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Godfrey's Daily Rant

The 100 Best American Soccer Players, Ranked

Today's rant isn't really a rant at all. It's simply an announcement that a new ASN 100 is now ready for your perusal. If you haven't seen this interactive feature before, brace yourself. It's awesome.
BY John Godfrey Posted
August 30, 2013
12:05 PM
THE ASN 100 DOESN'T NEED a whole lot of context—it kind of speaks for itself.

Our panel of eight experts—including ESPN's Alexi Lalas, Brian Sciaretta, Jason Davis, and Jared DuBois—created individual rankings of the top American soccer players, 1-100. I tallied the results over many cups of coffee. And then I poured the data into our massively interactive ASN 100 feature.

Go. Click around. Reassemble the lists with the filters up top. Read about the players. Watch videos. Leave comments below.

Seriously—go.

Still need some convincing? Here are a few tidbits to gnaw on.

  • Michael Bradley received all eight first place votes and is our consensus No. 1 American player.

  • Clint Dempsey held on to the No. 2 slot, but just barely. Could it be that his scoreless run thus far in MLS is hurting his reputation?

  • No doubt due to his hat trick in Sarajevo, Jozy Altidore is nipping at Deuce's heels.

  • Landon Donovan moved up six spots and is now back in the Top 5. A brilliant run in the Gold Cup will do that for a fella.

  • Tim Howard dropped to eighth place and Brad Guzan rose to 10th. Is there a changing of the guard on the horizon?

  • Sacha Kljestan, at No. 14, is the highest-ranked player not named to Jurgen Klinsmann's September World Cup qualifying squad. (And he looks SOOOO sad in his ASN 100 picture, too. We've gotta get a new one!)

  • Aron Johannsson rocketed up 32 spots to No. 17. Our panel wants to believe in this guy. It should be interesting to see what happens.

  • Mix Diskerud, hands-down the coolest player on the list, cracked the Top 20 for first time. He jumped 26 spots to No. 19 on the strength of his strong Gold Cup.

  • Timothy Chandler only dropped five spots, to No. 25. It will be interesting to see if this guy resurfaces for the United States. The team could certainly use a reliable right back....

  • Clarence Goodson may not be a riveting interview subject, but he showed well in the Gold Cup and moved from the 33rd spot up to No. 22.

  • Two promising right backs, Eric Lichaj and DeAndre Yedlin, came in at Nos. 49 and 50, respectively.

  • And we have four new players on the list: Please extend a warm ASN 100 welcome to new boys Paul Arriola, Chris Klute, Dillon Powers, and Luis Silva.

    In case you haven't already figured it out, clicking on any of the players' names above will take you right to their ASN 100 profiles. I encourage you to do so. This is my favorite part of the whole site. I hope you like it too.

    John Godfrey is the founder and editor in chief of American Soccer Now.
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