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USMNT Player Pool Discussion

He and Noel Lemon?
Man, the NASL league office hated Noel. I reckon that’s an understatement bc they called Skelly the House of Horrors lol.

I never kept up with whatever happened to Noel but the Eggman (RIP Larry Egge) made sure he heard my band’s song “Victory in 83”

 
Man, the NASL league office hated Noel. I reckon that’s an understatement bc they called Skelly the House of Horrors lol.

I never kept up with whatever happened to Noel but the Eggman (RIP Larry Egge) made sure he heard my band’s song “Victory in 83”

You probably already know all this, but he promoted international games between his stints for the Nasl, and the Asl. Then he managed the Ft Lauderdale Strikers from the late 80's to around 95. Until he watched the end of that team/league, when the ASL folded. He died pretty young,(wasn't even 70) around 2010ish. Don't have a clue what he did from '95-2010. I imagine you could find something about it in the Tulsa World, if you took advantage of their $1 for six months promo.
 
That’s my bad. I got Noel and Terry Hennessy mixed up amidst too many cocktails last night. I believe Terry is still alive and living in Australia.

In other Roughneck news, I was told Victor and his wife Lynn moved down to Dallas to be closer to grandkids. I haven’t verified it but I’ll miss running into him once a year at Kilkenny’s and/or Dalessandro’s.
 
That’s my bad. I got Noel and Terry Hennessy mixed up amidst too many cocktails last night. I believe Terry is still alive and living in Australia.

In other Roughneck news, I was told Victor and his wife Lynn moved down to Dallas to be closer to grandkids. I haven’t verified it but I’ll miss running into him once a year at Kilkenny’s and/or Dalessandro’s.
Terry is still alive in Australia but has some health issues. His son Dean was at Memorial with me and on my club team, and we are connected on FB. So I see photos of Terry from time to time.
 
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Latest transfer rumor has Man City trying to get Antonee Robinson from Fulham. Fulham rejected the initial transfer bid which was somewhere around 20M pounds. This comes on the heels of Joao Cancelo effecting a transfer out from City to Bayern Munich (on a loan). Not sure City is the best place for Robinson because last I watched City play, Nathan Ake was the fullback on the left side and I don't think they're moving on from him. Not sure if Ake can play on the right but it would suck if Robinson was just being brought in to provide depth and sit on the bench
 
Latest transfer rumor has Man City trying to get Antonee Robinson from Fulham. Fulham rejected the initial transfer bid which was somewhere around 20M pounds. This comes on the heels of Joao Cancelo effecting a transfer out from City to Bayern Munich (on a loan). Not sure City is the best place for Robinson because last I watched City play, Nathan Ake was the fullback on the left side and I don't think they're moving on from him. Not sure if Ake can play on the right but it would suck if Robinson was just being brought in to provide depth and sit on the bench
I can’t imagine either Robinson or City actually thinking he would play for the club. It’s a sign on deal for sure.

City since ‘88, City til I die, btw.
 
Sunday morning at 0800 on USA Network, available to everyone, it's Leeds Utd. vs Nottingham Forest. Wes McKinnie makes his EPL debut for Leeds alongside Adams & Aaronson. Don't know if he'll start but will surely come off the bench. Leeds (& Jesse Marsch) must have 3 points & get on a roll ....or else. We'll see if Weston can help them do it.


Meanwhile, Gio Reyna comes off the bench for Dortmund yesterday and scores again. Ho Hum!
 
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Well, forgive me for touting the Leeds match this morning. Typical Leeds......very active, lots of chances and nobody scores. Rodrigo, their top scorer is hurt for a few more weeks, and guys like Sinisterre, Bamford, Harrison, Sommerville simply can't score. Aaronson too as it was noticeable he never made it off the bench.

Their back line & wingbacks suck badly also. They picked up a decent centerback, but guys like Ayling, Struik, Cooper, Koch are pathetic. By the end of summer, Jesse Marsch will be long gone, Tyler Adams to another EPL team, Wes Mckinnie will be wondering what the heck have I done and poor Aaronson and Leeds will be back in the Championship.
 
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Well, forgive me for touting the Leeds match this morning. Typical Leeds......very active, lots of chances and nobody scores. Rodrigo, their top scorer is hurt for a few more weeks, and guys like Sinisterre, Bamford, Harrison, Sommerville simply can't score. Aaronson too as it was noticeable he never made it off the bench.

Their back line & wingbacks suck badly also. They picked up a decent centerback, but guys like Ayling, Struik, Cooper, Koch are pathetic. By the end of summer, Jesse Marsch will be long gone, Tyler Adams to another EPL team, Wes Mckinnie will be wondering what the heck have I done and poor Aaronson and Leeds will be back in the Championship.
Your post is a little misleading for those that didn't watch the game. Leeds thoroughly dominated this game. They dominated possession, they had a lot of good to great scoring chances, and they actually played pretty solid defense. Forest's only goal comes off a free kick that got headed out but not week enough and falls to a Forest MF who absolutely crushes a half volley past Melier. Replay showed the Forest player who got fouled came from an offside position to play the ball. Since a goal was not scored directly as a result of him being offside, it's not reviewed.

The biggest difference for Forest in this match was Keylor Navas who is a top 5 in the world GK IMO. He's been sitting behind Donnaruma at PSG. Donnaruma rode his performance in the Euros a couple summers ago to a big move to PSG for a ton of $. He's been OK there but a lot of his mistakes are covered up by the fact that PSG has no one to rival it in Ligue 1. If PSG played in EPL or La Liga every week, Donnaruma's decision making and errors in distribution would be noticed a lot more. I think you'll see them start to struggle more in UCL play.


It's a great pickup for Forest as you could tell their backline was not so hesitant to move things forward fearing they get caught out of position. Navas made a number of tremendous saves and interventions in this game...even took a cleat to the side of the head when he came out to intercept a cross.

And you could tell Leeds played a little different than they normally do trying to focus on defending 1st and it actually looked much better from them today. They didn't press as recklessly as they normally do and it resulted in a lot more quality possession for them and their attacking 1/3 presence created some anxiety for Forest. Leeds' finishing was atrocious though ..reminiscent of a U12 Rec team.
 
And Jesse Marsch has been sacked by Leeds. As Twellman pointed out, Leeds spent $40M in the transfer window and he got 1 game. It will be interesting to see who Leeds goes to...and how he treats the American players. If Adams doesn't start in the 1st game under the new manager you know there is an anti-American bias there (in soccer terms). Twellman thinks Everton's result vs Arsenal under their new manager Sean Dyches hastened Leeds' move and coined it "a survival move". I think Everton will turn it around and survive relegation this season. Southampton and Bournemouth are likely headed out. I think the final relegation spot comes down to Wolves, Leicester City, and Leeds. Wolves have been pretty dreadful this season. They can't score goals (unless they're playing Liverpool). Leicester is an enigma. Uneven efforts and their GK is just bad, and Leeds have the talent to score goals and just isn't right now and when they do it comes at the expense of their defending which is already poor without sending extras forward into the attack.
 
Your post is a little misleading for those that didn't watch the game. Leeds thoroughly dominated this game
Two wins in the last 19 games?? And Leeds dominated many of those too. I've come to believe that Marsch's system, and his stubborn refusal to tweek it (a la Beer?halter) was a big part of the problem. That, and the lack of quality on the back line-although not his fault-his defenders he inherited just sucked.

So, as Bla just informed us, Jesse gets sacked. If not today, it would have happened in the next two weeks with 2 matches looming vs Man Utd. My guess is that the next guy will have problems too with this roster. While Leeds got a quality midfielder (McKinnie), a quality forward (but only age 19) and a centerback in this window, they still don't have the horses to escape relegation, as Bla suggests above. Kind of sad for Marsch and our boys, but Adams & McKinnie will eventually land on their feet. I'm not so sure about Aaronson. He's started 17 games since he last scored in the second week.
 
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It leaking from inside the business that he wasn’t listening to players and staff was the end. It was just a matter of time. Bringing in Chris Armas, another American, rather than a stabilizing English assistant, was his downfall. He should have found an English assistant, who wouldn’t be a credible caretaker, to join him. That would have bought him a few weeks and given him a chance to adjust tactics.

As it stands. If they stay up it wasn’t him. If they go down, it will be him.

It will be interesting how much he back pedals and saying he didn’t want to go to the USMNT. He would be a poor choice at this point, but whatever.

This whole thing reminds me of Caleb Porter. Good man manager of young players. Terrible manager of older players. Good record early on with some simple but unique tactics. Unwilling to adjust, grow, or bring in assistants who can adapt his concepts with other core competencies. Once he got figured out, the bluster and energy turned into comedy.

It’s hard to say I was wrong about him but I wanted to believe.

Makes you wonder if management decided to do this a long time ago, but wanted to wait until McKinnie was signed to do it.
 
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Man U. comes back to tie with 2 goals in the 2nd half & it ends 2-2. Aaronson comes off the bench and takes a free kick which he sends thru the wall & clanks it off the post. Wes McKinnie gets his first full 90 minutes & plays well. Leeds rarely get crosses into the box so McKinnie's head is not an issue, yet. Adams plays his usual excellent game.

One point does not help much in their relegation battle, with Man Utd coming up again this wk-end.
 
Man U. comes back to tie with 2 goals in the 2nd half & it ends 2-2. Aaronson comes off the bench and takes a free kick which he sends thru the wall & clanks it off the post. Wes McKinnie gets his first full 90 minutes & plays well. Leeds rarely get crosses into the box so McKinnie's head is not an issue, yet. Adams plays his usual excellent game.

One point does not help much in their relegation battle, with Man Utd coming up again this wk-end.
If one point keeps them level at 16 then it should be fine. They need to beat Everton in a couple of weeks to start feeling comfortable. The schedule is not very forgiving.
 
They need to beat Everton in a couple of weeks to start feeling comfortable. The schedule is not very forgiving.
That's for sure as Leeds gets thumped by Man U. this morning, 2-0, with 2 more called offsides. Wes M. gets his first start at Elland Road in front of the mostly insane Leeds fans. I'm sure that they will soon love the guy as he shows that quality in the midfield but is still settling into the EPL & Leeds. Him and Tyler Adams will soon be a top midfield duo in the Prem.

"tis a bit worrisome, however, that he has played in 3 matches & has 2 yellows.
 
That's for sure as Leeds gets thumped by Man U. this morning, 2-0, with 2 more called offsides. Wes M. gets his first start at Elland Road in front of the mostly insane Leeds fans. I'm sure that they will soon love the guy as he shows that quality in the midfield but is still settling into the EPL & Leeds. Him and Tyler Adams will soon be a top midfield duo in the Prem.

"tis a bit worrisome, however, that he has played in 3 matches & has 2 yellows.
FWIW, Man U have expressed interest in acquiring both.
 
FWIW, Man U have expressed interest in acquiring both.
ten Hag got a good look at both, twice, in the last 5 days. If Leeds get relegated, our boys could do a lot worse as the Red Devils are (temporarily) 2nd in the prem & hot. I mean Marcus Rashford is hot. Dude has been tearing up the EPL the last 3-4 weeks and scored twice in the two recent games vs Leeds.
 
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ten Hag got a good look at both, twice, in the last 5 days. If Leeds get relegated, our boys could do a lot worse as the Red Devils are (temporarily) 2nd in the prem & hot. I mean Marcus Rashford is hot. Dude has been tearing up the EPL the last 3-4 weeks and scored twice in the two recent games vs Leeds.
He had a nice WC.
 
As Leeds Utd. hovers on the cut line for relegation with another loss today 1-0, Aaronson, Adams & McKinnie need to pick up the pace. Adams will get picked up, although today he gets fouled and hops up to start a melee that results in a yellow card for him & McKinnie. Tyler might get a reputation as a hot-head although he's too skilled for some big club to pass him by. McKinnie made two quick interventions in front of his net to keep Leeds in the game but my goodness, 3 yc's in 4 games??
 
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As Leeds Utd. hovers on the cut line for relegation with another loss today 1-0, Aaronson, Adams & McKinnie need to pick up the pace. Adams will get picked up, although today he gets fouled and hops up to start a melee that results in a yellow card for him & McKinnie. Tyler might get a reputation as a hot-head although he's too skilled for some big club to pass him by. McKinnie made two quick interventions in front of his net to keep Leeds in the game but my goodness, 3 yc's in 4 games??
U17 boys won 7 nil over The DR in CONCACAF qualifying for U17 WC. Worth the time unlike most of these matches. Keyrole Figueroa scored twice, the Liverpool youth product. His Dad played for Honduras and only recently retired as I recall. Adrian Gill who signed for Barca recently had a nice assist. There’s maybe 6 kids on this team that could play meaningful minutes in MLS right now, including the 1 shirt Adam Beaudry who has already trained with the Rapids first team this preseason and with the reserves last fall. Keep an eye on the 8, Pedro Soma. He’s looked impressive after I’ve seen three matches. Could just be a streak, but he’s in some random second division Spanish club. But he’s headed somewhere big real soon.

Gonzalo Segares is the coach. He played for the Fire and Costa Rica. He’s coached the core as U15 and has moved up with them. Looking at their movement off the ball, these kids are light years ahead of most American youth programs. You wonder about his role in that.
 
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And if you like the hype train and want to speculate on somewhat obscure American players before your friends mention them, check out Austin Trusty. Signed for Arsenal from the Union. Loaned to Birmingham and has really stood out. He will be in the conversation soon at age 24.
 
As Leeds Utd. hovers on the cut line for relegation with another loss today 1-0, Aaronson, Adams & McKinnie need to pick up the pace. Adams will get picked up, although today he gets fouled and hops up to start a melee that results in a yellow card for him & McKinnie. Tyler might get a reputation as a hot-head although he's too skilled for some big club to pass him by. McKinnie made two quick interventions in front of his net to keep Leeds in the game but my goodness, 3 yc's in 4 games??
Bro, Adams made a good play to win the ball and the Everton goon came over, cracked him in the back and while Adams is on the ground, the dude kicks him. McKennie actually didn't deserve a card and the Everton player that came in gave him a 2 handed shove to the back (I initially thought he took a swing at McKennie). The ref in that game lost control early on...and as has been typical Leeds, they came out on fire in the 1st half but couldn't finish a number of chances they created and they have a really noticeable drop off in intensity and focus about minute 60.
 
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Adams got his money's worth for that yellow. In the scrum just across the touch line, Tyler runs a guy into the short wall before the stands. Ouch! Had to hurt!
 
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Adams got his money's worth for that yellow. In the scrum just across the touch line, Tyler runs a guy into the short wall before the stands. Ouch! Had to hurt!
The pitches in EPL are usually phenomenal (with the exception of Brentford which is usually chewed up because it's also used for Brentford's rugby side...which has been rightly criticized by the talking heads). My one problem is the sudden drop off on almost every pitch once you get a yard outside the touchline/goal line. Some of them are so steep you might be able ski jump off them if they were a little longer. Not only that but they usually turf them or in this case, it's asphalt and because of the constant moist air in England, those areas are slick as snot (one of my favorite Oklahoma euphemisms). I am shocked we haven't seen more significant injuries because of these areas.
 
The pitches in EPL are usually phenomenal (with the exception of Brentford which is usually chewed up because it's also used for Brentford's rugby side...which has been rightly criticized by the talking heads). My one problem is the sudden drop off on almost every pitch once you get a yard outside the touchline/goal line. Some of them are so steep you might be able ski jump off them if they were a little longer. Not only that but they usually turf them or in this case, it's asphalt and because of the constant moist air in England, those areas are slick as snot (one of my favorite Oklahoma euphemisms). I am shocked we haven't seen more significant injuries because of these areas.
Most of those stadiums are historic grounds and the size of the field has been extended over the years as FIFA rules have loosened up.
 
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Most of those stadiums are historic grounds and the size of the field has been extended over the years as FIFA rules have loosened up.
Understood but then take a different approach to the sides. Maybe put pads on the grandstand walls and keep natural grass vs the shred your legs materials (concrete, fake grass)
 
When you consider Skelly has been lowered as far as it can go and we have the most narrow sideline on the visitor side in America, I aint throwing stones.
 
When you consider Skelly has been lowered as far as it can go and we have the most narrow sideline on the visitor side in America, I aint throwing stones.
Different sports and different sidelines. How often do you see players, even on the narrowest of sidelines, end up in the wall in college or pro football? And mind you, I witnessed Jeff Brohm knocking himself cold at TU in 1993 trying to hurdle the sideline bench, catching his toe and hitting head first into the old concrete wall at Skelly. And any of these stadiums could remedy these issues by removing a row or two of seats.
 
There’s maybe 6 kids on this team that could play meaningful minutes in MLS right now, including the 1 shirt Adam Beaudry who has already trained with
I watched the US vs Guatemala last night, USA 5-3 winners. A couple of guys stood out for me. Kid named David Vasquez had a couple assists and made some nice crosses and accurate passes. Kid named Figeurora can score & is making a run for the Golden Boot. Sign him up for the Sr. team, HA!. I'm glad these youngsters have qualified for the U-17 WC and they just might win that concacaf qualifying tourney.
 
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