Again, JK agrees with you re Brooks' performance against Bosnia (at least publically), but the majority of media and BS posters (and me) were not impressed by his performance against Bosnia (while Dzecko's header was outstanding, the part where Brooks could have made a difference was to mark him better). As for his club play, he has been out of the lineup all year, including his recent games, so at least his coach isn't as impressed as you by his performances. Really? At the risk of misquoting you -and I am not, I just am trying to figure out what this mean - it matters because you look at all of the performances, keeping in mind the level of competition and the fact that some were in meaningless friendlies, and pick the best players. It's simple and while the fact that Goodson has played more against weaker competition should be considered, so should the fact that he played consistently well. Based on that, JK will use his judgment and experience and pick the guys who he thinks has the best chance of succeeding against the level of competition at the WC Finals. It might be Brooks, it might be Goodson, it might be Gonzo or some combination. So you watch all Xolos games, Utrect games and Hertha Berlin games when Brooks is playing - do you watch any good soccer like Champions League, La Liga or EPL?
He's been injured for a lot of the year. Are you forgetting that? He seems to have regained his starting spot. I've missed a few games of those teams when USMNT players are playing, but I've tried to watch as many USMNT players this season as I can because of the upcoming World Cup. I watch other soccer. I've kept tabs on USMNT players more this season than in previous seasons. I don't see a problem with that. I think a lot of people have probably done the same thing.
IMO Omar makes more of them. That's all. IMO MLS Cup is over-rated. Yes you have to be a good side, but you also need to get hot at the right time and have a little bit of luck. 2-1 doesn't mean much to me. 2-0 wouldn't mean much to me either. I think Omar is one of our best CB's. He's a very good player. I'm just curious if there is another option that would be better. I don't expect "error free". I expect a certain level of consistency. Teams are going to get their chances. There's nothing to be done about that. It's about limiting those chances as best as possible. The World Cup is in a few months and then we'll have to wait 4 years for another go at it. I think it's completely reasonable for Omar's play to go under the microscope.
I agree on the posts of the last page. Omar is one of our top defenders. I think his last outing was actually pretty good. I don't think that any other candidate will do much better. Indeed, I've been witness to their gaffes.
I can live with OG as the starting CB and not be mad or try and sofa guess JK. I just can make a case from this couch that Goodson has played well when given a chance. I really never thought I would advocate for Clarence for even being in the 30, but he has put together a pretty decent year, he can't make every play and he has some physical limtiations, but I have slowly come to admire his work. Cue: "but the competition has been poor choir!" I can't really blame that on him, all he can control is that he has played mostly error free. I would have to give it a hard look in camp along with Brooks and one of those three that looks best to me gets the spot alongside Besler. Cameron is not even in the conversation for me as he and OG are about even and I can put Geoff elsewhere. My hope would be as MF alongside Bradley in our 4231, if not I put him and Parkhurst as my right and left FBs and lets play ball.
Goodson is one of the least physically imposing giant CB's that I've ever seen. He's got his strong areas where he really shines, but for a guy so big, its surprising that physical play is not one of them. He always gets pushed off the ball, and his ability in the air is not what you would expect from someone so tall.
I am not a fan of Goodson. I think he's a fairly pedestrian soccer player on a good day. On a bad day he's an oaf. He's Dan Califf without the MLS trophies. He played in the 5-0 2009 Gold Cup Final loss to Mexico, which was one of the most heartless and dickless team performances in memory. Any player involved in that game for the US (Beckerman) will always have a skidmark asterisk over their head in my mind.
He's scored a total of 5 goals, 2 of which were with his head. Once against Panama in '11, once against Guatemala in 2010. Gonzo has zero goals for the US. Goodson has 46 caps for the US, Gonzo has 18. Make of that what you will.
I don't know anyone who claims to watch all of Xolos matches, all of Utrect's matches, most of Hetha's matches, other USMNT players' matches and just good matches. It's not a problem for me if you do it, it's only a problem if you don't really do it but say you do.
I don't watch all matches, but I do watch pretty close to all of them for those teams when USMNT players are playing. For instance, I wasn't able to watch the Utrecht match today, but I see that Agudelo scored. I couldn't tell you how he played though.
Goodson is not very good. Better than Gonzalez maybe, but he's not anything special. Ask the Danish what they had to say about him before leaving Brondby. The man is slow, better passing out of the back barely, but slow as a snail.
Sure, we could look to 2018 --if the us was going to be any better in 2018. But history is full of that kind of misplaced optimism. The us needs as many chances to get lucky as possible, so I won't be looking to 2018 until August.
Did you catch Kompany's gaff that might have cost Man City the title at Liverpool this weekend? That was as ham footed a clearance as I've seen from what might be the world's best defender, at the worst possible moment.
I think so. The coach seems to have given him a one week punishment for having concentration problems, although I think this coach just has it out for JAB. He's been their best CB as of late. I think he'll be in the lineup next week.
pshew that was ugly. Always good to remember it can happen to anybody. But I think we used up our dose of that kind of luck on Dempsey's goal vs England last WC.
Or he got a large tattoo on his back that hasn't fully healed and limited him in training. http://www.soccerbyives.net/2014/04/reports-benched-tattoo.html Can't be that stupid, can he?