wolf stansson

Johannsson is an excellent young striker, but he's not a starter at this World Cup unless Jurgen changes from his preferred 4-2-3-1 formation which relies on a physical striker. He'll be the super sub off the bench. Green is an excellent young winger but he's not a starter at this Cup either. So they are not significant upgrades now and they are not game-changing talents down the road. Well, they might be, but I don't think it'll be the exponential leap that the term implies. These dudes are not our Ronaldo or Messi, they could definitely be our Pedro (Green) or Thomas Mueller (Johannsson) which is a realistic next step in our evolution. What is exciting about these guys is that Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey are 32 and 31 respectively and Jozy Altidore isn't ready to shoulder the offensive load leading up to 2018 and probably never will be. Johannsson and Green are basically like-for-like replacements for those guys but with a head start at the club level. They're more refined, accomplished club players than those guys were at 22 and 18. Realistically, the players that they replace immediately are Brek Shea and Eddie Johnson. Compared to Donovan and Dempsey they aren't clear upgrades. Compared to Brek and the GAM, they definitely are. Green can be what Donovan would have been had he wanted to stick with Bayer Leverkusen instead of come to MLS. Johannsson could be what Dempsey would have been if he went pro at 18 in Europe rather than college. Do these factors mean they'll be better than Donovan and Dempsey? I don't know. I kind of doubt they'll be much better for the national team. It'd be hard for almost any player to accomplish that. I do think they'll be the players that show up on bigger teams in the Champions League that we've always wanted to see. Remember how the market for Clint wasn't what we expected when he went to Tottenham? It's because he was 29 and a tweener with no standard position. Johansson will make that big move when he's 23-25 and he has a set position. Donovan only played in the german 4th division and Bruce Arena brought him to Korea in 2002. People thought that was too soon. Julian Green has dominated the german 4th division at 18 and people are skeptical that he deserves a WC spot. Similar players, similar circumstances but we know Green isn't going to parlay a strong World Cup into a move to the San Jose Earthquakes and we know that Johannsson will probably have an opportunity to move to a club like Tottenham at a much younger age than Deuce. Like everything in US Soccer, they are an incremental, steady improvement and every step forward helps. We're going to see what Junior Flores can do at Dortmund and where Luis Gil moves in the next two years. In Russian 2018 (or England 2018 if Putin keeps acting crazy) we could have an attack with those 4 guys all under 26, all at big European clubs. Could.

http://www.mlssoccer.com/worldcup/2014/news/article/2014/03/18/its-official-jurgen-klinsmann-confirms-bayern-munichs-julian-green-chooses-u

First off, Julian Green's dad is awesome. Second, I will be attending Julian Green's first cap in person and it's against Mexico and I'm [expletive] thrilled. Feel like Jurgen would be an awesome college basketball coach. So doesn't the one time switch have to be filed and processed in order for him to play against Mexico :beg: ? Yeah. They filed ArJo's in like 13 days, so it can be done. Depends on when the paperwork started.

For those who don't really follow the prospects, Julian Green is basically a very similar player to Landon Donovan at age 18. Lightning fast, great passing vision and range, good finisher and can play either wing or as a support striker. He's like Landon if Landon were developed through the crucible of the best club in Europe.

Gedion Zelalem, you're next.

First off, Julian Green's dad is awesome. Second, I will be attending Julian Green's first cap in person and it's against Mexico and I'm [expletive] thrilled. Feel like Jurgen would be an awesome college basketball coach.

You guys think it would be a bad idea to have employers have to pay employees a premium salary to live and work in their shitty city even though they have much smaller pools of revenue to draw from in an industry where relative competitive balance is a significant driving force behind consumer interest?

Some rumblings that the US and others are pressuring FIFA to move the next two World Cups, justifiably so. US 2018, UK 2022 or vice-versa.

http://soccer.si.com/2014/03/18/bayern-munich-julian-green-usa-mexico-april-klinsmann/

This has been a fun episode of MLS DP theater. Michael Bradley was by far the most influential player, Defoe had two chances and clinically converts both of them while Deuce raged against the storm and Sigi's absurd first half game plan/Marco Pappa's shittiness leading to zero width and a midfield suffocated single-handed by the General, forcing Clint to tryi to do way too much, a la the early days of the Bex experiment. In the end, Sigi finally subbed Pappa, Neagle and Yedlin combined for some width on the right and Martins found Deuce for an angry goal, but too late. Once again Seattle better but Sigi waiting too long to get it right.

Kenny Cooper is fuckin huge.

After ignoring an open Deuce on goal twice, Martins finally found him for a goal that feels like it might have broke the dam. Deuce receiving the ball at his feet at the edge of the 18 is how you score lots of goals, Seattle.

This Jonathan Osorio dude for TFC is legit, Seattle is a mess. Dempsey shouldn't be dropping to collect the ball deep in their half, but that's what he's had to do. Alonso can tackle and run all day but he can't one touch combine. Especially around Bradley.

Dempsey just set up Defoe better than they ever combined with Tottenham.

Mike Bradley is bullying Evans & Alonso.

It's like they're paying tribute to the 20 year anniversary of the 1994 World Cup by designing the lamest jersey possible.

What the hell is Nike doing? Away jersey? It's a god damn rocket pop.

http://www.americansoccernow.com/articles/asn-morning-read-no-holden-back-again Sounds like he's gone. Pretty big ask to get him to turn down a call up and then start the citizenship process. I know he culturally identifies as American, but it'd be tough to blame him if he finalized the German commitment.

Stu Holden getting knee ligament surgery of some kind. Out 6-9 months.

His 2nd showed the amount of confidence he has right now. The only video I can find is of the entire leagues recap. http://youtu.be/f6Bvf88GeW4 NSC has both: http://www.noshortcorners.com/2014/03/please-louise-and-also-jack-get-back.html

Ozzie Alonso is Jermaine Jonesing when Evans has the ball. Way too aggressive pushing up. Needs to stay home and mark Zusi.

God I love MLS. I don't know when that happened, but it did. I think it started when I went to a sounders game.

HAPPY MLS DAY Seattle v KC on nbc sports after this lame EPL match. Also, Aron Johansson is apparently putting on a show today. Two goals at the half. Drew a red, couple near assists etc.

I'm glad the Ukrainians are going to win. I'm worried that Clint and others looked like dog [expletive], but really, other than Clint and Jones, none of the suck was from WC starters.

Game is back on.