31014_isi_dempseyclint_usmntjt030514317 John Todd/isiphotos.com
U.S. National Team

The March 2014 ASN 100 Is Live: See Who Made the Cut

Every other month our panel of soccer analysts rate the best American players from 1-100. We add up the totals and produce this, the most up-to-date player ranking around—the ASN 100.
BY John Godfrey Posted
March 10, 2014
4:04 PM
WHEN WE LAUNCHED THE first-ever ASN 100, way back in October 2012, Carlos Bocanegra was still wearing the U.S. armband and held strong in ninth position. A pre-injury Steve Cherundolo came in at No. 5. And then-Tottenham Hotspur attacker Clint Dempsey, fresh off a goal-scoring performance in a win over Manchester United, was listed No. 1 on all 10 ASN ballots.

Fast forward 17 months and the list looks quite different.

Bocanegra lost both his starting spot with the national team and the armband, and has fallen to 43rd on our current ASN 100. Cherundolo, plagued by recurring injuries, seems extremely unlikely for the 2014 World Cup and is now ranked 24th. And Dempsey, having opted out of the Premier League in favor of the Seattle Sounders, has scored just two goals for club and country since last June. He fell to No. 8 on our list.

Yes, things can change a lot very quickly in the world of soccer. And that's why we update the ASN every 60 days.

Michael Bradley, who followed Dempsey's lead and left a prominent European team to return to Major League Soccer, is the undisputed No. 1 on our ranking. Just as Dempsey did back in October 2012, Bradley was listed in the top spot on every single ballot. Will things change when we see him patrolling the midfield for Toronto FC? We shall see.

You can track the ranking history of any player in the ASN 100. We think it's interesting that Aron Johannson, who plays only sparingly for Jurgen Klinsmann's U.S. national team, is now ranked 7th—ahead of first-choice starters such as Dempsey, Jermaine Jones, Graham Zusi, Matt Besler, Omar Gonzalez. Our panelists have spoken: Johannsson should be in the Starting XI. Do you agree?

The March 2014 list also features two promising debuts—Bayern Munich forward Julian Green lands at No. 67 and burly Real Salt Lake defender Chris Schuler clocks in at No. 80. Both of these players are worth keeping an eye on.

We strongly encourage you to visit the list, click on the players' photos to see how their rankings have shifted over time, and play around with the 13 filters that let you reassemble the rankings based on all sorts of different criteria. And by all means, tell us what we got wrong, and right, in the Comments section below.

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