USMNT: Watching From Outside The Arena

Titans Bastard

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The few recaps I've read made a point of saying Robinson played well today. I mean, he wasn't marking CONCACAF dudes here, so there's gonna be struggles, but all in all he's getting positive marks.
Yeah, if getting abused at times by this France team is going to be the end of the road for USMNT layers, we're not going to have any players left.

Robinson has some good qualities, but plays a naive game sometimes. Like always, we don't have a ton of LB prospects, so I expect he and Danny Acosta will get chances in the near-term future. Perhaps by the end of the cycle George Bello will have developed well and be ready to take over.
 

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Yeah, it's no sin to get clowned by Kylian Mbappe, who cost one of the top 5 clubs in the world EUR 180M to buy last year.

I just finished watching the highlights and if he keeps this up, Zack Steffen better be getting some European offers soon. Why was he given the boot from Freiburg, anyway, was their newly-promoted budget just too big for their collective britches?
 

Kliq

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Considering the enormous gap in talent and experience; I mean, this was like the Miracle on Ice with our band of teenagers, and the fact that the midfield and forwards couldn’t hold onto possession for more than a few seconds, I find it really hard to criticize anyone on the defense today. I don’t even really think France got a ton of good chances that they blew; there were the two big Steffen saves at the end but most of Frances chances were outside the box shots that the defense did a job of closing down on.

I would have liked to have seen Weah come on late; I think his speed might have been able to catch France with a ball over the top late when they were pressing.
 

Titans Bastard

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Yeah, it's no sin to get clowned by Kylian Mbappe, who cost one of the top 5 clubs in the world EUR 180M to buy last year.

I just finished watching the highlights and if he keeps this up, Zack Steffen better be getting some European offers soon. Why was he given the boot from Freiburg, anyway, was their newly-promoted budget just too big for their collective britches?
Steffen chose to leave Freiburg because he was homesick. It's hard to know if he'd be interested in going to Europe later in his career.
 

Jimy Hendrix

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There’s a long way to go if you’ve got that vision of a ball playing, elite US, but that friendly was at least pretty fun in the way that US Soccer tends to be pretty fun when it’s working alright.
 

Titans Bastard

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This doesn't bode well for the speed with which a new manager will be hired.
 

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I'm actually okay with them taking their time. From the article, Cordeiro says waiting up to 3 months from now isn't the worst thing, which would put them at late September/early October. My biggest complaint of the last two permanent coaching hires is that Gulati/Flynn zeroed in on a single candidate both times, way ahead of the coaching change, and didn't have a real coaching search. I want them to talk to as many interested parties as possible. We don't have anything but friendlies the rest of the year, and the current players seem to like Sarachan, and they can't just let him twist in the wind without a contract. If they extend him again I'll get worried.

edit: Stewart also doesn't officially start until Aug 1, so nothing was going to happen quickly anyway.
 
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Titans Bastard

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I'm actually okay with them taking their time. From the article, Cordeiro says waiting up to 3 months from now isn't the worst thing, which would put them at late September/early October. My biggest complaint of the last two permanent coaching hires is that Gulati/Flynn zeroed in on a single candidate both times, way ahead of the coaching change, and didn't have a real coaching search. I want them to talk to as many interested parties as possible. We don't have anything but friendlies the rest of the year, and the current players seem to like Sarachan, and they can't just let him twist in the wind without a contract. If they extend him again I'll get worried.

edit: Stewart also doesn't officially start until Aug 1, so nothing was going to happen quickly anyway.
I'd like to see a little more urgency. It's not about the fall friendlies; I worry that if the USSF takes their sweet, sweet time with this, some of the interesting international candidates will go elsewhere. Why wait around on the US job until October/November when there are offers in hand in August?

In the managerial world there are always people "between jobs" -- even good managers -- but the period immediately after the World Cup is a time with a particularly large pool. Don't waste the opportunity.
 

Titans Bastard

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Efrain Alvarez scored a brace for LA Galaxy II in the USL tonight. That gives him eight goals in 483 minutes at that level.

He turned 16 two weeks ago. He has very expressed that the door to the US is not fully closed. This is what Tab said in May:

I flew to LA in January to meet with LA Galaxy and with the families of Ulysses Llanez and Alex Mendez. I had very good meetings with both families. At the time, LA Galaxy thought that I should not meet with the Alvarez family because he is with Mexico. I like Efrain. He is a good player. But I agree with LA Galaxy. He is very young and there is no need to pressure such a young player. U.S. is his country of birth, where he grew up, where he lives and where he has his friends. I am sure he is torn. I think Mexico doesn’t worry about that, they come here and speak with anyone.
Hellooooooooo. You are acknowledging that Mexico is aggressive. So be aggressive and respectful, too. Passively waiting for dual nationals to come to you when Mexico is wining and dining them is not a winning strategy.

Have we learned nothing from the Jonathan Gonzalez fiasco?
 

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Your point is well taken, TB, about US Soccer's arrogance. But let's not also overreact in trying to see a 16-year-old's 6 games in the USL as comparable to what Gonzalez did in Liga MX this past year.
 

Titans Bastard

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Your point is well taken, TB, about US Soccer's arrogance. But let's not also overreact in trying to see a 16-year-old's 6 games in the USL as comparable to what Gonzalez did in Liga MX this past year.
Obviously Gonzalez has gotten it done at a higher level, but Alvarez is three years younger and he's a highly skilled, creative attacker. I'm still pissed about Gonzalez, but we're the US and we can develop other DMs. I like Chris Durkin at DCU, for example.

Players with the skillset of Alvarez are particularly precious.

As punishment, I sentence you to three months of watching Bedoya/Zusi/Zardes performances at RM, following by writing a reflective essay.
 

Titans Bastard

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Forgive me if this is a stupid question. Any chance we might take a shot at Osorio, now that he’s out?
I have no idea what Stewart has in mind, but I'd hope that we pass. I don't think a mad tinkerer is what the program needs right now. Obviously, the next manager should give lots of different players chances, but we also need someone who can rebuild the team's identity on and off the field. IIRC, Osorio never used the same lineup twice during his entire tenure at El Tri.
 

Titans Bastard

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Ramos announced a U20 camp. It's only the fourth camp of the cycle, but qualifying has been moved up to November so we are getting close to crunch time.

https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2018/07/13/20/08/20180713-news-u20mnt-builds-roster-with-world-cup-qualifying-on-horizon-with-camp-in-north-carolina

As is typically the case with U20 friendly camps, there are many players who are not present for various reasons.

* = professional

GK Justin Garces (Atlanta United)
GK George Marks (Clemson)
GK Trey Muse (Indiana)
RB Manny Perez (NC State)
*CB Lennard Maloney (Union Berlin)
*CB Sam Rogers (Seattle Sounders 2)
*LB Chris Gloster (Hannover 96)
LB Aedan Stanley (Saint Louis FC)
CM Taylor Booth (unattached)
*CM Chris Goslin (Atlanta United)
*CM Brandon Servania (FC Dallas)
CM Sean Zawadzki (Columbus Crew)
AM Richie Ledezma (Real Salt Lake)
*AM Paxton Pomykal (FC Dallas)
AM Aristotle Zarris (LA Galaxy)
*FW George Acosta (Boca Juniors)
*FW Shaft Brewer (LAFC)
FW Griffin Dorsey (Indiana)
FW Justin Rennicks (Indiana)
FW Sebastian Soto (Real Salt Lake)


The top forward in this U20 cohort is Josh Sargent. (Tim Weah is also good, but might wind up on the wing.) It's unlikely that Sargent will play for the U20s again, so I'm excited to see Soto get his first U20 call up. Soto scored a bajillion goals in the DA (46 goals in 31 games) and I've heard lots of good things about his all-around game. He's reportedly working with Rob Moore, who is an "I want to go to Europe" type agent.

Some significant players not present:
GK Brady Scott (Köln)
RB Jaylin Lindsey (KC)
CB Mark McKenzie (Philadelphia)
CB Chris Richards (FC Dallas / Bayern Munich)
CM Tyler Adams (NYRB)
CM Chris Durkin (DC)
AM Jonathan Amon (Nordsjælland)
AM Andrew Carleton (Atlanta)
AM Nick Taitague (Schalke)
FW Josh Sargent (Werder Bremen)
FW Timothy Weah (PSG)

All the MLS guys in that list are getting regular minutes right now, except Carleton.
 

Jimy Hendrix

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Some are playing with their MLS teams now.

Some were probably either not released by their clubs or it’s more important for them to fight for club spots in their preseasons.
 

Titans Bastard

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Right. Clubs generally don't mind releasing youth players for youth friendly camps, but letting first team contributors go is a different story. Missing preseason can also be a big blow for young players trying to win a first team spot for Euro clubs.

There are also cases like LA Galaxy academy's Alex Mendez, who I read was supposed to be on the camp roster. He's busy trialing at Freiburg.

A lot of those same clubs won't release those players for qualifying either, so it's important to build out the depth chart. What's tricky this year is that qualifying is so early that it overlaps with the MLS playoffs. The US U20s have never had problems securing releases from MLS clubs before. That could change this year.

I'm not sure about the fullbacks, but an ideal U20 XI might be:

Sargent (Werder)
Weah (PSG) -- Carleton (Atlanta) -- Amon (Nordsjælland)
Durkin (DCU) -- Adams (NYRB)
Gloster (Hannover) -- Maloney (Union Berlin) -- McKenzie (Philly) -- Perez (NC State)
Scott (Köln)​

But it'll never happen, not even at the U20 WC.
 

Quintanariffic

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Yeah. Sargent definitely not happening. Pretty sure he’s considered a senior team player st this point anyway.

Sort of same story with Adams.

On Weah, Ramos has never seemed to rate him for some reason, so not sure he’d be included in the roster even if he were available.

I’ll be surprised if the others aren’t ultimately available for at least the U-20 WC itself next May - most of the European leagues are done by then. Someone like Durkin could be interesting tough. He’s the clear first choice #6 so if he evolves into a core player for DCU between now and May, would they release him for a month?
 

Titans Bastard

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Yeah. Sargent definitely not happening. Pretty sure he’s considered a senior team player st this point anyway.

Sort of same story with Adams.

On Weah, Ramos has never seemed to rate him for some reason, so not sure he’d be included in the roster even if he were available.
It pains me to defend Ramos here, but I think that Tab is just focusing on players who he thinks he can get for qualifying and Weah isn't part of that group. Players who are in or on the fringe of first teams in Europe won't be released, except maybe Jonathan Amon.

CONCACAF's decision to schedule U20 qualifying in November really screws the US. The Euro crowd won't be available, which isn't a change. But now it's also during the MLS playoffs, the USL playoffs, and even the NCAA playoffs. It's a minefield and we might end up fielding something like a B/C team depending on how things go. If DC (Durkin) or Philly (McKenzie) sneak into the playoffs, it will be a real headache because we have poor depth at those positions.

I’ll be surprised if the others aren’t ultimately available for at least the U-20 WC itself next May - most of the European leagues are done by then. Someone like Durkin could be interesting tough. He’s the clear first choice #6 so if he evolves into a core player for DCU between now and May, would they release him for a month?
MLS clubs have never given the USSF much trouble in releasing players for the U20 WC, but I agree with your thinking here - sometimes it feels like we are close to the moment when that changes.

It would be great to have CONCACAF youth competitions scheduled over FIFA breaks like in UEFA, but I imagine that's too expensive for too many federations in our region.
 

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Disappointing to see a good number of those guys in college. Maybe that means they’re not that good, but that’s such a bad development environment.
 

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Yeah but 2 of the 5 are GKs, which is really a different animal in terms of career development. The 3 field players are all freshman with Perez being rated as one as fy the top players in NCAA.

To be sure, if college players are taking important minutes in a U-20 WC, that’s not a winning formula, but how does this % compare to 10-20 yrs ago?
 

Titans Bastard

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Yeah but 2 of the 5 are GKs, which is really a different animal in terms of career development. The 3 field players are all freshman with Perez being rated as one as fy the top players in NCAA.

To be sure, if college players are taking important minutes in a U-20 WC, that’s not a winning formula, but how does this % compare to 10-20 yrs ago?
Ten years ago, half of the U20 World Cup squad were non-professionals. Twenty years ago it was about 75% non-pro (the '99 squad was pretty awesome though!). It's night and day compared to today, especially because the U20 camp roster we're looking at is not at all close to the best squad possible and we're still a year away from the 2019 WC, so there's plenty of time for more of these kids to go pro and tilt the numbers even further.

It's actually TBD how many college soccer players are on this squad because there are academy players who would potentially be matriculating this fall.

Garces (UCLA), Stanley (Duke), Ledezma (?), Zarris (Wake Forest), Zawadzki (Georgetown), and Soto (Cal) are currently amateurs, many of whom have verbally committed to colleges. That doesn't mean they have to go; it's common to commit to a college as an extreme fallback; even McKennie committed to UVA.

Soto and Ledezma are probably going to sign in Europe imminently. Garces, Zarris, and Zawadzki are all potential homegrown MLS signings, though I'd speculate that Zawadzki might be hesitant because of the Crew situation. Stanley has actually played quite a bit for Saint Louis FC in the USL on an academy/amateur basis, but there's not a lot of precedent for reasonably strong prospects to sign for independent USL clubs.

Generally speaking, while it's not great I don't think one year of NCAA soccer is disastrous. These kids are busy playing in DA games and/or in USL games on amateur contracts. They'll transition to the NCAA, which isn't great soccer but it is a chance to test themselves against older & more physical players for three months. IF they go pro immediately after, I don't think there's that much harm done. The problem is when they linger with mediocre coaching, limited training time, and suddenly they're the older kids playing young kids which is much less of a challenge.
 

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Good stuff from Pulisic vs Liverpool today. Drew and converted a penalty and then just scored the winner on the counterattack on a nice finish.
 

Titans Bastard

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The U17 national team is in the market for a new manager. John Hackworth has taken the Louisville City job.


The nature of the U17 manager position has changed along with the structure of the U17s itself. No longer is it an every-day job in Bradenton with the residency program. It's similar to all the other YNTs now, with occasional camps.

Also worth mentioning: Earnie Stewart officially became GM yesterday. He doesn't have hiring power over youth coaches (Tab Ramos does), but perhaps he'll have input.

You're probably not going to get some super amazing youth coach from abroad. Rather than hire a typical insider type, I'd rather give a chance to an up-and-comer who has done good things in high-level youth soccer and who would like to bolster their reputation.
 

DJnVa

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Yedlin hurt in Newcastle’s opener. Hyperextended knee maybe? Limped off, taken straight to locker room.
 

Titans Bastard

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Current US men's national team managerial vacancies:
  • Senior team
  • U-23 [Olympic qualifiers are 14 months away...]
  • U-19 [Friedel resigned to take the Revs job last winter]
  • U-18 [Namazi resigned to take a job in the Iranian league in May]
  • U-17 [Hackworth resigned to take the Louisville City job two weeks ago]

What's bizarre is that in a recent interview, Tab Ramos mentioned that there was a hiring freeze which made it impossible to fill the U19, U18, and U17 positions at the moment. I have no idea why this is the case. I think it's sensible to hold off on a permanent senior team manager until the GM was hired. However, the USSF has explicitly stated that the GM doesn't have authority over youth national team hires (except possibly U-23). So why wouldn't the Youth Technical Director [Ramos] have the authority to make the hire? What exactly are they waiting for?

According to a USSF org chart published in April 2018, "Youth National Teams" are actually under the joint purview of two individuals: Chief Sport Development Officer Nico Romeijn and Chief Soccer Officer Ryan Mooney. According to his LinkedIn page, Mooney was once the assistant coach at Elmira College and eventually got into administrative work at the USSF first with the DA and then with referee development. Romeijn is a Dutchman who first came in to oversee a coaching education program in 2015.

This is such a classic dysfunctional USSF example of the buck stops........somewhere (but not here!).
 

Titans Bastard

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JCO rumor, not from the world's most reliable journalist though.


I'm not thrilled with the idea of JCO personally, but I am open to hearing a case for him.
 

Titans Bastard

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JCO rumor, not from the world's most reliable journalist though.


I'm not thrilled with the idea of JCO personally, but I am open to hearing a case for him.
Follow up:


The initial report was probably just some agent-driven BS to get leverage in negotiations elsewhere..
 

Titans Bastard

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I don't know much about his attributes as a player, but I'm a bit surprised to see him in a US camp right now considering he represented England at the UEFA U17 championship just three months ago. Because Balogun played in official games, he'd need to file a one-time switch to play in official games for the US (or for Nigeria).

Last year, he had a solid goalscoring record for Arsenal U18 — 9g/3a in 14 games — and wound up with a few appearances for their U23s as well.

FWIW, Balogun was not a starter for England U17. It's an interesting development, but the rhetoric in that tweet seems fairly overheated at this point. It's easy to get overexcited about dual nationals who are the subject of a tug-of-war. At various points I remember US soccer fans getting all jazzed up about getting (or the prospect of getting) guys like Alex Zahavi, Fabian Hürzeler, Shawn Parker, Gedion Zelalem, et al.
 

67YAZ

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If we're tossing up rumors...David Moyes.

If the USMNT would be getting the data-savvy Everton Moyes whose sides always punched above their weight, fantastic! But I don't really understand what has happened to him since then. I can excuse failing at ManU; replacing Ferguson was an impossible task. But he's just been brutal since then, too.

Has he failed to adapt as the rest of the game has caught up to (and surpassed) his innovative approach at Everton? Or was his time at Everton just a lucky combination of time and place?
 

Titans Bastard

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And Jonathan Gonzalez.

Overreactions cut both ways.
To me, Gonzalez was on a different plane than the guys I listed because he quickly proved he could get it done against professionals. The other guys I listed were academy stars who never did anything against adults. Nobody was talking about Gonzalez until about 13 months ago when it seemed clear in preseason that he would get a shot in Liga MX.
 

Dummy Hoy

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If we're tossing up rumors...David Moyes.

If the USMNT would be getting the data-savvy Everton Moyes whose sides always punched above their weight, fantastic! But I don't really understand what has happened to him since then. I can excuse failing at ManU; replacing Ferguson was an impossible task. But he's just been brutal since then, too.

Has he failed to adapt as the rest of the game has caught up to (and surpassed) his innovative approach at Everton? Or was his time at Everton just a lucky combination of time and place?
My read is that the game has moved on and left him behind, but I don't have a good sense exactly how. Premier League is brutal to manage in right now- lot of killers leading teams. It's actually a while ago that he was pretty successful at Goodison.
 

Titans Bastard

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Most here follow the EPL more closely than I do. What is Moyes' history with young players?

Given the makeup of the player pool for the next cycle, any manager who doesn't have a track record of successfully working with young professionals (& their growing pains) shouldn't be up for consideration.
 

Titans Bastard

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A U18 camp has been announced. The team is playing in the Vaclav Jezek tournament in the Czech Republic.

https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2018/08/20/17/30/20180820-news-u18mnt-heads-to-czech-republic-for-2018-vaclav-jezek-tournament

GK
David Ochoa (RSL)
Kristopher Shakes (Philadelphia Union)

DF
Julian Araujo (LA Galaxy)
Nico Benalcazar (NYCFC)
Nathan Harriel (Chargers SC)
Julian Hinojosa (FC Dallas)
*Owen Otasowie (Wolverhampton Wanderers)
*Stuart Ritchie (Groningen)
Leonardo Sepulveda (LA Galaxy)

MF
Taylor Booth (unattached)
Justin Haak (NYCFC)
Aidan Morris (Columbus Crew)
Marcelo Palomino (Houston Dynamo)
*Thomas Roberts (FC Dallas)
*Indiana Vassilev (Aston Villa)

FW
*Roberto Hategan (Sacramento Republic)
Ulysses Llanez (LA Galaxy)
Axel Picazo (Philadephia Union)
*Bryan Reynolds (FC Dallas)
Gabe Segal (Bethesda SC)
*Folarin Balogun (Arsenal)

* = pro

These are all 2001s. This group hasn't had a mass exodus to Europe yet because none of them are 18, but Booth is expected to join Bayern as soon as he receives an Italian passport and Ochoa has been trialing with Man U.

A couple of players have ties to other NTs. Balogun was just with England U17 at the UEFA championships. Hinojosa was a regular for Mexican YNTs for a while. Llanez had a flirtation with Mexico as well, but he's been back with the US for a bit now.

I still don't quite have a feel for how strong this cohort is.
 

Titans Bastard

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Well, it looks like Chris Armas let slip that Aaron Long has been called up for the first time.

 

Titans Bastard

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Who will be playing at Metlife on the 7th vs Brazil? Will either team have their top teams playing?
It's hard to define a country's "top team" at the very beginning of a WC cycle because it's a natural point for player turnover and experimentation.

That being said, there are a lot of big names in the Brazil squad: Alisson, Thiago Silva, Philippe Coutinho, Casemiro, Neymar, Willian, Douglas Costa, Roberto Firmino.

http://www.espn.com/soccer/brazil/story/3600846/brazil-include-neymar-philippe-coutinho-and-andreas-pereira-in-squad-to-face-us

I doubt the USSF will announce the squad until next weekend. What counts as a top team for the US is really up to you, but I think/hope that it will be a fairly young and inexperienced team, which in context of the current US player pool would be IMO the most interesting possible roster. All of our old players are really old and we have very few players in their mid-to-late 20s who aren't bad at the NT level.
 

DJnVa

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Well, it looks like Chris Armas let slip that Aaron Long has been called up for the first time.

Good for him, but is there any reason to be excited as a fan regarding a 25 year old getting his first USMNT call up? Is he a late bloomer? Or is he just depth, and won't really be needed once games that matter roll around?