Who's the best player on Dortmond's Bundesliga team? Is it Marco Reus, Mario Goetze, etc...? No , the simple but surprising answer is C. Pulisic. This kid just came back from injury, played 30 mins. in a group stage champions league match & scores the winning goal. Next out(today), all he does is score the tieing goal late, shorthanded against Hoffenheim. All this game, he was the best player on the pitch-as noted by the match commentators & everyone else who saw it.
Let's hope the new coach surrounds this kid with the best available players with INTERNATIONAL experience. BTW: who is the next US coach gonna be?
Pulisic is the best talent in the US. Weston McKennie (sp?) was getting significant playing time for Schalke in the Bundesliga as well and was producing, much like Weah is getting time and producing for PSG. There are tons of young US players getting time in top Euro leagues and that's where you need to build from. The US is still lacking quality center backs because in the US, our youth leagues are built on kids who want to score goals. Kids are not being taught that the center back is one of, if not the most important position on the field. My son, who is a goalkeeper, knows this full well.
There are a number of problems with US youth soccer, the coaches, and the approach. So much time in practice is spent on teaching individual technical skill to gain an understanding of which kid is going to be able to dribble circles around the kids on the other teams so he can score a lot of goals. These kids don't learn how to pass correctly, they don't learn how to receive a pass correctly, they aren't being taught movement off the ball. My son's team struggles when the forwards get into hero mode...which is pretty much the 2nd half of every game. When the have it in their heads to pass and move, they can be quite good. But the tactical side of the game is taking a back seat to the technical until these kids are 13 or 14 years old. It's the wrong approach.
My son had a coach with a international background last year. He played as a GK for the Jamaican national team, played in a World Cup, played in MLS for 10+ years, won Golden Glove awards in MLS, etc. The first practice he was in charge of, they passed the ball for 25 minutes. How to move away from a defender, open up, receive the ball, and pass it to the next person. The next 30 minutes was spent on defensive back line shape. This was the first time my son was included as a viable option for passing the ball to in order to relieve pressure. My son got reprimanded if he just played kickball with it if he had time to take a touch and make a pass out. This was every practice for an entire year...the drills got more complex as the boys perfected and grasped the initial concepts. They built their attack from the back out. The coach was also honest with parents about development being the goal vs results. Thing is, as the boys continued to develop and learn the game, the results came naturally. This team was extremely stingy in conceded goals and by the end of the year they could play their way out of a phone booth when in their own zone. They scored a ton of goals on counter attacks not because they kicked the ball over the top, but because they played the ball out through a series of passes until they saw the opening.
Not enough US youth programs are teaching their kids this way. It always starts with offense in the US when it really should be the other way around. What did Liverpool do last season that allowed them to compete for a UEFA Champions League title? They went out and got Van Dijk to shore up the back line. It all starts with that center back position. USMNT has to find that player and go from there.
