Well, this is the key. If JK doesn't feel Jozy is up to that task, then no, he won't be useful. But, given his physicality and speed, I think he has the skills to hold the ball up and let the US transition to attack, and he also can be a force if he presses high. Now, when he was in form, he WAS doing a good job pressing. I'm hoping he still comes to the US and does that.
Im not saying you take him but in that 23Rd LM spot that seems to be between Shea, Green, and Davis I think you have to put Edgar Castillo in the discussion at the very least. He's a nightmare waiting to happen defensively at Left Back, but I always thought one of his strengths was going forward and he's a fairly solid technical player with the ball at his feet. He can also provide more defensive cover on the left IMO than any of those other guys.
That was true, especially for the first part of his hot spell at AZ. At the time, I was really incensed with JK for leaving Altidore out. However, with the form that Altidore produced in the subsequent summer for the US, it's hard to argue that Juergen badly mismanaged the situation. Whatever happened, all is good between JK and Jozy now, with Jozy making clear how comfortable he feels with the US now. In the long run, that he was dropped for some qualifiers earlier in the cycle is not that significant given his return to the squad and outright winning of the starting striker position. Hopefully coming to the US this summer will turn him around - a strong WC will attract buyers, despite his struggles at Sunderland.
To say that EJ and ALAN GORDON should have been about the poorest decisions he has made, but he won, so yes JK clearly gets a pass. And that is what he is paid for. Not making Jozy produce or not produce at his club.
Absolutely agree about Alan Gordon never being NT-caliber. However, the thing that I keep in mind is that JK's real task was getting the right team ready for the WC. Here we are in 2014, and Alan Gordon is not part of the conversation, while Jozy (who we all knew was the best striker for the squad) is entrenched as the starter. Gordon's inclusion was not about prepping him for the WC, it was about setting the stage for the right guy to come along later (Jozy rose to that challenge). So, in this situation, mission accomplished. However, there are other areas where JK has clearly failed by the same measuring stick. Brad Evans and DaMarcus Beasley are the two most obvious examples. Earlier in the cycle, their use as stop-gaps, fill-ins, or even just the use of them as fullbacks to motivate better-suited candidates would have been acceptable. However, here we are two months before the Cup, and there is legit conversation about these being our starters. JK failed in properly integrating quality fullbacks - the reasons for this could be many and are debatable, but no doubt that JK has failed in maximizing our potential at fullback (I'm working under the assumption that even now, we have better choices than Evans and Beasley that have simply not been utilized).
these are good points being made, about the team still being UNsure of who starts, should start, and even makes the 23 how do these questions and issues compare to the other teams in our group ? Germany, Portugal, Ghana are there still questions about who the starters will be for them ? (i wanted to make this a "new" topic, but BS wont let me)
I think he was upset with how Jozy approached training with the USA making club form not matter in his eyes.
For me I really think most roster spots are taken up. The only ones left available I see are between: Evans vs parkhurst (neither if chandler can get healthy) Brooks vs onyewu vs orozco vs ream Beckerman vs diskerud vs edu vs Williams I see two of these four going and this battle is really heating up with all 4 playing well despite mix's recent drop in playing time Ej vs wondo a Boyd vs Shea vs davis vs green again I see two of these going Other than that I would say most other are set in stone: Howard Guzan Rimando Cameron Besler Gonzo Goodson Beasley F. Johnson Bradley Jones Donovan Dempsey Zusi Bedoya Johannsson Altidore
Williams is definitely making a late push between him, Beckermen, and Edu..he's been doing very well for a pretty good Reading squad.
Let's not get distracted with Championship players at this stage who are still young and developing. Let's see if Williams makes it with Reading in EPL next year at which point he has to be considered for next cycle.
I think this is going to be one of the really interesting selections for JK. The fan base surely wants only one backup DM plus Diskerud's offensive potential. But push comes to shove, I am starting to think JK will stock up on an extra DM or two and we will see Diskerud bumped out of the 23. Given the group we are in, JK will lean toward the more experienced and physical options.
this isnt the 90's...the us isnt going to be involuntarily bunkering for significant stretches in the world cup......however, IF the us IS bunkering...i don't like the idea of jozy alone up top. he does better with a fast partner who can make good runs a la davies...maybe wondo or ej or agudelo could do this.
There's no arguing this...these 17 are as close to locked in stone as you can get. Any remaining arguments pertain to the 6 leftover spots. Of those 6 spots I think Parkhurst (due to his flexibility), Beckerman (a Klinsi favorite), Wondo (steady and coming on for the NT as of late), and Evans are near stone cold locks. So I think we're really only talking about 2 spots here. I think Brad Davis is almost a for sure at #22 As of right now I'm guessing that 23rd spot is between Green or another CM like Edu.
You don't rule out a player cause he plays in the championship. The team he plays on and against are for the most part better than the majority of MLS. He's definitely playing his way into the conversation.
The midfield is not the problem. Who besides wondo has scored lately. It always seems once good always good. What has Jozy done lately???? He scores on a low level team if at all! Boyd , what has he done? Dempsey has only started scoring lately, Johnson??? Donovan/ Has he scored lately? Who else is going to score? I sure hope Wondo is one of the 23...
But the Euros you keep force feeding us are Scotland 0-0 USA Austria 1-0 USA Ukraine 2-0 USA In their most recent FIFA friendlies. Sorry, that's not scoring.
Not sure there was a distinction being made Re: club/country..the poster just asked who has scored lately (including club play). Donovan hasn't scored in his past 3 matches against Mexico, S Korea and Jamaica and Dempsey hasn't scored in the run of play for the USMNT since June..since then he's played against Mexico, CR, Honduras, Panama, Ukraine and Mexico again. That doesn't mean Dempsey hasn't scored lately. In the past two weeks however he has 5 goals. Also Scotland and Ukraine are both top 25 sides, they are quite good with their full A team. Austria also has one of the better players in the world in David Alaba.
Williams, Agudelo and Boyd may or may not end up on the 30, but the arguments discounting their club performances here are pretty specious. They can only play against the teams on the schedule; Championship teams play other Championship teams. It's not a terrible level to evaluate a CDM at. Likewise, you can't penalize Boyd, for example, for friendlies he didn't even participate in. Those results against Scotland, Austria and Ukraine have nothing to do with anything in terms of decisions to roster guys. All three guys are lower on the depth chart in their respective positions but arguments can be made that each brings something to the table better than a guy ahead of them (Williams is a billion times more athletic than Beckerman and about the same quality as Edu, Agudelo is a lot more talented than Wondo or EJ, and Boyd is more skilled than EJ and Wondo and more physical than Agudelo or AJ). I don't know that any of them make it to the 23, but Boyd and Williams have a good chance of making it onto the 30. I think Agudelo might have too big of a mountain to climb, in that EJ has performed for JK this cycle, Wondo is on a hot streak scoring, and AJ has a better overall resume, but he could certainly end up in camp as well if a guy gets hurt or something. Finally, bear in mind that at best, all 3 guys are role players, so for those back end roster spots, you're looking for guys that can fill multiple roles in case of injury, or bring a very specific, useful skill to the table that would justify their inclusion on a tournament roster. It's not like building a club roster and viewing squad depth through the prism of a season. You have a guarantee of 3 games against known opponents. Does Agudelo match up better than Wondo against the group stage teams? Do you want to bring a spare CDM in case Jones gets hurt or suspended? How much do you trust Beckerman's positional discipline to make up for his lack of lateral quickness against 3 really good midfields? Do you want to bring in another big striker to throw onto the field when trying to earn a result late? Do you want bench strikers that can create something from nothing? Those are all questions that JK & Co would need to answer with respect to the 18-23 spots.
This is a fair statement, but it discounts one factor: injury. Although I can't recite them off the top of my head, it seems that there is always one of the "most obvious 15" guys who will pick up an injury in the months/weeks leading up to the WC that rules them out. Maybe it will be somewhere we have redundancy, or maybe it won't. If it's a thin position, some of those guys that would ordinarily be numbers 17-23 can end up becoming First 11 -- Maestro being the obvious example from past cups. So those 6 other spots may become something other than "leftover."