Recent USMNT call-up Terrence Boyd says he’s looking for a better situation for next season, even as he gets set to join the national team for a month-long camp that could include his first full international match.
“I’m looking forward to the level of the games and just hoping that I can fight myself into the roster,” Boyd said on the phone with 10Kit. “It’s going to be a tough fight with all the strikers up top, so I’m just hoping that I can get some minutes and then I prove myself.”
This is from last summer, about Timmy Chandler. Let’s just bump it up. Replace Gold Cup with WCQ and Bradley with Klinsmann, where relevant….
BRENT LATHAM – I’ll admit it’s taken me a little while to wrap my head around the U.S. Gold Cup roster. Rosters for huge tournaments, like the World Cup and the regional Cup, are supposed to be pretty cut and dried by the time they’re announced. Not so in this case.
So the Gold Cup roster has some shockers, but I think I can explain. Let me say first that overall I think things are OK. There are a number of strange items and a bunch of guys I’d rather see than say, Robbie Rogers or Freddy Adu, but the main pieces of the puzzle that will lead the U.S. to the Gold Cup next month are probably there. Except one. And it’s a big one. (more…)
It looks like USMNT prodigy Omar Salgado may finally be getting the break through he’s been waiting for in Vancouver.
Reports say that the forward-cum-winger will start a second straight match for coach Martin Rennie this weekend, after a successful run-out on the left flank last week versus KC.
This is a good sign for Salgado, whose travels have taken him far and wide in search of a place he’ll fit in, is that it looks it he may be doing just that under Rennie.
Salgado has been heralded as a top prospect since abandoning Chivas and Mexico to come to the U.S. U-20 team a couple years ago a lanky 17-year-old.
Since then, he’s probably underachieved and been a little overhyped given his production. In the meantime, he’s whined quite a bit about PT in Vancouver, and been called out by his teammates. (more…)
A few weeks back, JP Ocegueda had a choice to make. Mexico and the U.S. came calling at the same time for U-20 camps, and it was time to decide.
Ocegueda chose to stick with the U.S., and he’ll be a key part of Tab Ramos’ team this cycle. Right after the decision, we caught up with him for a little 10Kit Q&A:
10Kit: How are things at Tigres?
JP: Everything with Tigres is good, I feel comfortable with the team and just waiting for the opportunity with the first team to come. We had the Copa Libertadores, (more…)
When the U-23 tournament kicks off for the U.S. on Friday, the Olympic team will have a luxury it hasn’t counted on in several cycles: a top-notch U-23 goalkeeper. While the likes of Chris Seitz and Dominic Cervi were quality enough to get the team through to the Olympics in 2008 (and DJ Countess came up woefully short in 2004), this time around the U-23s have not one but two experienced MLS first teamers.
Sean Johnson and Bill Hamid are quite interchangeable, and even if Hamid has won the job for now, Caleb Porter will be glad to have two insurance policies between the pipes as his tries to make it to London.
Both also experienced time with the full national team in January, where they learned a thing or two about top level international soccer from legend Jurgen Klinsmann: (more…)
The U.S. managed to beat Italy for the first time ever Wednesday, on Italian soil no less. And though the Italian team was far from a finished product and the U.S. spent much of the last half hour defending tooth and nail, none of that diminishes the significance of the historic victory.
It’s been a while since the U.S. enjoyed a signature win of this sort over world class competition. And unlike the last one, that 2-0 semifinal surprise over Spain in the 2009 Confederations Cup, the U.S. was close to Italy’s equal for most of this one.
Chalk that up to getting a little more comfortable playing in tough environments, and a general improvement on the ball across the board — not just partly because of the additions of the influx of German-trained Americans comfortable in their footballing shoes. The U.S. is no longer a team woefully short on the skill end of the equation. Jurgen Klinsmann’s group can honestly go into most stadiums in the world and expect to give the opponent a game.
Today, they were on the up end of that development.
Player ratings after the jump. (more…)
Jurgen Klinsmann has added Brek Shea and Sasha Kljestan to the roster set to face Italy on Wednesday, after Landon Donovan, Timmy Chandler and Jose Torres all dropped out for various reasons. U.S. Soccer also announced that more additions may be coming Monday.
Who could that be? (more…)
The U.S. U-23s got a pretty good result Wednesday in the first scrimmage of their February camp, edging a close to first choice FC Dallas side 2-1, despite finishing the game with nine men.
I had some original thoughts on the camp the other day at ESPN. Here are some quick observations from today’s match:
For those wondering whether the U.S. will send the best players it can to the Olympics, should it qualify this spring, Jurgen Klinsmann says yes, definitely.
The likes of Altidore, Williams, Chandler and Shea would all be part of the squad, hopefully. And Landon Donovan says he wants in, too.
Donovan, whose attack heavy age group missed out on the Athens Olympics in 2004 when they lost to Mexico in the one-off semifinal in qualifiers, tells ESPN he wants to play in London this summer, just like LA Galaxy teammate David Beckham.
As one of three overage players, he would certainly be a great addition. And he has the right to taste Olympic glory again (Donovan was a young part of the team that placed fourth in 2000).
But this is an attack heavy team that needs some defensive help, so he might not be the best fit. What do you think?
Joe Gyau’s German debut could come as soon as Wednesday, when Hoffenheim squares off against Furth in the German Cup. The chance to rest some regulars as Hoffenheim fights its way into the top half of the Bundesliga table may mean a chance for the young American.
Whether he sees the field or not on Wednesday, though, Gyau’s rapid rise to the first team has been nothing short of spectacular. Just 19, Gyau is proving to be a rare American prospect who looks capable of living up to the expectations around him.
Gyau left U-17 residency in 2009 to head for Germany, by way of Vancouver. He played with the Whitecaps’ academy, alongside fellow youth prodigy Charles Renken, until he reached 18 and became eligible for the move overseas.
“When I was in residency I was getting a couple offers, but it was the Spain trip where there was a scout there from Hoffenheim,” Gyau revealed. “He contacted my agent and they worked something out where I would train in Vancouver for a year, because I wasn’t able to transfer at such a young age, and then I went over to Hoffenheim.” (more…)
