With our two most critical qualifiers coming up, we are facing a serious centerback emergency. Basically our top 10 options for centerback are either riding the bench, out of season, or playing a different position for their club team. This is very, very troubling. A breakdown: 1. Bocanegra - Hasn't played last 3 games for Santander. Last start: Feb 2. 2. Goodson - Been out of season for last two months, and recently gave up captainship of Brondby after being demoted to the bench. 3. Gooch - Hasn't really played at all for Malaga since last fall. 4. Cameron - Has been on the bench last few games for Stoke - and hasn't played CB for them at all this season. Last start: Feb 23 (pulled after 51 minutes). 5. Ream - Nowhere to be seen at Bolton. Last start: Feb 2. 6. Whitbread - Still coming back from injury. Last start: Dec. 26. (Has never played for USMNT.) 7. Omar Gonzalez - Still in preseason, made plenty of mistakes last qualifier. 8. Besler - Still in preseason, had never started a WC qualifier. 9. Maurice Edu - been playing well at CM in Turkey - last time he played CB was probably last summer at Azteca friendly. 10. Michael Orozco - been playing mostly right-back for Puebla, but at least he's getting minutes. Who's left? If we don't have enough confidence in two of any of the above players, I figure our only option is to bring back Jay Demerit.
Well there goes your back-up option. Demerit just went out of the Whitecaps match in the 7th minute with a non-contact injury, maybe his Achilles.
Just watched KC vs. Philly. For you Okugo fans, Okugo played fb. As for Besler, I have always felt his real position at KC should be at the 6. Nothing I saw tonight convinced me otherwise. Look forward to seeing John and Hedges at cb for Dallas at 8:30 tonight against Rapids. Expect them to do fine and I would love to see them play at the Gold Cup with Rimando in goal,because I want to win the darn thing. Actually, Dallas drafted Zimmerman fm SC with their high #1 pick so I wonder if they will play, eventually, with John and Zim and Hedges at the back. Would not mind seeing that.
I agree with your overall theme, but is this your actual depth chart? How do you have Goodson, Gooch, Whitbread, and Ream ahead of Besler and Omar? The top 3 right now is clearly Boca, Omar, Cameron. Not sure the order, but 2 of those will be starting together in the next round of the hex. It's unclear about #4, I would imagine Besler, Edu, and then Goodson are next in the pecking order. Edu is still a DM, but I'm sure JK is viewing him as a 4th string CB on a gameday roster. Whitbread, Ream, and Gooch won't be anywhere near this team anytime soon. It's more likely that Brooks gets a call (it'd be nice if he accepts!). Personally, I think that a starting tandem of Omar and Geoff will mesh and end up being reasonably sound. Of course, we're thin there, and depth is a major issue.
We're done!! The sky is falling!!! Time for JK to dump his no bench-warmers policy and call Adu back also!
Goodson is a starting CB on Brondby. His club opens the season tomorrow at home against Randers FC. He is definitely an option for Klinsmann.
Clearly is a concern. Didn't Edu recently play CB in Turkey? If so, I might try a Cameron/Edu pairing but that is far from ideal. Add to the CB problem that Landon is still beach combing in Cambodia and Clint is out injured and most likely won't be fully fit and in form even if he can play on 3/22, we've got problems. You can't throw an MLS CB into a WCQer without having had an introduction to international play. The speed/pace is just far too different. While I like Besler and John as prospects, you can't throw them out there without having faced a pace significantly faster than MLS. Omar would make me pretty damn nervous if we put him out there in Den. Edu has played CB and plays at a faster pace weekly and is in form. He's also much quicker than Omar so has more of an ability to recover from mistakes with his speed. And his experience in reading international level attacks isn't comparable to Omar as he's an international veteran, even if he doesn't play CB. Personally, I'd go with Cameron/Edu.
Sorry that my post wasn't clear. Boca, Omar, and Cameron are the top 3. As in, those are the CBs likely to be on the roster. No particular order - it seems like Cam is #1 if anyone is. I'm unsure of whether JK might plug Boca back in after Cameron-Omar struggled a bit. I'd personally stay the course with that pair.
Boca can't get off the bench for a 2nd division club in Spain and is getting even slower and losing strength. Besler and Cameron are definitely better than him at this point.
We've become a team of Bench-warmers. Time to build our team around the MLS and not rely on Europe! Oh wait, the Canada match Time to beg. PLEASE give our guys more minutes in Europe