WHO IS THE GOAL OF USMNT? Current and former national teams pick the best of the US men

With USA men’s national team prepares for World Cup, a new generation of players is getting closer to the opportunity of a lifetime. In Qatar This fall, the squad will be filled with young, talented players who will enter their first major phase to begin building their legacy. For all that they have done to assert themselves at the club level in recent years, nothing compares to the holdings of the world’s most watched sporting event.

Performances at the World Cup will forever shape the way the players are remembered. That, more than anything, is why Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey are the first two names that come to mind when any conversation takes place asking about USMNT GOAT. It’s the way for the fans and, as a recent ESPN poll showed, it’s the way for a group of mostly active players who have appeared on the international scene with the name their.

ESPN asks current and past Main Football League-USA internationals are not in camp with the USMNT one simple question: Who is the greatest USMNT player of all time?

– CONCACAF Nations League: All you need to know
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Here are the results: Donovan 22, Dempsey 17, Claudio Reyna 2, Tyler Adams 2, DaMarcus Beasley 1. And before you rise to your feet in the absence of the inclusion of famous goalkeepers such as Brad Friedel, Kasey Keller and Tim Howard, several respondents have clearly stated that it is necessary there is a separate category for shot stoppers. – Bonagura

GOAT .(s)

Few splits in Donovan and Dempsey’s national team careers: 36 assists (in Donovan’s favor), 16 appearances (also in Donovan’s favor) and a Gold Cup (again, advantage). Donovan). They both share the career scoring record of the USMNT with 57 goals each; they have represented the United States at three World Cups; and they have worn the captain’s armband at different points in their careers.

That’s why some of our anonymous voting committees sent an “honorable mention” vote to any player they didn’t pick in the #1 spot (which is well deserved). sad, we can’t count) and lobbied for permission to split their vote between the two (another request we regretfully were unable to fulfill).

Even if you need a magnifying glass to discern the couple’s international careers, their club careers have played out quite the opposite.

These two are both strikers and centerpieces of American men’s tennis, but it was Donovan who has been the face of the game in the country throughout his playing career. Why so? Mainly, it deals with silverware.

The Southern California man started his career in Germany, like so many of America’s rising stars today, at Bayer Leverkusen, but he only made 9 appearances for the club. In fact, he played 101 times on loan San Jose earthquakeand won two MLS Cups, before he made his Bundesliga debut for Leverkusen in 2005 at the age of 22.

A permanent return to the MLS would come after just 144 minutes of playing in the Bundesliga during the 2004-05 season, and from there, Donovan solidified his reputation as the best player in America. His achievements with LA Galaxy make sure his name always appears on US headlines: he will win 4 more MLS Cups (6 total), 2 Shield of Support, 1 US Open, 1 Golden Boot and 1 MVP award, scoring 178 goals and 132 assists in 416 appearances. with two California clubs.

So, Donovan is synonymous with football, and MLS in particular, in this country, the North American league has renamed the most valuable player award to Landon Donovan MVP Award in 2021.

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For Dempsey it was different. He is not included in a historic European club. The Texan had honed his path to college at Furman, which was skipped by seven institutions before being drafted for an eighth overall by New England Revolution in the 2004 MLS SuperDraft and earned three All-Star picks before eventually crossing the Atlantic to join Fulham.

The quaint west London club nearly got relegated twice in Dempsey’s first 18 months there, but then he started earning respect in the Premier League. He was the Cottagers’ top scorer in three of his six seasons with the club, scoring the fourth most Premier League goals in the 2011-12 season. He, under the management of Roy Hodgson, helped lead the club to the Europa League final – scoring Fulham’s arguably greatest ever goal with an ambitiously delicious chip of Antonio Chimenti to qualify for their round of 16. Juventus.

He will continue to spend a season with Tottenham Hotspur before going back to MLS with Seattle Soundersbut his trophy cabinet is sparser than that of Donovan: one US Open Cup, one Supporters’ Shield and one MLS Cup – won as he recovers from an irregular heartbeat.

While Donovan lifted titles and won awards in the MLS, Dempsey helped set the path for American players to come to Europe. Although they both reached equal heights with the USMNT, the successes that have defined their club careers could hardly be more different, which clearly illustrates why their predecessors, fellow clubers Teams and their successors (and the rest of us) have a hard time choosing between them. – Lindberg

Future

First, let’s start with the exception in anonymous poll results. There’s no way in the world Adams would be the greatest conversationalist of all time. Results are returned anonymously, so we don’t know who voted for him, but let’s just assume it’s two guys lobbying for a friend and move on. Can he join the conversation one day? If he does, this is the case: Adams is on an impressive trajectory, having moved to the Bundesliga at the age of 18, and is the player best suited to the role of captain over the long term. If he has more than 100 hats, the captain wears many successful World Cups and playing in a top European league for over 10 years at a high level, it’s a career few Americans can match.

Pulisic, though, is the obvious place to start. No one in the team’s history had such an immediate impact at such a young age. At the age of 17, he is the youngest player to score for the US in the modern era and the youngest player to qualify for the World Cup. His transfer to Chelsea broke the American transfer fee record ($73 million), and just last week he became the fastest player to reach double-digit goals (21) and assists (10), surpassing over the speed of Donovan by one match (49). Chances are, he will break the scoring record held by Donovan and Dempsey and end up with a list of achievements – one that already includes a Champions League title – exceed either player.

There were times during qualifying when Weston McKennie is the team’s most important player, and that, coupled with his playing at Juventus, means he deserves a mention. He can impact the game on both ends and has star quality, and a smashing World Cup would raise his profile dramatically.

Giovanni ReynaHis dad got a few votes and this 19-year-old has enough talent to get to that level. His ability to be a talent Borussia Dortmund The 17-year-old team has already shown it, but unfortunately his availability this season has been severely limited due to injury. At their best, Reyna and Pulisic are in a league of their own. – Bonagura