Easier reference for Cruz, Brian Mullan. Cruz is a grinder, which is an undervalued trait in these parts. But... Im still not feeling his inclusion with the NT.
DeLeon better think long and hard before he even flirts with the idea of playing for T&T. This is a country that was just knocked out of WC qualifying in only the 2nd round -- by Guyana, no less. Not to mention the fact that their federation is a total disaster: Trinidad World Cup vets raid federation offices
Danny Williams on the right in 4231 and Bradley on the right of a diamond 442 are the grinders for the US. No room for Cruz.
If he keeps playing like he is right now...........I'd say there's room for Cruz at camp cupcake. Then its up to him to show the staff that he has more to offer. There wasn't room for Cruz on the U23's because we had plenty of good talent on the wings with that group (Gatt wasn't even available).
I'd rather have Cruz playing right wing than Williams. At least its a position he's familiar with. We could do worse.
Lade wasn't bad. Nothing he could do on that first goal. Meara got a hand on the cross and it deflected right into him. Miller is injured and has been terrible anyway. Lade's technique is very good. He just needs more seasoning. The new CB came on because Backe probably wanted to "sub 11 guys at halftime". Holgersson has been awful. Just terrible. The whole defense is a joke.
I hope we at least get in contact with him. I think he's just as good or better of a prospect as najar and we should have a much better shot at him. I think we would really regret it if we let him slip away. It'd be interesting to ask him of his opinion of playing for the US.
3 goals and 3 assists in 7 games is a pretty neat start for the man--almost Dempseyesque. Talented attacking group with De Leon, DeRossario, and Pontius.
Well...........we have an infinitely better shot at DeLeon than we did with Najar. Andy Najar wasn't born in the US, and isn't a US citizen to this day as far as I know. Our chances with him always came down to whether his citizenship process could be expedited somehow. DeLeon was born in Phoenix, and is available for selection to the US Nats right now. We've actually had quite a bunch of T&Ters suit up for the USMNT. Ricardo Clark, Kamani Hill, etc.
yeah, three teams i was not expecting to be entertained by this year (DC, New England, San Jose) are all not only playing well, but with a but of swagger and dominance in their game too. DC cleaned RBNY's clock. you already brought up the KC boys, who are all impressive prospects. I guess the homer in me is still pumping up the San Jose prospects. Their staunch D has been important to being in first in their respective divisions. Beitashour has been whipping in some sick nasty crosses into our forwards (i think three of Wondo's goals came from Beita's service) and also plays some good D. And Justin Morrow has been showing extremely well at left back and center back. Sam Cronin has also come into his own this year as a D-Mid. Hoping people start looking at them and raising an eyebrow soon. itll be extremely hard for Beita and Cronin to break in given depth there, but Morrow surely has to be a top two left back pick as far as MLS teams go, and im sure you could make a case for #1. Also, gotta show some love to Phili's Raymond Gaddis as far as eyebrow raising rookie defenders go. He reminds me alot of Justin Morrow as well. Not the tallest but makes up for it with his speed and tight marking.
I was actually much more impressed with the way DC/DeLeon/Cruz/and company dismantled FC Dallas a few weeks ago................. That was a stand up and take notice performance. FCD prides itself on a strong keeping and defense (in fact they started Hartman, a strong back 4, Hernandez as a destroyer in front of the back 4, and another defense-oriented player on the wing in Rodriguez), and DC went thru them like butter. In the Hyndman era FCD has had very few blowout games like that. The previous one before that was against Kansas City.........which was the coming out party of Graham Zusi.
Robbie Findley and, in the youth ranks, Sheanon Williams & Aaron Maund come to mind as well. Maund is actually cap-tied to the US due to filing a one-time switch; he played for T&T in the U-17 WC and for the US in the U-20. I'm still somewhat surprised Findley isn't playing for T&T. He's never scored more than six goals in a season except for 2009 (12 goals), which happened to coincide with a US team desperate for strikers, especially after Davies' injury. I had always figured he'd go the Arturo Alvarez route sooner or later. But hey, he got a World Cup out of it -- and that was a "right place in the right time" situation if there ever was one.
i agree...i saw that i missed him on my original list, but i like Cruz a lot. the problem is i don't know if winger is his best position.
You forgot a big astrix. Putting up 4 goals vs FCD with (guess who) John not in the lineup is like putting up 4 goals vs RSL without Olave or Borchers on the field.
We have been discussing on the SJ boards how Beitashour is currently 3rd in the MLS assist leader table... and he's a right back. He also is dually eligible to play for USA and Iran, so we may lose him to Iran. Some Iran fans have come on our boards saying they would like to see Iran call him up soon.
Good player for sure, but his career would probably be helped by switching to Iran than trying to break into our set-up in my opinion. Wouldn't be a big loss for us (most likely), and he could probably use his spot with Iran to garner some attention across seas.
he was more than reasonable his first game back, hes questionable this week with a hammy, we need him to play. Until injuries to Bernardez and Corrales we had a "if it aint broke dont fix it" attitude about it because Bernardez and Morrow were playing central defense and both had no reason to be benched. but with Corrales and Bernardez going down, we had to roll Morrow left and gave Opara another go. We're fine now.....we have good depth.....but we lose another defender to injury we got ourselves a problem
Opara was pretty solid vs RSL. RSL didn't attack much though so it was hard to tell. He didn't miss many passes and had a nice ball over the top for Lenhart (which drew Olave's red card). He was returning from a corner kick and chasing the play on RSL's goal. Maybe should have gotten back faster, but Hernandez stepped up even though Opara wasn't back yet and Beckerman made a nice play to elude two challenges.
This was the 3rd MLS game of his career FYI: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDTNweXxsqc"]4.24.2010 - Beitashour's First MLS Goal - YouTube[/ame]
That's not correct. Opara mis-played a goal kick and gave the ball away to Beckerman. Then he went chasing over to the sideline instead of getting back into position. This is what opened up space for Beckerman to push forward.