Here we go again! So Ragin-Rogen is taking seven players from Mexican based teams! OK, OK, Bravo! BUT, what is the MLS and US Soccer doing to ID these players? Nothing! We're letting the Mexican teams get these players, taking them down there, and we take the lazy man's way of bringing them over to US MNT's!!! This is a cheesy way! Why in sam's heck isn't US Soccer or MLS, or any one in his right mind to recognize talent getting off their rear ends and pound the local Latino leagues, high schools, etc., and identify and bring them into the fold? Or is it yet another head-hunting outfit that is doing the hard work, an outfit based in the US and headed by the son of a the former US Soccer president?

Oh, and I forgot to mention that here we are in the last days of August, and they're headed to Arequipa, Peru (what's the altitude there?) for a tournament that begins September 1 - 13??! Where are they going to train, Colorado, Mexico City? Or at the Bradenton Academy (sea level)???

@Ric It's hard to indict them without knowing the full story. For many kids in CA born to parents who came from south of the border (especially those who crossed over illegally) they have very little concept of what the US has to offer other than a little more work for a little more money than they had been getting. With that in mind, when they have a son who is adept at soccer they don't necessarily put him in a place where USSF will see them etc. They immediately contact the club they followed growing up. Chivas has gotten quite a few players like that. I believe Jose Torres ended up at Pachuca the same way. So while, yes, I agree there needs to be a better effort to identify players earlier, the fact is a lot of these players were ever only 'shown' to clubs in Mexico and elsewhere. (this even happens for kids born to English parents who immigrated here. They go to what they know) Finally, even those who are aware of MLS, also tend to know that Pachuca or Chivas at the moment, are going to be able to offer more money up front. So a lot of it comes down to cold hard $$$ as well. If MLS was offering the kind of money highly rated MLB prospects get, you'd see a lot of this change and you'd get a lot more independent scouts like you have in baseball who find people for finder's fees helping to fill up the gaps. It's going to take time. MLS is still a young league, but if history has shown us anything, when America puts it's mind to something it usually gets done, and usually gets done bigger and better than everyone else.

@Manuel: I have lived in the LA area now since 1970, and BTW, I am Mexican born, immigrant, military vet and US citizen, and I feel very confident of that which I speak. I take issue with your statements simply and because it has been all too obvious that the US Soccer structure, going back to the 70's, mind you, is so deeply established and has an ingrown bias against Latino players that they've been largely ignored, not just by the national teams, but by the established and affiliated soccer leagues, colleges and universities and eventually the so called "semi-pro leagues" and the current MLS. A couple of years before the MLS was born, several current MLS honchos (Abbot, Gazidis) interviewed me about the failures of not attracting Latino players, followed by s subsequent interview with US Soccer head honchos (Steinbrecher, Rothenberg) on the same topic. The proof has been on the pudding for a long time, and it has taken at least - I think it has - Sunil Gulati to support the expansion of player identification from the barrios, inner cities, and yes, even suburbia and agricultural America. As to your statement "they immeditately contact the followed growing up..." do you really know just how many names of players the Mexican teams eventually receive? Furthermore, "over there" they have players by the hundreds of dozens, so why bother to look at US "based" and or born Mexican young players? Will MLS ever wake up to the fact that there is local talent, of whatever color and ethnicity? Would Rongen have had the "temerity" to call in so many Mexican (and Eruopean) based Latino players had this past WC not shown our lack of cohesive and intelligent tactical play? Someone recently asked if Rongen's selection of more Latino players for another team to participate in a California tournament was pure concidental or if he head finally and at long last "awakened" from his narrow mind-set and antipathy against Latino players, much like Bradley has demonstrated? Lastly, I am STILL waiting for the day when "America puts is mind to something...." - actually since 1970, when I heard over and over and over again, that in "ten years the US will be a soccer power..." We're into the waning months of the first decade of the 21st Century, and so hoe much longer must we "wait and see?"