Comments

1. johnny 99,

   “Banks is starting in the Bundesliga, so the comparisons to Walcott and Green don’t really hold up.”

   Comparing Theo’s and Julian’s prior WC credentials to Bank’s credentials was not the comparison.

   Striker 91 wants Banks to “do a …..Walcott”.

   To do that , Banks would have to make the 2026 USMNT WC team and play 0 minutes like Walcott did with England in 2006. If that happens then Banks will be a waste of a spot. If Banks maes the WC team and does well then the comparison is moot.

   The Green comparison is about this bogus idea that preventative capping helps give you resources for future US teams. Some seem to think that this is like an NCAA recruitment. The difference is unlike college recruiting in the USA, international team commitment is permanent , for life. Players in that situation tend to give the matter a lot of thought.

   Green luckily scored an important goal in a losing effort for the USMNT but in the end capping Julian did not do the USMNT any long term significant good. Preventing Julian from committing to Germany amounted to nothing other than earning JK a lot of bad blood.

   Would the preventative capping of Banks guarantee a stronger defense for the 2030 World Cup? It’s impossible to say one way or the other.
   In the 2014 World Cup Mix Diskerud (Rosenborg) and Timmy Chandler (Nurnberg, a BL team) were on the roster and played 0 minutes. In the 2010 World Cup, Jonathan Spector (West Ham) and Clarence Goodson (IK Start) played 0 minutes.

   This is not a high school, select or college team.
   You’re talking professionals not amateurs.
   The USMNT staff is committed to give us the best USMNT possible for the 2026 WC not 2030.
   Bank’s situation is different.
   If the hype is to be believed he is already the second best USMNT CB behind Richards.
   If the hype is accurate than the USMNT will try to bring him in in March and they will try to gauge if Banks can make the USMNT better in the 2026 WC than any of his competitors can. If that is a yes then will put him instead of Blackmon on the WC roster, assuming that Banks feels the team are a good fit for him.
   Banks has said he does not want to make any decisions based on the WC alone.
   If the hype is accurate, I think Nagelsmann will contact Banks before March and bring him into Germany’s WC squad. The German national team are professionals and have paid employees just like we do. They are not stupid.

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2. Banks is playing well in the Bundesliga. The questions are: is he better than M. Robinson, McKenzie, and Trusty and does he want to play for Germany instead (would Germany actually call him up now?). Poch will have to answer the first question and Noahkai (and Germany) will have to answer the 2nd.

   Noahkai is still young, there is not really a very strong incentive for either Gemany or the US to call him to the WC squad,, unless Poch thinks he is good enough now.

   He has played for US youth national teams and done well. But that is not the WC level. The two, Poch and Noahkai, will have to work it out.

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   • the distortion field in US soccer at the moment is the “european B team donut hole.” the obvious people get called. the MLS B teamers get january or gold cup.

     this results in absurdities where brian white or jalen neal rack up caps — and stink — before damion downs or noahkai banks can even get their chance.

     and the risk on banks is we lose the player to germany because we posture as even more skeptical than germany is.

     worst to me is they’ve even had some of these guys in camps and just not played them. throw them out on the field for 10-30′. there’s your answer on “merit.” but, heck, neal had an awful first cap and then made it to 6 total.

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     • Banks was in camp in September and was rumored to have picked up a slight knock that they didn’t want to play him with. He did sit on the bench the next two club matches. Not sure then what happened in October and November. Perhaps it was related to his uncertainty about nationality???
       ————————-
       Fossey missed most of fall with injuries and was once again listed with a hamstring injury last weekend. Seems unlikely he’ll be available in March.
       —————————
       People need to also start coming to grips with if you aren’t on a team in contention for European Comps in Germany or France you are on an MLS level team. If your in Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium unless your a top 3 team your team is MLS level or below. The culture of football puts more pressure on you from the community but the on field competition you are facing most nights isn’t much different from MLS. If you are a bench rotation player for Dortmund or Bayern sure you’ve got a top player in front of you but if you can’t get minutes at Mainz you aren’t as good as a guy starting in Cincinnati.
       ———————————
       Some of those Euro B guys have hurt themselves by being ok with their clubs withholding them from Gold Cups. Neal got those caps because 2 were Jan, and 4 were in a GC that McKenzie, EPB, and Trusty passed on (probably CCV but he might have been injured).

   • Here is one thing I don’t understand. Many fans here are ga-ga over Banks and then totally dismiss Scally. Scally is only 24 years old, has started in the Bundesliga for almost 5 years, with 143 appearances, including just about every game this season. Also on his team is Gio Reyna who has hardly played at all for them , yet Reyna and Banks, who has played less than a full Bundesliga season, are both given more credit than Scally. Banks is not even cap tied, not having played in any meaningful national team games.

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     • re scally, the high energy wall ball attacking machine who first arrived, kind of disappeared. and then he started getting beat back door all the darned time. he’s like yedlin how bad he gets caught ball watching for goals on the far post.

       people inexplicably indulge a lot of goal-shipping from this team’s backs but then unlike dest or arfsten i don’t see the goals or assists payoff.

     • Gary: I hate when I have to agree with IV. Scally is fine, but in the words of the great Roy Kent “Don’t you dare settle for fine!” Banks may end up being “fine” too, but we don’t know that yet. He has decent defensive skills at 19, size credentials for a CB, but is far ahead of Chris Richards at this age in terms of on ball skills and passing.
       ———————
       Banks is a the shiny new toy in the Christmas catalog, he might end up like Jalen Neal and get played with for a few months and thrown out or he might be a special one that’s cherished and valued for years. We don’t know that yet, but we do know that Joe is fine. Gio is maybe the greatest toy we’ve ever gotten, but his wires get crossed and his battery drains at an unusually high rate. When he works he’s awe inspiring but most of the time he just refuses to move.

     • Gary,

       Banks and Scally play different roles.

       Unfortunately for Joe, there happens to be a lot more legit competition for his role than Banks faces for his role.

       The same distinction applies to Gio.
       If Gio makes it it will be because he can do something nobody else in the pool does as well.

       You can relax because there is a great chance that Gio, Joe and Noahkai will NOT play for the USMNT in the 2026 World Cup.

     • Gary:
       Minutes were in reply to IV, who wants March and presumably June to be a tryout camp to have DMs fight it out. Out of those 12, DMs I listed all but Eneli have competitive caps, and all but Eneli, Sands, Busio, and Roldan have competitive minutes under Poch. Poch has no more opportunities for competitive matches before WC to “tryout” DMs which is what IV is suggesting. Poch doesn’t need anymore tryouts, he knows these guys.
       ———————
       Scally generally plays as a RWB over the years for BM. Is he better than Dest or Weah in that role? He’s filled a time or to at RCB over the years but is he better at that than someone who regularly plays as CB even if it’s in MLS or Scotland? He was fine as CB against Paraguay. He was not very good in NL final four (although as part of a makeshift backline). BM rates Joe as good enough, but if they had Dest, Freeman, or Weah any of those would start for them as well. BM are not big spenders, Joe is their second biggest RB signing ever 1.8 million Euros. Michael Lang in 2018 was their record for 2.8. So despite the cliche that spots are always in play in European clubs, Joe is pretty safe unless some teen comes thru the academy. They would be pretty unlikely to pay 3.5 for Alex Freeman that would be well outside their norm for a fullback. As I said “he’s fine” BM is ok with fine at that price. But there’s also a reason BM has been 10th or higher the last five seasons, they are trying to be financially “efficient”. They’re spending around 10th and finishing around 10th.

   • my deal is this. i know the US’ results turned around. but the defense has been shaky. we have shipped 1-2 goals a game, for 10 games straight, including 2 games with group opponents, one of which (oz) was very soft. the last shutout with the B team was saudi in the gold cup. the last A team shutout was november 2024 against jamaica. as a defender that makes me uncomfortable.

     i think at AM and DM we know who the legit candidates are but not which ones to pick. you call them all and sort it on the field.

     i think at back we are a mess, a lot of the wingbacks have been injured and not had to win their jobs back — or are better attacking than doing their real job. i think at CB one of them plays well and the rest just keep getting picked from inertai.

     so at back i would be calling some fresh faces seeing if they can fix it. if they fall on their face, that’s your answer. you go back to the regulars. if they outplay the regulars, it would be just as smart to upgrade them as it was bringing in luna, freeman, arfsten, and bringing back reyna.

     US fans tend to get very “status quo” every time they win even if you can see the seeds of their knockout round loss in the players they want in concrete. eg the backline sent them home last time.

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     • and i am not saying a completely new set of backs. i am saying you sneak in a banks or a fossey — and maybe 1-2 more — with most of the regulars. we usually call like 8-10 backs. you give them 45-90 minutes around the regulars. you see how they handle it.

       you “gel” things working. you “fiddle” with things malfunctioning. i don’t consider taut 2-1 friendlies with a couple of group opponents to be fully sorted.

       and i’m talking fine tuning. you don’t touch GK, striker, pulisic. but we need re-proof of concept on dest and jedi, we need to sort DM, and i’d be seeing if we can swap out a couple backs and upgrade somehow.

       or we can let belgium and portugal point out the flaws if you want. we seem to prefer such demonstrations — poch’s first year trying to play semi-berhalter ball with berhalter’s people. so we can do this the hard way……

     • DMs
       Morris 6 caps 364 mins (3 camps)
       Adams 10 caps 697 mins (3)
       Tessman 10 caps 551 mins (5)
       Roldan 6 caps 287 mins (3)
       Johnny 5 caps 167 mins (2)
       Luca 8 caps 547 min (2)
       Sands 1 cap 64 mins (1)
       Berhalter 9 caps 704 mins (3)
       McGlynn 12 caps 441 mins (4)
       Musah 6 caps 416 mins (3)
       Busio 4 caps 169 minutes (2)
       Eneli (injured not expected back until mid-April, not enough time)
       With exception of Sands and Eneli they’ve all had multiple camps, multiple appearances. Johnny doesn’t have a ton of minutes but spent most of June with them before leaving for treatment.
       —————-
       I mean Adams is a lock, then you’re looking for 2 or 3 more DMs. So maybe you bring 4 (5 with Tyler). You don’t need 7 or 8 guys they know who they have.
       My guess is Adams, Berhalter, Roldan, Tessman then either Johnny or Morris if they want a 5th.
       ——————
       Same on AM, Pulisic lock, Wes, Tillman, and Weah probably locks (somewhere) so Luna, Zendajas, Reyna, and Aaronson for one spot. I don’t think all 4 get a tryout for that one spot. Maybe they count Wes as the 5th CM and Weah as the 4th FB and that opens up another spot at AM.

     • You always want to see “fresh faces” , most of whom end up with less than distinguished careers. For years you wanted to see Green from the German second division and now he doesn’t even start regularly for his second division team. If a player is a starter for a team in a top 5 league, my default position is that managers and GM’s in Europe who have decades of experience and spend a lot of time evaluating players from all over, have a pretty good idea of the value of different players. And Johnny, not all caps and minutes for the national team are the same. Playing in a friendly, especially against a lesser team, often doesn’t prove much compared to playing in tournaments when the games count. That’s why playing in friendlies doesn’t cap tie a player.

     • IV,

       “you “gel” things working. you “fiddle” with things malfunctioning. i don’t consider taut 2-1 friendlies with a couple of group opponents to be fully sorted.”

       Yeah we get that you think that.

       “and i’m talking fine tuning. you don’t touch GK, striker, pulisic. but we need re-proof of concept on dest and jedi, we need to sort DM, and i’d be seeing if we can swap out a couple backs and upgrade somehow.”

       We don’t “need” anything , it is you who thinks there is a need. The USMNT have been working on all of that concept since Pochettino got here. It ain’t perfect. but what they have , is what they have.

       “or we can let belgium and portugal point out the flaws if you want. we seem to prefer such demonstrations — poch’s first year trying to play semi-berhalter ball with berhalter’s people. so we can do this the hard way……”

       Your posts show that you are looking at this project as if you were the manager. And that’s fine BUT you are not the manager and if you were you’d be looking at it from the POV of a high school, select team or college manager. You have said as much many, many times. Well, these USMNT guys are fulltime professionals not amateurs.

       It should come as no surprise to anyone,least of all you, that Pochettino operates differently from you.

       As best as I can tell your solution to whatever is wrong with this team has always been to change the players. Preferably all of them. At the same time.

       Pochettino on the other hand has looked at what is there and tried to improve the collective believing that if you do that eventually it benefits everyone. He’s not averse to dumping peole but it seems like he tries to “coach up” players first. You seem to think that the USMNT coaching staff does not keep close tabs on every single possible candidate. Are you fucking crazy? What else do these guys have to do? They get paid to scout but you don’t. Do you think they have forgotten about Yunus or Johnny? They have to know how those guys are playing today in March 2026 not last year during the fucking Swiss/ Turkey cluster.

       For example, most of SBI thought the USMNT’s performances during the Turkey/ Swiss combo were garbage.

       You wanted to dump them all.

       Go back and look at the lineups. Pochettino stuck with most of those guys and most of them are going to be on the WC team.

       The difference is the TEAM is now a more cohesive unit. You need 16 players in a game now. It’s not just one on one.

       In other words instead of doing an IV toilet flush and bringing in Julian Green, Duane Holmes, Jesus Ferreira, Cole Campbell, etc. he changed the culture and the team structure.

       Unlike you, it looks like he realized early on that he had only so many players and only so much time.

       Regardless of all the speculation by you and the media,the pundits and most of SBI, I think Pochettino has long known who his starting 11, and his 5-8 subs were going to be. With a 26 man roster that means they have flexibility that previous USMNTs did not have.

       Which means the primary variable at this point is injury and recovery from injury. For example, if Jedi and Pulisic keep breaking down then they are out (and that would be bad) .

       If Gio manages to get into some kind of shape in time, then he is in.

   • Dennis,

     “The questions are: is he better than M. Robinson, McKenzie, and Trusty and does he want to play for Germany instead (would Germany actually call him up now?).”

     Those are not the questions. There two questions:

     1.) Does Banks really want to play for the USMNT?
     A) If the answer is no then there is nothing more to do.
     B) If the answer is yes then:
     2.) Will the USMNT play better in the 2026 World Cup if Banks is in the lineup instead of one of those other players you listed? What guarantee do you have that Banks makes the USMNT better?

     Being a “better” player than for example, Trusty or Mckenzie does not guarantee that the team will play better with him there rather than one of those two.

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3. Good to see Musah get a goal. Much needed confidence building.

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   • His natural abilities are great, but just hasnt put it all together consistently. Forget how young he still is at 23. A lot of pro career left for him.

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     • he needs a career reboot where he’s not playing platoon/sub minutes for some top club in serie A or the like.

     • Oof, agreeing with IV twice in one day. Needs to find a lower league where he can start every week. Ajax, PSV, Feynoord, Brugge, Union St G, maybe France like a midtable team, if he shoots for CL team there I’d see more of the same. He’s only played over 2,000 minutes once in his career, he needs games. I know they couldn’t afford him but if West Ham or Forest went down to the Championship next year that wouldn’t be a bad landing spot. The Championship he’d have to work on his decision making because they don’t give you any time on the ball.

     • Oh JR, what an interesting thread this has been

4. Banks is torn between Germany and US. We all know Poch wants players all in for the USMNT. If Banks isnt called up in March its because Banks wouldn’t commit.

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   • sounds clever except we had him in camp already and didn’t use him. after which he starts saying i would entertain german interest. you play the kid 10-30 garbage time minutes his window and voila, he’s probably yours for good.

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     • He got hurt in that camp. At least that was the story when he didn’t dress for Korea and didn’t play against Japan. Didn’t play for a couple games after in Germany.

5. Banks better not switch to Germany. We have no upcoming opportunities but the WC to cap tie him. Hopefully he can do a Theo Walcott and make USA MNT final WC roster.

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   • Striker 91,

     “Hopefully he can do a Theo Walcott and make USA MNT final WC roster.”

     You should hope not. Walcott was selected for England’s 2006 World Cup squad never having played a single minute of Premier League football. He was immensely fast and was full of potential. He was an unused substitute in Germany, with Theo later admitting that he was not ready for the pressure.

     https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Htrk5wlh1as

     In other words, you want to risk wasting a spot on Banks.

     Or maybe you want to not lose him and you want to prevent Germany from getting him. Okay, but how do you know Banks is going to be worth disrupting the chemistry of a team that you have been building for a year and a half? Can you guarantee that Banks will be any good going forward? The sample size of the data on him is pretty small.

     Preventative capping is what they did with Julian Green . Luckily for JK, ( JK only used him out of total and complete desperation. He had run out of bodies). Green at least scored a goal but after that he did nothing for the USMNT.

     If you think he is better RIGHT NOW than whoever he beats out great take him.

     But this idea that giving him experience on the bench is some kind of wise investment for the future is Pochettino gambling with the next manager’s money.

     The most important tournament for the USMNT is the 2026 World Cup not the 2030 World Cup.

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     • Banks is starting in the Bundesliga, so the comparisons to Walcott and Green don’t really hold up. Banks would be competing against McKenzie, Trusty, M. Robinson (I’m assuming that Ream and Richards are locks at this point), so a good argument can be made that Banks is already playing at a higher level than all of them.

       The thing I wonder about is whether his recent comment that he might be open to a Germany call-up disqualify him from a call up to the USMNT, given Poch’s view on only taking players that want to be here.

     • dear god, there’s this thing called a friendly callup. it doesn’t have to be a tournament on-off switch. i can say that at least a bench CB slot should be up for contest. a lot of the other options have had windows — or perhaps dozens of caps — to make their presentation. you give the kid 2 games. if he looks awesome, wow, you did it. if not, you tell yourself i guess trusty or whatnot is what i can manage this cycle.

       personally i am ok with attacking “flyers” (eg, green) but would only roster a defender who has been previously stress tested. unless they make a poor back pass, an attacker who you took a risk on just doesn’t score. a defender who lets you down might send you home.

     • johnny 99,

       “Banks is starting in the Bundesliga, so the comparisons to Walcott and Green don’t really hold up.”

       Comparing Theo’s and Julian’s prior WC credentials to Bank’s credentials was not the comparison.

       Striker 91 wants Banks to “do a …..Walcott”.

       To do that , Banks would have to make the 2026 USMNT WC team and play 0 minutes like Walcott did with England in 2006. If that happens then Banks will be a waste of a spot.

       The Green comparison is about this bogus idea that preventative capping helps give you resources for future US teams. Some seem to think that this is like an NCAA recruitment. The difference is unlike college recruiting in the USA, international team commitment is permanent , for life. Players in that situation tend to give the matter a lot of thought.

       Green luckily scored an important goal in a losing effort for the USMNT but in the end capping Julian did not do the USMNT any long term significant good. Preventing Julian from committing to Germany amounted to nothing other than earning JK a lot of bad blood.

       Would the preventative capping of Banks guarantee a stronger defense for the 2030 World Cup? It’s impossible to say one way or the other.
       In the 2014 World Cup Mix Diskerud (Rosenborg) and Timmy Chandler (Nurnberg, a BL team) were on the roster and played 0 minutes. In the 2010 World Cup, Jonathan Spector (West Ham) and Clarence Goodson (IK Start) played 0 minutes.

       This is not a high school, select or college team.
       You’re talking professionals not amateurs.
       The USMNT staff is committed to give us the best USMNT possible for the 2026 WC not 2030.
       Bank’s situation is different.
       If the hype is to be believed he is already the second best USMNT CB behind Richards.
       If the hype is accurate than the USMNT will try to bring him in in March and they will try to gauge if Banks can make the USMNT better in the 2026 WC than any of his competitors can. If that is a yes then will put him instead of Blackmon on the WC roster, assuming that Banks feels the team are a good fit for him.
       Banks has said he does not want to make any decisions based on the WC alone.
       If the hype is accurate, I think Nagelsmann will contact Banks before March and bring him into Germany’s WC squad. The German national team are professionals and have paid employees just like we do. They are not stupid.