We've missed the World Cup: Why and Now What
The United States Men's National Team has failed to make the 2018 World Cup in Russia. What does this mean? This means that for all of the work that soccer has done in the United States in recent years has taken a huge step backwards. But what work was really done? Before moving on I do want to state that we've heard these reactions before. The USMNT is inconsistent, relies on old players, does develop youth, doesn't have a stable leader, and so on. We have seen the same team for years... Tim Howard in net, Michael Bradley bouncing around the midfield, Clint Dempsey scoring game saving goals, Fabian Johnson not showing up... when does this change? Let's start with the goalkeepers. The United States has done very little to produce and get minutes for any goalkeepers outside of Tim Howard and Brad Guzan (both aged 38 and 33 respectively). If there is any position that the United States has produced well in their history is the goalkeeper position. We've had the likes of Kasey Keller, Brad Friedel, Marcus Hahnemann, Tony Meola, and yes even Tim Howard but who's next? We are hoping for a former Mexican international (that we didn't develop to turn out) in Jesse Gonzalez, Bill Hamid (who has never been given consistent minutes), and the guy I'm most hopeful for Ethan Horvath who is still young and playing for Club Brugge. Is there hope here? Yes. But has recent events made me nervous? Yes.
Now let's looks at the backline... and boy is this shit messy. Right now our fullback depth is pitiful. Jorge Villafana at left-back who is 28 and many people have little confidence in. Behind Villafana we still rely on DaMarcus Beasley who is 100,000 years old (35) and has played in four FIFA World Cups. WE NEED TO DEVELOP A FUCKING LEFTBACK. I like Brandon Vincent who right now plays for the Chicago Fire but after him I can't name anyone else. At right-back we are starting DeAndre Yedlin who is a 24 year old starter for BPL side Newcastle right now. Yedlin is one of three guys starting on this team right now that I am 100% confident in and want starting in the future. But behind Yedlin we have Timothy Chandler who fails to show up for the USMNT and Graham Zusi who is a winger turned right-back and a liability defensively. Our starting center-backs also give me little hope. Outside of John Anthony Brooks who is crazy talented and the most expensive U.S. player in the world right now, we have nobody. Starting next to Brooks for most of the WCQ games was Geoff Cameron. When looking at Cameron we see a BPL starter but when we look closer he isn't a natural center-back. Once Brooks went down with an injury and Cameron played poor, we had to have Matt Besler and Omar Gonzalez start. Both Besler and Gonzalez are close to 30 years of age and haven't shown up on an international scale in years. There is some hope going into 2022 because we have Brooks, Matt Miazga (a Chelsea loanee at Vitesse), and Cameron Carter-Vickers (a Tottenham loanee at Sheffield United).
Oh captain my captain. I love the number six position on the soccer field and for the last few years we have had the bald headed captain Michael Bradley leading the way. I have been on his side in recent years but his performance in the last few games were awful. With the U.S. out of the World Cup I think we could have seen the last of Bradley. But who's next? Jermaine Jones? No. Danny Williams? No. The only option I can see next and I'm not opposed to is Kellyn Acosta. Acosta has proved his worth in his few games so far and I think can be beneficial in the future. Moving on from the holding midfield position to the attacking midfield position we are looking at the "Wonder Boy" Christian Pulisic. Pulisic is easily our best player right now and at the ripe age of 19 is going to be leader moving forward. But similar to what I'm going to say in this article a lot, there is nobody behind him.
The rest of the midfield in recent time has looked like some combination of Darlington Nagbe, Alejandro Bedoya, Fabian Johnson, and Paul Arriloa. Nagbe has talent but USMNT coaches rely on him to do way too much with any other help around. Also, Nagbe's defensive game out wide isn't the greatest (for example last night's game). I'm not completely sold on Arriola but I do think he should be included in future rosters. The kid is a workhorse and will run for 90 minutes plus. There is a future crew of U.S. midfielders coming up that have people excited, but again we have to hope they work out. Players like Gedion Zelalem (Arsenal), Emerson Hyndman (Bournemouth), Lynden Gooch (Sunderland), Tyler Adams (New York Red Bulls), Brooks Lennon (Liverpool loanee at Real Salt Lake), and Derrick Jones (Philadelphia Union).
Now onto the forwards. We've relied on Clint Dempsey and Jozy Altidore to lead the way for years, and for the most part they've done it. Both have risen up the all time scoring leader list and scored some memorable goals. We've seen Bobby Wood as of late and has a lot of potential behind him. He starts in the Bundesliga and has also saved us in these World Cup Qualifiers. Wood has talent but his inconsistency kills me sometimes. Behind those three we have relied on a combination of Jordan Morris, Juan Agudelo, Chris Wondolowski and others to up the fourth forward spot. Morris is the only one I think should continue to be in the roster at all. Agudelo isn't talented enough for international play and Wondo is just as old as Beasley.
What's next for us? We need to focus on development. We need to focus on this generation of players that may be "lost" from us missing the World Cup. We need to create a domestic league environment that allows us to develop or young players even more. This can be done with someone with these thoughts in mind coaching the team, a technical director and a president of the USSF doing the same things. Also, for those who blame MLS for creating this losing team and losing environment are flat out wrong. MLS has its faults but creating a generation of losing Americans is one thing it hasn't done. Look at these starters from around CONCACAF. Costa Rica, Mexico, Jamaica, Honduras, and Panama all have quality starters from MLS. Some of these starters factored in the U.S. missing the World Cup. Finally, I am all for MLS and USSF opening up promotion/relegation in the United States. I do think it will help us produce better talent domestically. Whats next? I'm not too sure but we need to hope that we can come back better from this. We need to hope that Yedlin, Brooks, McKinnie, Horvath, Pulisic, and others can be the next leading force that don't want this to ever happen to them.
