"The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking."-- John Kenneth Galbraith
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Jurgen Klinsmann had some things to say about the state of the USMNT to the Washington Post's Steven Goff last week, about everything from the depth of the player pool to the education level of US fans. I had my say on that, as did many, many others.
That was for a different column. I try to stay away from Klinsmann in this particular column (what I internally think of as the "Sunday Night Wrap-up") because he's so divisive that it distracts from my actual job, which is watching and analyzing the game itself, then communicating with you, my wonderful and mostly very attractive readers. I can't do that as well if I'm parsing the words and meanings of mostly boilerplate quotes.
Yet try as I might to pretend otherwise, Klinsmann plays an outsized role in how the game in the US and subsequently in MLS is discussed.
With that said, I'm still not here to talk about Klinsmann. Let's talk about the league:
- “Players here in MLS, they do not have competition in their teams. It’s just the way it is. They are not putting national team players or [high-salary] designated players on the bench.”
Those are Klinsmann's words, and you can find them in the link I dumped above. They represent the conventional wisdom, and like all conventional wisdom, it deserves to be eyed skeptically and digested before you accept it as gospel.
In this instance I believe the conventional wisdom to be demonstrably untrue.
Mix Diskerud is a national team player, who plays his club ball for NYCFC and resides down near the bottom of the Eastern Conference. He has played 90 minutes just once in his last seven games, has come off the bench twice in that span, and has been a relatively early (and very necessary) substitute two more times (losses at RBNY and LA).
Sean Johnson, the 'keeper from the Chicago Fire, was added to Klinsmann's USMNT roster on Sunday for Tuesday's game against Brazil. Johnson has started all 20 of his games this year, but he was also pinned to the bench for five games in late spring when Frank Yallop preferred veteran Jon Busch. Johnson lost his job, then fought for it and eventually won it back.
And the coup de grace is the presence of Jozy Altidore, who is both a national team player and a high-salaried DP, and who was used as a sub by Toronto FC in each of his last two club appearances after a string of ineffective performances as a starter. Klinsmann, of course, both started Altidore and gave him the armband in Friday's 2-1 win over Peru -- the right move, as Jozy played one of his best all-around games in ages, bagging both goals and setting up at least one perfect chance.
Regardless, that makes three of the seven MLS representatives on the current US roster guys who have been benched as recently as last week. Of the others, Michael Bradley, Jermaine Jones and Omar Gonzalez are "put their name down in ink" starters for their teams when healthy, while Gyasi Zardes has solidified himself as a fulltime starter for LA over the last two years by mostly outplaying everybody around him.
This sort of selection pressure is not unique to American DPs. Tim Cahill was benched by Mike Petke last season, which ignited RBNY's second-half surge. That team's newest DP, Gonzalo Veron, has played 57 minutes in his four appearances thus far, and is being kept out of the starting lineup by the play of Mike Grella. Boniek Garcia, down in Houston, has played the full 90 just three times all season, and is properly thought of as a part-time starter at this point. The same should be said of his teammate, Erick "Cubo" Torres, or of Colorado's Juan Ramirez. Orlando City pair Carlos Rivas and Bryan Rochez, meanwhile, are purely bench options after having been beaten out by previously less well-regarded quantities. Matias Perez Garcia, in San Jose, is probably going to join them once Anibal Godoy and Marc Pelosi are back from international duty. Even Pedro Morales, who was a fringe MVP candidate last season, has been second choice at times in 2015.
Then there's the Union. Venezuelan international Fernando Aristeguieta has fallen to third on the center forward depth chart, and it looks increasingly like Maurice Edu will have to scrap with either youngster Richie Marquez or Steven Vitoria -- a high-priced import who'd previously lost his starting role this season -- to get back into the first XI.
Selection pressure works the other way as well. Just about the first thing that happened to Lee Nguyen when he came to MLS? He was cut by the Whitecaps, then had to play his way into a New England contract and onto the regular gameday roster before earning the starter's role. Nguyen finished third in MVP balloting last year, by the way, and did this on Saturday in the Revs' 3-0 destruction of Orlando City:
Another creative, attacking midfielder from Nguyen's cohort, Benny Feilhaber, had several dalliances with the bench before coming to life in late 2013 and has stomped a mudhole into opposing midfields ever since. He'll likely finish top three in MVP voting this year.
This type of "prove it!" ethos is normal throughout the league, as Kelyn Rowe and Juan Agudelo have shown playing alongside Nguyen. Rowe was beaten out earlier in the season, but seems to have won his starting job back over the last month and is one of the keys to New England's current run of form. Agudelo, meanwhile, lost his job to Charlie Davies and has started just once since the end of June, never playing more than 67 minutes in that timespan.
Of those Revs I've just named, only Agudelo appears to be anywhere on the USMNT radar.
Harry Shipp returned to the starting XI for Chicago this past weekend, drawing a PK and picking up an assist after being used as a substitute for three of his previous four games. He was benched, he sucked it up, and when he got his chance to come back and be a difference maker, he was.
Even so, the Fire lost 4-3 to Didier Drogba and the Montreal Impact, and guess what the Impact's youngsters are going to have to do? Beat out the likes of Drogba, Ignacio Piatti and Justin Mapp for playing time. They'll have to earn it; it won't be given.
Sebastian Lletget had to earn a starting role in LA and did; Luis Gil faced the same task with RSL and didn't. Veteran Finnish international Markus Halsti was brought to D.C. to push someone -- maybe Perry Kitchen, maybe Steve Birnbaum -- for a job, and 28 games into the season, Halsti has barely registered. Same for Icelandic international Kristinn Steindorsson and Austrian international Emanuel Pogatetz with Crew SC.
And let's all give it up for FC Dallas, who just smashed Columbus 3-0, shall we? Two months ago they imported Ezequiel Cirigliano, a former Argentina U-20 star, a Serie A veteran, and at just 23 years old, a player with both considerable experience and upside. Two months later, he's been unable to make either Victor Ulloa or Kellyn Acosta budge an inch.
Every player I mentioned above knows they're just a couple of bad performances away from the bench, incluing the DPs, the high-priced veterans, the local kids with loads of potential, and the internationals from US, Canada and parts beyond.
I'm not certain what purpose pretending otherwise serves.
A few more things to ponder...
6. Nguyen and Diego Fagundez stole the show for New England, and Rowe was nearly as good without getting into the boxscore. It's worth noting, though, that Scott Caldwell continues to add dimensions to his game, and is a guy who has repeatedly had to earn his job. It seems like he's been the starter forever, but Caldwell started only 23 games in 2013, and only 14 games in 2014. This year, he's gone from the bell in 26 of 27.
There's not a more underrated player in the league right now, save perhaps for Ulloa.
5. Drogba was brilliant in that Impact win. Of course you already know about the hat trick:
But make sure you pay special attention to his movement dropping back into midfield the next time you watch him play. He finds pockets of space to support in possession, but still hits seams in transition and is willing to do the donkey work of a true No. 9.
4. Want to see more good center forward play? Check out Conor Casey destroying San Jose's playoff dreams in Philly's 2-1 win at Avaya Stadium (called it, kind of). JJ Koval got a lesson, and how well he learns it will probably determine whether or not the Quakes see November, since it looks like Victor Bernardez will be out for a little bit.
3. Columbus crossed the ball 32 times in that loss to Dallas. The number of crosses is too damn high.
2. Let's go back to Montreal, where Mikey Stephens gave us our Face of the Week:
1. And finally, Seattle looked at times like the Seattle of earlier this season, with all three of Obafemi Martins, Clint Dempsey and Ozzie Alonso on the field from the start in Saturday's 2-1 win over Toronto FC. Dempsey's pass to spring Martins for the opener was vintage ObaDeuce, and is our Pass of the Week:
Unfortunately for the Sounders, they still looked incredibly vulnerable defensively, and particularly so on set pieces. They've won two in a row and three of four in spite of it, and mostly control their own destiny in the playoff push... but they're not out of the woods yet. A short-handed TFC team pushing you into the 80th minute in a must-win at CenturyLink looks like a win, but it also looks like a warning.
