Depends on MLS Cup playoffs but I would like to see Gonzalez. Josh Gatt is the other player I'd like to see.
Assuming everyone heals up and no one is hurt by November I'd call: Goalkeepers: (3) Howard, Guzan, Hamid/Johnson (whoever is not in the MLS playoffs) DEF: (8) Johnson, Castillo, Bocanegra, Cameron, Edu, Gonzalez/Besler/John (MLS playoff dependent), Parkhurst, Cherundolo MID: (10) Dempsey, Donovan (MLS dependent), Bradley, Zusi, Williams, Corona, Kljestan, Jones, Gatt, Shea FWD: (2) Gomez, Altidore (assumption being Eddie Johnson is with the Sounders) ----------Gomez Dempsey---Donovan-----Zusi -------Bradley----Williams Johnson-Bocanegra-Cameron-Cherundolo --------------Howard You start your best 11 to get more time with them and after half you start to use the 6 subs so it eventually morphs to -----------Gomez Shea------Corona-------Gatt -------Bradley--Williams Johnson-Edu--Cameron--Parkhurst --------------Guzan
Really this is the game where George John and Freddy Adu should be on the roster. No reason to bring 3 old defenders + Cameron, and Donovan, Zusi, EJ could very well be in the playoffs still.
Official: http://www.ussoccer.com/News/Mens-N...sia-on-Nov-14-for-International-Friendly.aspx 10 AM, I have class then
-He's expressed little desire to play for us -He's not good enough to bend over backwards to accomodate. -I agree about pragamatism. We need to spend the precious time we have prior to the Hex using players who we know will be available depending on injuries and form, and getting that group to gel so that we don't go into the Hex looking like a dumpster fire again. Timothy Chandler doesn't deserve a call up on merit, on behavior nor on situation.
My Problem with Whitbread is he will be 29 next year and I personally don't think Championship level of play is any better then MLS. Not exactly that much younger, would rather go find a younger MLS guy.
Do you consider the Premier League better than MLS? Because last year Whitbread started 18 games in the premier league. DeMerit only started 29 games in the Premier League, and that was 3 years before the 2010 world cup, in which he was arguably our best centerback. And the top half of the Championship is still a higher level than MLS at the moment (the avg. salaries are at least double, if that's any indication).
He doesn't deserve a call based on merit? He has 47 starts in the BL since February 2011 with 3 goals and 4 assists. Dolo has 43 starts in that same time frame with 0 goals and 0 assists.
I do. Player IQ sure as hell is quite a bit higher. I think a little less than half of MLS would be in League 1. I'd say the bottom 4-6 teams, maybe more would fight like hell not to get relegated. Although I also think the top 4-6 MLS clubs would comfortably finish in the top half of the table. NE, Por, Chivas, Tor, Van, FCD, Col, Philly I would say could barely hack it in the Championship and would be lucky to stay up. Mostly League 1 quality as well when you get past the top 4-8 players on most clubs as well. Just my opinion though. Ream/Rogers, two of the better MLS players and two of the top players on their MLS teams so far have been complete failure at the Championship level. Findley has been a failure too.
I can see your point (but not agree) until you made this statment, don't even think their club supports would back this one up.
Perhaps I missed something - does anyone here know anything more about this: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/us-soccer-play-exhibition-russia-202157013--sow.html
This is a great point--why do we even call Dolo up? He's shitty at scoring goals. He's only scored 2 in 86 games for the MNT!
He did an interview with Rob Stone about a month ago where he discussed the January camp no longer being about rewarding MLS players with merit based caps just for the sake of doing so. That is, players that he does not expect to be a part of the national team picture. I'm picturing players like Larentowitz, Ricardo Clark and others. He talked about getting the U23 team together more often and kind of implied that he would like to use Jnauary as that oppurtunity. So I imagine January will be used to evaluate the younger MLS and Scandinavian players, which is good. Way better than just giving out caps to players that will never have an impact on the Nats.
As long as we don't dump it. STill I'd have to think there is some value in bringing in at least a few veterans to a camp full of kids.
Jurgen has to use this camp for depth I will be seriously disappointed if more than 6 or 7 regular starters make the trip. Capello will be using this camp for depth as well...this is not a must-win, momentum building friendly like some of the early ones were. This is an experimental, I-need-to-find-new-players type game. I agree with the idea of putting core guys around the new guys, but only to an extent. We don't need Howard and Dempsey out there. I'd bring Guzan, Cameron, Edu, Castillo, Parkhurst, Bradley, Williams and then which ever familiar MLS players are available (eliminated before conference finals). The rest need to be prospects and players that have never been capped. It's going to be interesting, and probably frustrating. Depending on MLS playoffs and Norway's cup battle we could be deprived of seeing Gatt, Diskerud and a whole host of MLS prospects.
First I've heard of it, but we've got to get JK leaning back in the other direction. BS will be in a world of hurt if there's no Camp Cupcake thread!
I think you are on to something. JK and Timmy are colluding, so just when JK's about to get fired for his disastrous start to the HEX, Timmy can come in to Sunil's office and give him the "I figured it's about time for me to start playing ball...I play, coach stays. He goes I go." speech.
Steve Cherundolo is a better defender than Tim Chandler at the moment. His 2012 form is pretty poor. If we absolutely want to look at a younger player at that spot, Eric Lichaj is the guy you'd look at. And even that said, if you wanted to give his form the benefit of the doubt, there's also the matter of him being an epic flake, undeserving of any more slack or understanding from the USSF and our coaching staff. Again, we need that game to gel our roster and get one more solid look pre-Hex. We need to see who we can count on if Dolo falls of a cliff. Tim Chandler is not a viable guy to count on, and it's not because "Durrrr, he doesn't want to be 'Merican, screw him, herp-derpidty doo" meatballism. It's because "If Steve Cherundolo gets hurt or begins to be terrible, we need to see a guy we know we can count on in that event, and evaluate depth and plan accordingly"
I would really like to see JK leave Howard behind. We know what he brings, and he will still be the starter. With that being said, I want to see what Guzan can do. Its nice to have a GK as good as Howard who can play every game for you, but Howard is not ageless, he will most likely retire from the USMNT after the WC, so we have to find out if Guzan is the next #1 for the USMNT. He needs some games for the National Team. Either way whether Guzan is good enough to be the future #1, we need to find out who is and who isn't. This friendly won't be the end all deciding factor, but I would like to see Guzan, Johnson and Hamid called in, the three guys that most likely will get a shot to become the #1 once Howard retires.