I'm not at all opposed to Wondo making the roster, and depending on camp and the friendlies, I'm not even opposed to him starting. I'm only commenting on the San Jose fans that are so adamant about it . But I see your anecdote and raise you an equal and opposite anecdote. Remember when Robbie Findley was looking like a pretty decent poor man's Charlie Davies heading into 2010, and remember when he really didn't do much in South Africa apart from dribble into pressure then kick the ball out of bounds? And yes I know that Wondo has had some success with the US team against lesser opponents than we will face in Brazil, whereas Findley hadn't, but that's the thing with anecdotes - you can basically get them to conform to whatever point you want to make if you pick and choose your data points. The reality is Wondo is neither Findley, nor certainly not Schillaci, and we have no real idea how he will do in Brazil if he goes, though given his form and our other options, you can make a pretty strong case that he deserves a good long look. Which, by the way, he seems to be getting from the only person that actually matters.
It's pretty easy to root for a guy like Wondo. He turned down a track scholarship at UCLA to play DII soccer at Chico State. Who turns down a UCLA education to play at a small school? Someone that loves the sport and believes in themself.
Yes, I credited Wondo with an extra goal. That was my mistake. I apologize for any confusion that may have caused. And I admired said mistake here on the next post immediately after it was brought to my attention. On the other hand, You, and now KALM, continue to propagate and support this mistruth When none of Altidore's 4 assists reference by epsnfc support it. NONE. Not the bad first touch assist - Not the midfield square pass assist - Not the block shot assist - Not the assist agains league one Carlisle - I haven't call everyone on this thread bias, but I use you, and now KALM, as examples of the bias that is prevalant here. You both still support the falicity of Without offering ANY supporting evidence and while seeing evidence that NONE of the assists referenced on espnfc actually show this. You exaggerate. You and KALM are biased. You and KALM flat out make shit up.
You seem to make a lot of mistakes, like when you "mistakenly" said that Jozy only had 1 assist when the very site you referenced credited him with 5. Or when you "mistakenly" only credited him with 4 in a follow-up post. Whoops! You've employed a strategy of trying to discredit posters that disagree with you instead of building a contrary case for the guy you prefer, which has done you no favors. You're trying to twist my original post to build some strawman argument that all of Jozy's assists came from him battling it out with defenders so that you can attempt to comprehensively disprove that Jozy provides physical hold-up play as a target man for both club and country (which is not even a controversial assertion). Then you provided dishonest analysis of the assists themselves and just ignored all the other evidence provided. That's no way to make friends, dude, nor does it help Wondo's case. Fact is, Jozy did have good CF performances for Sunderland, to the extent that he was praised for it by his coach and fans. I misremembered the exact number of assists Jozy had and the assists themselves (though you can clearly see in the Carlisle assist that Jozy's run pulls three defenders and creates a ton of space) but I guess you're the only one that can make "mistakes" like incorrectly reporting data from a website and "forgetting" that your favorite player failed to score in a big game from 1 month ago -- everyone else is "making shit up" because of their "bias". But I'm a good sport, here's even more evidence of Jozy's physicality: As I said before, I'm not trying to make the case that Jozy's time at Sunderland has been awesome. He had many poor games where his touch let him down or he didn't use his physicality enough -- weaknesses most of us acknowlegde that Jozy has. But he also had games for Sunderland where he was their best player--held the ball up well, facilitated build up and battled and created space for his teammates who were often too terrible to capitalize. That sort of nuance gets lost in the simplified narrative of "Jozy failed in the EPL" unless you actually watched the games (you'd instantly realize how terrible Sunderland is, for example). If you check the full highlights from the matches against Newcastle and Fulham (where he earned a penalty), you'll see some of his better play. He's not nearly as good as we all wish he was in this respect, but we don't have another forward that can duplicate those physical performances for us. Wondo brings other things that Jozy doesn't, but not that.
Greg Lalas says Wondo should go. http://www.mlssoccer.com/video/2014/04/17/make-way-wondo-brazil-bound Brother Alexi probably disagrees.
I don't see how Wondo is a sure lock over a guy like Agudelo who is scoring in a tougher Dutch league. Agudelo also has the skill to take on a man, and has shown his opportunistic poaching talent with the nats before.
Playing, not scoring. Agudelo has scored once, back at the start of February. Since then, he's become a sub.
Wondo's been called in repeatedly and Juan hasn't. That's usually a good indicator of who's being rated where. That's no knock on Juan, but he's likely on the outside looking in, hoping EJ or AJ pull a hamstring or something.
Pretty sure he scored last weekend. At the same time, aquablue said Juan was on fire in another thread, which obviously isn't true.
Yeah, sorry I wasn't clear: he had scored once before this latest goal, that has caused his fans to say he's "on fire." When you got two goals in total, with a two-month hiatus, and you're playing sub (Juan came in last weekend because vd Gun got injured), you're not 'on fire.' You're barely hanging on to a first- or second-sub out of the bench role. Juan has helped his case a bit, though.
The pessimist in me reps this, but on reflection I think we have progressed and can hang, beating anyone in the world on our day--I'm looking at you, Timmay--and even score the occasional beauty from the run of play. Re Wondo, gritty goals count the same as masterpieces, and we'll likely get some of each flavor in Brazil. Don't bet against Wondo opening his WC account with the late winner against Portugal that puts us through. ~OGx3
I would be absolutely shocked at this point if Wondo doesn't make the final 23. He's close to a lock in my eyes. He's not ultra athletic, he doesn't have the sexy measurables, and he's never on any of the fans starting 11....but the fact of the matter is Wondo does something better than anyone else in the player pool which leads to goals in games, namely his ability to make intelligent runs in the final 3rd. Sometimes it gets him a shot on goal...but many other times those well timed runs free someone else up. Either way I think he'll not only make the 23 but play alot in the actual first round of games.
How do you know that? When was the last time that they were called up for the same game or both available for selection for the same game?
Wondo is for when we need a goal in the last 15-20 minutes of a game and are lobbing balls desperately into the box. I have no problem with that. He's a super-sub, not a backup. He couldn't go 90 vs. teams like Ghana-Portugal-Germany, nor should he. Beckerman is a backup, Parkhurst is a backup, Donovan may very well be a backup, but Wondo and the winner of the Shea/Green spot--those are specialists designed for maximum impact in a short time.
He looks pretty quick to me. Everyone who plays against him remarks about how quick the guy is. There is a loose ball, a deflection, a rebound. Wondo is almost always first to the ball. I think that counts as athletic.