Gooch to Milan!
Wow, this is huge. AC Milan announced today that U.S. defender Oguchi Onyewu signed a three-year deal to mend the team's aging defense. On one level I think this is a huge win for U.S. soccer's standing on the world stage, especially if Gooch gets playing time. But history has shown that for some reason our guys achieve limited success, with the exception of our goalies, when given the chance to prove themselves across the pond. Jozy Altidore can't find time with Villarreal, and neither has Freddy Adu shown his potential with Benfica. Clint Dempsey has fared well at Fulham, but he's not a star. Don't get me wrong. I'm happy. I hope Gooch will prove doubters wrong about the caliber of our players on European club teams. I'm cautiously optimistic.
Comments (3)
July 7, 2009 at 10:58 PM
I agree, most American players playing in European Leagues tend to get lost in the mix. But if you ask around you will find that this is the case for a lot of players in other National Teams. For example, Mexican all-time leading scorer Jared Borghetti was signed by the Bolton Wanderers only to be released at the conclusion of the season. This was a couple of years ago. The story repeated itself for other notable players in the Mexican league.
You did make a good observation though. Defensive players tend to do a little better. This is good news for Onyewu, who in my opinion, was signed for his physical attributes rather than anything else. He's solid and seems to be peaking at the right time. He definitely has been one of my favorite players to watch since he joined the national team.
July 8, 2009 at 5:10 PM
Good point about Borghetti. He was a stud for El Tri and faded from the international spotlight. Dos Santos also hasn't been great in England. And what happened to Guardado in Spain?
July 9, 2009 at 2:40 PM
Guardado has actually been injured and missed the last couple of games with el Tri because of it, but he's one of the most consistent players in la seleccion. He is fun to watch, very offensive minded and always seems to know what to do with the ball.
Dos Santos...well...he still is very young, not much I can say about him, except maybe he's not quite ready for international play, but the idea people in the FMF (Federecion Mexicana de Futbol) is to let the youngins play from now so they can start getting the hang of things. That and the believe that since they won the U-17 they have better chemistry since they've been playing together longer.
Unfortunately, things are not that easy. The most pressing matter at the time is to climb out of the whole we've fallen into. Aguirre first needs to make sure we qualify, and maybe then he could start experimenting with those players. I sure hope he gets us on the right track.
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