http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/07/sports/soccer/new-wave-of-american-soccer-players-in-europe-bucks-a-trend.html 2016-09-06 19:37:19 New Wave of American Soccer Players in Europe Bucks a Trend The dwindling number of Americans playing abroad has been a source of fret, but some have taken solid first steps up the European ladder. === One of the dominant discussions around the United States men’s national soccer team in the past three years has been about the dwindling number of Americans playing abroad. Since 2013, partly because of aggressive recruiting by Major League Soccer, a core group of national team players who had established a toehold in Europe — players like Michael Bradley and Clint Dempsey, and later Jozy Altidore and now Alejandro Bedoya — has migrated home. United States Coach Jurgen Klinsmann has sent mixed signals on the trend, alternately The discussion is more than a simple matter a debate, however. Finding challenges and playing time for young players has important ramifications for the national team, both in the current World Cup qualifying cycle — which continues with a game against Trinidad and Tobago on Tuesday night in Jacksonville, Fla. — and beyond. “We would have loved some young ones to be further than they are right now,” Klinsmann said in While the generation that could one day replace Bradley and Dempsey and others has been slow to take its place in Europe, the new season has showed signs that that could be changing. In England’s Premier League, Lynden Gooch has started the first three games in Sunderland’s midfield, and another promising midfielder, the former under-20 national team captain Emerson Hyndman, is now recovered from an injury he sustained shortly after signing for Bournemouth. In the Netherlands, forward Rubio Rubin is playing again for Utrecht after a long-term injury cost him most of last season. That progress builds on successes from earlier in the year, when Matt Miazga completed a move from M.L.S. to Chelsea; Bobby Wood completed a standout year in Germany that earned him a move to Hamburg of the Bundesliga; and DeAndre Yedlin started regularly in Sunderland’s successful relegation fight. Most impressive, Christian Pulisic, 17, broke into Borussia Dortmund’s first team and became the youngest player in Bundesliga history to score two goals. On Friday, Wood and Pulisic (twice) scored for the United States in Still, while some of the players have made solid first steps on the European ladder, none are at the point where they are impact players. This has been a source of frustration for Klinsmann, who said during the Copa América Centenario this summer that “you want them to have a fight that takes them to the next level.” “We struggle traditionally with our 18-, 23-year-old generation,” Klinsmann said. “I think DeAndre is an exception. Bobby fought his way through. John Brooks fought his way through, but we need more.” Many of the rising young Americans agree with that assessment. Gooch, 20, has been affiliated with Sunderland since he was 10, and he joined the club full time after signing a professional contract in 2012. “You have to have a lot of patience, and you have to be mentally strong because it is really hard to break through,” said Gooch, who has started under Sunderland’s new manager, David Moyes. “I’ve been lucky enough that this manager came in and has given me the chance. Whereas if someone else came in, he might not have liked me as a player.” Like Gooch, Hyndman made the move to Europe at a young age, signing with Fulham at age 15. “You’ve got to do all the right things,” he said. “Talent is part of it, but if you don’t work on it, then you won’t get anywhere.” Klinsmann said: “Here in the U.S., you call a younger player a rookie at the age of 22. Well, at 22 in Europe, if you’re not broke through yet, you’re done. They move you down to the third or fourth level.” Utrecht’s Rubin, a 20-year-old from Beaverton, Ore., is one of a growing number of young American players who skipped college, and M.L.S., to go directly to Europe. Considered by many to be a top American striking prospect when he signed with Utrecht at 18, he has struggled with injuries, and cultural adjustments, since making the move. “Young Americans, we kind of struggle at times and we kind of doubt ourselves,” Rubin said. “We always get talked down on. People say we’re not good enough as Americans. People say you play basketball or American football, but you don’t really play soccer. You hear that a lot. So the hardest part is trying to find that confidence.” But promising teenage years and a solid first-team debut are not guarantees that success will continue. Dortmund added Still, none of the players seem to be in a hurry to return home. “I think it’s become very easy for people to want to go back, especially if things aren’t going their way,” Gooch said. “For me, I always knew I’ve been good enough to play in the Prem. So to show everyone I’m good enough and fly under the radar — no one expected this, and I didn’t even expect this, to be playing already — I do take a lot of pride in that. I’m very happy to be one of the few that is doing that.”