I’m a big fan of DC United’s Chris Pontius. He’s a creative attacking player, able to play wide and also play a center forward.

I also understand why he may never get a real shot at playing for the U.S. Men’s National Team (USMNT), because we have a lot of those players.

Graham Zusi is skillful and confident in possession and if you give him half a yard of space, he can loft some beautiful, accurate balls into the box towards his fellow attackers or even get off a sweet shot himself. The much maligned Freddy Adu has that same ability to hold onto the ball and give his teammates time to get in place before he slips a pass through. Jose Torres, when he’s been played wide left, also uses that position to set the tempo.

What we don’t have much of are players who can burn you for pace. Go flying up the wing or drive towards goal with frightening speed. Really, just Brek Shea comes to mind and he’s been something of a head case for the last six months.

Donovan still has that quick first step, but that’s about creating some separation between himself and a marker, rather really than running up down for a game. At thirty, that’s not his game, not anymore.

Dempsey’s game has always been about brute force and timing, rather than speed, because he’s never been exceptionally speedy.

So Pontius will go down on the same list as Danny Pena: talented American players who rarely played for their country because, as good as they were, they weren’t what their country really needed.