The U.S. Men’s Olympic national team is just over one month away from kicking off its quest for gold medal glory in France and Taylor Booth and Bryan Reynolds are two players aiming to be a part of it.
Booth and Reynolds are coming off career-best campaigns at club level as they continue their preparations in the U.S. for a June 11 friendly vs. Japan in Kansas City. Both players began their careers in MLS academies before also featuring alongside one another at several U.S. youth national teams.
After coming through the ranks for over a decade, both Booth and Reynolds reflected on their past experiences together.
“Me and [Taylor] Booth have been in the national team program since the U-14’s,” Reynolds told reporters Thursday in a conference call. “It’s crazy that we’re here together.”
“I think for sure [youth national team play] had a big impact on our careers,” Booth added. “You’re always playing in top tournaments. It was great exposure for us. I know I got scouted from Germany at one of the youth camps in Italy.”
Booth, 23, registered six goals in 21 combined appearances for Eredivisie side FC Utrecht this past season. Despite missing eight matches earlier this year due to a knee injury, Booth featured in the club’s final four matches before earning his latest call up to Marko Mitrovic’s squad.
The Utah native never truly got his chance with Bayern Munich’s first team before making the move to Holland in July 2022, however, Booth credited the German giants for helping him get to where he is now.
“In the Bavaria region the language was super important for the locals and the fans,” Booth said. “The club told all of the foreign players that we’re gonna have to learn German.
“We were doing really intense lessons, a couple three-hour sessions a week for six months,” he added. “It wasn’t easy, but it’s something that helped me. And now moving to the Netherlands, the language is very similar. So I’m able to understand.”
The 22-year-old Reynolds witnessed a similar pathway following his move to AS Roma in 2021. Reynolds made just eight appearances for the Serie A club, eventually being loaned to Belgian side Kortrijk and Westerlo in back-to-back seasons.
Westerlo exercised Reynolds’ purchase option last summer, providing the former FC Dallas homegrown with a consistent role in the club’s backline. Reynolds now has 68 appearances, one goal, and nine assists under his belt at Westerlo, seeing a large role at right back over the past two seasons.
All of the experiences in Europe to date have provided Reynolds with valuable experience for what could come in Paris this summer.
“When I was young and first arrived at Roma,” Reynolds said, “I was like, wow, this is a lot. But I adjusted to that. And then even this last season, it was pretty rough. We were pretty much fighting against relegation.
“Obviously that makes the whole locker stressed and some people don’t know how to act,” he added. “And these certain situations, for me personally, with the experience that I’ve had, set me up if I make the roster for the Olympics.”
Mitrovic’s current 25-player roster will be reduced to 18 before the start of the Olympics, ending the dreams for several players in the player pool. Both Booth and Reynolds have a strong case to make the final roster, especially after being involved in several U-23 camps over the past year.
Pressure will certainly be on the Americans heading into their first Olympic Games since 2008, however Booth expects the team to handle it knowing the amount of support they have behind them back home.
“We’re expecting every game at the Olympics to be a big game and we’re gonna have a lot of pressure because everyone’s going be watching these games back in America, not just soccer fans,” Booth said. “And I think everyone who’s here [in camp] has dealt with pressure on and off the field. We know how to handle it.”
I think a young player/ striker to keep an eye on the next couple of years is Joel Imasuen. Could very well be a first team player for Bremen this upcoming season.
2tone, so hard to judge he’d never had a big season until this year. Bremen II was in the 5th division. They went 33-0-0 with a goal difference of +200, that’s an average of +6 a game. They were significantly better than their opposition his strike partner had 50g and Joel had 41g. The numbers are gaudy but are they “real” or just a pro reserve team playing amateurs?
Yeah it’s hard to say, but Bremen relies on their academy. Not big spenders. I would think both of those two will get opportunities with the first team.
Joel Imasuen: Who is the American striker making strides at Werder Bremen? @ https://www.bundesliga.com/en/bundesliga/news/joel-imasuen-who-is-american-striker-making-strides-at-werder-bremen-26863?utm_source=link&utm_medium=referral&utm_term=english&utm_content=article
Good article about Imasuen and Werders plans for him.
Both Iamsuen and Downs are two young strikers to keep tabs on. Downs may make the Olympic team if they use the three overage players on defense.
The other guy Lukowitz is 29 and hasn’t ever played above the 3Liga and that was 8 years ago. His most goals before this was 15 last year in the 4th division. Another sign maybe Joel’s season wasn’t as great as 41g might seem. I hope he succeeds, I just think he’s probably going to spend next year mostly in the 4th division.
2tone: Downs has had some success at a higher level scoring 2 Bundesliga goals in only 171 minutes and spending most of the season in the 4th division 18 app 8g.
Booth is better than Tim Tillman he should have been called up with the main men’s nat team. Really wish we could get people that evaluate talent. Fossey should have been given a look over Moore and Trusty should have been bought over Miles Robinson.
It’s easy for us to nitpick, when it isn’t our job on the line. You could take Booth to Copa America (although Tim is an 8, Booth is a W/AM) and he might play 30-50 minutes the entire tournament. You add little benefit to the NT and now have to add Indiana Vassilev or Quinn Sullivan to U23s so a larger downgrade than the NT upgrade. If you bump Esmir into Booth’s U23 spot then you’ve got a downgrade in who replaces him on the U20 Qualifiers squad. Three major comps this summer makes decisions more involved than just this guy is better than that guy you’d get in a normal two friendly window. I’ve never seen Fossey play but from a couple pods that have access to his match tape say he’s ok but nothing special, whereas Brian McBride just gushed all about Shaq. Sometimes we as fans get into that “grass is greener” mentality. Three years ago with both in MLS you’d for sure say Miles was better. Trusty has been facing better competition in training and matches and Miles had significant injury. It’s really hard to judge when you say Trusty was the best CB on the worst defensive team in many many years in the Premier League. If he’s agreed to be an overage player at Olympics and going to play 270+ minutes at the Olympics I’m ok with him not being on Copa.
Fossey is better than Moore. Moore was awful at the WC. All his balls he passed were out of bounds everytime. The passing accuracy was🚮
half the problem here is GB is like an on-off switch with xerox call sheets. JR wants to give a list of excuses why not, which means the guy never gets capped to compete. setting aside the specifics of the analysis, the deal is at a general level there is not enough first choice selection variety, followed by putting them in the games. if a backup keeper gets called, he rarely sees the field where that even matters. so they can’t be compared to turner or each other in a direct sense. we can still run their club numbers but that defeats the point to bringing them in for US games. likewise, we just rarely rotate the first choice list at all. it’s most of the same 23. so anyone outside that list is both not getting called and then not getting caps and a track record.
GB’s idea of variety is more like we have a literal B team for january and gold cup and off-window friendlies. or we have the U23s. but the first, “A” team itself isn’t shuffled enough. and to me the “B” team tilts MLS due to availability, which means that “european B” like trusty are at a disadvantage and may even get treated more like C team for lack of caps and experience — even if they are better than the january camp guys.
sorry but i disagree with JR at the “meta” level in the sense that i feel like historically starters were fighting more for their roles, fewer guys in the 15-23 slots felt as sure of their spot on the team, and there was just more competition and more guys a year called to play in A games. and only one game of a window might get played like an A game.
nah, the whole reason i have my list or you have your guys like trusty, is it’s more of an on-off switch — even when guys screw up and the results are just “ok.” you are solidly in the 23 or not. he maybe tinkers with a spot or two and usually with injury rather than competition as the excuse.
and then to me he’s waiting on club form to elevate B or age group guys, not based on NT play. for example, cole campbell scores a brace on england U19. he is not brought in the senior camp. he is not even given a shot at U23. he’s not even in U19 camp. maybe he’s on U20 later on. even when he brings up age group guys, it’s weird and subjective, eg, aaronson and dest before richards and weah.
i think dude arrogantly assumes he has the team(s) sorted in his head. i think dude isn’t very interested in complicating that by broadening the call sheets. i think he has a goofy talent eye protected by the fact his strange selections get repeated so often that fanboys assume them to reflect reality (“he scouts the team” or “he watches the practices”).
how many times does a wright or reyna have to come in and show him up before people quit assuming? and when one looks at the long sweep from 2019 to now, it becomes apparent the man is hardly infallible, and arguably it’s really he works at such a slow glacial pace and with such consistent lineups people just assume he has it right — until someone slips in and it becomes ok to say that one could be changed.
to me this whole thing needs more variety and competition top to bottom. maybe call more like 60-75% regulars instead of closer to 100%. historically there would be a few fresh faces every friendly. and this wasn’t risking the coach’s job or us losing every time. i personally think 2015-17 was just a harsh shock from which this team hasn’t fully recovered, and has lost much institutional memory. the talent has improved, the results are closer to normal (but not good enough), but a lot of the nuance and learning has been lost. it was never as simple as calling the guy with the most league goals. and we didn’t use to just call the same people every time. and we didn’t suck before.
IV the gap between starters is much greater today than probably ever. The gap between Kljestan, Feilhaber, and Torres was pretty small. The gap from Weah, Zendajas, and Booth is fairly big. Even from Brendan to those guys the gap is large. Did Jozy, JJ, MB90 get pushed for their roles? No of course not, your just choosing to remember things your way because it fits your narrative. Johnny is a starter on a top half team in La Liga we don’t need to bring in James Sands to see them both on the field at the same time.
Do you have actual data to support your 60-70% regulars? Or did you just make up a number that fit your story? Hmmm makes up “facts” claims “only he knows what to do”, “wants us to go back to when the USA was great”! What’s next should we build a wall around the goal?
IV
“half the problem here is GB is like an on-off switch with xerox call sheets.”
Really? No shit!
” JR wants to give a list of excuses why not, which means the guy never gets capped to compete. setting aside the specifics of the analysis, the deal is at a general level there is not enough first choice selection variety, followed by putting them in the games. ”
Yeah? Big fucking deal.
I don’t know about your high school, college or select team
but like most National Teams, the selection process for the USMNT is not in terms of the players, really fair, or equitable. And it is not a democracy.
It is NOT a requirement that every eligible player will get a chance. The USMNT is not a little league team. You and the Reynas seem to have forgotten that.
Your USSF gave Gregg, for better or worse, the power to decide who gets a chance and who doesn’t. It is a given that performance in training does not necessarily translate to real live games. All sports have a long history of players who are All World in training but not so great in real games.
The USMNT is not a club team so in comparison to , for example, any given EPL team, Gregg has very, very few opportunities to give the non starters chances to prove themselves. He does not have a long preseason tour. He has no FA, League Cup games. No Europa or Champions league games. No loaning Taylor Booth to South Korea or Richie Ledezma to Jamaica.
Solutions are:
1. Have a lot more games. Not really practical.
2. Much more choice. More better players. Lots more.
3. Not everyone can get a real chance. So we need a manager with better instincts about which players should be given a chance. In other words a better, luckier manager. Like that’s going to happen any time soon.
“if a backup keeper gets called, he rarely sees the field where that even matters. so they can’t be compared to turner or each other in a direct sense. we can still run their club numbers but that defeats the point to bringing them in for US games.”
No shit. backup keepers are backups for a reason. Only one can play so , unlike outfield players, backup keepers may never get a meaningful game. That’s baked into the cake. Usually backups get a chance because the #1 begins to deliquesce over time. Exhibit A: Steffen.
Matt has yet to hit that melting down point with the USMNT.
” likewise, we just rarely rotate the first choice list at all. it’s most of the same 23. so anyone outside that list is both not getting called and then not getting caps and a track record.”
No kidding.
“GB’s idea of variety is more like we have a literal B team for january and gold cup and off-window friendlies. or we have the U23s. but the first, “A” team itself isn’t shuffled enough. and to me the “B” team tilts MLS due to availability, which means that “european B” like trusty are at a disadvantage and may even get treated more like C team for lack of caps and experience — even if they are better than the january camp guys.”
And your idea of variety is?
“sorry but i disagree with JR at the “meta” level in the sense that i feel like historically starters were fighting more for their roles, fewer guys in the 15-23 slots felt as sure of their spot on the team, and there was just more competition and more guys a year called to play in A games. and only one game of a window might get played like an A game.”
That’s a fantasy on your part.
Experimentation went on when possible. JK ranged far afield even trying out the USL ( Ibarra) and Stanford ( JMo) so that got a lot of attention but when it was for real for Bob and JK barring injury, Timmy, Dolo, Gooch, Los, LD, Clint, MB90, JJ, Jozy were locks.
Before Gregg came into our lives, left back and one midfielder or one partner for Jozy were what was open. Nine locks, two openings. The drop off from the starters to the B team was often pretty steep so you didn’t make the change if it was a real game.
Today, barring injury, Matt, Dest, Richards, Jedi, Musah, Weston, Gio, Pulisic, Weah and Tyler are locks to play. Ten locks and five openings. If Tyler recovers his health that number is ten locks or one more than the pre-Gregg guys.
The difference is Richards, Gio, Weah, and definitely Tyler are of questionable health and Musah has not nailed down a definite role.
And there is definitely a larger pool for Gregg to choose from than his predecessors had. However, in part because of the Nations League, Gregg has less flexibility in scheduling suitable opponents.
The point IV, is that your memory of the way it used to was is flawed. And if even if it wasn’t, get over it. It is no longer relevant. That past ain’t coming back.
National team managers have unique complications in their interactions with their players that managers at clubs, colleges, high schools or your select teams do not have to deal with.
“i think dude arrogantly assumes he has the team(s) sorted in his head. i think dude isn’t very interested in complicating that by broadening the call sheets.”
You have no idea what Gregg thinks.
“i think he has a goofy talent eye protected by the fact his strange selections get repeated so often that fanboys assume them to reflect reality ”
Gregg’s selections, good , bad or indifferent, are real
.”(“he scouts the team” or “he watches the practices”).”
You have no idea what Gregg does with his time.
“how many times does a wright or reyna have to come in and show him up before people quit assuming? and when one looks at the long sweep from 2019 to now, it becomes apparent the man is hardly infallible, and arguably it’s really he works at such a slow glacial pace and with such consistent lineups people just assume he has it right — until someone slips in and it becomes ok to say that one could be changed.”
Assuming what? What makes you think “people just assume he has it right? It is no surprise but you obviously don’t read the comments on SBI.
“to me this whole thing needs more variety and competition top to bottom. maybe call more like 60-75% regulars instead of closer to 100%. historically there would be a few fresh faces every friendly. and this wasn’t risking the coach’s job or us losing every time. i personally think 2015-17 was just a harsh shock from which this team hasn’t fully recovered, and has lost much institutional memory. the talent has improved, the results are closer to normal (but not good enough), but a lot of the nuance and learning has been lost. it was never as simple as calling the guy with the most league goals. and we didn’t use to just call the same people every time. and we didn’t suck before.”
The USMNT does not have a great talent pool. It is not one or two players away from winning the World Cup. Calling in “60-75% regulars instead of closer to 100%.” of a pile of shit gets you a lower % of the shit. You need a better pile.
Striker: I’d have no trouble if Fossey had been called in (or Trusty or Booth, heck I even suffered watching Zac Booth this season a couple times).
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Have you actually seen Marlon play this season?
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People used to get all up in arms about Shaq not being called when he was in LaLiga 2. Then when he started getting call ups now “he stinks”.
Apparently the U19s beat Argentina 1-0, on a goal from Keyrol Figueroa.
i’m telling you, long term the answer is, some of these U20 age group kids at wing (keyrol and campbell), puli and reyna central, weah fills the RB problem slot or for a change has a quality competitor/sub for the wing role.
Keyrol is a striker not a winger.
A lot of 17 yr strikers end up as wingers.
Nice. That kid has a future. Don’t know if it’s going to be with Liverpool, but he definitely has a future in Europe.