re: When does Emerson Hyndman get a serious look at the USMNT?

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Way too early to expect any player to make the 2018 roster, much less a 19-year old who is still in the development phase of his game.

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19 now means he is 22 in 2018. I sure hope he is at least on the 23 man roster in Russia.

I don't believe the chatter around holding guys back from the first team until they are 'ready'. Throw them in the fire and let's see what happens. Ideally, this is in some kind of friendly or a cake walk (if we ever really have those sans Cuba). If a player is so fragile upstairs that he cannot come back from a a couple poor first team performances when he wasn't ready, then he needs to grow up and learn to deal with adversity.

The best way to get better is by playing against people who are better than you. Malcolm Gladwell proved in statistically when he analyzed hockey teams - the younger players who play against older, more physically mature players for their entire lives had a higher likelihood of making it to the professional level. Soccer is no different.