An Early Call on the Central Defense Pairing in 2014

If I had to put money on it right now, I'd put money on Onyewu and Ream, but it'd better get me good odds because predicting a lineup three years out is only for people who want to look dumb. (I don't mind )

From what I've seen of Goodson, he has great aerial prowess and could be a lethal set piece guys, but he's defensive positioning is suspect. I will say that I haven't seen him much, but to think Bradley hasn't played him much seems to me that he's not overwhelmed by him.

 

his distribution is in par with Reams. He has an excellent aerial game, he is not physical imposing CB, he is more finess. I think you didn't see much of him because BB prefers Gooch to anyone else, hence Gooch lack of form during WC but yet he got the start over Goodson.

 

I think he prefers Onyewu because Onyewu is better.

 

Brandon McDonald was on Goal.com's MLS team of the week for week 2.

Only 2 American field players made the team. Ouch.

 

so, you think Gooch is better than Goodson? maybe this could be a good thread. I beg to differ, lets look at them up close. feel free to add other tangibles.

ONYEWU GOODSON
6'4 6'4 height
220 195 weight
same same speed
X quickness prior to Gooch injury
X quickness after gooch injury
X distribution
X X aerial game
X club playing time

My opinion why BB prefers Gooch is because he has a history with him and Goodson was part of the gold cup team that lost 5-0 to mexico.

 

looks like my columns got squashed. i rated for goodson in club playing, distribution, gooch better in quickness prior to injury but goodson better after injury

 

Gale Agbossoumonde and Brek Shea.

 

I don't know enough about Goodson to really say. I don't watch the Danish league, well ever, and so I don't think I've ever really seen him play for his club team. So I can only judge him on his few appearances for the US team. Like I said from what I saw, Goodson has great aerial ability, but his defensive positioning and anticipation were subpar. Onyewu isn't the flashiest, most skilled player in the world, but he's still a good defender. My conclusion is that if Bradley, who watches both of them play in their club games and in training live, keeps playing Onyewu over Goodson, he probably thinks Goodson is not better than Onyewu. I could be wrong, but I don't know nearly enough about Goodson to make a definitive conclusion.

 

when you get a chance here is some highlights on him, and not all of his goals are headers.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKZ8A6voWTA&feature=related"]YouTube - Clarence Goodson til Brøndby IF[/ame]

 

Keep in mind that Goodson has played 1 official match for Brondby so far, as he suffered his injury prior to match #2. Everything else is preseason.

 

Close Gale and Perry Kitchen

 

I'm sticking with my picks from page #1 in February.

Vets Onyewu and Goodson will remain in the hunt right up to World Cup selection time. Both will be 32 then, which isn't too old for a CB, although you wouldn't want a whole squad of 32 year olds. One or two vets are going to be on the Cup team guaranteed, even if only as a dependable backup.

Of the Kids, my top 3 pics are Ream, Opara, and 'Boss. Two of these guys have a real good chance if they continue to develop, and two younger players are almost a sure thing given the transition the US faces at CB.

After that, there are some other interesting prospects like Gonzalez, Kitchen and Shea, or even prime age guys like John and Cameron. But these are all fringe guys. I think BB will test my top 5 first, so they will be in the drivers seat as long as they perform.

Best guess is two vets + two younger guys will make up the 4-man CB crew for 2014. Could be 1 vet + 3 younger guys depending on form and injuires. But I guarantee that BB isn't taking 4 young CB's for his WC squad.

 

agree. BB is hard to figure out because he has other factor when selecting. My guess for the GC is that he will take 2 vets and 2 young CBs. As it stands my guess would be: DeMerit, Goodson, Reams, Gonzalez.

 

You can't discount Perry Kitchen I think he will be there.

 

I don't think Kitchen will be ready for the GC most likely for the WC in 3 years.

 

The thing about Boss, without even going into the Swedish league topic, is that he is awfully young for 2014. He'll be 21 during the Hex, I believe, and 22 at the Cup.

 

Boss is young but if he's in good league in time he's in. Being in Sweden is a good platform to make that transition.

In MLS the defenders serve out their 4 year sentences.

 

Agreed. CB is almost always a "veterans" position. Timing and years of built up training and instant decision-making are crucial. 22 is very young for a World Cup CB. Always exceptions, of course, but "Boss would have to become just such an exception. Assuming teenagers WILL become exceptional is always risky.

Heck, even Pique was young for a CB at age 23 last summer, but he already had something like 100+ first-team games for Man U, Zaragoza, and Barca by age 23. Clearly a classic exception that guy.

I didn't watch any of the U20 games this past week, but reading the game commentary it seems 'Boss wasn't doing so well against Panama's U20's. Starting in a World Cup seems like a long way off from that.

 

+1, was just about to post this actually. Mensah was great in that tournament and I believe at the time he was playing his club ball in South Africa.

 

I'm not saying that 'Boss cannot be the exception. Somebody has to be the exception in order for the concept of exceptions to exist. If he develops and earns it, great.

But I'm playing the odds. Voros, who posts on BS from time to time, has a web site with age data from the World Cups in 1998, 2002, and 2006.
http://numeridicalcio.wordpress.com/2006/08/16/ages-of-players-on-world-cup-rosters-1998-2006/

His combined age distribution for defenders is:

Code:

Age      Number
40	0
39	1
38	1
37	1
36	3
35	12
34	13
33	37
32	39
31	54
30	49
29	73
28	68
27	71
26	59
25	69
24	43
23	46
22	30
21	10
20	8
19	3
18	1
17	0

The average age for a defender was 27.6 years. The median age was 28. The mode was 29.

There were 52 defenders age 22 or younger at those 3 Cups, out of 691 total defenders. 7.5% of the total. I have no idea how many actually played, but I bet it was a small fraction of those 52.

So, on average, of the 96 rosters at those 3 cups, 52 defenders were age 22 or younger. Basically, half the teams brought along one defender this young. And I wouldn't be surprised if most were wing backs rather than CB's, but Voros' data don't distinguish.

Can 'Boss be one of the 7.5% who make a Cup roster? Absolutely.

Will he? Who knows.

If he does, he will be in a distinct minority. An exception.


EDIT: Interestingly, 68 defenders, or 9.8%, were age 33 or older. Onyewu and Goodson will be 32 in 2014. 107 defenders were age 32 or older, or 15.5%. Based only on historical age patterns, each of Onyewu and Goodson have twice the chance of making the 2014 team than does 'Boss.

 

Pique is an exception to the rule, I believe he was a forward as a youth player then converted to a fullback when he went to ManU. No wonder he is one of the best scoring CB in the world. Any kid that wants to be a fullback should study him. He has really set the bar high for the rest.

 

For all the good qualities that BOSS has, he still is a work in progress, his game against Panama was subpar to his abilities. time will tell.

 

A wonderful chart, but certainly not dispositive as you can take from it what you want. What I do see is that a 22 y/o has about the same chance as a 32 year old, by the numbers. What I know from watching WC's is that typically when you get past the likely guys to contend as starters, the defensive players that round out the benches are often more experienced players, as coaches would rather risk those spots on players who have been there (often despite how "good" they are right now relative to a young guy). So that probably skews the numbers slightly. But here, we are talking about starters. At least I assume we are from the thread title. And one thing I cannot imagine is that we go into 2014 with any combination of Onyewu/DeMerit/Goodson/Boca as that tandem. There will be a younger guy in 1 of those spots, at least.

What I have noticed in some other threads was a real push for Goodson. I have serious doubts about that as when the chips were on the line in 2010, Goodson, while in the prime of his career (28), was passed over for starting when Onyewu showed he wasn't ready. Bradley chose to start BORNSTEIN (yes, Bornstein) and push Boca to the middle rather than put Goodson on the field. That tells me a lot. By 2014, Boca will be done. DeMerit will be done by then. And the jury is still out on whether Onyewu will ever be more than 80-85% of the player that he once was. Numbers aside, looking at how the pool has gone, it simply wouldn't shock me if the starting pairing in 2014 includes exactly 0 of the aforementioned 4 players.

 

The thing is, I think in isolation, Goodson was the best individual central defender available at the World Cup, but he didn't seem to pair well with Demerit, who was going to be starting. But yes, there has to be doubt about a 32-year-old debutante.