Traditionally, the U.S. Men’s National Team has favored really tall center backs due to a prehistoric understanding of soccer that the primary role of the center back is to clear crosses with headers. I remember recently seeing a fan tweet that one of the potential U.S. center backs was too short because he was only 6 feet tall. Now, most of the fan base is concerned with having center backs who are good with their feet, so they can pass out of the back or out of danger when they are pressured by the opposition.
It seems that a segment of the fan base values playing out of the back as more important that 1v1 defending, marking, and ball winning, when really you want your center backs to be complete center backs; the passing is equally as important as the defending, rather than being more important.
A certain segment of new USMNT fans have been oddly obsessed with John Brooks being excluded from the national team for the last few years. Their argument is that John Brooks was playing in the Bundesliga and the Champions League and now for Benfica, so it’s outrageous that he’d be excluded from the national team. Brooks isn’t as laterally quick as other USMNT center back options, and he isn’t as fast. Nevertheless, his rabid fans feel that he has to be on the USMNT because of his passing and club cv. There’s nothing wrong with this position, but there’s also nothing wrong with wanting a faster and quicker center back.
The John Brooks fans have been cyberbullying and harassing Aaron Long on Twitter for like a year now, and recently they’ve been claiming that Long is playing poorly in MLS, when really Long has zero errors leading to goals. There have been several New York Red Bulls games where the team let in a lot of goals, but Long wasn’t responsible for the goals, which is to say that he didn’t get beaten on any of the goals. There were even a few goals where he blocked someone’s shot, but the ball still found the back of the net.
Long’s critics have been tweeting for months that Long is playing poorly in MLS, but it’s all just gaslighting. Anyone can watch the goals against the Red Bulls on YouTube and see that Long hasn’t been making mistakes or playing poorly. Aaron Long has 0.04 errors per 90 minutes in MLS. Nevertheless, the gaslighting or false narrative continues.
I believe the root cause of this is lots of USMNT fans are new soccer fans who aren’t capable of evaluating players or understanding what is going on in games, but they do know that European club soccer is much better than MLS. Therefore, the discussion around the USMNT is about the tactics or who played well or badly, but rather it’s about singling out any MLS player in the lineup and lamenting why some other player who is playing in Europe isn’t playing.
Anyone who really follows European club soccer knows that there are only a few American players who are legit players in Europe, and some of these players lived their entire lives in Europe where they developed in a much more competitive and talented environment. Some of these players qualify to play for the USMNT, but they are products of other countries, which allows them to not be labeled with the stigma of being an American player. These players get more opportunities at clubs, and clubs don’t view them as American players who are possibly lacking the technical ability of someone not from the United States.
The idea that no MLS players should play for the national team is a delusional overestimation of the talent level of the limited Americans playing in Europe. There aren’t enough legit American players playing in Europe to field an entire team, as many of the players in MLS haven’t never been given the opportunity to play for a European club. Long has had lots of European interests and on more than one occasion, and some unfortunate injuries at the worst times stop him from transferring to Europe.
The criticism of Long isn’t based on his actual ability or his performances, but rather it’s based on an overt bias against MLS and for Brooks because he plays in Europe. Playing in Europe was a lot easier for Brooks, as Brooks was raised in Germany and seen as a German player. When clubs scout him, they see a German center back, rather than an American center back, who potentially could be lacking some technical ability by virtue of being American.
Aaron Long definitely has weaknesses like all players do, but the level of criticism from a certain segment of the fan base is delusional, biased, and personal.