I just keep thinking of a scene from the movie Miracle. “You left off a lot of the best players. I’m not looking for the best players. I’m looking for the right players.”
It’s not who you play for or what you do for your club, but what you deliver for the badge on the front of your national team jersey.
I've been having similar thoughts recently too. Ultimately, I think this group will figure it out. Puli is the guy who, as a young teenager, was the only player who looked good and gave a damn in a shameful loss at T&T. McKennie is the guy who willed us to Nations League glory twice against Mexico with a physically domineering style who couldn't be intimidated like past American teams. I think the success if this group depends on those two leaders rediscovering their nature as leaders.
That said, we're also seeing a couple problems our federation has never faced before. Half of our best 11 was raised in a foreign country and almost all of our best 11 are important players for top clubs in the world. In past generations the national team players played in their biggest environments with the national team so that provided extra motivation to perform. Maybe that would get them noticed for a bigger break. Also, those generations were raised with an American culture that promoted a belief that talent without hard work was useless; that hard work could achieve greater results with inferior talent.
I often wonder if our young guys who grew up in Europe just don't understand that gritty culture that has always been a hallmark of American sides. I wonder if Europe's biggest clubs and cities have made our best players soft who grew up on the main land.
I think this Gold Cup will be telling. We'll be missing McKennie and Weah along with Gio, I think, but they'll spend a month with Poch and each other trying to find that missing piece. Hopefully that window will include Dest, Tillman, and Balogun too. If they don't find it in June it may be too late for the WC.
