This post provides some background, gathered from around the web and my own opinions, about the American-ness of the United States 2014 World Cup team. As a fan of United States soccer, I often worry not only about how good our team is, but also how American. To this end, I discuss the 23 players headed for Brazil and rank them, subjectively, from least to most American.
I hope this doesn't sound too xenophobic. We are, of course, a nation of immigrants, and I don't mean to imply that players with foreign ties can't be just as American as those whose family has lived here for generations. American-ness is primarily a state of mind. The first, most relevant question to determine whether a given player is American is whether, if every country were equally talented, equally likely to make the World Cup, and equally interested in his services, he would choose to play for the United States. This is the first distinction I will make.
But while we're at it, I thought it would be fun within groups to delve into not just whether a given player is American, but how American. This quality can be hard to define, but it can be very apparent. Brad Friedel was the best US goalie of his generation, but Kasey Keller was way more American. Brek Shea may not been very smart to post this picture, but it was very American all the same.
Without further ado, here's our team, by position, and then by ranking.
GOALKEEPER:
Brad Guzan, who is exactly one year older than me, was born in a nice Chicago suburb, went to South Carolina for a year for some reason, and then played in MLS for a few years before Aston Villa spent a million dollars to corner the market on American Brads and bring him across the pond to back up Friedel. His wiki article says that after a big UEFA League game, Martin O'Neill described Guzan as "a class goalkeeper in the making," which is pretty British phrasing, although I don't suppose that's our boy's fault. Both on the national team and for Villa, he's been a little bit too patient and reasonable about being the backup for my tastes, but that may be because according to this Athletes in Action link, he sounds a bit evangelical, which I suppose has some American-ness to it. Goalie's a strong position for us.
Tim Howard is always yelling at his defenders, sometimes even before the play is over, which always makes me feel a little national pride. I'd forgotten this, but he once got in trouble for bitching after we lost the Gold Cup to Mexico on home soil and the trophy presentation was in Spanish, and if you're surprised I used the term "bitching" then you'll love some of his quotes, including that one. The guy has Tourette's, which might not be as correlated with his common choice of language as the stereotype would suggest, because the more applicable stereotype is that he's also from New Jersey. Like many of our other players, he is of mixed descent, with an African-American dad and a Hungarian mom. Like Guzan, he's got a Campus Crusade for Christ/Athletes in Action page, but unlike Guzan, he's also an honorary Harlem Globetrotter. Tim Howard is so American.
Nick Rimando was born in California to parents of Filipino and Mexican heritage, respectively, and grew up to be a short, pudgy, excellent goalkeeper. He won a national championship at UCLA and has spent his whole career in the MLS; he's been involved in a contraction draft and been traded several times, including one weird one where he got traded to New York for two weeks and then right back. He's played for Miami, DC and Salt Lake. Throw in his brief visit to the Big Apple and those are four cities that are all quintessentially American and also nothing at all alike. And don't discount the California boy stuff - apparently he married a pretty blonde soccer player in a wedding officiated by then-road roommate Ben Olsen, which is so Californian I just can't stand it. A brief Googling brought up a wedding photo in which Olsen is standing between the happy couple; if I didn't know better, I would have assumed the black-suited Olsen is the groom and Rimando, jacket open, is the possibly drunk frat brother who jumped into the picture. The fact that the associated article says that Rimando was calling himself "The Goose" in the interview for the story only strengthens this case. I love this guy. Oh, and when he was young, he got benched from his club team a few times, and the national team didn't take him that seriously until he turned 30, probably because look at him - would you believe he's a world-class goalie without a solid decade of evidence? Nick Rimando is the American Dream.
DEFENDER:
DaMarcus Beasley, who is not quite as big as my little sister, somehow outlasted Donovan as the final member of the US Golden Generation to stay internationally relevant, and may well become the first person to see the field for us at four World Cups. Wikipedia claims Guus Hiddink handpicked him to succeed Arjen Robben for PSV in 2004, which seems unlikely, but on the other hand he had played wing for a 2002 World Cup quarterfinalist, and, four years later, he was arguably the best player on the field toward the end of the USA-Italy game that had three red cards, once there were only 17 field players.
Matt Besler is from a Kansas City suburb and now plays for Sporting KC of MLS, with his only detour from home when he went away to be an Academic All-American at Notre Dame. I feel like if anyone on the national team takes his best girl out for a chocolate malted after the game, it's this guy. He does have a vicious streak, though, as evidenced by the terrible red card he once got against Costa Rica.
John Anthony Brooks was born and raised in Berlin, the son of a German mother and US serviceman father. For those of you that do not follow the national team very closely, be warned, you will hear that again. Brooks had been in US youth camps for four years but also got a shot for Germany in 2012. Then we put him in a match for the senior team. Go figure.
Geoff Cameron was born in a nice town in Massachusetts and went to a prep school prominent enough to have its own wikipedia page. After going to West Virginia, realizing his mistake, transferring to Rhode Island, and graduating before he realized he'd made another mistake, he played in MLS for a few years, got named to the All-Star team, and eventually became one of the few American field players to transfer to the EPL and stick in a starting lineup. The more I think about it, how are we not higher on Geoff Cameron? I'm as guilty as anyone; if he played two years for Rhode Island, I probably saw him play against Dayton while I was there and I have no memory of that at all. And I remember probably a half-dozen URI basketball players from that era.
Timmy Chandler was one of Jurgen Klinsmann's first German projects, and certainly the most ambivalent. Born, raised and signed in Frankfurt, Chandler declined US call-ups at several times, claiming fatigue, injury or pressure from his club. After playing for the US in friendlies, but not yet "cup-tied," one of his refusals was a couple years ago after a season when he'd started all year in the Bundesliga, in his 21 year old season no less, was reportedly drawing interest from bigger clubs, and might reasonably have wondered if Germany might call him up in the future. It is speculation, but not a huge stretch, to wonder if he came back to the US only after his star waned again.
Omar Gonzalez is a perennial MLS all-star for the LA Galaxy. A 6'5" Texan with dual Mexican citizenship, he's played from sea to shining sea, with college at Maryland before moving to the pros in California. The one time he went overseas on loan, Timmy Chandler injured him in training. According to his US Soccer personal page, his favorite music is country, which seems worth mentioning.
Fabian Johnson was born in Munich to a US serviceman and German mother. In interviews, seems like one of the more American of the Germans, but then again he did play for Germany U17, U18, U19, U20 and U21 before coming straight to the senior US team at 23. I'm already getting tired of this.
DeAndre Yedlin grew up and played ODP in Seattle, went to Akron for one year, which is pretty much the soccer equivalent of playing for Calipari, and then went back to his hometown team in the pros. Yep, he's all ours. Plus, I'd be willing to bet there are more DeAndres in America than the rest of the world combined.
MIDFIELDERS:
Kyle Beckerman won a state wrestling championship in high school and is one of the only players on the national team I could have read that about with no surprise. (Howard and, if they have states in Germany, Jones are the others who come to mind). I've always considered Beckerman to be Mastroeni's successor in US soccer, in that he's a great holding mid at the MLS/CONCACAF level, but if he plays against a serious country, we are going to get hurt. There's no faulting the man's effort or commitment, though.
Alejandro Bedoya is the son of Colombian immigrants, but when he says he always knew he would play for America, you believe him. Wikipedia really lets him down, with no background section, but his parents' stories are almost too much to believe. His dad came to the US on a soccer scholarship to Farleigh Dickinson and eventually ended up teaching math there. His mom, meanwhile, was a maid for an older couple, and eventually his family ended up briefly living as caretakers to the couple's mansion in a rich NJ suburb, NEXT DOOR TO EDDIE MURPHY. Bedoya has played in Europe since school, and when he says things like "Glasgow feels like New York City compared with Orebro [Sweden]," I feel like he's all ours.
Michael Bradley, obviously, is the official coach's son of the United States, growing up with his dad in charge of teams like Princeton, the Chicago Fire, the New York/New Jersey MetroStars and, of course, the United States men's national team. After briefly playing for his dad in NY/NJ, Michael went abroad to make his fortune. Although never signed by Arsenal, in spite of semi-annual reports from my friend Chris to this effect, he had decent success in Europe. Playing by turns in Holland, Germany, England and Italy, he was sometimes a key player and sometimes struggled for PT. It can be tough to remember this now, but he sometimes had to deal with nepotism discussion when the US midfield seemed crowded, he wasn't playing regularly for his club, and his dad never dropped him. Of course, it is now clear Bradley the Elder was completely right. Bradley the Younger is our most important player, and it was surprising Dempsey was named the new captain after Bocanegra was phased out: I would have guessed Bradley first, Howard second and Clint a distant third. Michael is one of the few players that can always be seen singing along with the Star-Spangled Banner pre-game and would so clearly run through walls for America that I almost don't want to deduct points for letting MLS put him in Toronto when he moved back this year.
Brad Davis was born in St. Charles, MO, went to Catholic school, played for St. Louis University, and has since spent over a decade in MLS with the occasional national team call-up. He has a very good left foot, a quiet internet presence, and is a few months older than Landon Donovan.
Mix Diskerud's mom is from Arizona, but the link to the article cited to prove that is in Norwegian. To his credit, the kid is pretty blunt about this, saying he's happy to represent either country and blithely bouncing between Norway to US youth teams as asked. This disturbs me in part because does that mean Norway's talent pool is deeper than ours...why did they not lock him down? Anyway, Mix is clearly from Norway, but at least he didn't jump only when his real country didn't want him.
Julian Green is one of the few Germans born in the US, even if he moved back to Germany and joined Bayern's youth academy shortly thereafter. Since, at barely 19, he still had hope of representing Germany, one might speculate he feels a little more American than the others who clearly aren't ever getting into the team. (One might also speculate, as many, many people have, that he was promised a WC roster spot in exchange for his commitment). In an interview, his dad brings up an interesting point, saying basically that he's not playing for Germany, but the leadership/coaching is German, which is a unique situation. For someone who legitimately feels halfway in between, I can see the appeal there. But that's still only halfway American, or about a quarter as American as someone like Bradley.
Jermaine Jones is kind of a tough case. Unlike some of the German players (same background story), his parents were together long enough that he spent a few of his childhood years living in America before moving back and subsequently entering a big club's youth program. On the other hand, he also is the only one of that group to play a full senior match for Germany. There was no doubt at the time he came over that he was switching to the US for opportunity's sake, but he now has a giant star tattoo with the American flag on his knee. I think he's very American, for a German.
Graham Zusi is a common starter on the right for our team, and while I still have no idea how we got to this point - two years ago I went to a Sporting KC game and would have ranked him maybe the 9th best player on the field - I'm past worrying about it. Born within an hour of Disney World, he won two NCAA national championships at Maryland and scored game-winners in both Final Four games his senior year; he even was a criminology major, which in my imagination if not in fact means he took the same BS curriculum as the basketball players. By far the best thing about him is the San Zusi plaque, and by far the next best is that on his official US soccer page, his favorite movie is listed as Tommy Boy.
FORWARDS:
Jozy Altidore is a Haitian-American striker who has been our only hope up front for so long that it's amazing he's still only 24. Despite his age, only Beasley, Dempsey, Howard and Bradley from the current roster have more USMNT appearances than he does, and only Dempsey more goals. He scored 39 goals in 67 appearances for AZ when he was playing in Holland, and has 4 goals in 79 appearances for all the other European teams he's ever played for. He's a young, talented, controversial head case, or in short a striker.
Clint Dempsey, the current Captain America, is Texan, loves scoring goals and showing off, scored 50 goals in the Premier League, came back to the States for the money, is obviously an asshole, and has dabbled in rapping. Besides that his is the only USA jersey I own, what more could I possibly say about him?
Aron Johansson was born an American citizen because at the time of his birth, his Icelandic parents were studying abroad at, of all places, the University of South Alabama. But let's not kid ourselves. Wikipedia warns me that Johansson is a patronymic name; "this person is properly referred to by his given name, Aron." This is because Iceland isn't really a country, where people have normal family names. It is a tribe, where Aron son of Johan is still a reasonable and sufficient way to name somebody. They have a genalogical smartphone app in Iceland marketed with the phrase "bump in the app before you bump in bed," because accidental incest is an actual problem Icelandic people have to think about. However, what's truly amazing about that app, when you think about it, is that the reason it is able to exist is that the complete ancestry of all Icelandic people is available online, going back for like 1000 years when they were all Vikings. Not only is Aron very much from Iceland, but they had him on U-21s, desperately wanted him to play for the senior team to the point of writing scathing press releases saying he had no connection to US soccer, and, heartbreakingly, ended up making it all the way to the final playoffs in World Cup qualifying for the first time ever without him. If they had managed a 1-1 draw or better in Croatia last November, they'd be in the World Cup right now. From Europe. This isn't a Germany situation, where players that aren't even on the national team radar trade on any foreign heritage they have to raise their profile and earnings potential, like so many American basketball players. This one is straight-up treason.
Chris Wondolowski is one of those veteran Americans who is a major MLS star but barely hangs around the fringes of the national team, playing only eight of his twenty games so far before turning 30. In fact, he's such a fringe player that his best ever performance for the US took place with a misspelled jersey. "Wondowlowski" is a Polish name, but the lifelong California boy (b. Danville, Chico State, San Jose Earthquakes) is also part Native American. When I told my mom that the US roster was set, Wondo was the only player she asked about. I feel like that is worth some bonus American points.
***
By my count, that's seven players who are primarily not American, and sixteen who are. The tiers are the important separation, but for what it's worth, here's one man's opinion on who the most American Americans headed to Brazil:
The Americans, Foreign Division:
23. Chandler
22. Johansson
21. Brooks
20. Johnson
19. Green
18. Diskerud
17. Jones
The Americans, Domestic Division:
16. Cameron
15. Yedlin
14. Altidore
13. Guzan
12. Davis
11. Gonzalez
10. Bedoya
09. Besler
08. Zusi
07. Wondo
06. Beasley
05. Rimando
04. Dempsey
03. Bradley
02. Beckerman
01. Howard
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