The USMNT Player Pool Keeps Growing...Maybe

[Bon_Mot]

The Left Back question might get a little more intriguing.

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New Mexico native Edgar Castillo, who seemed unlikely to ever play for the country of his birth after representing Mexico’s Under-23 team in Olympic qualifying, said recently he’d be willing to take advantage of a new FIFA rule allowing players cap-tied at the youth National Team level to switch National Teams.

“I would play for the United States,†Castillo said during a recent phone interview from Mexico, where he is preparing for the upcoming Mexican League season with Tigres. “I’d want to talk to them first, but I want to play for the US. I think it would be a very good opportunity for me, for my career. If they call me I would play for them. “

Castillo, a 22-year old left-footed player who plays both wide midfield and defense, grew up in Las Cruces, N.M. and was his state’s high school player of the year as a sophomore. But he never got much attention from the US youth National Team setup whom, he said, deemed the 5-foot-8 Castillo too small.

[bullets13]

having too many players is never a bad thing.  then again, if he's not good enough to play for a program that's not as good as us, will he really be able to make a difference?

[Bon_Mot]

He's actually pretty dang good, but the Mexicans are solid at left back.  He's also more of an attacking left back than anyone we have in our player pool, which would give us line-up options that we've never experienced.  Past Bocanegra, our depth at left back is Bornstein, Heath Pearce, and Demarcus Beasley...  I'd take a warm bucket of hamster vomit over those guys.

And he was called up this past spring for a qualifier, but he 'misplaced' his passport and was unable to travel.  Many people think that this 'misplacement' was a decision of his to prevent him from being cap-tied to Mexico.  The new FIFA ruling hadn't been ratified, so he couldn't come out and say he wanted to play for the US in case the resolution didn't pass.

US Soccer's discrimination toward American/Mexican kids has really almost been appalling.  They'll dote on some 30 year old midget from Africa claiming to be 14, but they won't go after kids actually born in the USA?