Gotoku Sakai, and what he means to the USA

What if we told you that there's a player born in the United States who is on the rise? What if we told you that he's only 20 years old and will be playing in one of the best leagues in the world, a league that U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann is very familiar with? What if we told you this player has yet to earn a cap for any senior national team?

The player is Gotoku Sakai, who was born in New York City to a Japanese father and German mother. He has been loaned to VfB Stuttgart from his Japanese club Albirex Niigata.

Sakai has appeared in some youth teams for Japan, so there is virtually no chance he will play for any other country. He joins fellow VfB man Shinji Okazaki, Schalke defender Atsuto Ochida, Augsburg midfielder Hajime Hosogai, Wolfsburg midfielder Makato Hasebe and Dortmund superstar Shinji Kagawa as Japanese stalwarts in the Bundesliga. There are other Blue Samurai stars in the world's top leagues with Inter's Yuto Nagatomo and Novara's Takayuki Morimoto in Italy. Perhaps Japan's best player is CSKA hitman Keisuke Honda.

Sakai, meanwhile, is part of a young generation of rising Japanese players that includes Arsenal's Ryo Miyaichi and Bayern Munich's Takashi Usami, two teenagers who are on the cusp of big things.

Meanwhile, back in the United States, we have the same cast of characters playing in Europe - Clint Dempsey, Michael Bradley, Jozy Altidore, Steve Cherundolo, Carlos Bocanegra, Jonathan Spector and a few goalkeepers. Where are our rising players learning the game in the world's best leagues? Guess what, our teenagers and young players don't have what it takes to do what Sakai, Miyaichi and Usami are doing. And that tells you what you need to know about football here in the States.