Welcome back to the Thursday Q&A series, where we focus on one particular topic – today's being how Perry Kitchen has evolved into Kyle Beckerman's USMNT heir – and ask you to react, share, and discuss in the comments section. However, feel free to ask about anything game-related (MLS, USL, NASL, USMNT, CanMNT, etc.) over the next several hours.
Perry Kitchen is still just 23 years old. I bet you didn't know that.
It seems like he's much older since he's been an every-game starter for D.C. United since 2011. He's played 12,473 regular-season minutes so far which, for context, is 1,000 more minutes than Alan Gordon's played in his entire MLS career. Gordon has been in the league for more than a decade, having played his first pro season when Kitchen was 11, and – like Kitchen – is on this summer's provisional USMNT Gold Cup roster.
The above is to illustrate that Kitchen has played a ton. He's still a young player, but he is very much a veteran despite his youth.
And he is close to a lock to make the final, gameday roster for every Gold Cup game, and very likely play a bunch of minutes. That's because he'll be the primary back-up for Kyle Beckerman, who is 33, who is in his 16th year as a pro, who has played close to 40,000 minutes across all competitions, and who is still the best defensive midfielder in the entire US player pool. Father Time, however, is undefeated.
I just wrote a bunch about the goal Mix Diskerud scored against Germany, which may be the best goal the US have ever scored in a friendly. But this, from Beckerman vs. the Netherlands, remains my favorite sequence from the USMNT over the past week:
First he launches one attack with an outside-of-the-boot through ball; then he stops a Dutch counter in its tracks by reading the passing lane; then he starts another attack with patient and precise distribution.
Kitchen doesn't often create highlight-reel plays like that - and neither did Beckerman when he was 23.
Kitchen has, however, started to show improved distribution and ability to read the field. Watch THIS clip of Jairo Arrieta's goal against Sporting KC last month, and you'll see that Kitchen hits a beautiful cross-field ball that's eerily reminiscent of Michael Bradley's assist on that Diskerud goal.
Yet his bread-and-butter remains his ability to cover ground and still protect the backline, then play safely out of trouble:
That play is much more reminiscent of Osvaldo Alonso (another veteran worth emulating) than Beckerman, and speaks to Kitchen's raw athletic talent in terms of balance and agility.
Kitchen will need to cover a bunch of ground on Sunday against Orlando City (7 pm ET; FoxSports 1 | FoxDeportes | FoxSportsGO), both tracking Kaká and cleaning up in Zone 14. But watch for the little, Beckerman-esque plays that he's started to incorporate into his game.
He's a veteran now, after all.
Ok folks, thanks for helping me kill another afternoon! Check out the comments section below for the back-and-forth.
