Preston Zimmerman is a 23 year old American playing with 3rd division German club SV Darmstadt 98. He also hates that Jurgen Klinsmann has used dual nationals. Based on a few tweets he put up it seems that he believes only “real americans”desere to play for the USA. It’s really not even worth mentioning, but it got me all hyped up so I figured I’d post it.
“I thought it would be cool getting Klinsmann as US National team coach, but I think it’s actually worse than when Bradley was coach….
“Requirements to get on US National team under Klinsmann: Be a fake American, be born outside the US, have one US distant relative
“I see the team is calling in guys who are really germans who know they’ve got no chance of playing for germany so they’ll settle with the US
“Thats embarrassing when a good friend of mine says he met one of the guys @ the airport & he couldnt reply back in English as US Natl player
“I try my hardest not to tweet US soccer stuff but there are some stuff out there that drive me crazy
“Don’t mistake any of my tweets for jealousy, I never expect to be called in or involved with anything and it doesn’t hurt my feelings
“I would just like to see true, real Americans who would live and die for this country representing our country
“But when the olympic team holds mini-camps in Germany with all ‘european players’ then something is wrong
“The kids in college are just as good, if not better, than some of the kids from the reserve teams getting invited to camp
“But the college kids don’t speak German and they don’t have ties outside the US so they don’t qualify for the US under Klinsmann
“Am I the only one here who thinks this or are there others? People have to speak up when they don’t like what’s going on
“If Klinsmann was winning and very successful with his approach then my words would carry no weight, but I don’t see any success
“squeaking out 1-0 wins against CONCACAF villages isn’t success…..
“People can bash me for whatever reason, but I hate seeing my country’s national team being misused and disrespected
“I know plenty of guys who are in the MLS and know what it’s like to play for their country who deserve a look for the US team
“I hope the US team wins and dominates just as much as anybody else because it’s my country and I want my country to be #1 and dominate
“Don’t want anybody to take my tweets negatively or as criticism to make somebody look bad, I just have passion and interest in the US team”
Just to note a few things, Tim Howard is Hungarian, Bocanegra’s Mexican, Onyewu’s Nigerian, Spector’s German, Klejstan is Bosnian, Edu’s Nigerian,Jozy’s Haitian, Stu Holden is Scottish,Landon’s Canadian and the list goes on and on. Global soccer is all about dual nationals, and if anyone should be able to understand that it should be the USA. They had these same arguments in Europe years ago and it was nothing but pure racism. We don’t need to go down that path.
Hating Giusseppi Rossi because he is arguably the best American player ever, and would fill is different from hating all dual-nationals.
Complaining about Neven Subotoc because he left the USa over a somewhat petty fight with Thomas Rongen is different.
Calling a military father a distant relative is a moronic stretch.And saying that only those willing to fight and die for the USA should be able to play really sounds pretty dumb when you recognize the military lineage.
Most importantly though, here’s a quote from Danny Williams on USsoccer.com. Think about it the next time anyone tries to say who is and isn’t an American. Their all citizens, they’re all eligible.
ussoccer.com: Have you watched U.S. National Team games in the past?
DW: “Not many because they don’t show that many games in Germany, but I always watch in the World Cup. I will never forget the game against Germany in the 2002 World Cup in the quarterfinal. This was the time that I started loving the USA. I watched the game, and normally I would support Germany. After the U.S. lost that match, I started crying. My dad asked what was going on. I didn’t know what to say, but I wanted the U.S. to win.”
…and I don’t just mean he could go to any team he wants and manage to get a contract. Although Arsenal, Chelsea and Everton are all apparently calling and more calls are surely expected no one seems to know where the kid plays. Klinsmann and FC Dallas seem to call him a leftwing or a striker most often, but some people are calling him a center-back, and most people apparently view him as a centre-half. Although Shea has played other positions(and was quite the prospect at center-back considering his size and speed) I’d be shocked to see him end up playing anywhere but on the wing or up top.
Wenger reinforces that its just a training period and not a trial. Not surprising but worth mentioning so that people don’t run away with the idea. Also pushing the idea that America and Asia will have a huge effect on the future of the sport. The growth of the game in these regions really will have a huge effect on the world game. I know that I want to believe it myself so I’m a bit biased but it really does make perfect sense that North America, specifically the USA, and Asia will both continue to grow and really diversify the top level of the game in very interesting ways. Its nice to hear someone like Wenger supporting that.
Remember about a year ago when Onyewu and Ibrahimovic got in a fight on the AC Milan training grounds? Back when everyone was beginning to realize that they didn’t really like Zlatan all that much and he was picking fights with everyone on the team? According to Zlatan that fight was a bit more intense than it was originally reported. Zlatan mentioned this in his autobiography which apparently he published recently. Ibrahimovic is a black-belt in Tae-Kwon-Do. Despite this him and Oguchi Onyewu were apparently battling to the death at training one day.
If you were still waiting on having an American be considered the best player on one of the most respected teams in a top European League, wait no longer. Carlos Bocanegra was named player of the month for October by RangersMedia. He won by a pretty substantial margin picking up 55% of the vote with second being Steven Naismith with 17%
Most interesting though is this bit “to focus his defensive excellence alone is to ignore the ease at which Bocanegra distributes the ball from the back…. This was illustrated none better than a fortnight ago, when it was Bocanegra’s pinpoint 45 yard pass that allowed Jelavic to score in a 2-0 win against Hearts at Tynecastle.” I can’t say I’ve ever thought of Bocanegra as a great distributor, (and still don’t) but he is a bit better than we sometimes give him credit for.
Of course MLS is a better league than the SPL. I honestly had serious trouble deciding whether or not to call the SPL a “top European League,” but I figured its still the best in Scotland so it counts.
Either way good for Carlos.
Two more players will be joining Brek Shea on a flight to one of the biggest teams in England. Chicago’s Sean Johnson will be on trial with Manchester United, while Marc Pelosi will be joining Arsenal. So Shea is training, Johnson’s on trial since De Gea hasn’t been super effective in goal, and Pelosi, at 17, has signed on to join the Arsenal.
USA U-17 Captain Marc Pelosi has signed with Liverpool and will be joining their youth team. He’ll join Vilyan Bijev, who has been loaned to Dusseldorf in the 2. Bundesliga, in Liverpools youth ranks. My only worry when it comes to players going to big name clubs like these is that they won’t get very much playing time. Pelosi would likely be loaned out which would allow him more opportunity, but Bijev’s loan deal has led him to playing in exactly zero games all season. We’ll see how this turns out for Pelosi.
In part because it’s apparently what everyone wants to hear I’ll let you know whats going on with Brek Shea. The Big Rooster is planning on training with Arsenal for a bit before coming back to FC Dallas in December. He isn’t playing for Arsenal. He isn’t on loan to Arsenal. He isn’t even on trial with Arsenal. He’s just training with them. Still very exciting but a lot of people don’t understand that those are different things. Of course being there means he is under their noses and is therefore more likely to be picked up by them, but they’re also not taking a truly serious look at him. I would love to see Shea go to a team like Arsenal and get some real playing time, but as we saw with Onyewu at Milan, it’s all about how much you’re actually playing. i would much rather Shea stay here and start than sit on Arsenal’s bench. Let’s not forgot the names Theo Walcott and Gervinho before we start suggesting Shea would get real time on the wings at Arsenal, they may be having a relatively down year, but there wings are still strong. I don’t expect to see Shea back at Dallas next year, but I also can’t imagine he’ll waste his time with a team like Arsenal that will bury him on the bench. At least for his own good I hope not.
Not sure why I would’ve gotten this, because I generally get Philadelphia related things from MLS, maybe they’re just throwing a really wide net…
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Not sure exactly why the league would want to go to Baltimore, considering how much of a crowd DC draws, but apparently its an option. Of course they’ve said they want to expand but also want to sit at 20 for a bit before getting too much bigger. Does this mean the Cosmo’s aren’t as guaranteed as we thought?
Anyway assuming that they’d pick up the NASL team of any city that had one as MLS has tended to do(no complaints from me just pointing out a trend. Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders are much nicer than the Tampa Bay Rowdies though), the team will probably represent the Baltimore Bays who existed from 67-69 or the Baltimore Comets who existed from 74-75. Neither of those team’s left a huge mark on the league, but here’s what they looked like in case its any hint at what an MLS team might look like in Baltimore.
Baltimore Comets
The red’s remind me a lot of Aston Villa jerseys but I like the blue one’s a lot. Also the logo ties in everything NASL added to soccer logo’s, both soccer balls and fire.
Baltimore Bays
This team was around a little longer so I thought it might be a bit more likely to show up again, but its really only three years. Also the look wasn’t quite as cool, not that that really matters to MLS.
First I’m totally confused by the fact that Baltimore is being considered for the league, but if they are they do have a historical set of options. They could do either of these without much complaint from me, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a third option show up from here too. Neither team has quite the ties that some NASL teams created in their time.
Philadelphia sports always tend to have a strong rivalry with DC and New York, but there’s no reason other than conference divisions that we wouldn’t end up with a real rivalry with a team from Baltimore. If they do show up in a few years, it’d definitely be something we might want to follow.
Image by Albumen via Flickr
God, if my primary goal here was to have a high page-view count all I would need to do is write endless articles on this kid. I swear articles on Brek Shea are the only thing anyone wants. I love the kid as much as the next guy (although maybe not as much as the Germericans Chandler, Johnson and Williams. All of whom I expect to start come qualifying) but really there are other players on the team. I’ll get a thousand hits for a story on Brek Shea from months ago. It makes no sense
The Big Rooster has recently been rumored to go to just about every team in Europe. Apparently “his agent” has been spreading teh idea that Brek Shea has offers from each of the big five clubs in the EPL. Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal all apparently want to bring him in.
In the interest of not forcing you to read the drivel that I write here is a quick summation of reasons why Brek Shea should not go to any of these teams no matter how much money they offer him. Ashley Young, Juan Mata, Andrei Arshavin, Samir Nasri, and Stewart Downing. 4 of these players have just been added to their respective teams. Four of these players are under 27; two are under 24. The fifth is Andrei Arshavin. These are the left wings of the big five clubs in the EPL. Exactly how many minutes do we expect Brek Shea to get behind these players?
Jozy went to Villareal. It was celebrated as a young American player getting a great chance on a top team in a top league. He sat on the bench for a few years with little hope for long term success.
Freddy Adu went to Benfica. It was celebrated as a young American player getting a great chance on a top team in a top league. He sat on the bench for a few years and got loaned around with little hope for long term success.
I’m sure there are other examples but these are the two most prominent in my mind. If Foghorn is going to sign with one of these teams he had better hope he gets a good loan deal and doesn’t get stuck on the bench.
Brek was on trial with Bolton a few years ago, and a few years ago that was probably a bit too high for him still. Right now he could go in and play, maybe not start but at least compete for a starting spot, in a mid-table European team. Bolton is about the level at which he would compete now. Playing for a prestigious club is nothing if you’re not playing.
He would never touch the field for a top European club so whats the point in him going there? Yea it’s kind of cool to say that an American plays for United or Chelsea or Arsenal( I have lower opinions of Liverpool and City, but I guess that’d be cool to some.) Tim Howard stopped any interest I had in that. He went to United and looked not so good. He may not have been ready to succeed at that level. he’s gone to Everton and is widely considered one of the best keepers in the world. If Brek Shea signed with United his chances of actually playing a meaningful game for them would be about as good as Clint Dempsey’s chances of playing a meaningful game. Yes its possible some pieces could move around and there could be a space made available, but not likely.
I don’t expect Brek Shea to come back to MLS next season. I fully expect him to be playing in Europe a year from now. I hope very much that he is actually playing though and not playing around while buried on a top teams bench.
Image via Wikipedia
If the USA is known for producing anything on the field it is top quality goalkeepers. We have a short history of skill, longevity and pure numbers that is far ahead of anything else we’ve been able to do on the soccer field. Obviously there is an entrenched #1 so I’m focusing a bit on the #2 or the #2#1. Whatever. The battle to backup/replace Tim Howard. Listed below in no particular order, but at the end that is a particular order.
Tim Howard-Everton 32
Obviously the USA number one for the forseeable future. He could easily start for the nats until 2018. Great everything. Again Tim Howard is the US goalkeeper of the future. There is no reason to question this, I could have easily skipped this position entirely and a few friends suggested I do, but I’d like to take a look at everyone. The number two spot is far from locked up.
Brad Guzan -Aston Villa 27
He was, up until recently pretty entrenched at the second spot, but he hasn’t been called up by Jurgen yet and he’s not starting for Aston Villa sitting on the bench behind the Irish Shay Given. Not sure what he’s got going on much anymore but he was expected to be Timmy’s replacement at one point. I’m not sure he’s quite there anymore.
Marcus Hahnemann -Everton 39
Looks a bit less likely to come back into the team with every passing day. He’s still playing at a high level but he’s a backup for club, and at 39 no more than a back-up for country any time soon.
Brad Friedel-Tottenham 40
Friedel is another player who would’ve been a hero for the USA if not for Timmy Howard and Kasey Keller holding out the spot for so long. He’s still holding is own, starting for Spurs. He’d be as good a back-up as we could ask for but he’s not much of a replacement for Timmy Howard because of his age.
Bill Hamid-D.C. United 20
Here’s where the players start being less ready to start now, but more prospective replacements. Bill Hamid is really the prime option Jurgen has given us so far as a possible replacement. He’s called a different set for the next few friendly’s so maybe he’ll be cycling people in, but Hamid also has Howard’s support behind him.
bpmangan
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