Americans Abroad 2021-22: The Hype Train Is Leaving The Station

Dduncan6er · Aug 17, 2021

Pretty cool to see Ryan Malone still kicking around in the 2.Bundesliga. Played against him in high school and he was quite a player. He was dominant in the games we played against him and I believe he was only a freshman at the time. Never would have imagined he'd end up with a decent playing career over seas though.

Kliq · Aug 17, 2021

It's funny to think back a few years and all the doom and gloom and concern about our youth development and how the system was completely broken. A lot changes in a few years and now it feels like the US has almost an elite-level of youth development and there is an endless assembly line of talent that is finding their way to bigger clubs in Europe

Jed Zeppelin · Aug 17, 2021

Dduncan6er said:
Pretty cool to see Ryan Malone still kicking around in the 2.Bundesliga. Played against him in high school and he was quite a player. He was dominant in the games we played against him and I believe he was only a freshman at the time. Never would have imagined he'd end up with a decent playing career over seas though.

Where did you go? Minnechaug '05 here so I would have missed him by a couple years. Lots of great teams around but rare in my recollection for guys to go much beyond D1 ball. The greatest notoriety in the region may have been a pretty good Cathedral player who robbed a bank and has since been arrested again as part of a drug ring.

Dduncan6er · Aug 17, 2021

Jed Zeppelin said:
Where did you go? Minnechaug '05 here so I would have missed him by a couple years. Lots of great teams around but rare in my recollection for guys to go much beyond D1 ball. The greatest notoriety in the region may have been a pretty good Cathedral player who robbed a bank and has since been arrested again as part of a drug ring.

Commerce '07. We were awful but somehow ended up with a couple large schools on our schedule every year. He was so much smaller physically then everyone on the field but no one was in the same stratosphere as him skill wise.

I remember that Cathedral kid. I went there my freshman year and he was a major douche then so I wasn't surprised to see him get wrapped up in that BS.

Senator Donut · Aug 17, 2021

One thing I’ve started to notice is reputation, which lags behind talent, has started to catch up. In Serie A, McKennie’s great season has paved the way for three other American players, two of whom were also developed by FC Dallas. Serie A is historically a hard league for non-EU players to crack. For example, Juventus signing McKennie cost them a chance to acquire Luis Suarez later that off-season and AJ Soares had his roster spot stolen at the last second by fellow Concacaf star Rafa Marquez.

(American ownership may have also helped our cause this year at Venezia, but American ownership is not particularly new to the Italian top flight. Bologna are also Canadian-owned.)

Kliq · Aug 17, 2021

Senator Donut said:
One thing I’ve started to notice is reputation, which lags behind talent, has started to catch up. In Serie A, McKennie’s great season has paved the way for three other American players, two of whom were also developed by FC Dallas. Serie A is historically a hard league for non-EU players to crack. For example, Juventus signing McKennie cost them a chance to acquire Luis Suarez later that off-season and AJ Soares had his roster spot stolen at the last second by fellow Concacaf star Rafa Marquez.

(American ownership may have also helped our cause this year at Venezia, but American ownership is not particularly new to the Italian top flight. Bologna are also Canadian-owned.)

Pulisic does feel like kind of a watershed player for US hopes in the sense that post-Pulisic breaking out at Dortmund, it seems like more clubs are sniffing around the US for potential steals.

More importantly than Pulisic is perhaps the development of players like McKennie, and Alphonso Davies. Players coming up through the MLS youth system and then getting signed at a young age by Big 5 clubs because they believe they can be good has been huge, and now you are seeing more and more players who are barely even playing in MLS before getting snapped up. The word is out that American players are out there ready to contribute and we are seeing a steady stream of teenagers getting signed to European clubs. Not all of them will turn into Pulisic/Davies/McKennie, but some of them will.

Jed Zeppelin · Aug 17, 2021

Aaronson doing Aaronson things with the 90th minute winner in 1st leg of CL qualifier today. Was apparently a live wire for all 45 off the bench in 2H.

DJnVa · Aug 18, 2021

Not a big signing, but 2 Americans sign to play some 3rd tier Croatian football

View: https://www.instagram.com/p/CSr-4hyDkRL/

67YAZ · Aug 18, 2021

DJnVa said:
Not a big signing, but 2 Americans sign to play some 3rd tier Croatian football

View: https://www.instagram.com/p/CSr-4hyDkRL/

One kid is like “are you serious?” And the other looks like he’s holding up a newspaper in a hostage video.

DJnVa · Aug 18, 2021

LOL. They played with the semipro team my kid played on last year. Wondering what the pay is for a 3rd tier squad in Croatia. City is on the Adriatic though, so they could do worse.

scott bankheadcase · Aug 19, 2021

CCV starts for Spurs in their European Conference opening game:

View: https://twitter.com/SpursOfficial/status/1428408934327595010

Kliq · Aug 19, 2021

I recognize two names on that bench.

Pesky Pole · Aug 20, 2021

Titans Bastard said:
Qualifiers are in two weeks.

View: https://twitter.com/Route1futbol/status/1428666505068105732

Let's hope he was vaccinated so it's milder symptoms. He's from the Pennsyltucky part of our state so who knows. The dude has been popping up everywhere this summer.

He needed a good start to the season to earn minutes under Teuchel so this is not great. It will get tighter when Lukaku starts playing as well.

cromulence · Aug 20, 2021

Gun to my head, I'd say he's not vaccinated. He seems to be the type.

Feels good to not completely freak out about this. We can survive without him for the first three games if we have to.

Pesky Pole · Aug 20, 2021

Good news. He just posted on his Instagram that he's fully vaccinated and asymptomatic.

cromulence · Aug 20, 2021

Yeah, glad to be wrong on that one.

cromulence · Aug 20, 2021

Titans Bastard said:
There's an undercurrent of fans who are convinced that Pulisic is quietly a big MAGA guy based on evidence that I consider to be quite flimsy.

I definitely don't think he's a big one, but I do think there's a decent chance that at the very least he was at one time MAGA-ish. Besides all the little clues people have pointed to, I just think his dad gives off very strong MAGA vibes, and he comes from a red area. It wouldn't surprise me if as he's matured and spent more time in Europe, his views have evolved a bit.

At the same time, I see your point: I'm basically guessing all of this based on almost no evidence. I also think the contrast between him and other core USMNT guys plays a part. I'm 100% sure where Reyna, McKennie, and Adams stand on these issues. They have made it very clear. Pulisic, not so much.

tmracht · Aug 20, 2021

Titans Bastard said:
yeah, afaik it’s basically based on the fact that his dad is conservative and two Instagram likes. Maybe I’m missing something else. One of the IG likes is totally ridiculous to use as a barometer of one’s politics. The other post was very bad, but it’s hard to know what a ‘like’ means or whether he even read the comments. Personally, I’d like to wait for him to say something, anything that indicates his beliefs before I draw anything close to a conclusion. And if I had to engage in wild speculation of my own, I’d guess with ‘fairly apolitical guy who mostly wants to fit in with the people around him’. (And if I’m right, it’s probably good that Cameron moved from London to Cincinnati!)

Yeah its a hard read, he goes on Weston's IG video and makes the Enough is Enough cameo, then likes the Seth Jahn post a few weeks later. Shrug, glad he's vaccinated and asymptomatic.

rguilmar · Aug 20, 2021

Titans Bastard said:
Miazga's rumored loan to Deportivo Alavés is now official.

View: https://twitter.com/alaveseng/status/1428658619936124929

Owen Otasowie has transferred from Wolves to Club Brugge and signed a four-year contract. Brugge refers to him as a midfielder, but I hope they are open to converting him to CB. TM says it was a $4.4m fee.

View: https://twitter.com/ClubBrugge/status/1428658567477932034

I like both of these moves. Miazga hopefully gets a lot of minutes in La Liga. Alaves have built a reputation as a strong defensive team tough to break down, but their new manager Javier Calleja wants to play a more attacking and possession system than they have in the past. He played and coached at Villareal for most of his career. I guess we will see how Miazga fits. I don't know too much about Brugge outside of the fact they are traditionally top of the table in Belgium, and that the Belgian league is a good developmental league. It looks like Otasowie was offered a new contract at Wolves, which he turned down, so he was sold. He seemed to play more as 6 than a CB, but who knows where he ends up. Perhaps as a CB/DM hybrid ala James Sands?

Whatever the case, both players should get more minutes this season, which should help their cases for qualifying and WC2022.

Pxer · Aug 20, 2021

rguilmar said:
It looks like Otasowie was offered a new contract at Wolves, which he turned down, so he was sold. He seemed to play more as 6 than a CB, but who knows where he ends up. Perhaps as a CB/DM hybrid ala James Sands?

Whatever the case, both players should get more minutes this season, which should help their cases for qualifying and WC2022.

Hopefully Otasowie can take the next leap, as quality DM/CB depth is an area of need for the usmnt.

ninjacornelius · Aug 21, 2021

I still remember the heated debates about whether Tyler Boyd had a guaranteed place in the USMNT best XI. I certainly hope that the 2010s will be seen as the absolute nadir of American soccer fandom, because in retrospect that shit was way bleaker than I ever realized at the time.

dirtynine · Aug 23, 2021

I still remember the heated debates about whether Tyler Boyd had a guaranteed place in the USMNT best XI. I certainly hope that the 2010s will be seen as the absolute nadir of American soccer fandom, because in retrospect that shit was way bleaker than I ever realized at the time.

I’d isolate the late ‘10s, when the “missing generation” should have carried the team. First half of the decade was pretty damn fun, relatively successful, and at that time we thought the kids were alright (whoops).

rguilmar · Aug 24, 2021

Fair to say the Konrad has had his CONCACAF experience

View: https://twitter.com/beINSPORTSUSA/status/1429548718144069638

Jimy Hendrix · Aug 24, 2021

Horvath with 5 first-half saves so far helping keep a dominant Wolves team off the scoresheet also.

Dunno how many were good saves and how many are the snakebitten finishing Wolves have started the season with.

dirtynine · Aug 25, 2021

Aaronson scored again against Brondby in UCL qualifying.

View: https://twitter.com/brfootball/status/1430612743766351884

dirtynine · Aug 26, 2021

With all the big names in the first two pots, I was hoping to see some marquee matchups for Aaronson. But from that perspective, his draw sucks. From the perspective of making the knockouts, it’s awesome.

cromulence · Aug 27, 2021

Farke: "Minor question mark behind Josh Sargent, who is struggling with some glute problems, but I'm carefully optimistic he will be available."

Bleh. Rest him up and get him over here.

cromulence · Aug 27, 2021

Nice goal for Gio. Now stay healthy for another 45 minutes.

Taken off (sort of surprisingly IMO) after an hour, so he should be all set for WCQ.

rguilmar · Aug 27, 2021

Just put on the Venezia game and noticed Busio got the start. Two minutes in and he won a contested header, broke up a pass, and had a nice tackle 1v1 in the box. He's starting as the DM/6.

ninjacornelius · Aug 27, 2021

Matt Miazga got the start for Alaves today, but they're getting walloped by Valencia 3-0.

67YAZ · Aug 28, 2021

I missed this until reading about the UCL draw - David Wagner is now managing Young Boys. Nice that her got them to the group stage, but they only have 4pts from 4 matches so far. That really has to improve. But he’s got a decent American striker to work with…

Dummy Hoy · Aug 31, 2021

Lyndon Gooch has had a very good start at Sunderland.

Americans Abroad 2021-22: The Hype Train Is Leaving The Station

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