re: USMNT Copa America 23 Man Roster Thread

That was definitely a yellow and FK by the box.

Omar's Snub

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But a funny thing happened on the way to Gonzalez’s funeral. He climbed out of the hearse.
Since joining Pachuca Gonzalez has never been better at 27. Never. He’s all but stamped out his defensive wanderlust. He is a port of call in the storm, using his central defensive partner as a ballast when the sheets of rain are thick. He has found recovery speed when he’s too far outside his walls. He rarely is these days, anyway.
It took him two weeks to earn a starting spot on one of Mexico’s strongest teams, less than two more to earn his first shutout and less than a month before scoring his first goal.

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It was in the center of all this that Gonzalez, peering over the backyard fence into Jurgen Klinsmann’s party, was not delivered an invitation. He did not make the Copa America roster.

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The discussion around the patent snubs of Klinsmann’s Copa America roster largely swirled around his decision to leave off Jordan Morris in favor of the maligned Chris Wondolowski, whose national team form never seems to mirror his heat in MLS. There are reasons for the publicity. Morris, who is on a goal-scoring tear of late, is the name of now. Gonzalez is the name of yesterday, his form shaded by another league and another set of teammates. Who knows if that form is reliable, you can almost hear Klinsmann ask himself.

In the end Klinsmann espouses a style of roster management that would not be unfamiliar to Henry Kissinger and his Realpolitik acolytes of the Cold War era. Their ultimate argument was that America had outgrown the high-minded moralism and optimism of Wilsonian foreign policy. The world was a harder place than that, and so we must meet it with the cold steel of reality. There is no room for lofty ideals when your political vision is teetering on anarchic dissolution.

Klinsmann may have rode in on waves of Wilsonian sentiment – we will take beautiful soccer to the masses because we can be a beacon for it – but he is a Cold War era politician. He plays three defensive midfielders against inferior opponents, starts defenders in the midfield, deploys a box-to-box midfielder as the creative spark, wants back-to-goal forward play out of every striker regardless of skill set, shuffles lineups based on defensive utility rather than creative impetus.

This is Realpolitik. He is talking to us through his deployments, telling us that he does not believe in high-mindedness when there are trenches to be dug. And perhaps that he does not believe the U.S. has to horses to play in the way he wants. Whatever that style may be.

His roster choices follow suit. He favors that which is known over all else, which can help explain why Gonzalez, whose form at Pachuca I don’t think Klinsmann trusts, was left off the roster essentially for Michael Orozco, who’s never been particularly good for the national team. But he scored at the Azteca and has been with Klinsmann for longer. The practicality of Realpolitik in action. With Klinsmann it trumps the idealism of an Omar Gonzalez reclamation project each and every day of the week.

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The entire team was shite in Guatemala

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He is a port of call in the storm, using his central defensive partner as a ballast when the sheets of rain are thick.

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Wow

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Klinsmann espouses a style of roster management that would not be unfamiliar to Henry Kissinger and his Realpolitik acolytes of the Cold War era.

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Wow

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Klinsmann may have rode in on waves of Wilsonian sentiment

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Wow

What the frick are you talking about Lichaj? Dude is a scrub, where is Brad Evans, or you know what, the wonder God Brad Davis. Still pissed Davis was snubbed from the WC best 11 they release at the end of the tournament.

Brad Davis' 57 minutes of action against Germany was the most inspiring thing I've ever witnessed as a sports fan.

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Enter Lichaj

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Sounds like it's Acosta who is joining now.

Come on down Alvarado!

I still contend that Zardes is an underappreciated player, and I will not be the least bit surprised if he starts a game or two in the CA.