An Unaffected Roster

It’s really quite an odd term, but one that absolutely fits… at least in my head.

It came to me as I was viewing this Studio 90 video of the beginning of the men’s Olympic training in China on the official us soccer site. The greatest part about watching American youth teams play in this day and age is noticing how free they are on the pitch in comparison to every form of the men’s national team that has gotten a run out in the past decade and a half. This has never been truer than with this generation of American player, many of which put on that stunning performance in last summer’s U-20 World Cup in Canada. These players are seemingly unaffected by the shackles of what traditional US Soccer has looked like in the past. They think and play outside of the box. They are guaranteed to try and hose a weak defender at least three times before even considering a square ball or back pass simply to maintain possession for maintaining possession’s sake.

You can see it in players like Freddy Adu, Jozy Altidore, Benny Feilhaber, Robbie Rogers, and Sacha Kljestean. They are of a different breed than the previous history of American soccer player. Most of all, they aren’t afraid to take a chance. It has often been said that this change from “square” soccer tactics to a mixture of traditional hard nosed play and swift, fluid, creative attacking football would have to start from the grass roots of the youth level before bearing fruit at the highest levels of US Soccer. This generation of Olympians may just be the first to display to the world that it is happening. And what better way to do that than to challenge for a medal and look good doing it? Just thinking out loud here…