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Heads-up USMNT fans - two friendlies coming up over the next 10 days.

Oxford Collapse

Oxford Collapse

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Sep 28, 2007
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They play away at Denmark and at Switzerland.

It depends on the squads that both teams bring out, but Switzerland might be the bigger challenge. The Swiss have some very talented players in the Bundesliga - Shaqiri for Bayern Munich is a major talent. If he plays, he'll give Yedlin or Fabian Johnson some fits on the wing.

It's going to be a younger squad with less of an MLS focus - they're just kicking off their season, and Klinnsman wants players at peak fitness.

With that being the case though, I hope to see Rubio Rubin play. He's a young guy, but he's been scoring a lot of goals for FC Utrecht. The guy has real potential to be a top striker for the US two or three years from now.


Here's the schedule:


3/25/2015
Denmark
NRGi Park - Arhus
3pm ET
ESPN Network, UDN


3/31/2015
Switzerland
Stadion Letzigrund - Zurich
12pm ET
Fox Sports 1, UDN
 
Besler is actually not on the roster this time around.

Here's your roster. Shock inclusions are probably Cody Cropper and Danny Williams. Michael Orozco is interesting too - he's not shown enough for me. Bobby Wood being left off tells me that he's fallen out of the picture, despite getting a ton of chances here recently.

Jozy Altidore
Ventura Alvarado
Alejandro Bedoya
Michael Bradley
John Brooks
Timmy Chandler
Cody Cropper
Clint Dempsey
Greg Garza
Julian Green
Miguel Ibarra
Aron Johannsson
Fabian Johnson
Alfredo Morales
Michael Orozco
Tim Ream
Nick Rimando
Rubio Rubin
Brek Shea
Danny Williams
DeAndre Yedlin
William Yarbrough
Gyasi Zardes
 
Zeleam...

damn Krauts for trying to bring him back into the fold with the U18 invite to camp.
 
I actually hadn't seen that.

Zelalem's talented and a guy who would be really fantastic for our talent pool.

I try to not get too excited about dual national "savior" prospects because they don't show that the US system is capable of developing that level of talent. I get more excited by a guy like Tommy Thompson, DeAndre Yedlin, or Erik Palmer-Brown - guys who were developed in the US system and are showing enough talent to get major interest from overseas. That shows progress in our system here, which is what really leads to USMNT success.

Zelalem is sort of the exception. He spent some of his major growth years here in the US (although his youngest years were in Germany), and is at least partially a US-developed talent. I'd really like to keep him on our books, as he's a sign of major progress in the US developmental system. It'd be a sign to American prospects that, if you're a strong enough player, you can get picked up by an Arsenal coming through the US system.
 
Re: I actually hadn't seen that.

The "savior" prospects, as noted by media creations, just need to play and get games under their belts. 17-20 year olds are still developing and learning.

Julian Green, said savior prospect, can't even get off Hamburg's bench right now. Not quite ready for Primetime.
 
I really think Julian Green would benefit from an MLS loan.

He's not playing at Hamburg, and with his speed and technical ability (which is great for MLS level), he'd be a big-time player in MLS. He'd also increase his profile here in a big way while learning to deal with physicality. He's really struggled with physicality in his career to date, and he'd get challenged by that here - say what you want about the low talent level, but MLS is one of the more physically demanding leagues in the world.

I don't want to see him give up on his European career, so it's not likely. For loans, MLS requires an option to buy at the end of the loan contract, and no German club is going to want to sign that for a youth prospect with Green's talent level.
 
Bayern want him...

as a successor to Robben/Ribery. They need wings as these two are getting old.

They're not about to send him to MLS with less technical direction than he would receive in Europe.

This is Klinsmann's main argument...technical direction in Europe is better than MLS.
 
While that's 100% true, playing time is also important.

I would like to reiterate that in no way do I believe it'd ever happen. I just also don't see him as a starter in the top flight in Germany at this stage. He'd get more playing time and and increase his profile here, so from that perspective, he'd be better off playing in MLS for a year.

You're also correct that the developmental program here sucks from a technical perspective.

If I had answers for it, I'd be working for Jurgen Klinnsman. We'll see how his career shakes out, but I'd be shocked if he gets to that Ribery/Robben level at any point in his career. If he becomes a Theo Wolcott type of player, that'd honestly be a major step up over what we have right now on the wing.
 
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