U.S. National Team
Steep Drops, Fast Risers, Six Debuts in New ASN 100
The ASN 100 is a living, breathing organism—a constantly updated ranking of the best American soccer players crafted by a panel of obsessive pundits. Here's your guide to the latest iteration.
NEW YEAR, NEW ASN 100—that's how it works around here.
Actually, we update our interactive ranking of the top 100 U.S. national team-eligible soccer players every 60 days, but the first list of 2015 feels....different. Like we've finally turned the page on the last World Cup cycle and are more inclined than ever to produce a cold, harsh assessment of the American talent pool.
Why? I'm not entirely sure.
Perhaps the latest list feels different because of the lackluster way Jurgen Klinsmann's team closed out 2014—a humiliating 4-1 loss to Ireland that made that exuberant victory over Ghana and surviving the Group of Death seem like distant memories.
Maybe the ongoing migration of top U.S. national team players to MLS—Clint Dempsey, Michael Bradley, Jermaine Jones, Mix Diskerud, Jozy Altidore, etc.—has changed our perception of the American domestic league and how to evaluate its talent.
Or it could be that our ASN panelists are simply less inclined than ever to allow sentimentality to creep into their evaluations. Did Player X play a crucial role in a CONCACAF semifinal qualifier in 2013? That's great, but for ASN 100 purposes it's strictly background noise.
Yes, Graham Zusi has played wonderfully at times over the last few years, but what has he done lately? Although we had him ranked sixth in September 2013, the Sporting Kansas City midfielder finds now himself outside of the Top 20.
Altidore may have won U.S. Soccer's Male Athlete of the Year award in 2013, but if he can't crack the Starting XI at Sunderland or score more than one goal in 42 English Premier League matches, how good is he? Was the New Jersey native's productive run at AZ Alkmaar a true sign of his talent, or an aberration? Yes, a return to MLS could rekindle his career, but for now we've ranked Altidore 17th—a precipitous drop from his No. 2 ranking in late 2013.
Other national team veterans who've fallen in the rankings include Matt Besler (No. 6 in July; No. 17 now), Eddie Johnson (No. 56 in November; now 68th), and Ricardo Clark (73rd two months ago; 86th now).
Of course, our system doesn't only deliver the bad news. Our panel has rewarded Alejandro Bedoya's consistency with a No. 4 ranking, and the Nantes midfielder is now sandwiched between Dempsey at No. 3 and Bradley at No. 5; John Brooks' steady play with Hertha Berlin has lifted him all the way to the No. 9 slot; Lee Nguyen's tremendous 2014 finds him in 11th; and Rubio Rubin has cracked the Top 25.
You want debutants? We have six on the this ranking—a sign perhaps of our collective desire to see some fresh faces wearing the BombPop. Take a bow Ventura Alvarado, Gedion Zelalem, Ethan Finlay, Junior Morales, Marc Pelosi, and Cameron Carter-Vickers, and welcome to the ASN 100.
So we encourage you to check out the new ASN 100. Click around. See who has the most Twitter followers, or how many players hail from California, or re-arrange the list by age so you can get a sense of who the young guns are.
And if you think we got some of the rankings wrong, don't be shy about it. We created this feature—and the entire site, really—to entertain and spark debate. So let's get on with it, shall we?
John Godfrey is the founder and editor in chief of American Soccer Now.
Maybe the ongoing migration of top U.S. national team players to MLS—Clint Dempsey, Michael Bradley, Jermaine Jones, Mix Diskerud, Jozy Altidore, etc.—has changed our perception of the American domestic league and how to evaluate its talent.
Or it could be that our ASN panelists are simply less inclined than ever to allow sentimentality to creep into their evaluations. Did Player X play a crucial role in a CONCACAF semifinal qualifier in 2013? That's great, but for ASN 100 purposes it's strictly background noise.
Yes, Graham Zusi has played wonderfully at times over the last few years, but what has he done lately? Although we had him ranked sixth in September 2013, the Sporting Kansas City midfielder finds now himself outside of the Top 20.
Altidore may have won U.S. Soccer's Male Athlete of the Year award in 2013, but if he can't crack the Starting XI at Sunderland or score more than one goal in 42 English Premier League matches, how good is he? Was the New Jersey native's productive run at AZ Alkmaar a true sign of his talent, or an aberration? Yes, a return to MLS could rekindle his career, but for now we've ranked Altidore 17th—a precipitous drop from his No. 2 ranking in late 2013.
Other national team veterans who've fallen in the rankings include Matt Besler (No. 6 in July; No. 17 now), Eddie Johnson (No. 56 in November; now 68th), and Ricardo Clark (73rd two months ago; 86th now).
Of course, our system doesn't only deliver the bad news. Our panel has rewarded Alejandro Bedoya's consistency with a No. 4 ranking, and the Nantes midfielder is now sandwiched between Dempsey at No. 3 and Bradley at No. 5; John Brooks' steady play with Hertha Berlin has lifted him all the way to the No. 9 slot; Lee Nguyen's tremendous 2014 finds him in 11th; and Rubio Rubin has cracked the Top 25.
You want debutants? We have six on the this ranking—a sign perhaps of our collective desire to see some fresh faces wearing the BombPop. Take a bow Ventura Alvarado, Gedion Zelalem, Ethan Finlay, Junior Morales, Marc Pelosi, and Cameron Carter-Vickers, and welcome to the ASN 100.
So we encourage you to check out the new ASN 100. Click around. See who has the most Twitter followers, or how many players hail from California, or re-arrange the list by age so you can get a sense of who the young guns are.
And if you think we got some of the rankings wrong, don't be shy about it. We created this feature—and the entire site, really—to entertain and spark debate. So let's get on with it, shall we?
John Godfrey is the founder and editor in chief of American Soccer Now.
