1. Legacies of current U.S. under-20 side
Shame that Tab Ramos’ team fell Sunday morning in the ongoing FIFA under-20 World Cup in New Zealand. Elimination for the U.S. under-20s came in the quarterfinals in a penalty kick shootout that went nine agonizing rounds.
But this U.S. roster has the look and feel of the latest “legacy” team. That’s what I call a team that will eventually yield more than its usual share of talent for senior national teams ahead. We have seen a couple of other “legacy” teams do so in the past.
For instance, take the U.S. under-17 team that finished a surprising fourth at the 1999 FIFA Under-17 World Cup (which was also in New Zealand, coincidentally, and where that Americans also lost in a PK shootout). That team was driven by Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley, Kyle Beckerman, Bobby Convey and Oguchi Onyewu, all of whom would go on to play in multiple World Cup matches. Donovan, in fact, clearly already a rising star, was the 1997 tourney’s Golden Ball winner as top scorer.
The United States side that fell to Austria in the quarterfinals of the 2007 FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Canada came close to having that kind of “legacy” appeal. It featured two players, Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore, who would certainly become important national team “backbone” figures. Also on that team: Robbie Rogers, Dax McCarty, Nathan Sturgis and Chris Seitz. (Oh, and … ahem … Freddy Adu. But let’s not bog down in that mire.)
Just like those past sides mentioned above, the U.S. under-20 team that just departed New Zealand will yield a few players who advance into adequate professional careers and a few who will wash out fairly quickly due to injury or because, as we will discover, they have already reached their maximum upside. That’s not being mean or cynical; that’s just how it is. Look back at any of the past U.S. under-17 or under-20 rosters and you’ll see; there will be a few names that even the best soccer fans won’t recognize at all; there is an inevitable, unavoidable attrition as these guys advance.
But from Ramos’ selection of players I see some absolute rising stars. At the risk of missing someone, I would say five players will move steadily up the U.S. ladder to become solid senior team contributors. My list has captain Emerson Hyndman, versatile forward Rubio Rubin, composed and talented playmaker Gedion Zelalem, center back Cameron Carter-Vickers and goalkeeper Zack Steffen, who was nothing less than heroic over the final two contests.
I would bet my personalized, autographed Sepp Blatter soccer ball – yes, I really have one of those – that someone else on this roster will surprise me and go national team starter status. Perhaps it will be Matt Miazga, who is already a New York Red Bulls starter. It could be San Jose’s Tommy Thompson or FC Dallas’ Kellyn Acosta (a good prospect but one who must stop taking so many cards) or perhaps Erik Palmer-Brown, who is barely 18 and almost two years younger than most of the team.
2. Notes on the U.S. Gold Cup roster
If you follow soccer in this country closely, you know that predicting the zigs and zags of U.S. manager Jurgen Klinsmann roster and tactical choices is an absolute fool’s errand. That doesn’t mean he’s wrong, just that he is unpredictable.
Last week, the United States released its provisional 35-man Gold Cup roster, as required by CONCACAF. Let’s go quickly through the important talking points.
– Robbie Rogers remains a stranger to the program. That’s a shame, too, as he has become one of the better MLS attackers up the left side from the fullback position. His one-on-one defending is adequate, too. It’s certainly as good as Brek Shea’s, which brings us too …
– Shea is listed as a defender. He has already moved back into the midfield for Adrian Heath at Orlando City (although that was necessitated by the injury to Kevin Molino, but the net-out is the same). It makes some sense to have Shea attack out of the back against some of CONCACAF lessers that Klinsmann’s team will face in the Gold Cup. But it is worth asking if Shea is good enough on “D” to maintain a spot on the back line once the opposition inevitably improves?
– Jermaine Jones was left off the roster entirely. He’s injured right now for New England. Still, as changes can be made after the first round, and as the tournament will not even begin for another three weeks, you wonder if Klinsmann’s attempt to keep the 33-year-old veteran involved in the program through a move from midfield to the back line has officially run its course?
– DaMarcus Beasley’s inclusion caught everyone by surprise. But maybe not as much if you listened to Klinsmann during the recent trip to face Mexico in San Antonio. He said he missed Beasley, who had retired from the international game, and his bright, infectious personality being around the team. Beasley is 33 (same age as Jones), but Klinsmann has emphasized that this roster is about winning this tournament. That is, building for the future is not the priority here.
– After a shaky start, Seattle’s Brad Evans has done well in his positional switch to center back. Hence his ongoing inclusion in the national team program; versatility counts for a lot, and he can now play pretty much any position in midfield or along the back line.
– Bobby Wood, who hit the game-winners in recent, high-profile results over Netherlands and Germany, isn’t on the Gold Cup roster. That may look unusual, but his club situation is an absolute mess. This gives him time to sort things out.
3. Wondering about “Jack Mac”
Would anybody else like to see what Montreal striker Jack McInerney could do if he were ever on a good team? No offense to Philadelphia (his previous MLS address) or to Montreal, but those organizations are a combined 35 games under .500 in their brief histories.
The man they call “Jack Mac” has certainly been a streaky striker. (Hardly the first one of those, eh?) Still, the 22-year-old forward has collected 35 goals over six seasons despite playing for teams that managed just one winning season; Philly was 11-8-15 in 2011.
And pile this little dap of informational sauce on your Jack Mac enchilada: he has never truly had a dependable playmaker to help arrange the quality opportunities. Michael Farfan, Freddy Adu and Fred were among the rotation of midfielders who could create a wee bit at PPL Park, although Philadelphia never had a great playmaker. Montreal has an adequate one in Argentine Ignacio Piatti. But Piatti had knee issues last year, so his minutes (and therefore his productivity) have been somewhat limited over two seasons at Stade Saputo. Overall, Piatti has four assists in 16 Impact matches.
4. Things to know about TV ratings in soccer
When it comes to TV ratings for soccer in this country, the numbers have always been a long, slow march forward. And while that tends to be frustrating for some supporters of the game, there are a couple of important things to know.
First, a long slow march uphill might sound like a laborious chore, but here’s the sunny side of that egg: stay with it long enough and you’ve covered lots of ground. That’s where we are in soccer. The numbers generally have ticked upward for more than 20 years – and they remain on the ascent.
For instance, the games this year on Fox Sports 1 have been encouraging, as perhaps the addition of a new Sunday “destination viewing” slot is working. Sunday’s Orlando City-D.C. United match drew an audience of 378,000, which is just OK if we look at where it fell among other sports on TV that day. On the other hand, those Sunday matches on ESPN networks and Fox Sports 1 have generally shown improvement over last year’s nationally televised matches on ESPN nets and NBCSN.
Consider that ratings for matches on Fox Sports 1 have been about 50 percent higher than NBCSN’s 2014 average of 142,000. (And that 2014 number represented a high for three years of MLS contests on NBCSN.)
MLS matches on ESPN2 (also in a new, set time on Sundays) were averaging 283,000 through mid-May, which represented an 18 percent increase on that network.
So long as we all take the long view, and so long as we don’t do something silly, like compare MLS numbers to NBA or something else that is equally “apples-to-oranges,” then things look OK.
Same thing with the ongoing Women’s World Cup, where early games are establishing new records. For instance, last week’s United States opener (against Australia) averaged 3.3 million viewers on Fox Sports 1. That was well above the U.S. opener for the 2011 Women’s World Cup in Germany. The coverage and resources devoted by Fox has been outstanding (the tireless Rob Stone, in particular, is killing it), and the U.S. team looked stronger in closing out group play with its best match yet. So look for those numbers to remain on the incline.
I promised “a couple” of things to know about soccer and TV ratings, and this one may be even more important: TV ratings today aren’t just about raw numbers; the demographic breakdown is vital, too.
Soccer tends to get the kind of audience that advertisers covet, a younger set that, you know, gets out of the house buys things. Audiences for some sports – golf and baseball, for instance – tend to skew older. They may have disposal income, but their buying habits are more entrenched.
I will let ESPN’s Colin Cowherd, a smart fellow who knows a lot about a lot, say it here. Just on Monday, speaking of soccer ratings in comparison to other sports, he said, “A 5.0 (rating) in baseball is a disaster. A 5.0 (rating) in soccer is terrific.”
5. The Little Five
5a. Along with everything else going on (U.S. Open Cup, Women’s World Cup, etc.) here is perhaps the most important MLS off-field story to watch over the next couple of days: how bad is Obafemi Martins’ injury that forced him from Seattle’s Open Cup loss on Tuesday? Martins is among the league MVP candidates in 2015.
5b. I know there is a lot of focus on the U.S. women’s team and its ongoing pursuits, and on the men’s team after two terrific, high-profile results. Rightly so in both cases. But one of the really interesting stories I continue to watch involves a former U.S. manager. And I can’t help but think there’s one more big career stop ahead for Bob Bradley. This is a good updater piece from MLSSoccer.com’s Andrew Wiebe. Pay attention, because Bradley continues to excel in a tough spot in Norway.
5c. Don’t underestimate the value of being able to give Blas Perez and Mauro Diaz the full night off in Tuesday’s U.S. Open Cup win. FC Dallas manager Oscar Pareja had the pair of headliners available in case the 4th Round Open Cup match against OKC Energy started looking dodgy. Well, dodginess was averted as FC Dallas assumed control early and stayed there in a 4-1 win, so the prospect of three matches in seven days – yikes! – suddenly looks a wee bit more manageable.
5d. This has long been on the MLS “to-do” list. Well, check that; it’s long been on my MLS “to-do” list, which obviously means absolutely nothing. In fact, file it under “Would be nice, but it’s clearly not essential.” Here it is: MLS will move yet another notch forward when we don’t have some teams that have played 17 games (half the season) and some with just 11 games played. There is so much “sports instability” in such a thing, I don’t even know what to say. See for yourself.
5e. We’ll need time to figure out if Tuesday’s 8-for-8 MLS sweep of lower tier teams in 4th Round U.S. Open Cup play was more “trend” or “one-time hiccup.” (The schedule and results are here.) It’s worth watching, because this is the tournament’s signature round, when we almost always see significant upsets – the kind of upsets that makes so many of us love this tournament. (Do make note that all eight MLS clubs were playing at home, even if “at home” meant an alternate venue beyond their usual home ground.) We might not wait long to find out more; seven more MLS clubs are in action Wednesday against lower tier soccer clubs.
Steve Davis has covered Major League Soccer since is first kick in 1996. He writes on-line for World Soccer Talk and Fusion TV’s Soccergods, and co-hosts the weekly radio show/podcast ESPN Soccer Today on 103.3 FM in Dallas. Davis is also the radio play-by-play voice for FC Dallas on 100.7 FM.
