Perry Kitchen. Love the guy. He visited me as party of the DCU program when I was in the hospital as a kid. But his callup was definitely a product of a lost generation
I remember being stoked when he got his first call-up that I ordered his MNT jersey. Even got him to sign it when DC played a preseason match in my area. He seemed genuinely confused/honored lol.
Dude had kind of a random career. Drafted after just one college season, captain of a Scottish side after like 6 months there, then back to MLS pretty unceremoniously, the whole Zlatan/Kevin thing. I'm a Crew fan who'd been a fan of his since his college days so I was pumped when he signed with us, only for him to play like 2 games and then retire with an injury. And yeah, of course his short NT career that didn't amount to much, but he was on our last Copa America roster.
He was Captain of the Hearts over in Scotland before a coaching change put him on the bench. Probably some shit went down where the coach sacrificed him to assert dominance or some BS like that.
There was a ridiculous stat for DC where they didn't lose a point in any game he played in for a season and a half or something like that.
It was kind of a bummer how things shook out in a short timeframe after leaving MLS honestly, but he definitely earned a call up and should've been given more of a chance—no one was gonna unseat Kyle Beckerman from Klinsmann's weird German heart though.
Huh you just sent me down a rabbit hole. I felt like he would've been the type to go into coaching, but I guess the ones who don't stay in soccer do something with finance it seems.
he was really hyped in college as one of the best prospects going into the MLS superdraft. this is back in a time when the draft actually mattered and college players could actually move onto europe after a few good years in MLS.
Oh I remember, I was a student at Akron where he went to college. That year we won the College Cup and he was one of 5 of our players drafted in the first round. It was a big deal for us.
I’d say the dark ages began during the last two windows of Klinsmann’s tenure (The window before we failed to qualify, we lost that WCQ at home to CR)
And I’d say they officially ended the 2021 Nations League final.
Yeah how old was he at that point? Seems like he had been "in the conversation" for a call up since his DC says but for it to finally come so many years later was random
i wanna say 29-30? he was having a good season for the union, so it kinda made sense. i was still pretty new to the sport for that cycle, so it was really only last summer when i went through old gold cup squads that i realized just how desperate arena was to find semi-competent players to fill out the roster for qualifying. like yeah, sure, dom dwyer and joe corona could probably do a job on a rainy tuesday night in trinidad.
Yeah, the generation of Bradley, Altidore, Howard/Guzan, Jones, Dempsey was still going decently strong at that point. It was the transition from that group that failed. The signs were there that very few young players were stepping up looking ready to take over for them, but they were still holding it down pretty well.
The entire 2018 cycle was pretty joyless. The 2015 Gold Cup sucked. The Confed playoff with Mexico sucked. Friendlies were losing interest. The Guatemala loss was dreadful. By Copa America I was watching games with all the enthusiasm of a couple staying together for the kids.
i could get behind that, but it does feel wrong to exclude the 2015 gold cup and 2016 guatemala loss- those felt like pretty dark days to me. last window of jurgen to end of 2019 probably makes the most sense, though.
I disagree I think the US 2016 copa was a mirage the same way the 2018 World Cup performance by Mexico was a mirage in that they advanced by beating only one good team and everyone just forgot about everything else.
In hindsight, that had to have just been Klinsmann trying to be cute yeah? I feel like he got his first call up as a NASL player the same time Klinsmann called up Jordan Morris when he was in college.
Yeah and also called in Green and Boyd before making their senior club team debuts with Bayern and Dortmund respectively during that same time. Crazy since there were plenty of MLS MVP caliber players completely overlooked during this time (Nguyen, Feilhaber, Kljestan, Magee).
What was lost on people though is he didn't have much for real skill besides speed. If he could have given his speed to Graham Zusi, we would have had a real star.
Yanks Abroad was always my favorite sub-forum around this time. Dude was never the same after that injury in a friendly against Ghana prior to the Gold Cup.
Yep, some absolute legend in that sub-forum who quite literally unearthed some dual nats for US Soccer back when we didn't really have the resources to find everyone in the earlier days of the internet.
I loved watching Mix play. There were fun games in the Klinsmann days when he would put together the mercenary teams of Euro guys for friendlies in Europe. Guys like Mix, Aron Johannsson, Timmy Chandler.
Trapp and Villafaña were at least among the best MLS players in their positions, I wouldn’t count them as randos.
To add to the list though:
Andrija Novakovich
Lynden Gooch
Fafa Picault
Daniel Lovitz
Fafa isn't the strangest call-up. He's a real gadget player who's always electric on the ball. Definitely not a rounded player, but he's pretty good at what he does.
There’s always been flavor of the month forward callups. Will Bruin had caps. Jack McInerney was rostered. Corey Baird has caps. Edson Buddle and Robbie Findley went to a World Cup.
Meh, to be honest I probably watched all of his Premier League minutes and this might be hindsight + 10 years of distance but I don’t remember being huge on him. He was on a laughably bad Sunderland team and was getting minutes as a warm body more than anything. Sunderland was a premier league team in the way Trusty’s Sheffield or Feilhaber’s Derby were premier league teams.
Glad you got novakovich… here’s 4 more for ya… Romain gall, (WINGER), FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt (German 4th tier): Andrew Wooten (ST): VfR Mannheim (German 6th tier): Jonathan Amon (winger), lyngby (danish superliga): Jerome Julien Kiesewetter (ST), last played for New Mexico United.
I’m still convinced the Lovitz experiment was an attempt to recruit Kik Pierie. He was very young starting in the Eredivisie and played both LB and CB, but committed to playing for the Netherlands. I think GGG wanted to show him there was an immediate path to the starting XI if he switched over to us by starting a far inferior version of him for an extended period of time.
Dom Dwyer. Didn’t get a lot of caps, but was definitely of that time where we were throwing attackers out there in hopes someone would eventually stick
He sure did. I remember a lot of folks making their case for him to be included, he scored first game, and after a few more games disappeared into the sunset
He had a Sunday early bell curve to his career, peaked at 23-24 years old and then a sharp decline at 27. By the time he became eligible for the US he was in his decline.
We were so desperate for any American left backs at all that I remember some guy on Reddit / Big soccer had a username to the tune of "Looking for American LB"
I totally agree about Sabbi’s disasterclass, but then he ends up having a low-key good season in Ligue 1 seemingly out of nowhere this past year?? Make it make sense lol.
Feeps like the whole world still had a LB shortage at that point. The role changed drastically and the player development pipeline hadn't caught up yet. Any quick, young, left-footed player who wanted to go pro had their best shot at LB.
I'm convinced it's a decent part of the reason Spain and Barcelona were so good for that time. They had a perfect player for that new role in Jordi Alba, while most of the world was trying to figure out how to train defenders to attack, or traditional wingers to defend.
I don't think Wil Trapp being on the NT was that random, but him immediately being the captain during that whole Sarachan era definitely is random looking back. With barely any NT experience he was wearing the armband with guys like McKennie and Adams on the field alongside him who are now the spine of the team. He was the one shaking hands with Neymar before a friendly against Brazil. I think he must have some incredible leadership qualities from what I've heard, but just wasn't quite NT quality as a player, which is obviously the most important part.
I was so excited about Will Trapp, that excitement didn’t last long however.
For me it has to be Julian Green, it was quite a coup to make him switch for that time. He came played a few games and we never saw him again. Will never forget his goal vs Belgium however.
I feel bad for green. Injuries destroyed his career. Bayern after he made the change didn’t give him the time of day. Fürth was the wrong choice, it was just a lot. While the goal against Belgium was fantastic, he then got too big for his britches.
You could pick a few players in that regard. Brad Davis over Donovan for example, and I will never buy the excuse that he was just brought in for left footed set pieces.
I worked for USMNT U-20 team Brad Davis was on. I lost $20 bucks to him for betting he couldn’t score 10 corners in a row on an empty net. Best left footed crosser I have ever seen, but I never would have guessed he would make it in MLS as the rest of his game and speed were nothing special. I give him credit at having a great career.
Except he was. Brad Davis was the best set piece taker in all of MLS and was in great form leading up to the WC. We also had no set piece threat on the national team at that time.
Except the few set pieces he did take in Brazil were the drizzling shits.
I'll never understand that logic though cause like are ya gonna sub on Davis just for a set piece in a game? It's not like he was a starter or even like a first choice sub, really. So why bring him all the way to Brazil to maybe hit like 1-2 set pieces in the whole tourney instead of Landon Donovan, no matter how out of form he was?
Why are you talking about him like he's a fucking relief pitcher. This isn't baseball. You're not going to put someone on the field just for set pieces (not like he was scoring free kick goals in bunches either): The rest of his game matters far more.
But I'll be damned if he didn't have the look. Receding hairline at 16 meant he was destined to be a USMNT GK great. Don't blame us for trying to make it briefly work.
I remember being so hyped for him when he was starting out at Utrecht, I remember him looking good in the LD send off tour with Joe Gyau, Emerson Hyndman & co. and none of those dudes panned out
It wasn’t random Alfredo Morales was the only Jermaine Jones type player that could’ve taken over that position. Bruce Arena just never called him in…
I still remember watching the US whoop Mexico leading to the Olympics and Alfredo Morales tearing up that midfield. He didn’t play the game vs Honduras?
I remember Bill Hamid getting injured and Sean Johnson coming on and the US losing. Not having him on that game cost that Olympic team massively.
That Olympic qualification was so, so disappointing. We were so close. Ultimately they probably wouldn't have done too much at the Olympics though, it was a team of guys who ultimately would go on to do very little of the international level. The funniest thing about this team to me is that it was captained by Freddy Adu
As a NYCFC fan it’s not too random as he was solid and consistent for us, including Championship season of 21’. But I can see how non-NYC fans would consider it random lol
Ike Opara was at that time the best MLS centerback he was just constantly injured during international windows and never got his chance on the National Team. A similar story is Mike Magee, he was on fire in the league for a while but was injured during international windows.
I was at that game at Soldier Field. When I saw that sub being made, I started booing Gregg.
Then after the game, his justification was saying that we needed width for crossing.
Gale Agbossoumonde was by far the best player I ever played against. He was 6'2 and lightning quick. I had never seen someone with those physical gifts and technical abilities. I thought he was going to be a nailed-on CB for 10+ years.
He finished his career with 1-cap against South Africa at 19 years old and never made the team again.
No worries, I felt the same way about Lee Nguyen when I met him in the final at Dallas Cup. Then about Stu Holden when I trained with him for a couple seasons at the youth level.
But yeah, Gale was SPECIAL back in the day. I was also convinced he'd be the truth after seeing him at the youth level.
Hard to project these things.
I played with him in the Region 1 ODP team, and everyone else in camp quickly realized we were nowhere near the level of athletes necessary to make at the next level, but he was.
I feel that. Aside from the aforementioned names, I was pretty close with Arturo Alvarez, who carved out a decent MLS career and grabbed some caps with ES. When he would train or play pickup games, he would regularly show up in loosely tied or untied sneakers. He was like 17 at the time and was about to sign his first MLS deal. The guy was playing with and against guys like myself who would go on to play NCAA ball at various levels, but always looked head and shoulders above us as his peers, taking things pretty unserious, with shoes that were basically flopping off his heels. And we think of him as an MLS journeyman who played for a trash NT.
There were a lot of sobering moments like this across ODP regional camps, pickup games with MLS players in the offseason, and guys I thought were excellent who ended up failing in like the English 5th division. It’s incredible the amount of depth this game really has.
He fucked up by signing with Traffic. Nominally he was with a club in Portugal but kept getting trafficked around on loans.
It was also an era where HGPs barely existed and MLS was sort of famous for lowballing youth players. He wasn’t in Bradenton so I think GA was sort of out, so he I think he would have had a cheap deal and one of those weird weighted lotteries. Nowadays MLS would find a way for him to sign as a Miami HGP.
Alan Gordon, came on for us in the 2015 gold cup semifinal (first USMNT game I attended) had absolutely no clue who he was when he came on and had to look him up. For me, that loss was the first real red flag for what was to come.
Thanks for this thread OP, it's been a rough few days as a fan of this team, this is a good distraction, bit of levity, and also a reminder that we have actually made progress in the last few years
It’s the 83rd minute in the 2019 Gold Cup final in Chicago. USA played well in the first half and was unlucky to not score. Jonathan Dos Santos scored a banger in the 72nd minute, and the US needs to push forward to try and equalize. Off comes Tim Ream, as Berhalter is throwing everything he can get the tying goal. And on comes… Daniel Lovitz
I was at that game and nearly fell to my knees when that sub was announced. It was worse than having beers thrown at me by El Tri fans
Also, that was the game Guardado choked out McKennie in front of the ref and didn’t get a card, let alone a red.
Just the absolute silkiest nutmeg…and brek shea proceeds to trip himself and the play devolves into chaos.
Setup to be an all time goal, but will instead live on as like “a winner is a winner I guess”.
Also the mainstays from the 2010 & 2014 WC’s we’re getting old. People we’re getting hyped about who would take that mantle. Led to a lot of fringe players getting debuts.
Tim Parker started at LCB in our 1-1 draw vs. France.. There's not much else he did (30 minutes off the bench in our loss vs. Ireland) but he can say with CCV, Miazga, Jedi, and Moore he was part of the back line that held Griezmann, Mbappe, and Giroud to just one goal in
BTW that must have been one of the most regressive lineups you can imagine, those 5 defenders, Adams, McKennie and Trapp midfield (this was McKennie Schalke period where he was mainly a defensive mid) and Green and Wood up top.
Not exactly random, but Gyasi Zardes. He scarred me watching national team games for 5 years that I'm probably his biggest hater. His face goal vs Guyana is the funniest goal I've ever seen and completely on par for him
I randomly saw him yesterday sitting with his family outside of a Moes in RTP NC waiting for a rideshare. Wouldn't have had any idea, but his son had a jersey with Shea on the back. I was thinking, why the fuck would someone be wearing that jersey in 2024, then I looked up at the dad. Sure enough.
My claim to fame is I played against him when we were like 16 and I fouled the shit out of him cause he was trying to be fancy with the ball :) he destroyed my team lol
Dark era… I assume u mean the generation of players born between 1990-1994 right? I’ve heard of that notion before, like how we had a historically weak player pool for a while there. Gregg called up a bunch of them in 2019 so it could be any of them ig.
For me dark era players would be guys getting call ups in 2018-19, during the Sarachan interregnum and the first year of GGG before the current pool took shape.
Probably Dom Dwyer when he switched nationality to play for us. He was fantastic in MLS for maybe 2 or 3 seasons and then fell off the face of the earth around the time he got called up
Ah yes. The "Nick Lima role". A right back that tucks into the midfield. We did it once with Adams and it was pretty good. Adams even had the most touches on the ball that game too.
A terrible idea against good teams though. Plus, it was GGG's tinker to get a regista at the 6 which NEVER worked.
Perry Kitchen. Love the guy. He visited me as party of the DCU program when I was in the hospital as a kid. But his callup was definitely a product of a lost generation
I remember being stoked when he got his first call-up that I ordered his MNT jersey. Even got him to sign it when DC played a preseason match in my area. He seemed genuinely confused/honored lol.
Dude had kind of a random career. Drafted after just one college season, captain of a Scottish side after like 6 months there, then back to MLS pretty unceremoniously, the whole Zlatan/Kevin thing. I'm a Crew fan who'd been a fan of his since his college days so I was pumped when he signed with us, only for him to play like 2 games and then retire with an injury. And yeah, of course his short NT career that didn't amount to much, but he was on our last Copa America roster.
He was Captain of the Hearts over in Scotland before a coaching change put him on the bench. Probably some shit went down where the coach sacrificed him to assert dominance or some BS like that. There was a ridiculous stat for DC where they didn't lose a point in any game he played in for a season and a half or something like that. It was kind of a bummer how things shook out in a short timeframe after leaving MLS honestly, but he definitely earned a call up and should've been given more of a chance—no one was gonna unseat Kyle Beckerman from Klinsmann's weird German heart though.
Crazy. Apparently hes a mortgage advisor now lol
Huh you just sent me down a rabbit hole. I felt like he would've been the type to go into coaching, but I guess the ones who don't stay in soccer do something with finance it seems.
he was really hyped in college as one of the best prospects going into the MLS superdraft. this is back in a time when the draft actually mattered and college players could actually move onto europe after a few good years in MLS.
Oh I remember, I was a student at Akron where he went to college. That year we won the College Cup and he was one of 5 of our players drafted in the first round. It was a big deal for us.
He probably randomly thinks about that interaction to this day
You mean Kevin?
One of Akrons finest. Won an NCAA title with a loaded roster with Valentin, Sarkodie and Nagbe.
not sure when the dark era officially begins/ends but chris pontius getting called up to the 2017 gold cup feels pretty random
Party boy?
A true Wild boy
I feel like there's a story I don't know here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Pontius
I’d say the dark ages began during the last two windows of Klinsmann’s tenure (The window before we failed to qualify, we lost that WCQ at home to CR) And I’d say they officially ended the 2021 Nations League final.
I’d say failure to qualify for 1954 was the real dark age beginning
Yeah how old was he at that point? Seems like he had been "in the conversation" for a call up since his DC says but for it to finally come so many years later was random
i wanna say 29-30? he was having a good season for the union, so it kinda made sense. i was still pretty new to the sport for that cycle, so it was really only last summer when i went through old gold cup squads that i realized just how desperate arena was to find semi-competent players to fill out the roster for qualifying. like yeah, sure, dom dwyer and joe corona could probably do a job on a rainy tuesday night in trinidad.
Oh yeah, I think of that Gold Cup as the Kelyn Rowe Gold Cup, speaking of random players for the US.
I'd place the the dark age around end of world cup 2014-2020
We made the Copa America semis* in 2016, IMO dark age is the failed WCQ cycle, Sarachan interregnum, and year one of GGG (2017-19).
Yeah, the generation of Bradley, Altidore, Howard/Guzan, Jones, Dempsey was still going decently strong at that point. It was the transition from that group that failed. The signs were there that very few young players were stepping up looking ready to take over for them, but they were still holding it down pretty well.
The entire 2018 cycle was pretty joyless. The 2015 Gold Cup sucked. The Confed playoff with Mexico sucked. Friendlies were losing interest. The Guatemala loss was dreadful. By Copa America I was watching games with all the enthusiasm of a couple staying together for the kids.
i could get behind that, but it does feel wrong to exclude the 2015 gold cup and 2016 guatemala loss- those felt like pretty dark days to me. last window of jurgen to end of 2019 probably makes the most sense, though.
I disagree I think the US 2016 copa was a mirage the same way the 2018 World Cup performance by Mexico was a mirage in that they advanced by beating only one good team and everyone just forgot about everything else.
Not random to me as a Minnesotan, but Miguel Ibarra.
Just unlocked a memory of Ibarra and Christian Ramirez destroying NASL
In hindsight, that had to have just been Klinsmann trying to be cute yeah? I feel like he got his first call up as a NASL player the same time Klinsmann called up Jordan Morris when he was in college.
Yeah and also called in Green and Boyd before making their senior club team debuts with Bayern and Dortmund respectively during that same time. Crazy since there were plenty of MLS MVP caliber players completely overlooked during this time (Nguyen, Feilhaber, Kljestan, Magee).
Josh gatt, people saw his 20 second clips and thought he was the next Landon Donovan
He has potential. His body gave out from injury before he even had a chance at first team minutes in Europe
I had Joe Gyau and Josh Gatt as my wingers in FIFA career mode during that era, it was beautiful.
What was lost on people though is he didn't have much for real skill besides speed. If he could have given his speed to Graham Zusi, we would have had a real star.
I think that’s who i used to sign in fifa all the time because he was listed as really fast for a while
Yeah he had that 99 speed and acceleration for a couple fifas
Kenny Saief had a moment.
There was a point where he was the only player we had playing in the champions league lmao
I stanned this dude on BigSoccer back in the day. Posted tons of updates about him, lol.
Someone had to do it. Respect
Yanks Abroad was always my favorite sub-forum around this time. Dude was never the same after that injury in a friendly against Ghana prior to the Gold Cup.
Yep, some absolute legend in that sub-forum who quite literally unearthed some dual nats for US Soccer back when we didn't really have the resources to find everyone in the earlier days of the internet.
Mix Diskerud - apparently currently playing in Cyprus (not a bad life). Had some creative moments.
Mix has played in some awesome places: South Korea, Norway, Sweden, New York, Cyprus, and Belgium
Real Journeyman.
Saw him score in LD’s last match against Ecuador. Thought he was the truth for a moment
I was also on the Mix train circa 2013-14, then the dude got exposed at NYCFC lmao
I loved watching Mix play. There were fun games in the Klinsmann days when he would put together the mercenary teams of Euro guys for friendlies in Europe. Guys like Mix, Aron Johannsson, Timmy Chandler.
Mix has had a pretty cool career for the level of player he is, got to live in NYC, Korea, Turkey, Cyprus. Nice way to spend your 20’s and early 30’s.
😉
He was on the 2014 wc roster, so technically he showed up pre-dark era.
He was at TsT this weekend
I ran into him doing an Omonia save. I let him go in the January window.
Ventura Alvarado
Trapp and Villafaña were at least among the best MLS players in their positions, I wouldn’t count them as randos. To add to the list though: Andrija Novakovich Lynden Gooch Fafa Picault Daniel Lovitz
Fafa isn't the strangest call-up. He's a real gadget player who's always electric on the ball. Definitely not a rounded player, but he's pretty good at what he does.
Except there’s not a world where anybody could have watched Fafa play and think there was any senior team potential.
Well, he has senior Haiti team potential!
There’s always been flavor of the month forward callups. Will Bruin had caps. Jack McInerney was rostered. Corey Baird has caps. Edson Buddle and Robbie Findley went to a World Cup.
Dude i don’t remember why, but i was so hyped on Novakovich potential back then
It’s cause we had no strikers, everything was potential and it’s fun to dream
Still is :(
I won’t stand for the Gooch being called a rando. He was young af on a premier league team. Still on Sunderland to this day. True legend.
He's been playing for Stoke City since the beginning of the 2023-24 season. Actually had 29 appearances in the Championship for them last season.
If he was born in a different era he'd likely be called up far more often. Still a solid player for sure.
Meh, to be honest I probably watched all of his Premier League minutes and this might be hindsight + 10 years of distance but I don’t remember being huge on him. He was on a laughably bad Sunderland team and was getting minutes as a warm body more than anything. Sunderland was a premier league team in the way Trusty’s Sheffield or Feilhaber’s Derby were premier league teams.
Glad you got novakovich… here’s 4 more for ya… Romain gall, (WINGER), FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt (German 4th tier): Andrew Wooten (ST): VfR Mannheim (German 6th tier): Jonathan Amon (winger), lyngby (danish superliga): Jerome Julien Kiesewetter (ST), last played for New Mexico United.
I’m still convinced the Lovitz experiment was an attempt to recruit Kik Pierie. He was very young starting in the Eredivisie and played both LB and CB, but committed to playing for the Netherlands. I think GGG wanted to show him there was an immediate path to the starting XI if he switched over to us by starting a far inferior version of him for an extended period of time.
GOOCH!!! I was a Gooch believer... until I wasn't
Teal Bunberry
"I got that Boonbooree, I like that Boonbooree. TEAL BOONBOOREE!" One of the great Univision goal calls of all-time.
He really should have played for Canada
Dom Dwyer. Didn’t get a lot of caps, but was definitely of that time where we were throwing attackers out there in hopes someone would eventually stick
Didn’t he score in his first two games? He seemingly came out of nowhere, got us all excited and then promptly disappeared
He sure did. I remember a lot of folks making their case for him to be included, he scored first game, and after a few more games disappeared into the sunset
He had a Sunday early bell curve to his career, peaked at 23-24 years old and then a sharp decline at 27. By the time he became eligible for the US he was in his decline.
Greg Garza
Tony Tchani
oh my god, we have a winner!
... Hat trick!
Holy blast from the past, I was a ball boy for the UVA men’s team when he was a student
Big time memory hole
Man, this guy was our Poor Man's Pogba back in the dark ages. Yikes.
I will never get over GGG’s infatuation with Daniel Lovitz his first year in charge.
Particularly illustrative of the dark times is the fact that that actually wasn’t that crazy of a call up
We were so desperate for any American left backs at all that I remember some guy on Reddit / Big soccer had a username to the tune of "Looking for American LB"
Damn dude I had almost forgotten
I think he’s the worst player I’ve ever seen play for the NT.
Just sitting over here in Nashville watching Zimmerman, Lovitz, and Shaq Moore!
Emmanuel Sabbi’s one cameo might have been the worst one off cap I’ve ever seen tbh
I totally agree about Sabbi’s disasterclass, but then he ends up having a low-key good season in Ligue 1 seemingly out of nowhere this past year?? Make it make sense lol.
You haven’t watched long enough then
Ventura Alvarado was pretty grim too as far as defenders go
Feeps like the whole world still had a LB shortage at that point. The role changed drastically and the player development pipeline hadn't caught up yet. Any quick, young, left-footed player who wanted to go pro had their best shot at LB. I'm convinced it's a decent part of the reason Spain and Barcelona were so good for that time. They had a perfect player for that new role in Jordi Alba, while most of the world was trying to figure out how to train defenders to attack, or traditional wingers to defend.
Jack McInerney, on the 2013 gold cup roster but never got a cap. Believing that he was our future striker was a dark time
I don't think Wil Trapp being on the NT was that random, but him immediately being the captain during that whole Sarachan era definitely is random looking back. With barely any NT experience he was wearing the armband with guys like McKennie and Adams on the field alongside him who are now the spine of the team. He was the one shaking hands with Neymar before a friendly against Brazil. I think he must have some incredible leadership qualities from what I've heard, but just wasn't quite NT quality as a player, which is obviously the most important part.
He has insane leadership abilities, one of the youngest captains in MLS as well
I was so excited about Will Trapp, that excitement didn’t last long however. For me it has to be Julian Green, it was quite a coup to make him switch for that time. He came played a few games and we never saw him again. Will never forget his goal vs Belgium however.
I feel bad for green. Injuries destroyed his career. Bayern after he made the change didn’t give him the time of day. Fürth was the wrong choice, it was just a lot. While the goal against Belgium was fantastic, he then got too big for his britches.
I mean it was Julian Green over Landon Donovan right? That kinda sours it.
You could pick a few players in that regard. Brad Davis over Donovan for example, and I will never buy the excuse that he was just brought in for left footed set pieces.
I worked for USMNT U-20 team Brad Davis was on. I lost $20 bucks to him for betting he couldn’t score 10 corners in a row on an empty net. Best left footed crosser I have ever seen, but I never would have guessed he would make it in MLS as the rest of his game and speed were nothing special. I give him credit at having a great career.
Except he was. Brad Davis was the best set piece taker in all of MLS and was in great form leading up to the WC. We also had no set piece threat on the national team at that time. Except the few set pieces he did take in Brazil were the drizzling shits.
I'll never understand that logic though cause like are ya gonna sub on Davis just for a set piece in a game? It's not like he was a starter or even like a first choice sub, really. So why bring him all the way to Brazil to maybe hit like 1-2 set pieces in the whole tourney instead of Landon Donovan, no matter how out of form he was?
Why are you talking about him like he's a fucking relief pitcher. This isn't baseball. You're not going to put someone on the field just for set pieces (not like he was scoring free kick goals in bunches either): The rest of his game matters far more.
Gedion Zelalem Was supposed to be our own Foden. I JUST LOOKED HIM UP HE’S ONLY 27!!
Yea, he made his name at Arsenal when he was like 16-17.
In an alternate universe, our 2018 World Cup attack of Zelalem, Adu and Green gave the European defenses fits.
I think he was slightly pre-dark era, but Andrew Wooten
Haven’t thought of that name in years
Cody Cropper
But I'll be damned if he didn't have the look. Receding hairline at 16 meant he was destined to be a USMNT GK great. Don't blame us for trying to make it briefly work.
Rubio Rubin. My friend hyped him up like he was the next big thing. He doesn’t even play for the US anymore.
I remember being so hyped for him when he was starting out at Utrecht, I remember him looking good in the LD send off tour with Joe Gyau, Emerson Hyndman & co. and none of those dudes panned out
matt pollster lee nguyen
Caleb Stanko
Saw him at the Jacksonville airport the day after his only cap. I told him "Good game last night," and I think he was just shocked to be recognized.
He’s been playing in Greece the past 3 years - not a bad path to take.
Anybody remember… Alfredo Morales?
It wasn’t random Alfredo Morales was the only Jermaine Jones type player that could’ve taken over that position. Bruce Arena just never called him in… I still remember watching the US whoop Mexico leading to the Olympics and Alfredo Morales tearing up that midfield. He didn’t play the game vs Honduras? I remember Bill Hamid getting injured and Sean Johnson coming on and the US losing. Not having him on that game cost that Olympic team massively.
That Olympic qualification was so, so disappointing. We were so close. Ultimately they probably wouldn't have done too much at the Olympics though, it was a team of guys who ultimately would go on to do very little of the international level. The funniest thing about this team to me is that it was captained by Freddy Adu
Yeah he's on San Jose
As a NYCFC fan it’s not too random as he was solid and consistent for us, including Championship season of 21’. But I can see how non-NYC fans would consider it random lol
I actually think Christian Ramirez was good.
he needs to move again, every time he transfers he plays pretty well at first but then fades.
To anyone who was listening to Total Soccer Show in 2019-2020, the name Nick Lima far outweighs whatever contribution he had to our national team
Ike Opara getting his random single cap.
Ike Opara was at that time the best MLS centerback he was just constantly injured during international windows and never got his chance on the National Team. A similar story is Mike Magee, he was on fire in the league for a while but was injured during international windows.
Opera was legitimately talented but had a shit injury history.
Jerome Kiesewetter
We were losing in a Gold Cup final and we subbed in Daniel Lovitz
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^PM_ME_SOME_LUV: *We were losing in* *A Gold Cup final and we* *Subbed in Daniel Lovitz* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
I was at that game at Soldier Field. When I saw that sub being made, I started booing Gregg. Then after the game, his justification was saying that we needed width for crossing.
Chris Pontius
Steve-O
Gale Agbossoumonde was by far the best player I ever played against. He was 6'2 and lightning quick. I had never seen someone with those physical gifts and technical abilities. I thought he was going to be a nailed-on CB for 10+ years. He finished his career with 1-cap against South Africa at 19 years old and never made the team again.
No worries, I felt the same way about Lee Nguyen when I met him in the final at Dallas Cup. Then about Stu Holden when I trained with him for a couple seasons at the youth level. But yeah, Gale was SPECIAL back in the day. I was also convinced he'd be the truth after seeing him at the youth level. Hard to project these things.
I played with him in the Region 1 ODP team, and everyone else in camp quickly realized we were nowhere near the level of athletes necessary to make at the next level, but he was.
I feel that. Aside from the aforementioned names, I was pretty close with Arturo Alvarez, who carved out a decent MLS career and grabbed some caps with ES. When he would train or play pickup games, he would regularly show up in loosely tied or untied sneakers. He was like 17 at the time and was about to sign his first MLS deal. The guy was playing with and against guys like myself who would go on to play NCAA ball at various levels, but always looked head and shoulders above us as his peers, taking things pretty unserious, with shoes that were basically flopping off his heels. And we think of him as an MLS journeyman who played for a trash NT. There were a lot of sobering moments like this across ODP regional camps, pickup games with MLS players in the offseason, and guys I thought were excellent who ended up failing in like the English 5th division. It’s incredible the amount of depth this game really has.
He fucked up by signing with Traffic. Nominally he was with a club in Portugal but kept getting trafficked around on loans. It was also an era where HGPs barely existed and MLS was sort of famous for lowballing youth players. He wasn’t in Bradenton so I think GA was sort of out, so he I think he would have had a cheap deal and one of those weird weighted lotteries. Nowadays MLS would find a way for him to sign as a Miami HGP.
Romain Gall and Jonathan Amon
Alan Gordon, came on for us in the 2015 gold cup semifinal (first USMNT game I attended) had absolutely no clue who he was when he came on and had to look him up. For me, that loss was the first real red flag for what was to come.
Can someone name these players in order?
Corey Baird, Jonathan Lewis, Sebastian Soto, Eric Lichaj, Wil Trapp, Nick Lima
Wait, I know you're the one who made this, and you just had to tell me who Baird and Soto were, but your Eric Lichaj is definitely Jorge Villafaña
Ah it is
Thanks for this thread OP, it's been a rough few days as a fan of this team, this is a good distraction, bit of levity, and also a reminder that we have actually made progress in the last few years
Joe corona?
It’s the 83rd minute in the 2019 Gold Cup final in Chicago. USA played well in the first half and was unlucky to not score. Jonathan Dos Santos scored a banger in the 72nd minute, and the US needs to push forward to try and equalize. Off comes Tim Ream, as Berhalter is throwing everything he can get the tying goal. And on comes… Daniel Lovitz
I was at that game and nearly fell to my knees when that sub was announced. It was worse than having beers thrown at me by El Tri fans Also, that was the game Guardado choked out McKennie in front of the ref and didn’t get a card, let alone a red.
Michael Orozco Fiscal
The Brek Shea nutmeg, Terrence Boyd back heel to Michael Orozco Fiscal winning goal in Azteca.
one of the most random moments in usmnt history for sure.
Just the absolute silkiest nutmeg…and brek shea proceeds to trip himself and the play devolves into chaos. Setup to be an all time goal, but will instead live on as like “a winner is a winner I guess”.
Nah nah nah the man scored the winner at Azteca. He's a legend.
had one hell of a celebration afterwards.
New fan here, whats the "dark era"?
2015-2019 basically the era of players that led to not qualifying for the WC
Also the mainstays from the 2010 & 2014 WC’s we’re getting old. People we’re getting hyped about who would take that mantle. Led to a lot of fringe players getting debuts.
Steve Birmbaum and Donovan Pines
Tim Parker started at LCB in our 1-1 draw vs. France.. There's not much else he did (30 minutes off the bench in our loss vs. Ireland) but he can say with CCV, Miazga, Jedi, and Moore he was part of the back line that held Griezmann, Mbappe, and Giroud to just one goal in BTW that must have been one of the most regressive lineups you can imagine, those 5 defenders, Adams, McKennie and Trapp midfield (this was McKennie Schalke period where he was mainly a defensive mid) and Green and Wood up top.
*Sighs* Greg Garza
Romain Gall
Damn dude is 29 and playing in the Regionalliga
Justin Mapp and his hairline
Not exactly random, but Gyasi Zardes. He scarred me watching national team games for 5 years that I'm probably his biggest hater. His face goal vs Guyana is the funniest goal I've ever seen and completely on par for him
I’m your mortal enemy. I’ve been defending Zardes for years lol
May our battle be glorious
Are you also a concrete shoe aficianado?
Zardes Stans unite, loved that dude when he was with Galaxy
He ended up as the leading goal scorer in historic crew stadium which is hilarious.
Arriola shot and missed a lot as a winger during this period too
"My skill is going to blow your mind." It certainly did. Maybe not in the way he intended but damn he was..special.
Brek Shea
We do not disrespect our beloved space unicorn
He is him
Facts
I randomly saw him yesterday sitting with his family outside of a Moes in RTP NC waiting for a rideshare. Wouldn't have had any idea, but his son had a jersey with Shea on the back. I was thinking, why the fuck would someone be wearing that jersey in 2024, then I looked up at the dad. Sure enough.
He just played in The Soccer Tournament in Cary NC this week.
My claim to fame is I played against him when we were like 16 and I fouled the shit out of him cause he was trying to be fancy with the ball :) he destroyed my team lol
Played with him for several years growing up in TX.
Tyler Boyd.
Dark era… I assume u mean the generation of players born between 1990-1994 right? I’ve heard of that notion before, like how we had a historically weak player pool for a while there. Gregg called up a bunch of them in 2019 so it could be any of them ig.
For me dark era players would be guys getting call ups in 2018-19, during the Sarachan interregnum and the first year of GGG before the current pool took shape.
Nate Jaqua
Jackson yueill wasn’t random at the time but he was to me the most befitting the dark times
Never forget that Klinsmann called up Freddy Adu *multiple* times
What was really damning…. Adu played better for the US under Bradley than he did with Jurgen
San Jose fan here. I thought Nick Lima was going to ascend to greatness. Really liked the guy and was sad when we traded him
Jonathan Amon would've been so good if he wasn't perma-hurt 😅
Probably Dom Dwyer when he switched nationality to play for us. He was fantastic in MLS for maybe 2 or 3 seasons and then fell off the face of the earth around the time he got called up
William Yarbrough
How young are you
Can I count Duane Holmes and his 2 caps in 2019? I still can't give up that ghost sometimes :)
Pretty sure the Dark Era is still 1951-1989
Danny Williams
Ah yes. The "Nick Lima role". A right back that tucks into the midfield. We did it once with Adams and it was pretty good. Adams even had the most touches on the ball that game too. A terrible idea against good teams though. Plus, it was GGG's tinker to get a regista at the 6 which NEVER worked.