Tag: John Brooks

The Americans Abroad Five: Yunus Musah is a star

The midfielder’s breakthrough season looks to be upon us

Over the past couple years, the debate over the best and/or most important U.S. men’s national team player would typically center around Christian Pulisic, Tyler Adams or Weston McKennie.

By the end of the World Cup, there may be a new answer — and there may not be any more need for a debate.

That’s how good Yunus Musah can be, and already is at age 19.

The Valencia midfielder put in a man-of-the-match display in a 5-1 win over Getafe on Sunday, the latest demonstration of his prodigious talent.

There were also several big moves for some high-profile Americans in Europe, and a couple injury concerns to boot in an eventful week.

Let’s get to the Five.

Gregg Berhalter says John Brooks doesn’t fit the USMNT’s ‘game model’

The U.S. boss pointed to the defender’s lack of familiarity with a high line

U.S. men’s national team head coach Gregg Berhalter has said John Brooks has not been called in since last fall because he does not fit the team’s game model.

Brooks had been a USMNT regular for several years before Berhalter opted to exclude him for a set of November World Cup qualifiers, and the defender has not been back with the team since.

The 29-year-old is undoubtedly one of the most talented defenders at Berhalter’s disposal, having been a starter in the Bundesliga for nearly a decade, but in an interview with ESPN’s Futbol Americas, the coach explained that Brooks not playing a high line with former club Wolfsburg was detrimental to his national team chances.

“I called [Brooks] before the November camp, and I said, ‘John, listen, here are some things that are lacking in your game, that I don’t see fit our game model, and that we need to address,'” Berhalter said.

“We want to play with a very high line, right?” he added. “So ideally, if he went into a team that plays with a high line, and we can see that every week, how he’s dealing with space behind him, it would really help us get a picture of what he can do for our team. So, he hadn’t been doing that with Wolfsburg.”

Brooks is now a free agent after leaving Wolfsburg and Berhalter insisted, as he’s done several times, that the door is still not closed to Brooks in terms of making the 2022 World Cup squad.

“To me, it’s a question of: Let’s see where John ends up,” Berhalter said. “Let’s see what club he ends up at and let’s see how his form is throughout the fall. And then we can evaluate.”

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USMNT won’t play in Olympics, but they could still feature a strong U-23 squad this summer

Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie and Sergiño Dest headline the USMNT’s strong core of U-23 players.

After losing 2-1 to Honduras on Sunday, U.S. Soccer’s under-23 men’s team failed to qualify for the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan (the women’s team qualified last year).

Unlike the women’s game, the men’s Olympic tournament is an under-23 competition (technically under-24 this time after the Olympics were postponed one year due COVID-19). Because the men’s competition is considered a youth tournament, FIFA does not require clubs to release their players for international duty (for qualifying or the tournament).

For that reason, many of the best U-23 players in the world don’t participate in the Olympics and many countries don’t take soccer seriously at the tournament. It’s not anything close to the World Cup.

Americans love the Olympics, though, and we gather together every four years to watch sports we otherwise don’t care about. Evan casual American sports fans would have tuned in if the USA’s U-23 soccer team reached the semifinal or final at the Olympics — it’s another chance to win gold!

The USMNT won’t get a chance to grow its popularity during the Olympics this summer after they failed to qualify, but they could still build a strong U-23 roster for the Concacaf Nations League in June or the Gold Cup in July.

U.S. Soccer won’t be limited to 18-player rosters this summer, but I capped it at that just to demonstrate the Olympic-eligible core the USMNT has (teams can also bring three overage players to the Olympics). This squad won’t play in Tokyo, but they represent a promising future for the national team.

Borussia Dortmund vs. VfL Wolfsburg: Bundesliga Live Stream, Schedule, Lineups, TV Channel, Start Time

Check out all three Bundesliga games today including favorite Dortmund vs VFL Wolfburg.

Bundesliga is back for the second straight week with four games on Saturday and three on Sunday this weekend. Three of the games today all start at 9:30 a.m. eastern standard time on different channels, all included in the schedule below.

Check out the schedule below for all of the games, channels, and how to watch them live.

Borussia Dortmund vs. VfL Wolfsburg

  • When: Saturday, May 23rd
  • Time: 9:30 a.m. ET
  • TV: FS1, TUDN, UniMas
  • Live Stream: fuboTV (watch for free)

Wolfsburg possible starting lineup: Casteels; Mbabu, Knoche, Brooks, Otavio; Schlager, Arnold; Steffen, Mehmedi, Brekalo; Weghorst

Borussia Dortmund possible starting lineup: Burki; Piszczek, Hummels, Akanji; Hakimi, Can, Brandt, Guerreiro; Sancho, Haaland, Hazard

Borussia Monchengladbach vs. Bayer Leverkusen

  • When: Saturday, May 23rd
  • Time: 9:30 a.m. ET
  • TV: FS2, FOX Deportes
  • Live Stream: fuboTV (watch for free)

Gladbach possible starting lineup: Sommer; Rainer, Ginter, Elvedi, Bensebaini; Neuhaus, Strobl; Plea, Hofmann, Thuram; Embolo

Leverkusen possible starting lineup: Hradecky; Weiser, Tapsoba, Bender, Sinkgraven; Aranguiz, Demirbay; Diaby, Amiri, Wirtz; Havertz

Freiburg vs. Werder Bremen

  • When: Saturday, May 23rd
  • Time: 9:30 a.m. ET
  • TV: FOX Soccer Plus
  • Live Stream: fuboTV (watch for free)

Freiburg possible starting lineup: Schwolow; Gulde, Lienhart, Heintz; Schmid, Koch, Hofler, Gunter; Waldschmidt, Petersen, Holer

Werder Bremen possible starting lineup: Pavlenka; Gebre Selassie, Veljkovic, Moisander, Augustinsson; M. Eggestein, Bargfrede, Klaassen; Bittencourt, Selke, Rashica

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