https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/sep/21/lynden-gooch-sunderland-premier-league

quote:

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Gooch's involvement at Sunderland has already caught the eye of Jurgen Klinsmann, who held talks with him last week. "It's wonderful to see a kid break through at the start of the Premier League season," Klinsmann told ESPN.
Although he is also eligible to represent England and Ireland, Gooch still sees himself as American, albeit he remains frustrated at his exclusion from the US Under-20 squad for last year's World Cup.
"I qualify for England and Ireland as well, so there's always stuff that can happen," he says. "But I would love to play for the US again. I had a lot of pride putting on that shirt coming from California. I played a lot of football in California and I owe a lot to the country. The door is wide open at the minute."
It's a door that Gooch is banging on loudly.

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Gooch made his Sunderland first team debut back in 2015 ( FA Cup, I think), and EPL debut last season. I don't know how/why Jurgen hasn't had him more involved. #FireJurgen.

Heh. Gooch.

Sunderland is basically awful

Sunderland will probably finally get relegated this year. They've had unbelievable luck the past few years. But Gooch starting is good for us. He'll get loads of experience and we should cap-tie him soon.

Does make you wonder how he couldn't have made the squad for our World CUp team considering we didnt qualify.

I think you are getting World Cup and Olympics mixed up. We were a participant in the 2015 U-20 World Cup.

Jmm article mentioned u20 world cup

quote:

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yea the article mentioned u20 world cup. Statement still stands, that it seems odd to not be called in. Maybe still struggling to identify talent, or possibly the people selecting have certain biases towards and for certain types of players?

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The midfield for that WC team was quite crowded. Acosta was forced out to LB for most of the tournament iirc.

Our midfield was Hyndman, Zelalem, etc.

Gooch was good but so are those guys.

Biggest ?'s on the squad were Jordan Allen (RSL), Marco Delgado (formerly of Chivas USA) and Joel Sonora (who was in the Boca Academy, currently plays for Stuttgart reserves).

All of those guys were thought to be top tier talents, whether they have started to pan out (acosta) or are still developing, or seem to have been potential busts (Delgado).

Gooch was a solid prospect but I don't think it's absurd to have dropped him for any of those guys.


Our forward selections for that tournament were a little more head scratching.