For the first time in 11 months, Sergino Dest stepped onto the field of a competitive match.
Dest made his PSV return on Saturday, playing the final 23 minutes of his club’s 2-1 Eredivisie victory over Heerenveen. It was Dest’s first action since April 13, 2024 after being sidelined longterm due to a torn ACL.
The U.S. men’s national team right back replaced fellow international teammate Richie Ledezma after the hour mark.
Ismael Saibari and Guus Til both scored for Peter Bosz’s squad. The result moved PSV five points back of league-leading Ajax.
Dest, who was not included in Mauricio Pochettino’s preliminary CONCACAF Nations League roster, likely won’t be back in USMNT action until the summer.
“I am very happy to be back,” Dest said postmatch about his return. “The supporters and the players took care of me well and I am very grateful for that. I’ve had that feeling for eleven months. Before the game I just thought, I want to get in and play again.
“Fortunately, the trainer gave me half an hour which was super fine.” he added. “I also went straight into the duels and was only driven to look them up. Of course I have to take it easy and be careful, but it felt good.”
PSV’s win on Saturday snapped a three-match losing streak ahead of Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League trip to Arsenal. The Gunners leading 7-1 on aggregate after a dominant first leg victory last week.
“And with others like Scally, Ledezma, Carter Vickers and Trusty at Celtic, and McKenzie in France, we have real depth.”
That is not real depth.
Until you put all these names together in a real game and get them to play something resembling real defense together all we have is a list of names on a sheet of paper.
Dude, you are so much fun 😉
TX3,
I don’t expect Tyler to stay injury free. Does anyone?
Depth does not exist if you can’t count on your “depth pieces” to hold the fort for the starters or fill a specific role.
And how do you know that if you don’t actually have them do it in a real game?
Dest, Richards and Jedi have played together a lot but Dest is coming off of a serious knee injury so the jury is out on him.
Scally has been solid.
Richie has been deemed not good enough for the USMNT and is probably going to El Tri.
Trusty just got carted off with an unspecified “head injury”, McKenzie is finally coming good in France.
Richards is doing better at Crystal palace but he’s always been mediocre for the USMNT. Some would say the same for CCV.
A lot of talent on paper and in theory, but not real depth
Well, I can see you are one of those who look at a doughnut and only see a hole. How about this: in the 35 years I have been following the USMNT, we have never had so many players playing in top European leagues as we do now. We used to rely almost totally on MLS players and in the early days even used college players. I feel good about our future when we can have every position filled by a player who is a regular in a top European league and/or Holland. If you don’t recognize this as significant progress, you are some kind of an idiot.
“Well, I can see you are one of those who look at a doughnut and only see a hole. How about this: in the 35 years I have been following the USMNT, we have never had so many players playing in top European leagues as we do now. We used to rely almost totally on MLS players and in the early days even used college players. I feel good about our future when we can have every position filled by a player who is a regular in a top European league and/or Holland. ”
It takes more than good players to make a good team. If that is not true then why are Manchester United closer to relegation than the top 4 in the EPL?
“If you don’t recognize this as significant progress, you are some kind of an idiot.”
Gary,
Since the 2014 WC there has been enormous progress especially for our players.
They can now achieve a much better standard of living and making the lifestyle of a pro soccer player attractive can only be good for our ambitious young players and the game as a whole.
It’s also been better for the infrastructure meaning MLS and the other various leagues, media, SBI, scumbags like Alexi and so on. The USSF/MLS has been responsible for some of this growth but a lot of it is what I call organic. The world is smaller now. Because of the internet our guys in Italy, Germany, Mexico, etc, can play there and escape the soul crushing homesickness and cultural isolation that guys like Landon, DMB, the Fulham boys and others faced over there when they gave it a go.
I do not know about you but I’ve had to work in a foreign country and try to navigate a whole new culture but I did not have to try to beat out veterans on Bayern Leverskusen, like LD had to, for playing time.
The reason so many of our guys are doing better now:
+ It looks like the coaching here in the US of A, at all levels has greatly improved meaning our guys are better prepared. I’m no expert but this is probably the single most important factor.
+ Clubs overseas seem more enlightened and make more of a point of trying to help their furriners with culture shock.
+ The technology involved with trying to stay in touch with friends and family is a LOT better. The point is our guys can now mostly just focus on trying to play soccer and win their jobs and not also have to figure out how to eat properly.
Anyone who does not think that is a real big deal is an idiot.
I agree with you that everything is a level better for our players and that many of them are better players.
But the one thing that is not better is the team itself.
At Qatar, we tied Wales, a crap team, tied England, a contender, and beat a questionable Iran team. Then Louie schooled Gregg in the knockout game, which contrary to popular opinion, we were never going to win.
One win, two draws and a loss.
In 2014, at Brazil in our last previous World Cup, we beat Ghana, an old rival, drew with a Portugal team we should have beat, lost to eventual champ Germany 1-0, then lost to Belgium in a thrillingly weird overtime game where Belgium nearly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
One win, one draw, and two losses.
So 2022 was a big leap forward from 2014 right?
In comparing the two editions of the USMNT as far as I’m concerned, Brazil was far more entertaining than Qatar but the end result was the same, advanced out of the group and lose the knockout game. NO improvement.
Okay well how about pleasing the fans with exciting performances of the beautiful game?? Doesn’t that count for something? Gregg’s four games in Qatar were the team’s best and I liked them so props to him for qualifying and putting in a performance at Qatar but otherwise I thought every game Gregg coached for the USMNT was stomach turning and that overall, the team underperformed even in Qatar. Six years is long time to put up with watching garbage being taken out and other stomach turning performances.
And finally, I’m confident that 2014 Jermaine and Clint would rip 2022 CP and MMA apart.
I have not included the Pochettino era because:
1. It’s too early
2. It is such a one -off:
Pochettino is not going to have anything like the time that Gregg, JK and Bob had to install his program.
What we have seen so far has been very encouraging but I remember being wildly encouraged when BJ Callaghan took over and won the 2022-23 NL with a team that suddenly looked like a completely different team. I still think BJ’s complete makeover for the NL was one of the all time great USMNT coaching performances.
When you talk about this team having a lot of depth, that is very misleading.
It has better looking candidates and more of them for positions than we are used to having and that is great but given the reality ( a lot of these depth players, if they even get to play, will be thrown into the deep end w/o a paddle with all of us hoping they can swim) you’re counting on a lot of unhatched chickens. Our players are of better quality but short notice remains short notice regardless of where you play, how good you are and how much you make.
And ignoring those “minor details” is such a common USMNT FAN trait.
I think I know what Pochettino is going to try to do and it is a little unorthodox. And the only other person who could do this is, I believe, Bielsa. So who better than one of his ex-players and admirers in Mauricio?
I think an important point was missed by both Gary and Vacqui. That is the role parents play in the early development of players, before elite coaches and academies get their hooks into them. I’m old, I did play soccer in college, in the 60s, when tactics could be mostly be summarized as 50 yards and a cloud of dust, save for St, Louis University teams that actually strung together passes. (The Catholic Schools in St. Louis and a few prep schools in the East,at the time had soccer as a high school sport. In the 80’s the growth of youth soccer exploded in the US, but the parents who were the coaches were fairly clueless, but those who stuck with it started to figure it out, As a result their kids were better than their parents ever were. Those kids, became parents to the second wave of growth in the late 90s and oughts and were able to help their kids much more than those from just 15 years earlier. The kids growing up in the 2000s became parents to the current crop of potential US players. That led to a fertile recruiting grounds for professional coaches , aggressive clubs and academies.
Simply put there many more 13 year-olds with nascent soccer skills than was the case even 20 years ago and their earliest coaches, the parents who are more soccer savvy than the grandparents and great grandparents are responsible. Even if the parents are simply savvy enough to seek out better soccer situations for their kids.
Of course, the soccer culture in the US still produces fewer skillful 13 year-olds than South America and Europe. It will likely be at least a couple generations before that gap will become insignificant.
More good news, what with Tyler Adams voted Player of the Month for Bournemouth, Jedi having been voted best player for Fulham last year and Chris Richards distinguishing himself at Crystal Palace, our defense is looking pretty good. And with others like Scally, Ledezma, Carter Vickers and Trusty at Celtic, and McKenzie in France, we have real depth.