2018 International Duty

but mata didnt go. Is it because they were part of the 30 man squad?

https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/how-do-clubs-benefit-from-the-world-cup-2921370

"The calculations are based on a model that takes into consideration the number of players from the club who are selected for a representative team squad at the World Cup and the number of days each player is at the final tournament, starting two weeks before the Opening Match until the day after the player's team is eliminated. A share is then passed on to the club (s) with which the player was registered in the two years prior to one day after his representative national team's elimination from the tournament."

Mata was replaced two days before Costa Rica's first game, so some of this should be for him.
 
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Might give him a bit of a confidence boost to help start the year but can't help but think this does nothing but hurt his chances to grab a role for City. First full pre-season under Dome and he won't be there for it and was already loaned out once under him. (Albeit under his own request) I think if he doesn't absolutely crush it at the USMNT camp (Which he probably won't just due to the other players involved) he's going to be loaned out again this season.
 
Might give him a bit of a confidence boost to help start the year but can't help but think this does nothing but hurt his chances to grab a role for City. First full pre-season under Dome and he won't be there for it and was already loaned out once under him. (Albeit under his own request) I think if he doesn't absolutely crush it at the USMNT camp (Which he probably won't just due to the other players involved) he's going to be loaned out again this season.
OTOH, training under Done hasn’t got him any kind of role so far. Hopefully a new environment and a fresh chance to prove himself will do him some good. A reset might be the right thing for everyone.
 
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OTOH, training under Done hasn’t got him any kind of role so far. Hopefully a new environment and a fresh chance to prove himself will do him some good. A reset might be the right thing for everyone.
The one thing that gives me a little bit of hope is that Berhalter has proven he can take players that are either egocentric or have caught bad breaks and gets them to buy in and usually turns them around into good players. So if anyone can help right the Lewis ship, I would like to think it would be Berhalter.
 
. . . he won't play defense and has a bad attitude and wont practice hard (this is is according to people within NYC).
And we’ve also heard the exact opposite from others on here, also backed by “sources.” It’s not a great sign that he’s been benched by two coaches running, but I’ll personally wait until Lewis himself shows me some sign of bad attitude before assuming that’s actually the case.
 
And we’ve also heard the exact opposite from others on here, also backed by “sources.” It’s not a great sign that he’s been benched by two coaches running, but I’ll personally wait until Lewis himself shows me some sign of bad attitude before assuming that’s actually the case.
We've heard both sides of this argument now for 2 years. IMO, this is his put up or shut up year. If he can get things straight with Dome and break into the 18 consistently, then everything is fine. If he can't get it right with Dome or just doesn't show he can perform consistently, it's time to cut bait on him and hope he can right the ship with a fresh start in a different organization.
 
Nothing wrong with feeling like he hasn't earned the callup but still being excited for him and hoping he does well. That's pretty much where I come down on Sweat and Johnson too.
I'm pretty confident that Sean Johnson is a top 3 American keeper in MLS, so his call up is reasonable, the other two, quite a stretch obviously.
Yes, I am rooting for all of our players, because if nothing else, it raises their trade/sell value as well as the profile of the club.
 
What has he done to deserve a call up to the national team?

January Cupcake Camps are to find young and youngish American talent to see how they'll gel and play with the National Team. Name me another young American player who could qualify for the U23 Olympic 2020 Team that should get a call up over Lewis?
 
January Cupcake Camps are to find young and youngish American talent to see how they'll gel and play with the National Team. Name me another young American player who could qualify for the U23 Olympic 2020 Team that should get a call up over Lewis?
Lewis was killing it in the lead up to the last u20 cup and then was one of the final cuts. The team then in the tournament was sorely missing his creativity around/in the box and had only a few valid options of guys that could break down the defense.
 
I'm pretty confident that Sean Johnson is a top 3 American keeper in MLS, so his call up is reasonable, the other two, quite a stretch obviously.
Yes, I am rooting for all of our players, because if nothing else, it raises their trade/sell value as well as the profile of the club.

ASA's been starting to look a little more at keeper analytics lately. There's still a lot of work to be done on cross claiming and other parts of a keeper's job, but based on shotstopping and distribution the top USMNT-eligible MLS keepers fall into three pretty distinct tiers:

1. Frei/Melia/Hamid
2. Robles
3. Rimando/Howard/Guzan/Johnson/Bono/Blake

I think the argument for calling up Johnson and Bono out of this group is that Hamid's still settling into his club situation, Blake doesn't play in a short passing system like Berhalter prefers, and the others are too old for the 2022 World Cup. So Johnson's not a bad choice, just kind of a take-your-pick backup deal.
 
ASA's been starting to look a little more at keeper analytics lately. There's still a lot of work to be done on cross claiming and other parts of a keeper's job, but based on shotstopping and distribution the top USMNT-eligible MLS keepers fall into three pretty distinct tiers:

1. Frei/Melia/Hamid
2. Robles
3. Rimando/Howard/Guzan/Johnson/Bono/Blake

I think the argument for calling up Johnson and Bono out of this group is that Hamid's still settling into his club situation, Blake doesn't play in a short passing system like Berhalter prefers, and the others are too old for the 2022 World Cup. So Johnson's not a bad choice, just kind of a take-your-pick backup deal.
Blake is also the keeper for Jamaica ;)