Alan Sonora’s short time with Liga MX club FC Juarez has come to an end.
Sonora has left the club by mutual consent, FC Juarez announced Tuesday. The U.S. men’s national team midfielder joined the Mexican club in February, but only made eight league appearances over this time there.
He registered one assist in 329 minutes of Liga action.
Sonora, 24, previously was with Argentinian side Independiente, totaling 11 goals and seven assists in 87 combined appearances. He was alongside his brother Joel during his time with FC Juarez, but both are now free agents and seeking new destinations.
Sonora has earned five caps to date with the USMNT, last featuring in the Concacaf Gold Cup group stage.
They need to stop caling him up, he is not national team quality. He can’t even do anything against minnow Concacaf teams. He also does not challenge himself and they say he is going to Nacional in Uruguay which is not going to do anything for his development.
Potentially could be a good pick up for an MLS team.
Sonora was one of the few players at the Gold Cup who turned and tried to make positive passes. I really thought Sonora could have grown in that tournament, but alas he got injured.
He was bad.
And then either slowly dribbled into multiple defenders or hit a poorly weighted ball that got intercepted. I watched him a few times in Argentina he doesn’t look like the same player, so I don’t really know what’s going on but he apparently wasn’t good for Juarez and hasn’t looked up to par with the NT. Perhaps a new location will turn him back around.
JR – Yeah, I saw that too. Dude left me scratching my head. I’m like: there’s some genuine talent there, some of those moves are just filthy. But that end product and Oh My those scuffs from ten feet in front of goal…like: dude.
Zendejas was nervy all tournament and that often overshadowed his talent. Sonora was beyond nervy; he was an outright train wreck.
Some players, I always found, can get in a bad groove but can be gotten to if you just constantly reinforce them. Usually it’s just a perspective issue, mostly imposter syndrome. A ton of guys put results ahead of process, and then beat themselves up about the results, which is exactly the same as putting the cart before the horse and then getting frustrated the cart’s going nowhere. (Like: dude, the result is always going to be bad if you do it that way.)
You can often get to that. Others have genuinely shaky psyches that just seem to spiral…and I never do find the key to settling them down.
My gut says Zendejas is in the first category and can be a contributor to the USMNT if he keeps getting called up, finds his groove, and settles down some…though I suspect he may not get further opportunity. You only get so many chances, and there’s a growing pile of really good players clamoring for opportunities. (Though I’d much rather Gregg invest in a talent like Zendejas rather than a Paul Arriola. We’ve seen the ability, just not the consistency, and Zendejas is a really, really good player for Club America.)
But Sonora…I dunno. That looked like mortal terror out there to me. Not sure what was going on with the guy. He looked like he’d be…a challenge, I’ll leave it at that.
Q: as far Zendajas I wonder how much comes down to trying to do too much. Slide him in next to Gio and Puli with Balo in front of Weah is hurt or needs rest he could probably do a job. Tell him he’s got to be the guy and open up everything and he struggled.