Interesting piece in today's NYTimes by Jack Bell - who usually knows what he's talking about - speculating about a possible U.S. squad for the next World Cup campaign. Here's who he thinks will be in the squad for South Africa 2010:
1. Tim Howard - GK(Everton)
2. Brad Guzan - GK (Chivas USA)
3. Adin Brown - GK (Aalesund, Norway)
4. Oguchi Onyewu - DF (Standard Liege)
5. Jonathan Spector - DF (West Ham)
6. Heath Pierce - DF (FC Nordsjaelland, Denmark)
7. Todd Dunivant - DF (Red Bulls)
8. Jay DeMerit - DF (Watford)
9. Carlos Bocanegra DF (Fulham)
10. Cory Gibbs DF (Charlton)
11. Jimmy Conrad DF (Kansas City Wizards)
12. Landon Donovan - MF (LA Galaxy)
13. DaMarcus Beasley - MF (PSV)
14. Bobby Convey - MF (Reading)
15. Clint Dempsey - MF (NE Revs)
16. Michael Bradley - MF (Heerenveen)
17. Benny Feilhaber - MF (Hamburg)
18. Pat Noonan - MF (NE Revs)
19. Alecko Eskandarian - FW(DC United)
20. Chris Rolfe - FW (Chicago Fire)
21. Eddie Johnson - FW (KC Wizards)
22. Nate Jacque - FW (Chicago Fire)
23. Josmer Altidore - FW (Red Bulls)
The first thing that strikes me is that - with the exception of the all-MLS strike force - this is dominated by players plying their trade in Europe. And I would imagine that more - Dempsey, Conrad and Johnson - for example might well make the move in the next year.
It's an exciting squad with lots of unfamiliar names I'll look forward to watching. All we need now is Jurgen Klinsmann, who announced his resignation from the German side yesterday. Let's hope that US Soccer is in there quickly with a big offer.
posted by gatorbob @ 1:09 PM
3 Comments:
That's the thing that strikes me about this squad too. And I wonder if that's a knee-jerk reaction to Arena's excuse that the level of play from the Americans wasn't good enough and that everyone has to go to play in Europe. Let's be clear--the squad that HE chose and the system that HE set out unsuited players to perform in was a much bigger problem than that the players weren't playing in Europe. That dip-shit can't remember that Keller, Cherundalo, Onyewu, Lewis, O'Brien, Donovan, Beasley, Olsen, Bocanegra, and McBride have played or are playing in Europe? Or is he pinning the failure on Eddie Pope and Clint Dempsey? Ridiculous.
There's definite merit to the sentiment that US players need to play at a high level, but I wouldn't want this sort of anti-home based player prejudice to kill the MLS. I've gone to MLS games for 10 years now and I can see that there's more quality there every year. Right now, DCUnited is nurturing Boswell, Gros, the Carroll brothers and of course, Freddie. While I'm resigned to losing them one day, I don't want the MLS to be just a showcase for the ilk of Nick-the-wonder-dwarf-Rimando and Joey Franchino.
But you're right in one sense. I look over these names and many are unfamiliar to me. That is exciting and it would be great to see if we can get invited into the Copa America and see how these guys do.
I'm sure you noticed that our Freddy was not on this list. Does he think that Freddy won't make the grade - or will play for Ghana? Who knows. Your thoughts?
Copa America is key.
Many think that he won't make the grade. I'd say that many have noted that Freddie's physique hasn't changed a bit since he showed up at age 14. It's highly unusual for a boy to stop growing at 14. Eric for instance grew over 2 inches from 13 to 14 and is still growing. And Adu's slight stature is going to be a problem for him. It's not like he's a Tevez-sized terrier. He's more a pocket-sized Pat Nevin. He routinely gets stripped off the ball just because of the size difference.
Another question mark is his attitude. He seems like he's getting some rotten advice from his management and complaining a lot in public and then having to back down. It's taken some of the gloss off of him.
And he has an unrealistic view of his current progress. He thinks that his development has slowed at DCUnited because of the spare use by the coach. He thinks he missed out on the World Cup because of lack of play. He doesn't seem to get that it was lack of quality at this point and that you really wouldn't have selected him in front of any of the midfielders that the mad hatter took to Germany.
There's still time for Freddy. Allegedly, he's still very young.
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