Lizzy Becherano
Jeff Carlisle
Jeff Carlisle
U.S. soccer correspondent
Jeff Carlisle covers MLS and the U.S. national team for ESPN FC.
The last 12 months before a World Cup are an exercise in balancing risk and reward for professional soccer players. Do you play it safe and stick with your current club even if it might result in some stagnation? Or do you take the ultimate risk and move to your dream destination, regardless of the World Cup consequences? Then, there’s the third scenario: knowing a switch needs to be made, but being careful about where you land.
It’s a dilemma that past and present United States men’s national team players have faced. In the last window, Gio Reyna moved to Borussia Monchengladbach; Matt Turner secured a loan to the New England Revolution, his former club; and Paxten Aaronson turned some heads by leaving Eintracht Frankfurt and landing back in MLS with the Colorado Rapids. Others, such as AC Milan’s Yunus Musah, might make a move. They are by no means the first. Oguchi Onyewu made the leap to AC Milan in 2009, while Stuart Holden left the Houston Dynamo to join Bolton Wanderers just six months before the 2010 World Cup.
But no matter the circumstances, the goal is always the same: get in a good playing situation and hit something approaching top form so that the manager has no choice but to take you to the World Cup. Navigating that goal has different challenges for every player, as these examples illustrate.
Making the big bet
Fifteen years ago, Holden went all in, placing a massive bet on himself. He had let his contract with Houston expire, allowing him to become a free agent and chase his ultimate dream of playing in the English Premier League.
After a friendly against Denmark in November 2009, Holden sat down with then-manager Bob Bradley to talk about his chances of making the 2010 World Cup squad. Holden recalls that he was told his odds were at about 60%. Two months later, he officially signed with Bolton Wanderers, which, at the time, was in the Premier League.
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Holden remembers being aware of the World Cup stakes, and the possible consequences of his move.
“I was never guaranteed anything by Bob,” Holden told ESPN. “I knew that if I went to Bolton and didn’t play, it would’ve put me in a really tough position to try to be in a place to make that roster.”
Holden also had immense confidence in his game. He didn’t dwell on the negatives, instead focusing on the task of becoming a regular with Bolton. Holden knew if he accomplished that goal, the World Cup would take care of itself. But he knew it wouldn’t come easy.
“It’s not like I was signed for a transfer fee and there was pressure for me to be played by the coach. I had to really kind of earn that opportunity,” Holden said. “Maybe there would’ve been a chance I missed out on the World Cup, but to me, there had been a lifelong goal of mine to play in the Premier League, and I had that opportunity and so I went for it, and just kind of bet on myself. I had found previously in my career if I bet on myself, more often than not, things had gone my way.”
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For Holden, the months before the World Cup had more obstacles than an episode of “American Ninja Warrior.” Holden didn’t make the gameday roster for Bolton until late February. Soon after, a tackle from Nigel de Jong in a U.S. friendly against the Netherlands resulted in a broken fibula that required surgery. Holden recovered in time to play in Bolton’s last game of the season. Bradley knew he wasn’t completely fit but still put him on the U.S. roster.
Though Holden’s subsequent years in Europe were plagued by injury, he still feels he made the right choice. He could easily have re-signed with MLS and “parked it in Houston for another couple of years” through the World Cup and beyond. But he felt he would have been settling.
“It ended up being the best decision I made in my life, and I got to go and play in the Premier League,” he said. “But I guess as I sit here and reflect, it could have gone completely the other way for me.”
A different kind of wager
Paxten Aaronson appeared to have everything in Europe. He was on the books of Eintracht Frankfurt, third-place finishers in the Bundesliga last season. He had two productive loan spells in the Netherlands, first with Vitesse and later with FC Utrecht, where he was nominated for the Johan Cruyff Young Talent of the Year award at the end of last season.
There was some shock, then, when it emerged that Aaronson secured a transfer to the Colorado Rapids earlier in August. Why leave Europe just when things were taking off, at age 22, no less?
As it turned out, there were a few things that Frankfurt couldn’t give Aaronson. One was steady minutes on the field.
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“[Frankfurt] kind of told me that I probably wouldn’t get the playing time there that I would need at this stage in my career, and especially since the season I had last year,” he said. “And then I kind of knew it was time to probably find another team and they did as well.”
A second issue was stability — or in Aaronson’s case, the lack of it. Another year on loan wasn’t appealing, and Aaronson said he wanted to lay down some roots. He also spoke of “little things” that added up during his time in Europe, though he also mentioned one big thing. Early on during his time in Frankfurt, and while he was away at a national team camp, his apartment caught fire and he lost his possessions.
“It’s just like these little things, [they] all kind of accumulate to not being able to really settle in or find a home, and that was one big reason for me to come back and be close to family, and all these little things that maybe the media doesn’t know,” he said. “But it’s hard to go over to Europe with nobody and then have these little things happen and be able to stay focused on the field.”
There is a stigma attached to American players who go to Europe and then come back to MLS, especially if they’re as young as Aaronson. It looks like a retreat or failure, as if the player couldn’t handle the rigorous nature of European soccer. Aaronson’s situation was more nuanced.
There’s also the fact that such a decision doesn’t weigh as heavy on a player’s reputation as it used to. Part of that is down to U.S. manager Mauricio Pochettino’s attitude toward MLS. He said Tuesday that he thought MLS was better than some European leagues, though he didn’t identify which ones.
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Certainly, Aaronson’s World Cup prospects impacted his decision.
“You don’t want to go somewhere where you’re going to be on the bench because you know then you probably don’t have the best chances of making the team,” Aaronson said. But this was also a career move, not just a World Cup one. Aaronson added that he didn’t discuss his decision with Pochettino, but in some respects, he didn’t need to. Pochettino had shown in previous camps that he wasn’t averse to bringing in domestic players.
“I do think [Pochettino and his staff’s] view on MLS is high,” Aaronson said. “I think they do rate the league. You can see from the amount of players that they bring in, and also the way they speak about it. So, it’s definitely something that I knew if I came back to MLS, it’s not like an automatic big ‘X’ on my name. So, those kinds of things definitely help.”
Aaronson recalled that the final decision was difficult. There was European interest. There were “four days of a lot of thinking.” He didn’t sleep. But ultimately, he decided to go to Colorado, with manager Chris Armas’ sales pitch of making Aaronson a key cog proving vital. To hear Aaronson explain it, he’s making a bet on himself much like Holden did 15 years ago.
“I know if I’m playing every game, and giving it my all, then yeah, why wouldn’t I make the team?” he said. “I believe in my quality and believe in my abilities. And I’ve shown it before. So, once I do commit to things, yeah, I just go full gas and never look back, which I think is an important mindset.”
Riding the emotional roller coaster
Matt Turner has experienced some precipitous ups and downs over the past several months, even as there was total clarity as to what he needed to do. After a season in which he made just four appearances — none in league play — while on loan at Crystal Palace, he knew he had to leave Nottingham Forest and find a place where he would get consistent playing time. His starting spot with the USMNT was already under threat, with New York City FC’s Matt Freese playing every minute at the Gold Cup while Turner watched from the bench.
“I think it’s in the back of every American player’s mind right now, especially guys that want to be part of the team,” Turner said about the World Cup. “So for me, I want to not just be part of the team; I want to be the guy that’s being relied upon that has that responsibility. And for me, I need to play and I need to recoup that feeling of playing and being relied upon consistently week in, week out, so that way I can go back into the national team and use the experiences of having been relied upon consistently.”
The U.S. keeper thought he had found the right club when he transferred to Ligue 1 side Lyon for $9 million. But a tumultuous ownership and financial situation, which nearly resulted in Lyon’s relegation to Ligue 2, meant budgets were cut, and Turner was a casualty.
That meant moving back to square one. Teams in the English Championship were interested, but Turner felt he was “stagnant” in England, and at Palace, he lost a bit of his edge, knowing that he would be backing up starter Dean Henderson every week. At Premier League level, he was viewed as a backup. Turner still has hopes of returning to Europe, but knows he needs to rebuild his game a bit.
Turner recalled that New England was “ready to move the fastest,” and he ultimately secured a one-year loan to the club where he began his professional career.
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“I’ve been a tradable asset at the end of transfer windows in England a few times, and it can get pretty stressful,” he said. “And I think after feeling like I had done my work early and I was ready for that stability that I was going to be provided with in Lyon, I think that’s sort of what I was craving. I know that I could get that [in New England] and now I can lay the foundation of my confidence in playing every week.”
But plenty of soccer aspects lined up. Turner knows the club, and there are familiar teammates like defender Andrew Farrell with whom to reconnect. Turner will also have the opportunity to work with goalkeeper coach Kevin Hitchcock once again.
“[Hitchcock] knows how to get the best out of me,” Turner said. “He knows what makes me tick, and he could really push me to get to the level that we both know that I can play at consistently.”
Turner’s motivation wasn’t solely about his World Cup prospects, or a desire to head back to his old club. Turner’s son was born with a heart defect, which required his wife, Ashley, to make periodic trips to the U.S. for treatment in Boston. That commute will be much shorter now. Proximity to family was another plus.
Turner said that Pochettino was “looped in” on everything that was going on, and though he relied on the U.S. manager’s advice, he ultimately would do what was best for him and his family.
The move is having the desired effect on his club form. In three matches, two of which the Revs have won, he has already prevented 1.62 expected goals. Not that Turner is taking anything for granted. It wasn’t enough to get called back into the USMNT for the September window.
“Goalkeeping is crazy,” he said. “Every play has the potential to derail you, so you’ve just got to keep the focus.”
