an illusion. Injuries , which are almost inevitable,wipe that out in a second. The NL and the Gold Cup being so close together is a new thing but if you notice two different squads undermines the entire continuity argument.
If it were me I’d focus on the NL and forfeit the Gold Cup or send Youth internationals to it. As you say, rest would be a good thing for our regular player pool.
By the way
When Modric says he’s too old to go to Spurs, what he’s really saying, being the diplomat that he is, is ” been there , done that, don’t need to go back”
He’s been with two high achieving teams, Real and Croatia. He has something like 20 medals and counting.
Why waste his remaining years in a shit place like Spurs? That’s classic casting pearls before swine.
dude, do you not see the tautology in “stay as long as you’re productive?” you have a home here. unless you start sucking. which is the precise risk we are talking about. they aren’t concerned he’s off partying. the whole question is how long can this last.
and, sorry, but based on the few minutes i caught, that game looked like it was being played half speed. like i was watching a second half goal and the guy’s edge of the box and the defender just stands there. ball rolled across the 6, goal. no, sorry, like watching half hearted indoor soccer. that was not full energy play. that was a glorified friendly played at a jog.
also neither of those teams have 2 tournaments to play where they can get cute. holland is 1-and-done, and croatia gets 1 more game from the knockout. they don’t have 8 games and 46 roster slots to play with.
They guys you wanted left off to rest aren’t playing both tournaments either. And aren’t they using 41 players out of a possible 46?
Croatia and the Netherlands are looking forward to Euro 24. That does not mean that the Nations League in Europe is not played at a higher level than our NL.
“and, sorry, but based on the few minutes i caught, that game looked like it was being played half speed.”
You know the game is 90 minutes long.
You never told anyone when you were going to be watching.
But then you’re famous for that kind of myopic, arrogant know it all leap to conclusion.
Teams like those two are capable of slowing the game down to take a breather. Which, given the fact that it’s the end of the season and everyone is, at some level , pretty tired, makes sense.
The UEFA Nations League was criticized in some quarters for being just one more injury risk , cash grab but once they got on the field, the high quality of the opponents kind of took over and has led to some pretty good matches. It’s still downplayed somewhat and everyone is more focused on prepping for Euro 24 and not getting injured so those guys aren’t going to run their asses off for 90 minutes just to impress you. But maybe if you had just contacted someone they could have put on a show just for you.
Do you see Perisic @ LB?
hahaha johnny, excellent
People forget an underestimate the fact that he was sick and had appendicitis. Then of course you have an English manager and they’re always seemingly biased against American players. Every time he was on the field he changed the game he should have started for leads after recovering
They had an English manager only for the last 4 games, and that English manager started McKennie.
Maybe it was the appendicitis, but Aaronson looked a little out of his depth. There’s no denying that he wasn’t particularly productive.
i prefer him to LDLT or sonora as an AM and think he’s a more natural wing than booth though that is a tougher scrap. shouldn’t start either slot but could be the “microwave” off the bench. i don’t care about his club situation, that’s their problem as long as he shows up for us and plays. (to be real he hasn’t looked great for us in about a year.). these discussions are also often myopic and political. did LDLT play or do that much for celta? reyna is supersub for dortmund. and sonora barely saw the field for juarez. heck, booth might be the most successful MF of the year and we might not even play him there. musah might be moving from valencia and the nasty leeds fans make fat jokes about mckennie. maybe declare a truce on the one-sided player teardowns and actually compare them to each other instead of take for granted their coaching decisions must be true.
BA was excellent in qualifying for the USMNT and also throughout the summer of victories over Mexico
he too suffered the GB bench in favor of Weah and CP outside and Adams Weston Yunus in the triangle BUT masterclassed his response like a true professional and teammate, and still just 22 years old
nothing political there…truth.
who here has had appendicitis and surgery? BA had his removed mid week and still was on the bench that weekend
@IV, agree there are politics involved with some of the shared opinions here 😉
beach: if you look at the US games BA looked best in — to me — it’s stuff like honduras and grenada which were not GB tiki taka stereotypes. grenada was post GB and honduras we got behind playing GB way and loosened it up. both games we would play the ball behind the backline instead of take it to the flag and whack it in. BA isn’t a crossing winger. he’s a swashbuckler and an improvised passer. but then we weren’t a very good crossing team as a whole either.
also IMO BA — and a few other regulars including pulisic — do not look like they should be starting 2 games in a row. they look significantly worse game 2. we still have not learned arena’s “rotate your players” lesson we got taught in couva. maybe it’s the fanboys are obsessed with meritocracy. my experience in tournaments you have to be able to do some subbing and not be all insecure about it. i realize we had to play iran 100% but we looked tuckered by holland. you have to be able to trust your next 5-10 guys off the bench as the rotation and the sparkplug subs. any team with a brain wants it where holden comes off their bench. we have regressed where the whole thing is play the hype player starters and it’s risky to rest anyone. hype player by his second or third game in a row is tired and about 75% of his self.
they need to get back to the way this used to be run where we might realize donovan was super fit and could play every night but others couldn’t. not so one size fit all. know your people. donovan was exceptional and then burned out early.
“Did LDLT play or do that much for Celta?” He did play in 25 out of 26 matches after WC only missing the one for yellow card accumulation. Going at least 45 minutes in 22 of those. Is a 1g 2a particularly exciting not really but don’t say he didn’t play.
JR, quit selling complete trash. we did not have many? any? mids who were highly productive starters who played 2500 mins or so. the whole pile of them were either disappointing or hurt or off the bench or unproductive. dinging BA any more than anyone else is fake is my point. and pretending LDLT was awesome or any better by comparison is a fib. my whole point is if we’re going to look how their year went, do it for everyone. it kind of cancels out and you’re back to who do you really think is a better player.
as i said, booth was one of the few guys — and he’s not even listed as a MF — who was lauded for MF play this season. if one takes such things seriously. and we need a 6. and yet.
personally i feel like the obsession with club form is like a 5 year old in their toy box. someone mentioned wondo. wondo was once the shiny toy in the toy box setting records. wondo could not translate it to a US game of any significance above say, “cuba.” everyone knows wondo was really on the roster as designated “chaser,” like the people we brought to press in qatar. but then we had injuries and wondo is in a game he needs to score. people can pretend mr. MLS record goals was primed to score but that’s malarkey in a US jersey. just like it was for twellman and others before him. what you really needed, then, was someone with some experience scoring in decently tough games in a US jersey. this was not wondo.
anyhow, my point is, some of them have the talent for international level and some don’t. can we get back to talent and NT performance, please? and away from the flavor of the month thing. hoppe was once the flavor of the month for like 5 goals in a few weeks and i don’t think he has 5 goals in a season since then.
IV: 1. You said Luca didn’t play. That was false.
2. I didn’t way in anything about Aaronson in this thread so I didn’t “ding” him at all
3. I said “1g 2a was not really exciting” so I didn’t promote Luca or sell him, nor did I “fib” about his accomplishments. He was a regular starter for Celta the final 2/3s of the season.
Mr IV,
“know your people. donovan was exceptional and then burned out early.”
You ought to take your own advice.
LD played 14 years for the USMNT ( 2000-2014 ).
He had 157 caps, appearances, most of them 90 minute starts.
That’s 11.2 games /year.. That’s a lot of USMNT games per year
LD was 18 at the beginning and 32 at the end, when he was starting to get the injuries he never had when he was younger.
He didn’t burn out early. He stopped just about the right time.
BA was sort of rude in my opinion, to the reporter asking that question.
Lol, I was initially kind of surprised as he’s always such a happy go lucky, agreeable guy, but he’s not out of line… was straightforward, blunt, but polite. Apologized and said he’s not going to talk about that as he’s with the national team and focused on that. As he should be, and needs to be. Really want to see him use the tough spell as a learning experience and keep progressing. PL will find your weaknesses thats for sure. Now he knows where he needs work- simple as that. Onward and upward kid.