12.31.14
ASN Morning Read: Wasn't Christmas Over?
Gedion Zelalem is so good he plays with his eyes closed. That's a fact, people. Look at all the friendly faces on the Hype Train. Next stop, North London. Now, where the heck is MLS's schedule?
BY
Noah Davis
Posted
December 31, 2014
8:45 AM
There we were, playing with our the Legos that Santa brought us when BAMBAMBAM: Gedion Zelalem arrived. Or at least showed up at the passport office in Washington D.C. and applied for a U.S. passport, which he then received before returning to Arsenal.
Everything you need to know about U.S. prospect Gedion Zelalem, courtesy of the Washington Post's Steven Goff, who has been all over this story from the beginning.
A rationed take from Brian Sciaretta: "A good approach for Zelalem would be to focus on the U.S. U-20 World Cup team this summer along with some of the top prospects of his age group—which includes other dual nationals such as Rubio Rubin, Emerson Hyndman, Paul Arriola, Junior Flores, Andrija Novakovich, Matt Miazga, Joel Sonora, and Cameron Carter-Vickers. Without meaningful pro experience, that seems to be the level he is at right now. Real progress will occur when the U.S. can regularly produce a solid number of prospects with its own resources and not rely on finding players who were born and raised elsewhere. The United States has made remarkable strides in that area and that is when the battle will be won, because the true strength of a soccer country centers on the talent it develops, not recruits." Could rationality be the buzzword for the American fanbase in 2015? (Hell no.)
Yes...
but entirely fair...
Mix Diskured for January camp along with Wil Trapp and Sean Johnson.
A smart thing about American soccer in 2014: " There’s something horrifically sterile and removed about American soccer. When you place soccer (and perhaps hockey) against the NBA and NFL, you start to see a reality extremely divorced from social and political realities. It’s not terribly surprising, but it is bizarre. Things have been literally burning outside while major cities have been brought to grinding halts across the country by people laying in streets, but if you looked at at soccer coverage in America in 2014, you might not even know that anything happened. You might not know that cities across the country have been protesting tirelessly all year. To me, it’s been clear for some time that American soccer is a bizarro world, one that feels like everyone, at all times, is running for public office."
On that note, we're out. Thanks for stopping by in 2014. It's been a great year here at ASN. Looking forward to getting bigger and better over the next 365 days.
