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Recently, there has been a steady rise of American players exploding in the international football scene, and many pundits are tipping the United States Men’s National Team (USMNT) for a highly successful world cup campaign.
Having at least one prominent talent at every part of the pitch is a luxury that the USMNT has never had.
Let us have a look at some of the talents that will take the United States Men’s National Team to the next international level.
When we talk about The United States of America, sporting perspective franchises like the National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB) would be more cherished by the Americans.
However, it is no secret that the Major League Soccer (MLS) has gone through a bit of a Renaissance ever since David Beckham’s Move to the LA Galaxy in 2007 from Real Madrid.
The transfer itself was enough for Americans to pay interest to a sport that was very much neglected, given America’s amazing infrastructure and opportunities that are readily available to any up-and-coming athlete that wishes to go pro.
America has only qualified for a total of 10 World Cups up to date and their best finish in the competition was third in the 1930 World Cup Hosted by Uruguay.
In short, they have not been very good given the fact that the USMNT failed to even qualify for the world cup between 1950 and 1986.
There were only a handful of American players that played in Europe such as Brad Friedel, Tim Howard, Clint Dempsey, Landon Donavon and DaMarcus Beasley.
However, having only 5 players playing in Europe in different stages of their carrier’s was never going to be enough for the USMNT.
American talents are bursting across the European scene as players such as Weston Mckennie, who secured a loan deal with an option to buy from Schalke to Juventus in August 2020.
This makes Mckennie the first American to play for Juventus and the fifth to play in the Serie A and it is safe to say the distinguished scouts of Juventus did not sign the American Box to Box midfielder simply for the accolades.
Christian Pulisic being another noteworthy talent, who is the current face of the USMNT, having played in the Bundesliga with Dortmund Pulisic recently secured a deal with Chelsea FC and is relishing a challenging Premier League campaign ahead.
Giovanni Reyna of Borussia Dortmund, an eighteen-year-old talent, is the young attacking midfielder included in the Guardians “next generation 2019”.
Josh Sargent and Matthew Hoppe are two young American forwards who are paving their careers in the Bundesliga.
Although the 20-year-old Josh Sargent’s stats may not be favourable with 1 goal and 2 assists at Werder Bremen, the important point to note is that he is still in the fundamental stages of his career.
If he manages to keep himself on track, he may yet have a decent career moving forward and a very good asset for the USMNT.
Matthew Hoppe, aged 19, is perfecting his craft yet another forward for FC Schalke in the Bundesliga.
Hoppe’s name rose to prominence among the Schalke faithful by ending what can only be described as a catastrophic Bundesliga Landmark.
On the 9th of January 2021, Schalke was one game away from equalling the worst run in the German Bundesliga history having gone 30 games without a league win.
It was Matthew Hoppe’s hattrick against 1899 Hoffenheim that made him the unlikely hero of the night.
The young American forward currently has 5 goals in 7 appearances.
When listing down American youngsters coming up in the game one simply cannot miss out on Sergino Dest.
The young and dynamic American Fullback is 20 and recently secured a long-term contract with FC Barcelona after paying Ajax 21 million euros to secure his services.
Although the player is currently suffering from a lack of confidence, age is on his side and as showcased at Ajax, he has the potential to be a starter for the Blaugrana.
The Major League Soccer (MLS) is also doing a good job with producing talent that is being touted by top teams across Europe.
Only a week ago the Italian Giants, Juventus, were on the verge of signing FC Dallas’s Bryan Reynolds and now AS Roma seems to be the front runners in securing the signature of the 19-year-old Defender.
This goes to show that European teams are starting to realise that there are many gems to be discovered in the vastly untapped American market and are starting to take notice of these talents.
With the proper coaching set up and infrastructure come the year 2022, the USA may finally have a team that may change the very landscape of soccer.
Who knows? They might finally start calling the beautiful game for what it really is, Football. – The Vibes, January 26, 2021.
