<a href="http://insider.espn.go.com/sports/soccer/blog/_/name/us_national_soccer/id/7546797/us-soccer-joe-gyau-poised-make-impact-hoffenheim-soon-national-team">Make way for Joe Gyau</a> (Brent Latham, 2/06/12, ESPN)
One of the more exciting young American attackers to come down the pipe since Landon Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley, Gyau has nevertheless been toiling in the relative obscurity of his German club's reserves since making the move to Hoffenheim in the summer of 2010. Given the perpetual American search for the country's first true superstar, that sort of under-the-radar development has in the past lent itself to urban myths which overestimate progress on limited evidence, until the player in question is released or moves on suddenly from his European club without ever sniffing the first team (such seems to be the case with Gyau's former teammate, Charles Renken, who last week completed a move from Hoffenheim to MLS).
But in Gyau's case, the murmurs about rapid progress have been confirmed. The Maryland native, and son of USMNT veteran Philip Gyau, has advanced at breakneck pace from the U-19s through the reserves, and turned up on the first-team bench coming out of the Bundesliga's winter break. He was even set to enter a match a couple weeks ago only to have the game end while he stood next to the fourth official ready to come on. Though he failed to make the bench in Hoffenheim's 2-2 draw over the weekend, a midweek German Cup match against second division Furth could be the perfect chance for a debut.
As sudden as it seems, the imminent first team bow is 18 months in the making for the 19-year-old. In that brief time in Germany, Gyau's raw talent and precocious dribbling skills have been polished, yielding a midfielder ready to contribute in one of the top leagues in the world.</blockquote>
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