Editorial – The United States Men’s National Team roster for the annual January camp has been released. This camp has traditionally been when Jurgen Klinsmann calls up young MLS talent for the first time. Rumors were swirling this week for some players getting called in. Despite an excellent break out season with the LA Galaxy, Sebastian Lletget was not called in.
The 23-year-old joined the Galaxy in early May after five matchless years with West Ham United. Lletget immediately found playing time and became the regular starting left midfielder by the end of June. He finished the season with 20 appearances, racking up 7 goals and 2 assists.
Klinsmann is an unpredictable enigmatic curmudgeon when it comes roster decisions. Lletget certainly caught Klinsmann’s eye this past season. An argument can be made he deserved a call up. He certainly was in the conversation, even if Klinsmann chose to call in an Ethan Finlay or Fatai Alashe over him in the end. Lletget’s USMNT hype certainly caught on last year.
That said, I think we should pump the breaks on Sebastian Lletget’s USMNT hype, not just because of Klinsmann’s decision to not call him in. Don’t get me wrong: he’s a great player and he beat all expectations last season. But I go back to one of Landon Donovan’s mantras: consistency. Doing something well for many years is much more challenging and impressive than having the best season ever and then being average the rest of the time.
Consistently performing and putting up good numbers matters. I’m not saying Lletget’s 2015 was lightning in a bottle. I don’t know what he’s going to do in 2016. He could very well reproduce or improve on this past season. That said, we’ve seen many times young talent come into MLS, get off to a hot start, then fall back down to earth. We’ve seen this in the past to a lesser extent with MLS players hyped up for the USMNT.
C.J. Sapong and Tesho Akindele won MLS Rookie of the Year in 2011 and 2014, respectively. Sapong scored 6 goals in 38 appearances in 2011. He eventually fell out with Sporting KC and has had a bit of a resurgence with the Philadelphia Union. Still, he’s only hit the 10 goal mark once in his five years as a professional. If there was an award for players with five years professional experience in MLS, I don’t think Sapong would have been nominated last year.
Likewise, Akindele scored 9 goals in 33 appearances as rookie. He managed on 5 goals in 2015, playing about 250 minutes less. He did so even though FC Dallas won the Supporter’s Shield. Akindele was a year more experienced and on a better team in his second year, and couldn’t keep up the same production.
Other players close to Lletget in age have had similar break out seasons and then been unable to replicate their success. Dom Dwyer, Nick Deleon, and Luis Gil come to mind. None of these players I’ve mentioned are bad players. But they’ve all had a great run of form at some point that’s gotten fans and media members making boastful hot take predictions about their future. Those players then fell back to their mean over the next year or two.
Lletget might still be on the short list for a USMNT call up in 2016. I believe he was very close to getting called into January camp. But I want to see him play more for club and country before deciding whether or not he’s the real deal. If he plays 30 games for the Galaxy and keeps up his production, and I’ll be sold.
5 goals and 10 assists would be a fabulous 2016 for Lletget. But until we see him play more, keep things in perspective. He’s not the next great American wide midfielder. Not yet at least.
