(Tampa Bay Rowdies)

As American soccer fans, we tend to over-hype players as the savior of the sport in our nation. It’s become a bit of a running joke since Freddy Adu unfortunately didn’t live up to the lofty expectations set for him.



What would have happened if all our overhyped players met their expectations, well it would have made a pretty good team. As always, we need some rules:



Player had to have played for a US National Team at some level

Must not have played as a senior national player for another country

Okay, let’s dig in



GK: Cody Cropper– Currently plying his trade as the third string goalkeeper for the New England Revolution, Cody Cropper was once tipped as one of the next great American goalkeepers. Cropper started his pro career in England with Southampton, quickly rising up the ranks for the USMNT, getting called into two camps including the pre-World Cup camp in 2014. However, he was never able to break into the full national team, nor Southampton’s first XI. After not making a single league appearance for Southampton, Cropper left for MLS joining the Revs. After a lackluster 2017, Cropper didn’t see the field once in 2018, and is currently the third GK on the depth chart for Bruce Arena. Cropper made 28 appearances for the US youth setups.



RB: Sal Zizzo- Zizzo broke into the scene after a tremendous u20 World Cup in 2007, earning a move to Hanover 96, a team with a reputation for developing American fullbacks. However, he struggled to get playing time behind American Steve Cherundolo and only made 8 appearances for Die Roten before coming back to the States and joining Chivas USA. It should be added that part of Zizzo’s inability to break into the XI in Germany was a bad ACL tear that took him out of the 2009-10 season entirely. Zizzo was never able to really stick anywhere in MLS, playing with five teams in an 8 year stint, ending it with a 2018 MLS Cup win with Atlanta United. Zizzo made 1 full national team appearances, and 7 with the youth setups.



CB: Gale Agbossoumonde- Agbossoumonde was a standout for the 2009 u20 World Cup team, starting every game for the US at the age of just 17, and shortly after started his pro career in USL with Miami FC. Agbossoumonde was then sent on a few unsuccessful loan spells in Sweden and Germany before becoming a journeyman in North America, making his way through a handful of MLS, NASL, and USL teams. Agbossoumonde last played in 2017 for the Pittsburgh Riverhounds of USL and went on to make one senior national team appearance to go along with 30 youth setup caps.



CB: Will Packwood- The Concord, MA native looked like he was going to follow the footsteps of Carlos Bocanegra, Oguchi Onyewu, and Marcelo Balboa as the next great American CB, However, injuries and missed chances led to a shorter career than any of use wanted. Packwood started his pro career in England for Birmingham City, then in the Championship. He was getting a handful of games a season, which is a promising sign for a young defender in England’s second tier. However, Packwood couldn’t stay in the team, or any of the teams he was loaned to in lower tiers of English soccer. Packwood’s story wasn’t one of a player not having the talent- it was one of unfortunate injuries that led to a promising career cut short. Packwood was last seen trialing with the Revolution in 2015 and hasn’t played pro soccer since. He made 26 appearances for the youth setup.



LB- Brek Shea- Brek Shea is still playing in MLS and getting paid a pretty penny to do so. You can make a really good argument that he’s had the best career of anyone on this list, having been an MLS MVP finalist, a Gold Cup champion, and got a move to Stoke City in the EPL. However, Brek Shea never became what Brek Shea was supposed to be, a creative attacking dynamo who could make something out of nothing. Do yourself a favor a google 2011 Brek Shea highlights, the guy was absolutely unstoppable. Then he went to Stoke and everything came to a crashing halt for him. He only made 2 league appearances for Stoke, and his time in England is best known for the time he made an offensive gesture to a Barnsley fan when he was on loan… at Barnsley. Shea is still in MLS, playing for Atlanta United, his third MLS team since 2015. Shea made 34 senior national team caps and 51 youth appearances. That sounds awesome, but he had the skill to be so much more.



MID- Julian Green- I’ll never forgive Jurgen Klinsmann for picking Green over Donovan for the 2014 World Cup (also: Wondo, Brad Davis, and Mix Diskeruud were on that team and I’m still mad).. Green was seen as a wunderkind from Bayern Munich’s academy who only got called in for the World Cup to make sure he would never make a cap with Germany. I don’t think that we need to worry about that now. He’s not a good soccer player by any stretch of the imagination. Outside of his one great goal at that World Cup, Green has accomplished nothing in his career. He blew his chance at Bayern, and now finds himself playing for a team that just escaped relegation in the 2.BundesLiga. Green is still young enough to turn it around, but for right now he’s looking like a waste of a 2014 World Cup roster spot. Green has made 15 full national team appearances, and 5 youth setup appearances.



MID- Danny Szetela- Szetela was a huge part of the 2003 U17 World Cup squad, and the shining star of the 2007 U20 World Cup team that also included Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore. However, those two youth national tournaments were about all he had to offer at a high level in his career. His club career started in Columbus where he struggled to find the field, accumulating only 34 appearances over 3 and a half seasons. He then tried his luck in Europe, signing with Racing Santander, only to be loaned out to Italian minnows Brescia. Szetela came back to the US and tried his luck with DC United, but an unsuccessful meniscus surgery limited him to just 4 apperances, and he wouldn’t see the field again until 2013 with Icon FC in the Garden State Soccer League. He’s found a nice home now with the New York Cosmos, having been there since 2013, winning three Soccer Bowls and sticking around as they try to con people into believing NPSL Pro will be a real thing.



MID- Luis Gil- Luis Gil was the best player on the 2013 U20 World Cup team, and it wasn’t particularly close. He scored arguably the goal of the tournament against Spain, and had the same amount of goals in that tournament as Harry Kane and Paul Pogba, The future was looking good for the US at CM, then it just kinda stopped. Gil got consistent playing time with RSL through the 2015 season, but then left to play in LIga MX for Queretaro. He was unable to break into the team on a regular basis and ended up in unsuccessful loans to MLS and USL clubs, never really finding his game again. He’s still on the books at Queretaro, but unlikely to ever play for them.



FWD- Jack McInerney- Jack Mac, noted Revs killer and former future striker for the USA. I honestly don’t know where it went wrong for Jack MAc, no matter where he went, he scored- with 66 goals in under 240 games across all comps, mainly as a sub. He’s not a case of a bad injury, bad transfer, or lack of motivation- he was just utilized incorrectly. He scored 2 goals in the 2009 U17 World Cup, more than Neymar, and then was kind of forgotten by the USSF- making only 3 appearances combined for the U20 and U23 national teams. Jack Mac is a personal grudge of mine against the powers at be in American soccer. He’s a goal scorer’s goal scorer- he just found ways to put the ball in the net. That’s something we could use right now, but Jack Mac is sans club- even after a good USAL season. It’s a shame that we’ll never see what Jack Mac could have been.



FWD- Santino Quaranta– An absolute legend in FIFA 06, bring him over to Europe in that game and you have an American Cristiano Ronaldo. However, FIFA isn’t real and Santino Quaranta hasn’t played pro soccer since 2011 at the ripe age of 27. Quaranta soared with the U17 setup, but struggled to find any playing time with the U20s. Unlike a lot of the players on this list, Quaranta didn’t make an ill fated move to Europe or Mexico, it was injuries and some personal issues that got in his way. Quaranta played in 180 MLS games over a 10 year span, tallying 28 goals. He had the talent to at least be a pool player with the US, which he was for a short time, but just couldn’t stay on the field long enough. Quaranta is now running a non-profit soccer club in Baltimore and did some television work with DC United. He ended up with 15 senior national team caps, and a Gold Cup goal.



FWD- Freddy Adu- We all knew how this was gonna end. The prodigal son of American soccer, the guy BigSoccer said was better than Messi after a 2005 Youth World Championship game (he was that game, I swear!), the guy we, as an American soccer community overhyped beyond belief. I mean, how can someone be good enough to play in MLS at age 14 and not become the best player in the history of the world? Really, it’s quite simple, USSF and MLS mismanaged Freddy Adu in the most disastrous way possible, throwing the future of the league on his shoulders. This is pre-Beckham MLS, it wasn’t a place that had stability, competency, or logic. It was the craziest league in the world and I sneaky miss it. That being said, it was the worst possible scenario for the Freddy Adu to end up in at age 14. Adu played 59 career games for the various youth national team setups, including three appearances at the U20 World Cup. He went overseas after three years in MLS at the ripe age of 18 and failed to find a home. Then in 2011 he was called into the Gold Cup and balled out of his mind. We all thought Freddy Adu was back. We were wrong. He played 35 games in one and a half season in Philly, and played pretty well. He had stability, but then he left to play at Bahia in Brazil who released him seven months later. After that it was a nomadic journey through world soccer with stops in Serbia and Finland. Finally, Freddy ended up in the now defunct NASL playing in Tampa with Joe Cole. He played last season for Las Vegas Lights FC in USL. I watched most of their games, hoping that Freddy would do something amazing. He didn’t. It was depressing to see what was once a promising career end up being the worst player on the field in a Las Vegas minor league baseball stadium. But if that’s not the quintessential tale of American Soccer, I don’t know what is.

