You can just see how some players are better than others, and this is the case with Benji Joya compared to the majority of the players in the United States’ player pool.
Benji Joya is a different type of midfielder and player than Clint Dempsey, but in the same way that this writer immediately saw Clint Dempsey’s quality, so too did this writer see the same with Joya.
Many observers and members of the media will call the belief that Joya should be on the United States Men’s National Team “too soon” or “based on a few good showings,” but this is inaccurate. Joya elected to skip college soccer in order to go pro immediately, and he quickly made his way into La Liga MX with Santos Laguna. Even right now, Joya has demonstrated the ability to play as a professional in Mexico as a teenager, and he has also shown that he has the skill and mentality to be both effective and unfazed on the international level by hostile crowds and quality competition.
For a United States Men’s National Team that needs more dynamic midfielders to move away from Jürgen Klinsmann’s overly defensive style of using of Danny Williams, Jermaine Jones, and Michael Bradley at the same time, Joya is the perfect blend of two-footed technical skill, defensive grit, mental toughness, and a love of big games. Joya gives the United States Men’s National Team a true box-to-box midfielder who not only can play one-to-two touch soccer and play final balls, but who can also help to regain possession of the ball in the midfield.
Benji Joya is 19 years old, and this is not too young to play international soccer. Jürgen Klinsmann still has a lot of games in front of him in World Cup qualifying, but time is also running out. Klinsmann simply does not have the luxury to not put Joya on the team, just as he does not have the luxury of excluding Joe Corona, Juan Agudelo, Terrence Boyd, and even Freddy Adu from his rosters.
Both Freddy Adu and Benny Feilhaber have been discussed at great length by this writer, but both are different types of players than Benji Joya. For a coach who insists on using a midfield destroyer with two box-to-box midfielders, Klinsmann can have his wish by putting Joya on the team and starting him with Bradley as box-to-box midfielders and Jermaine Jones as the midfield destroyer, who also offers advanced technical ability.
Skill is more important than experience, but Benji Joya has shown that he has both, given his club situation and the display he put on in CONCACAF Under-20 World Cup qualifying.
Jürgen Klinsmann needs to put Benji Joya on the United States Men’s National Team now.
With Benji Joya in the starting XI, the United States Men’s National Team could line-up with something like this:
The World Soccer Source Best 30 American Soccer Players
What makes one player better than another player? Good question.
The names on the list are more important than the order as many of these names are drastically different from the first thirty names on American Soccer Now’s Top 100 from February, which asks several writers, pundits, podcasters, ex-players, and analysts to rank American players, but the list does not show how high each panelist ranked each player.
CRITERIA & REASONING:
*This World Soccer Source list is based on the criteria of skill, club performances, international performances, current form, and the players’ performances against high-level competition.
*Ultimately, every soccer fan will weigh each criterion higher than others.
*Some people will value the overall skill of the player: meaning the visual impression of how talented the player is in terms of technical ability, movement off the ball, and athleticism compared to quality competition.
*Other people will value consistent playing time at the club level and club form as the most important criterion.
*Still other people will consider how a player has performed against the highest level of international competition over the years, as the most important criterion as few Americans are playing for truly elite club teams: only Michael Bradley is playing in Serie A, Clint Dempsey plays and starts for one of the best teams in the English Premier League, and Jermaine Jones has been consistently playing and performing for one of the best Bundesliga teams, Schalke, for years.
*Keep in mind that a player’s ranking does not necessarily mean that a player is better or worse, based purely on talent, compared to players above or below the player. One excellent example of this is Freddy Adu.
*Observers are always quick to qualify what they say about Freddy Adu with some phrase such as “No one doubts Adu’s ability, but he needs to be more consistent.” Freddy Adu’s last game for the United States Men’s National Team at the senior level was against Mexico in the 2011 Gold Cup Final, but Adu was widely considered the best American player on the field in that game against a Mexican team that was considered much better at that time and even now. What does this say about Freddy Adu compared to other American players? If Adu plays for the United States Men’s National Team rarely, but normally plays well, how high should he be ranked? How much does signing for and playing, even if for a short time, for Benfica matter?
*The performances of the United States Men’s National Team under Jürgen Klinsmann indicate that there is a major problem with how unwilling fans and the media are to accept the need for change, and there is a problem with the way that players are being selected as the United States Men’s National Team has several well-known problems that many observers quickly point out: a weakness in the center of the defense, poor overall passing, lack of goal-scoring chances created, a low number of total goals, and a heavy reliance on Clint Dempsey, Michael Bradley, and Tim Howard.
*Every soccer fan, coach, player, analyst, and observer has a certain criterion that they value above others, but the most important thing about this list is that the names on the list are more important than the particular numerical ranking that each player is given.
The World Soccer Source Best 30 American Soccer Players:
1. Clint Dempsey (Tottenham; England)
2. Michael Bradley (Roma; Italy)
3. Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy; USA)
4. Tim Howard (Everton; England)
5. Fabian Johnson (Hoffenheim; Germany)
6. Jermaine Jones (Schalke; Germany)
7. Geoff Cameron (Stoke City; England)
8. Benny Feilhaber (Sporting Kansas City; USA)
9. Steve Cherundolo (Hannover; Germany)
10. Terrence Boyd (Rapid Wien; Austria)
11. Juan Agudelo (Chivas USA; USA)
12. Joe Corona (Tijuana; Mexico)
13. Timothy Chandler (Nürnberg; Germany)
14. Mix Diskerud (Rosenborg; Norway)
15. Freddy Adu (Philadelphia Union; USA)
16. Brek Shea (Stoke City; England)
17. Sacha Kljestan (Anderlecht; Belgium)
18. Herculez Gomez (Santos Laguna; Mexico)
19. Jozy Altidore (AZ Alkmaar; The Netherlands)
20. Eddie Johnson (Seattle Sounders; USA)
21. Eric Lichaj (Aston Villa; England)
22. Maurice Edu (Bursaspor; Turkey: on loan from Stoke City; England)
23. Jonathan Spector (Birmingham City; England)
24. Brad Guzan (Aston Villa; England)
25. Omar Gonzalez (Los Angeles Galaxy; USA)
26. Joe Gyau (St. Pauli ; on loan from Hoffenheim; Germany)
Many American soccer fans seem to judge Freddy Adu with the same illogical criterion with which Jürgen Klinsmann judges him: only total domination merits a roster spot.
Klinsmann has said that he wanted to see Adu taking over games more and dominating games more before he could play for the United States, but this make little sense from a coaching standpoint.
Why does a technically-skilled playmaker with a special skill-set need to dominate every game in order to play for the United States, when no other American is subjected to this standard?
Klinsmann and American fans want the United States to score more goals, but yet they invent nonsensical reasons to exclude all of the natural playmakers from the starting line-up or roster: Freddy Adu, Benny Feilhaber, Joe Corona, and Mix Diskerud.
Klinsmann and the United States are lacking players that have the technical skill to play a brand of quick-passing soccer that Michael Bradley, Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Steve Cherundolo, Geoff Cameron, and Fabian Johnson play. Among the players listed above, none of them are playmakers that play the final passes that produces goals.
Plenty of Americans as well as Klinsmann feel that either Bradley or Dempsey should be forced to be played out of position as playmakers, but this opinion overlooks the reality that neither player is a true playmaker as Bradley thrives playing as a deep-lying defensive midfielder that has strong technical and attacking skills and Dempsey is skilled at attacking defenses and scoring goals.
While both of these players are much better than the majority of their teammates that Klinsmann has been calling up, they have never demonstrated the ability to play a constant stream of inch-perfect balls in the final third that Adu and several other playmakers have shown.
The criticism of Adu has mostly been that he has played for a lot of clubs and that his coaches at the Union this year chose to not start him multiple times.
These two pieces of criticism do not disprove the fact that Adu is the most technically-skilled player in the American player pool and that Adu has performed well for the United States, especially when he has played with players like Bradley, Dempsey, and Donovan, who have the skill level to play one-to-two touch soccer and read his passes.
Adu played most recently for the United States in Olympic qualifying where he not only scored but he also set up two crucial goals to go one goal ahead of El Salvador in the last game of Olympic qualifying.
Adu formed a good playing relationship with talented young players like Joe Corona, Juan Agudelo, Terrence Boyd, Mix Diskerud, Brek Shea, and others.
The last time Adu played for the United States’ senior team was in the 2011 Gold Cup in which Adu immediately changed the game against Panama where he not only played the killer pass to set up Donovan’s assist to Dempsey, but he also played a diagonal pass on the ground and on a silver platter for Bradley, which Bradley failed to shoot with conviction.
Additionally, in the final against Mexico, Adu was praised by both Pablo Ramirez and Hugo Sanchez of Univisión for his ability to unsettle the Mexican defense by taking defenders off the dribble and playing elegant passes and corner kicks; Adu also took the well-placed corner kick which Bradley put in the back of the net with a glancing header.
The United States only lost to Mexico once Steve Cherundolo sustained an injury, and the then-coach, Bob Bradley, made the mistake of subbing in Jonathan Bornstein, who Mexico instantly identified as the defensive weak link.
The problem that Adu comes up against is that when he goes to play overseas he has the stigma of being an American and when he plays in MLS people expect him to take over every game he plays in.
Many American fans seem to expect Adu to set up multiple goals every game and score multiple goals every game, or they do not want him to play for the United States. This line of thinking overlooks the fact that Adu has proven for five years in international play that he has the skill-set to be an effective playmaker even against teams like Brazil, Argentina, Spain, and Mexico.
This ability to be a dangerous playmaker is needed in an American midfield that has Dempsey as a free-roaming attacking midfielder and quasi-forward and Bradley as a technically-skilled defensive midfielder with the skill to play defense, pass the ball well, and to participate in the attack when needed.
While Dempsey and Bradley are the two most proven midfielders at the club level and international level for the United States, neither one has the same gift that Adu has to create goals, and this skill is the most needed quality that the United States lacks, along with a skilled center back partner for Geoff Cameron.
Adu can be used by the United States with a degree of flexibility because the United States and really Klinsmann could elect to deploy him as a second striker with an additional playmaker behind him or use him in a line of three technically-skilled midfielders with the ability to maintain possession and play one-to-two touch soccer.
Whether or not Klinsmann, American fans, American commentators, and American soccer writers think that Adu has performed well in MLS, there is nothing to suggest that Adu has ever demonstrated any difficulty being an effective attacking force for the United States in international play.
Even if the Philadelphia Union’s coaches have left Adu on the bench or off the game day roster on several occasions, these were decisions made by coaches Peter Nowak and John Hackworth, whose coaching abilities have been questioned by many.
These coaching mistakes do not change the fact that Adu has an advanced technical skill-set as a playmaker, and the United States desperately needs a playmaker to create more scoring opportunities.
As this writer has contended in other articles, the United States even has more than one playmaker; lots of observers invent perceived problems with all of them, so they advocate for the United States to force someone to play out of position.
Among many Americans there appears to be some misunderstanding of the importance and the role of a playmaker. The best teams in the world all use playmakers because goals are the most important thing in soccer, and playmakers create goals, which create victories.
The playmaker is certainly expected to pressure the opposing team’s defense when the opposition has the ball, but playmakers are not supposed to be routinely tracking all the way back deep into their own half to play defense because then they would be out of position to fulfill their role on the team, which is to control the tempo of the passing and to convert their team’s passing into goal-scoring opportunities.
No one with an advanced understanding of the game has really ever questioned Adu’s talent, but people have argued that Adu should not play for the United States if he is not starting and dominating every game in MLS.
The United States does not have the luxury of not including someone of Adu’s ability on the roster because the United States is not good enough to not need players like Adu.
Soccer is a team sport, and just having Bradley and Dempsey in the midfield is not enough technical ability and firepower against opposition with 11 technically-advanced starters; the United States needs playmakers like Freddy Adu, Benny Feilhaber, Joe Corona, and Mix Diskerud to create goal-scoring opportunities for the United States, particularly when the United States is losing.
Hugo Sanchez praised the performance of Freddy Adu against Mexico in the 2011 Gold Cup final.
One of the primary problems with the USMNT under Jürgen Klinsmann’s tenure has been his insistence on forcing Michael Bradley or Clint Dempsey to be deployed out of position as playmakers. Make no mistake; Klinsmann knows that both Bradley and Dempsey are not playmakers, but Klinsmann has forced both players to fill this role, which leaves vacuums where both players are naturally-suited to play.
Once Klinsmann deploys Bradley as a playmaker, or just in a more advanced position up-field, Klinsman is leaving the defense with a less technically-skilled defensive midfielder to whom they can pass their way out of trouble. Playing directly in front of the defense does not limit a midfielder’s ability to help to control the tempo of the game or to participate in the attack, as even Andrea Pirlo, a true master, plays directly in front of the defense.
Bradley’s role as a defensive midfielder is one of the most important roles for the team because he sees a lot of the ball when the United States is defending and when they are attacking. Additionally, playing as the defensive midfielder does not hinder Bradley’s ability to attack because he can advance up field either by stringing passes together with his teammates or simply by making dribbling forays up-field to play a quality pass to one of his teammates making a run into the final third.
Many people, particularly Americans, see the defensive midfielder as almost some sort of low-skill position that is reserved for a player with just adequate passing skills, but this is incorrect. Being able to pass with the inside and outside of both feet and play one-touch soccer does not mean that Bradley is a natural playmaker, and whomever the United States uses as a playmaker will need Bradley behind him. Bradley constantly drifts back deep into the midfield because he is needed there unless the United States is attacking an opponent through a series of passes, and Bradley should be played deep in the midfield where he naturally feels inclined to play.
For people without a lot of experience with high-level soccer, Bradley’s fluid technical skills with both feet equate to those of a playmaker, but being a playmaker requires a different and rare sort of passing mentality. A playmaker looks to constantly unlock defenses with final balls, soft chips, through-balls, and even passes with only a slim chance of threading the defense. Bradley can play final balls and score, but he would be better served by having a playmaker starting with him to give him a skilled player to combine with in the midfield. Starting Bradley as a defensive midfielder does not limit his influence on the game.
Even the Italian media refers to Bradley as a mediano, which is a defensive midfielder along the lines of Edgar Davids or Claude Makélélé (who were even more ruthless defensively than a normal mediano), but playing a mediano does not mean that the player does not have good technical ability, even at the highest level.
Although Klinsmann refers to Michael Bradley as a number 6 (a defensive midfielder that hangs back) or a number 8 (a holding or box-to-box midfielder), Klinsmann seems to view the role of Bradley as a player that can fulfill the role of playmaker when also started with Clint Dempsey. Klinsmann forces his starting line-ups into a series of numerical roles from one to eleven intended to create proactive soccer, but his line-ups are almost always devoid of a number 7,10, and 11, as he frequently starts what could be described as two to three number 6’s. In a way, Dempsey is basically used by Klinsmann as a number 11, but there is still no real number 10.
Klinsmann has been reducing the number of creative attacking midfielders in the starting line-up by not playing Bradley as the number six. By way of contrast, Brazil uses a number 5 as a defensive midfielder that does not make attacking forays along with a number 8 who is a box-to-box midfielder that does attack and play defense, but in a recent game against Japan, Brazil started two number 8’s, Ramires and Paulinho, which caused Brazil to keep possession and constantly attack.
Klinsmann would be wise to not always deploy his idea of a number 6 and a number 8, but instead he should use Bradley as the defensive midfielder which opens up a spot for a true playmaker. The United States’ line-ups should maximize the skill of the players in the player pool while making sure any starting line-up is covered on the defensive end by using a talented defensive midfielder and four defenders, unless the United States elects to use three or five defenders.
In addition to starting Bradley as a sort of playmaker, Clint Dempsey has also been utilized as a type of playmaker by Klinsmann where Dempsey either plays as a second striker or just as an attacking midfielder that has the ability to play balls to whomever Klinsmann is starting at the striker position, and Klinsmann usually just starts one out-and-out striker.
One could argue that a problem with Klinsmann’s tactics are that when he deploys Dempsey as a sort of pseudo-playmaker he is depriving Dempsey of having two targets to hit up top, so even if Klinsmann is using Dempsey out of position as a playmaker, he should be using Dempsey plus a pure striker and a second striker.
All soccer tactics hinge on the concept that whatever formation a coach uses to start the game, the formation and the location of the players on the field change as players make runs and cover for each other. Despite Klinsmann’s intention to have his best players, Dempsey and Bradley, be the focal point of the attack in the final third, he is actually preventing Dempsey from being the player to be on the receiving end of not only more but better passes in the attacking third.
Many American writers and fans support Michael Bradley playing almost as a central attacking midfielder as he has an advanced skill-set, but the United States will only see better passing and more success when Klinsmann maximizes the number of his most talented players in his starting line-ups.
Like Freddy Adu and Benny Feilhaber have shown before him, Joe Corona’s brief cameo against Guatemala along with his play in Olympic qualifying and in Mexico gave a glimpse of the passing style that makes for a talented playmaker. Whether Joe Corona is the answer as a playmaker, or Benny Feilhaber or Freddy Adu or Mix Diskerud or some other relatively unknown player in the United States player pool, is up for debate, but one if not more of these players need to be started and definitely included in the roster to allow Bradley and Dempsey to play their natural positions.
Adu has the dribbling, passing, and shooting skills to be deployed as a second striker, so the United States could start Dempsey along with someone like Feilhaber and Corona behind a striker tandem of Adu and a pure striker. Using this sort of line-up would give the United States the ability to maintain possession and create scoring chances, even against top national teams.
There is no rule that only one creative midfielder that looks to unlock the defense can be started, and the nature of the type of soccer that Klinsmann claims to want to play actually demands the constant movement of most of the players all over the field as they pass and move without the ball.
Starting about five years ago, the United States has had enough players with the ability to play quicker, one-to-two touch soccer, but playing this style requires starting technically-skilled defenders, starting Bradley, starting Dempsey, starting one or more playmakers, and starting not one but two forwards (unless the attacking midfielders provide a real and consistent scoring threat).
If the United States and specifically Klinsmann continues to not only start too many defensive midfielders but also defenders without advanced ball control skills in addition to just one striker, the United States will not play the style of soccer that Klinsmann describes as proactive, by which he essentially means actually attempting to beat your opponents by attacking them and scoring from the run of play as opposed to just trying not to lose.
Although it is not a solution for the defensive problems, starting one or more playmakers is vital to raising the skill-level of the United States national team. Contending that the United States does not have playmakers that can play international soccer is quite simply refuted by video evidence to the contrary, four playmakers were mentioned in this article and all of them have demonstrated the ability to fill the role of a playmaker against quality opponents. None of these playmakers are too young or too inexperienced.
While many people will use the United States’ victories over Mexico and Italy as evidence that Jürgen Klinsmann is coaching well, the reality is that the United States has not passed well or played technically advanced soccer in any of their games under Klinsmann.
Many of the players used by Klinsmann are excellent soccer players, but as long as Klinsmann continues to use the same starting line-ups, the United States will not even be a first or second tier team in terms of international soccer. So far, the United States has played better soccer under Bruce Arena and Bob Bradley, and there is one year’s worth of video evidence of the low level of collective, team play of the United States under Klinsmann.
However, Klinsmann does have the ability to dramatically improve the quality of soccer that the United States play with just five starting line-up changes. If he makes these five starting line-up changes, then he will be able to field a starting line-up with 11 technically skilled and athletic players. He needs a right back, a center back to partner with Geoff Cameron, two attacking midfielders, and another striker, as opposed to just starting one.
Klinsmann needs to eliminate Kyle Beckerman, Maurice Edu, Danny Williams, Jermaine Jones, and José Torres from the starting line-up, but Jones should be starting if Michael Bradley is injured. Additionally, Edu and Jones should certainly be among the 23 players on the roster for the World Cup qualifiers against Jamaica, and starting Edu or Jones as a center back with Cameron would be preferable to starting Carlos Bocanegra or Clarence Goodson.
Klinsmann should continue to use Tim Howard as a goalkeeper, Geoff Cameron as a center back, Fabian Johnson as a left back, Michael Bradley as the lone defensive midfielder (unless he’s injured), Herculez Gomez or Terrence Boyd as a striker, and Clint Dempsey as a free-roaming attacking midfielder.
At forward, Klinsmann needs to start two of the following three strikers at the same time: Juan Agudelo, Terrence Boyd, and Herculez Gomez. Gomez played very well against both Brazil and Mexico, and a strong argument can be made that Gomez has earned one of the two starting line-up spots as evidenced by his play against Brazil where he forced Santos’ and Brazil’s goalkeeper, Rafael, to make several very difficult point blank saves. That being said, Klinsmann has yet to test out Agudelo and Boyd together, and they might complement each other well as Boyd is more of an out-and-out striker that goes straight to goal. Regardless of which two strikers are started, Klinsmann should start two of the three strikers mentioned above at the same time.
Klinsmann needs to introduce Benny Feilhaber and Freddy Adu as dual-playmakers and free-roaming attacking midfielders to play with Dempsey. At right back, Klinsmann needs to start Eric Lichaj, and if he is unavailable, Zach Loyd or Sheanon Williams. Finally, Klinsmann needs to start Jay DeMerit, Omar Gonzalez, or George John as the second center back to play with Geoff Cameron. Among those three, DeMerit is the one that has proven himself on the international level the most with his effective and imposing defensive performances in the 2009 Confederations Cup and the 2010 World Cup. Between Gonzalez and John, Gonzalez might be quicker and more agile that John, but Klinsmann has not tested out either Gonzalez or John with Cameron to see which center back performs the best at the international level.
The five changes to the starting line-up advocated for above should be used against Jamaica, and if those changes are made against Jamaica, the United States will have, for the first time ever, 11 technically skilled and athletic starters in their line-up. Never before has the United States had the ability to field 11 technical skilled and athletic starters, and the United States now actually have more than 11 players that fit those criteria.
