Welcome back! For more of an intro and context, check back in Part 1. And check back at Part 2 to see the USMNT prospects in Europe. Again, I will be looking at each players’ minutes, games played, assists, and goals (mostly all available at https://fbref.com/en/ with some help from https://www.transfermarkt.us/). I didn’t include stats for youth players or if I couldn’t find them. Here in Part 3, we will mostly examine the fringe of the USMNT player pool in Europe. Come back for Part 4 where we talk about the top USMNTers in Europe.

Reminders: I narrowed my focus to just players in Europe. Sorry Johnny Cardoso fans. Also if you don’t see a name in their expected section, keep scrolling, as there are some special sections throughout, or go back and check Part 1 (that’s where the undeclared dual-nationals are).

These tiers are *supposed* to be in order from worst-to-best but I’ll admit I got a little lost in the sauce. Also, who’s to say whether its better to be in the English Championship or Greek League? I sure as heck don’t know. Within each section I listed the players in order from most-to-least interesting. Overall this is kind of a “who is the best player in a vacuum” ranking while also being a “who had the best season” ranking. So, like, don’t take it too seriously? I don’t know I just do this for fun.

Player Name, Age (Club/League; Total appearances, total mins, goals, assists)

** – Has appeared for USMNT under Gregg Berhalter

2nd Division Heroes (2nd Divisions of France, England, Spain, Italy, and Germany)

• Julian Green, 25 (Greuther Furth; 33 apps, 2488 mins, 10 goals, 3 asissts)
• Nicolas Gioachinni**, 20 (Caen; 32 apps, 2133 mins, 5 goals, 1 assist)
• Cameron Carter-Vickers**, 22 (Bournmouth, loaned from Tottenham; 24 apps, 2115 mins, 1 goal)
• Andrija Novakovich, 24 (Frosinone; 34 apps, 2226 mins, 11 goals, 5 assists)
• Shaq Moore, 24 (Tenerife; 41 apps, 3340 mins, 2 assists)
• Matt Olosunde, 23 (Rotherham; 33 apps, 2037 mins, 1 goal, 3 assists)
• Duane Octavius Holmes**, 26 (Huddersfield Town; 19 apps, 1235 mins, 2 goals, 2 assists)
• Timothy Tillman, 21 (Gruether Furth; 27 apps, 715 mins, 3 assists)
• Charlie Kelman, 19 (Queens Park Rangers; 12 apps, 202 mins)
• McKinze Gaines, 22 (Hannover 96; 1 apps, 6 mins)
• Giuseppe Barone, 22 (Salernitana; 0 app, 0 mins…?)
• Daniel Osuji, 19 (Alcorcon; couldn’t find stats)

These guys are all playing about as well as they can given that they play for a second division team. All of the young guys here should continue to prove themselves for the rest of the season and hope for a transfer upwards in the future. Green led Furth to a promotion to the Bundesliga. He was arguably one of their best players this season. Gioachinni is getting lots of minutes but not showing tons of end product. Novakovich and Moore got plenty of minutes and might warrant moves to better clubs? I’ll admit I didn’t watch any film of either of them this season. Fun fact: Shaq Moore played the most minutes of any American *field player* in Europe this season. CCV steadied Bournemouth’s backline and lost in the promotional playoffs. Rumors are Bournemouth want to make his loan permanent, but they will have to fight off other suitors. Holmes saw an uptick in form after moving to Huddersfield in January. There are apparently more Americans at Alcorcon with Osuji, but I have not been able to confirm that off of Twitter so I only included Osuji here.

Middling Leagues (Ranked 11-20 by UEFA; Turkey, Scotland, Denmark, Cyprus, Greece, Serbia, et al.)

• Jordan Pefok “Siebatcheu”**, 24 (Young Boys; 43 apps, 1748 mins, 15 goals, 4 assists)
• DeAndre Yedlin**, 27 (Galatasary; 11 apps, 668 mins)
• Haji Wright, 22 (Sonderjyske; 37 apps, 2328 mins, 13 goals, 2 assists)
• Emmanuel Sabbi, 22 (Odense; 32 apps, 1916 mins, 6 goals, 4 assists)
• Christian Cappis, 21 (Hobro; 27 apps, 2172 mins, 2 asissts)
• Tyler Boyd**, 25 (Sivasspor, loaned from Besiktas; 14 apps, 726 mins, 5 goals)
• Mix Diskerud, 30 (Denizlispor; 18 apps, 1125 mins)
• Gbohly Ariyibi, 26 (Panetolikos; 29 apps, 1873 mins, 4 goals, 2 assists)
• Ian Harkes, 25 (Dundee United; 35 apps, 2659 mins)
• Dillon Powers, 29 (Dundee United; 14 apps, 581 mins)
• Danilo Radjen, 26 (DFK Backa; 21 apps, 1537 mins)
• Mukwelle Akale, 24 (Pafos FC; 6 apps, 177 mins)

To continue my MLS comparisons, I think most of these leagues are slightly worse than MLS, minus some top teams in each league. Like Celtic and Rangers probably have more talent than MLS teams, but the rest of the Scottish Premiere League probably has less. Same could be said of the top Swiss teams, Turkish teams, etc. Pefok, the Hero against Honduras, played a significant role for Young Boys in winning the Swiss title and making a Europa League run. Yedlin got a much needed move to Galatasary in January. The Danish contingent of Wright, Sabbi, and Cappis all got plenty of minutes. I wouldn’t hate seeing any of them get called up for a USMNT friendly at some point. Hey remember Mix Diskerud? He moved to Turkey in January and he’s doing alright for himself. Can we talk about how Gbohly Ariyibi had a solid season in Greece and very few people noticed? I watched one game of Harkes in Scotland and there is a reason I did not watch a second one. Anyone know why the UEFA rankings have the Cyprus league this high? Seems a little out of place if you ask me.

Declining Veterans (Used to regularly play in Top 5 Leagues at some point)

• Tim Ream**, 33 (Fulham; 10 apps, 930 mins)
• Timmy Chandler, 30 (Frankfurt; 17 apps, 463 mins)
• Eric Lichaj, 32 (Faith Karagumruk; 10 apps, 736 mins)

In some ways I think this is the most controversial section. This list used to have Cameron, Morales, and Diskerud but they all found new homes this season. Chandler should probably follow their suit a leave Frankfurt for more playing time. Ream and Lichaj may want to follow Cameron’s example and jump ship to MLS. But Ream recently signed a new deal with Fulham to stay with the club despite their relegation. The fact that Fulham re-signed Ream tells me he is still in their plans for now. But Father Time is undefeated, and it is unlikely Ream will get any better going forward. He is a St. Louis native, so perhaps he is holding out one more year until St. Louis enter MLS.

MLS-to-Europe Pipeline

• Darryl Dike**, 20 (Barnsley, loaned from Orlando City; 20 apps, 1323 mins, 9 goals)
• Brenden Aaronson**, 20 (RB Salzburg; 25 apps, 1654 mins, 7 goals, 5 assists)
• Mark McKenzie**, 21 (Genk; 16 apps, 899 mins)
• Bryan Reynolds**, 19 (AS Roma; 5 apps 283 mins)
• Brandon Servania**, 21 (St. Polten, loaned from FC Dallas; 10 apps 641 mins)
• Justin Che, 17 (Bayern Munich II, loaned from FC Dallas)
• Joe Scally, 18 (Borussia Mönchengladbach U19)
• Andrew Wooten, 31 (Admira Wacker; 19 apps, 1348 mins, 3 goals, 2 assists)

These are all of the Americans who jumped across the pond from MLS during the January transfer window. Dike is the guy everyone is talking about, partially because he scored some bangers, and partially because it’s relatively easy for Americans to watch the English Championship. Aaronson has adopted the Red Bull Way well under Marsch, and there are rumors he might follow Marsch to Leipzig. McKenzie needed to adjust a little more to Genk. I am hoping he is a regular starter for them next year. Reynolds just got his feet wet with Roma. We’ll see how much he is in Jose Mourinho’s plans next season. Brandon Servania quietly got loaned to an Austrian team that has a relationship with Bayern Munich. I always thought most people underrated Servania and I hope he gets more chances in Europe. Justin Che has made some noise. @scuffed is on the record saying that Che looks better for Bayern II than Richards did and Che is younger than Richards was at the time Richards was on Bayern II. Scally was bought for a lot of money to not even make a cameo for Gladbach’s first team. Hopefully that changes next season.

Thanks for reading! Come back for Part 4 tomorrow. Have any questions or qualms with how I organized this? Then leave a comment below or yell at me on Twitter, @Beardedjack