Connect with us

Uncategorized

A Breakdown of the Youthful U.S. Men’s National Team Roster to Face Bolivia

Published

on

Two words jump out when taking a look at the United States Men’s National Team that interim Head Coach Dave Sarachan called up: foreign and youth. The average age is just 22 years young — only two players born prior to the 1990s — and Christian Pulisic’s 20 caps are tied with Joe Corona for the most on the 22-man roster.

Out of the 22 players called up, just two play in Major League Soccer: Alex Bono and Walker Zimmerman. The majority of the players (8) come from English club teams, while Germany, Mexico, Belgium, Denmark, France, Portugal, Canada, and the U.S. are also represented.

Three players — Alejandro Guido, Matthew Olosunde, and Keaton Parks — will be participating in their first training camp, while Bono, Guido, Olosunde, Erik Palmer-Brown, Parks, Antonee Robinson, and Josh Sargent are all in line to earn their first caps.

With so many new players involved, here is a breakdown of the entire squad:

Goalkeepers:

Alex Bono, Bill Hamid, Ethan Horvath.

Anybody that has followed the USMNT over the past few years should know all of these names. Bono is the only one to have never made an international appearance, but each keeper has been involved in the national team setup before.

Bill Hamid, who at 27 years old is one of the veteran players in this camp, will most likely get the nod as the starter. The former D.C. United mainstay made his first appearance for FC Midtjylland in a 2-1 Danish Cup victory last month and has played in just three total games for the first team. Hamid could be the clear starter for the national team, and at one point it looked like that’s where he was heading, but he needs to be playing regular first-team soccer.

This lull in action leaves the door open for the starting keeper spot, and Bono and Horvath will be looking to step into the spotlight. Horvath has the edge right now, although it is pretty open and will remain so until a permanent head coach is found. Jürgen Klinsmann gave the 22-year-old his first cap in a 2-0 win over Cuba back in 2016. Horvath is in a similar situation as Hamid and has had trouble seeing the field for Club Brugge after transferring from Sweden.

Bono is the only keeper called up to be playing consistently for his club team. Toronto traded Joe Bendik to Orlando City and put its hopes into Bono. That faith has paid off and Bono has played in 52 MLS games since 2016 and helped the Canadian club to a treble last year. The Syracuse native most likely comes into camp as the third-string goalkeeper, but moving forward he should start becoming more involved in the national team setup.

Defenders:

Cameron Carter-Vickers, Eric Lichaj, Matt Miazga, Matthew Olosunde, Erik Palmer-Brown, Antonee Robinson, Jorge Villafaña, Walker Zimmerman.

This defense might be young, but that does not take away from its quality. The biggest name on this list is Cameron Carter-Vickers, who may be playing a bigger role at Tottenham next year after getting a new contract. Carter-Vickers is most likely the center back of the future, paired alongside John Brooks if he can ever stay healthy.

Villafaña and Lichaj are two of the most veteran players in this squad. At 28 and 29 years old, respectively, they are the oldest players called in and are two of the four players with 10 or more caps. Expect for them to both be in the starting XI on Monday, playing the fullback positions.

Miazga and Zimmerman are in line after the fullbacks but have taken different roads to get to this point. Miazga is a New York Red Bulls academy product and in 2015 looked like he was going to be a mainstay in the USMNT, but a move to Chelsea hindered his national team call-ups. On his loan to Vitesse, Miazga has done well, playing in 33 Eredivisie games and scoring four goals. He leads the Dutch team in clearances and blocks per game, and has the third-most minutes on the team.

Zimmerman made his name with FC Dallas and has continued right where he left off this year with LAFC. He averages the second-most interceptions in MLS (minimum of 180 minutes played) and has been a key figure in the expansion side’s impressive start.

Matthew Olosunde, Erik Palmer-Brown, and Antonee Robinson all have the most to prove among defenders. Each of them are looking to get their first caps but will most likely stay in the youth set up for a few more years. They are all eligible to play in the 2020 Summer Olympics and should play an important part in that international tournament. Against Bolivia they might not play a huge role, but for them as individuals this is an important step in their careers.

Midfielders:

Joe Corona, Lynden Gooch, Julian Green, Alejandro Guido, Weston McKennie, Keaton Parks, Christian Pulisic, Rubio Rubin, Tim Weah.

When I first looked at the roster as a whole the first thing that popped into my head was how surprised I was to see Julian Green. The Tampa native might have the most interesting story on this team. He is the only player called up with World Cup experience, and has just four appearances for his parent club, Bayern, since 2013. Instead, he has bounced around loan clubs, playing for Hamburger SV, Stuttgart, and, most recently, Greuther Fürth. This season he has played in 24 games in the German second league, scoring just three goals and adding one assist. Green’s 62 shots are the second most on Greuther Fuerth but 69% of them are from distance.

Most of the other midfielders are in the same boat as each other. Guido and Parks are participating in their first training camps while Gooch, McKennie, Rubin, and Weah have combined for a total of 10 caps and one international goal.

The midfield is the U.S.’s weakest area right now and as such has the biggest competition battle going on. Most of these midfielders are good on the ball and have the ability to take players on, but need more experience — for club and country — to know when to dribble or pass, and must gain confidence and develop their soccer IQs. Defensively, they all need work and most of them cannot excel right now in the No. 6 role. The exception is McKennie — more on him below.

Forwards:

Andrija Novakovich, Josh Sargent.

If you are not a fan of Jozy Altidore or Bobby Wood, then keep an eye on each of these two youngsters. Sargent made his name during the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup. He scored four goals and had one assist in five games to lead the U.S. into the quarterfinals. The 2017 U.S. Soccer Young Male Player of the Year had to wait until late February when he turned 18 to sign with Werder Bremen and so he has yet to make his debut for the first team. However, he is expected to play a big role next season. Novakovich, on the other hand, is the leading goal scorer for Telstar and is the second-highest goal scorer in the Dutch second division.


Best Player: Christian Pulisic

Duh.

Most to Prove: Weston McKennie

Every player on this roster has something to prove. Only Pulisic has a definite spot moving forward, so every player needs to show that they can play at this level. Still, a couple names jump out as having more to prove than the rest. Each of the keepers certainly do, Corona, and Green have little room for error, and this is an opportunity for McKennie to become a USMNT regular. When healthy he is almost always in the starting XI for Schalke and he works hard to win the ball back after he loses it. He is a physical midfielder who has a bright future ahead of him in Germany. For him to have a bright future with the U.S., he needs to step up right now. Most important is going to be how he plays with Pulisic. This intriguing combination looks like it will be the midfield pairing of the future and it starts now. A good outing from the 19-year-old will keep him in Sarachan’s plans.

Most to Lose: Bill Hamid

It’s make-or-break time for Hamid. Expect for him to start, but a poor performance could result in the end of his USMNT days. There are plenty of younger keepers who are in the picture as well — such as Jesse Gonzalez, Zack Steffen, and Jonathan Klinsmann — and the fact that Hamid is not getting regular club appearances is not helping his cause.

What to Expect Moving Forward

This training camp is essentially a glorified tryout and the Yanks’ coaching staff will be looking to get answers to some of their questions. Many players will be going home after the Bolivia match, and expect MLS players to jump in the squad for the France and Ireland games. (It is not during an international break so that has an impact on which MLS players get called up.) As with every game since October, the game itself is meaningless, but these next three games are the most important in planning for the future.

Potential Lineup (4-3-3):

Goalkeepers: Bill Hamid.

Defenders: Eric Lichaj, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Walker Zimmerman, Jorge Villafaña.

Midfielders: Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, Joe Corona.

Forward: Tim Weah, Josh Sargent, Julian Green.

Uncategorized

Reflecting on Eight Years with The Mane Land

A look back over my time with The Mane Land (so far).

Published

on

Nick Leyva, The Mane Land

As of last week, I have been a contributor at The Mane Land for eight years. That’s longer than I’ve ever been at any of my actual jobs in my life. There are literally only a couple of people who have been with the site longer, but I’m still amazed at how long it’s been. This is not to say I’m going anywhere, but rather I wanted to take the opportunity to look back at the past eight years, and look ahead to the future.

Unlike some, I didn’t come to be a supporter of Orlando City until it was announced that the club was joining MLS. At the time, I was contemplating picking a club to follow in MLS, but being in Tallahassee, there were no nearby options at that time. I considered FC Dallas and D.C. United, given the two were geographically closer in proximity to me than any others. Fortunately, it was literally while I was considering my options that the announcement was made regarding Orlando City’s jump to MLS. It was an easy decision.

As I do in many aspects of my life, I immediately started researching my new club, which led me to the content being produced by The Mane Land. There was also an article on the site titled “Join The Mane Land Staff.” I had often over the years internally bemoaned that I rarely used my Bachelor’s degree in English, and the desire to write welled up in me so much that I emailed the staff. 

In response, one of our former editors, Andrew Marcinko, contacted me and said “I think your voice would be a great fit on TML.” He asked me to submit a Fan Post (those went away with our presence on SBN), and then another piece for review. Following that, our founder and managing editor, Michael Citro, emailed me to welcome me to the staff. I had no idea at the time how big a part of my life this blog would become.

I started out writing Monday’s Lions Links — often one of the more difficult days to write — and a feature piece. It’s been many years gone by now, but there was a time when the feature piece was “Pride Pub,” an ongoing series that paired craft beer and good food based on Orlando City’s opponent. I can tell you that the research for that was very enjoyable, and I still use some of the recipes I found to this day.

Eventually, I started contributing more match coverage and analytical pieces. Staff came and went, but I never thought to leave since I was enjoying myself. Sometime after that, I was promoted to senior columnist, for which I’m grateful. I can without reservation say that I’m a better writer thanks to my time with the site, and from working with such excellent staff.

In November of 2016, Michael asked if I wanted to give co-hosting The Mane Land PawedCast a try. My first recording was for Episode 71. We just recorded Episode 354, and with the exception of maybe two or three episodes, I have been on every single one of 283 episodes over the last six plus years. Michael and I have spent a lot of time talking on and off the podcast over the years, and I’m proud of what we have produced and to call him my friend.

We recently added an Orlando Pride-specific podcast called Skopurp: An Orlando Pride PawedCast. For years we wanted to give the Pride the time and attention the club deserves. Now, it is a reality, but one that I ask you to listen to and share. I’ll even put out that although Michael and I are the current hosts, we merely consider ourselves stewards and are hoping to get others to come onboard and eventually take it to the next level.

When I started with The Mane Land, the site had just made the move from a free WordPress site to the SBNation network. It was a big deal, and for many years it was a good partnership. Of course that all came to an end not too long ago, and our blog went the independent route thanks to the incredibly generous support of our readers and listeners. In fact, if you want to be one of those supporting our efforts, please go to our Buy Me A Coffee site to become a member. The move has allowed a flexibility we didn’t have before, but I really want others to have the same sense of joy and accomplishment that I have as a member of our staff. 

At one point we had nearly twice the staff that we do now, and as you know, many hands make light work. The opposite of that is also true. I genuinely believe that there must be others out there with the same passion for Orlando City as I have — with the same desire to have their voice heard, whether through the written word or on a podcast. I promise you there is an opportunity to contribute here with us. Our internal discussions are informative, engaging, and often funny. Please consider joining us, as I did eight years ago. I haven’t regretted it and I know you won’t either.

I want to thank all of those who contributed to The Mane Land over the years. There are many that I am still in touch with, though they are no longer a part of the staff. Of course, the current staff are a pleasure to work with, and I appreciate their dedication to what we are trying to do.

Finally, I want to thank the readers and listeners over the years. From those who regularly comment on our articles, to those that I’ve personally met at matches or even randomly on the street, you are a big reason that we do all of this. You are a big reason why I’ve been doing this for the better part of a decade. it is always a genuine pleasure hearing your thoughts or simply sharing a moment of joy together — U.S. Open Cup final, anyone?

So, thank you. I look forward to many more years of this journey together.

Continue Reading

Orlando City

The Mane Land Announces Membership Program

Maximize your Mane Land experience with our new TML membership program while supporting our independent efforts.

Published

on

Hello, readers of The Mane Land and listeners of our podcasts. Before you start reading this, please note that the most important part of this post is at the end. So, don’t stop until you get to the bottom.

You may recall that when we left SBNation to become independent, we really weren’t sure the best way to go about that. Many of our readers and listeners generously offered to help us make that transition, but we still weren’t sure the best path forward, so we took a poll.

The poll was pretty much split down the middle between those who preferred a one-time, Kickstarter-style campaign (which we did, and those of you who stepped up to help completely blew us away!) and those who favored a Patreon-style, subscription-based membership with extra perks. In fact, the member subscriptions option got a few more votes in our poll.

The folks who took part in our GoFundMe fundraiser were fantastic and are now immortalized on this very site on the “Our Founders” page. But we had always planned to give folks the option to choose whichever method of support they preferred and we tried to communicate that throughout the process. It took a little longer than expected to get up and running, but our membership subscription program is now in place! (You may notice the fancy new banner ad about it on the home page, echoed below.)

Supporting TML helps build a better TML for you to enjoy, so you’re really subscribing to your own Orlando soccer fandom.

Part of that delay was thinking up something that didn’t encroach on the benefits we gave our Founders. Those folks helped us get started and deserve the exclusivity of the perks they got. The other part of the delay is that there just aren’t enough hours in the day. (However, for you guys, I’m willing to be cloned.)

We have utilized the popular Buy Me a Coffee platform to run this program. You can find the basics here. The Mane Land premium membership program includes three tiers of membership, as well as the option to click on the “Support” tab for those who just want to help us out whenever, without joining the program or adding any recurring “appointment-based” payments to their budgets. We love that feature of Buy Me a Coffee (or “Buy Us a Beer” in our case…you drink what you like).

For those who do choose to become members, we hope we have provided value and we are planning to add benefits along the way, in addition to providing special giveaways, events, etc. (more on that below). We have also provided subscription options — with monthly or annual memberships. The annual cost essentially gives you 12 months for the price of 10.


Current Benefits

The current membership benefits depend on which level of support you choose — Homegrown Player, TAM Player, or Designated Player level. Each level includes all benefits from the lower tiers, with additional benefits for each higher level.

Homegrown Player: This is a basic set-it-and-forget-it level of support for The Mane Land, providing a way for our readers and podcast listeners to contribute to the success of TML‘s independence goals. We want to compensate our current volunteers, replace lost income of those who previously received small stipends from being part of the SBNation network, add photographers, attract new writers, and expand our coverage. Additionally, each Homegrown Player Level member will be recognized in a Lion Links column, which is still typically our most widely read post of each day and one of the top daily links columns among soccer sites. Homegrown Player Level members will also be included in any future prize drawings we have or events we host and may be subject to future benefits as they are added.

TAM Player: In addition to Homegrown Player benefits, TAM Players will receive a new weekly e-newsletter in their inbox (unless you opt out…some people hate email). These will be informal missives from myself, other TML writers, or a combination, discussing what’s on our mind regarding Orlando City, the Pride, OCB, or soccer in general. Think of it as an extra post from our site that may cover multiple topics. Additionally, you’ll get a 10% discount from our web shop items that we control (presently, that means everything except our listed MLS Shop items). We will definitely have more benefits coming for this level soon and will look for opportunities to include additional benefits as they become available.

Designated Player: This limited availability level of support includes all perks from the Homegrown and TAM levels, but it goes beyond. Your discount at our webshop (for items we control) will be 15% off. Additionally, we’ll send you Zoom links to watch us “make the doughnuts” whenever we record the podcast. This includes when we interview guests. You’ll see how the sausage is made behind the scenes and everything that we say, some of which will end up on the cutting room floor before the final podcast is sent out. This includes both The Mane Land PawedCast and SkoPurp Soccer: An Orlando Pride PawedCast. And after two months of membership you can commission a bonus episode of either podcast simply by letting us know what topic you want us to cover. Think of this as an extended Ask Us Anything. We’ll do a whole show about your topic and you can even join us to discuss it if you wish.

The DP Level will certainly have additional benefits tacked on as we move forward. It is currently limited to 40 members but could be expanded slightly depending on demand and our Zoom attendance.


Future Benefits / Benefits Under Consideration

While we won’t be able to schedule these due to the random nature of items falling into our hands, there will be periodic prize giveaways in drawings that include all of our members, regardless of level. The catch is that you get one entry per level of support, meaning Homegrown Player Level members will get one entry per prize drawing, TAM Player Level members will get two entries per drawing, and Designated Player Level members get three entries for prize drawings. Some of the kinds of items we have come across in the past include match tickets, trinkets, posters, scarves, and so on.

We are planning to add a message board to our website, well…soon-ish is the word that comes to mind. The plan for the message board is to build our community and further the discussion about the club. As part of this, we’re planning an exclusive, members-only area of that message board that TAM and DP members can access. This will be a place our staff can share informational nuggets we can’t necessarily write stories about for various reasons and interact with our members on a daily basis.

Other things in the works include meet-and-greets/watch parties where you can chat with TML staff members and catch a road match with a bunch of like-minded Orlando City/Pride fans while we all cheer on the team together. There may also be other informal outings with one or more members of the staff, organized fantasy leagues, random Zoom calls for Q&A sessions, and perhaps even some organized group outings for Orlando City / Pride matches, national team games, etc.


The Most Important Part of This Post

Remember at the top of this post, when I said the most important part is at the bottom? Well, that seems like a long time ago, now, so it’s OK if you’ve already forgotten.

The most important part of our membership program is you. We want your feedback so we can make this program something that interests and excites you. We want to know what you like and dislike about this program. We want to know if there are some things we didn’t think of that interest you. If you like what we’re offering, tell us! If you hate what we’re offering, we want to know what you’d prefer instead or in addition. If you want to go drinking with Dave, we can probably arrange that, but it’ll be a unique tier and we’ll have to figure out the cost of that.

No idea is too crazy to suggest, even if it’s too insane for us to actually offer. Let us know what you want from your subscription and we’ll see if that’s something we can do. We’ll make it easy for you by putting the form right here below this post, which is now concluded.

Continue Reading

Uncategorized

Welcome Home!

Published

on

Where do I even start? When we were told in January that SBNation was pulling its support of The Mane Land and other MLS and NHL blogs — and many podcasts — I was devastated. The site had become my new baby in September of 2014 and after eight and a half years, I wasn’t ready to let it go.

I was in a pickle. I couldn’t afford to lose the monthly stipend I had been getting from SBNation to manage the site and provide a steady stream of content. It wasn’t that it was a huge monthly sum, but it mostly covered my car payment. That car was purchased when my salary was higher. The pandemic hit my day job like it did to many, and after a four-month layoff, I got my old job back but not at the same rate. So, imagine taking a pay decrease at work and then, on top of that, losing the amount you spend per month on your car payment. There was simply no way to launch The Mane Land independently, I thought, because I simply couldn’t cover the startup costs. Even with some generous offers from the staff to pitch in, there simply wasn’t a way.

Once we took the news public, there was an outpouring of support on social media. We appreciated both the pledges to help out that we got from the community and the signal boosting that the national media gave blogs like ours. Those national folks rely on local reporting for background.

Encouraged by this outpouring of public support, I met with the TML staff and we threw some ideas around. We polled our Twitter followers to see how our community would prefer to show their support. We got pretty close to a 50/50 split between those who wanted to provide a one-time donation via a Kickstarter or GoFundMe crowdsourcing effort, and those who would prefer some sort of premium subscription add-on service like Patreon or Buy Me a Coffee.

We didn’t get a lot of responses to that poll, but we decided as a group that since the results were so similar, we would offer both and let the public choose one path, the other, or even both. (Stay tuned for news soon-ish on the premium subscription level, but rest assured, everything you’ve been getting for free at TML will remain free!)

I was, admittedly, skeptical that we could raise enough startup money to create a private business, pay for hosting a new site and two podcasts (having long wanted to give the Orlando Pride their own unique show), registering a domain, paying for some design work and consulting, and any unexpected expenses that might come up. However, I thought we’d at least give it a try.

Then the amazing Orlando City, Orlando Pride, and TML community got involved. You guys pushed us past our bare minimum goal in just four and a half hours when our fundraiser went live on March 1. We reset our goal and you met that by midnight. We reset our goal again, to the dream total we discussed on our initial staff Zoom chat and you met that by that first weekend.

Stunned. Humbled. Amazed. Touched. All of these words apply to how that made us feel, but they don’t quite cover it. I think we all felt an enormous responsibility, as well. We felt a mandate to provide you the best site and the best coverage we can.

We got everything we needed to run the site for two years, even if we don’t earn a penny after our launch — and we plan to try, via advertising, a Patreon (or similar) program, an online shop, affiliate links, and anything else we can think of. But we decided to leave the GoFundMe open through the end of March, just in case there were folks who wanted to contribute but needed to wait for payday, or if more people wanted to become founding members of this new site.

Now, here we are. You guys did this. We’re here because of you. And this site isn’t quite what it will become. I’m still learning my way around WordPress, after being away from it for years. There’s more to build, and some of the things you’re seeing on this site now will be improved in the future. We’ll continue to tweak it, add things, and upgrade as we go.

For now, I just want to welcome you to your new online home. On behalf of our entire staff, I thank our founding members, who are now immortalized on this site in our founders section. If you weren’t able to contribute to our transition from SBNation’s network to an autonomous and independent, new version of The Mane Land, you can thank the folks on our founders page, because without them, we wouldn’t be here. And if you still want to help out, we’ve got more things on the way.

Vamos.

Michael Citro
Managing Editor

Continue Reading

Trending