With 2023 drawing to a close, the Futbol Americas team of Sebastian Salazar and Herculez Gomez give their thoughts on the best American players of the last 12 months

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25 Comments

  1. "Will be" is the future, not the past. I agree with Thompson for what she did this year, quit muttering about potential. For senior, I think it's Horan because of the combination of skill and leadership. I agree Girma was good, but she didn't have the impact of Horan.

  2. C'mon Herc. A Philadelphia Union young player vs A Bundesliga young player who are both midfielders, Paredes will probably end up playing the same amount of matches at the end of the club season and stats will be similar or better. You can't exclude what they do at club because it dictates their place in the national team. And again Herc with this "who scored more goals" mess. Same thing he did with Zlatan and Vela. Pepi(22 appearances, 10 goals, 3 assists). Balogun (8 appearances, 3 goals, 2 assists). In today's world of sabermetrics, we could assume that their stats would be very similar. I remember when everybody (these two included) were praying Balogun would pick the USMNT over England. The reason they kept Pepi off the WC roster because they didn't need him. They had Timothy Weah and Haji Wright. Pepi has been there for over 2 years and the majority of it in Concacaf (USMNT friendlies are a joke). Balogun just got there in June. Balogun is starting 11 at club, scores goals and is dynamic with and without the ball, pace, etc. When you just watch their USMNT highlights and use the "eye" test, the difference should be evident. Goals scored don't always tell the full story. Look at Balogun's shots on goal and how he got there. Pepi can't even unseat Luuk de Jong (33 years old) who qualifies for the MLS at this point because of his name alone. Slow down the Pepi hype train. Its getting old at this point. A healthy Zack Steffen would have kept the inept Matt Turner off the field.

  3. Jedi Robinson is the first name in the team sheet for me and has been for 2 years. Just write it down, and move on to the other 10 players bc there is a conversation at every other position, ZERO at Lb.

  4. I think Jaedyn Shaw deserved to be a finalist for young female POTY. For the young male POTY Diego Luna deserved finalist recognition. Thank you for another great show.

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