http://eredivisielive.nl/video/51533-samenvatting-az-fc-twente.html Jozy, Jozy, Jozy...gotta love him!
I wouldn't consider Michael Bradley an extremely important player given the quality available in central midfield-Joe Benny Corona, Maurice Edu, Jermaine Jones, Stuart Holden, Danny Williams. Biggest worry with the Cup is Klinsman sticking with too many possibly fading players--such as Onyewu, Cherundolo, or Goodson--as coaches are often wont to do.
Among the younger crowd, at the moment I would tag Jozy Altidore, Michael Bradley, Fabian Johnson, and Timothy Chandler as all 'extremely important.' And before anyone moans about my including Jozy, he scored twice against FC Twente today. I was especially impressed by his not very subtle but also not flagged push off on the defender to get space for his first headed goal. It's plays like that that get you through qualifying.
When Cherundelo starts slowing down that wont be an issue. Either Chandler moves to RB or Lichaj steps in. Boca on the other hand is a different story.
For better or worse, it seems Altidore is still the top American striker. The only reason I hesitated to put him with Bradley is because he needs some goals in the Klinsmann era. I expect they'll come in May. To me, Fabian Johnson is an obvious lock alongside Bradley but he just needs more caps. I spurned Chandler since he hasn't played a match that counts for the US. And of course, there are others on the edge like Edu or dealing with injury issues like Holden.
Lichaj's not a bad option at LB either, and he's also new for this WC cycle. He had a good Gold Cup. This allows Johnson to play closer to goal. Suffice to say LB is looking much better now than it did last time around.
Seems like the squad is coming into focus now, more than a month before our next match. Most leagues have no more than 3 matches left on the season, and the likelihood of players being injured is less, as well. Not only have we found some depth at LB for the first time, but we have lots of options in midfield. Arena will have no choice but to release Donovan, if the USMNT is playing on a FIFA date. For now, if we are playing in a 4-4-1-1, Dempsey and Altidore will be up front, or more or less lined up in the box. The other forwards, whoever they are, are bench subs, when Clint and Jozy are tired, or ineffective. It is likely that at qualifiers, our midfield will consist of eight from: Donovan, Bradley, Jones, F Johnson, Williams, Edu, Chandler, Spector, Shea, and Torres. Eight defenders from: Boca, Goodson, Gooch, Parkhurst, Dolo, Lichaj, Chandler, F Johnson, Spector, and Williams. If Ream and Gonzalez can make their presence felt in the near-future, they will displace others, who are weakening or are injured. If Holden can make it back strong after next September or October, he'll slot into the midfield, instead of another CM.
I don't think that was ever the case in the previous FIFA datees, it was LD decision to take a pass due to not being well enough.
OK, but Jozy scored another great (Dutch) league goal today against PSV. I expect Klinsmann and staff will notice. Edu should bolt for France and Ligue 1 if he gets another chance this summer. And I love Holden, but until Stu is healthy and back on the field with his pre-injury timing and touch, he's not. Which basically rules him out of the USMNT picture til next fall I expect. So..right now, the extremely important ie near-automatic first-teamers for the USMNT under-25 players are...same as before, Altidore, Bradley, Chandler, and Johnson. As Klinsmann noted, the major bummer for all the others not named above, is that given the Canada/El Salvador flops by the U23s, is that without the Olympics it will be harder for the next 2-4 younger players to break into that 'extremely important' club. Below them, there is a sea of potential
It's hard to ignore somebody who's already scored 14 league goals in the eredevisie this season. (18 in all competitions) He's starting to become as much of a lock for this squad entering qualifying as Howard and Dempsey are.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bvqg9m1mHPY"]PSV-AZ 1-1 Jozy Altidore 14/4/2012 - YouTube[/ame] Jozy's out of this world goal today...
God I hope his form continues into the national team. I'm ready for WC qualifying to start yesterday based on the form of some of our players right now.
here is Greg Seltzer's look at the player pool; for comments look here: http://www.noshortcorners.com/2012/04/my-usmnt-clipboard-30.html A few headscratchers on that list. For one, Cameron at CDM??? Pearce the #1 LB??? Also, i think it's hard to analyze the player pool based on 3-deep position format because it's so easy to shuffle players around. More, how easy it is for a RCB to play LCB, or how common it is for a winger to switch sides or play as a fullback & vice-versa, or often some fullbacks swith sides. For my list, i know Klinsmann would probably slot Beckerman as one of the CDM and would put Williams as a RW, but i can't let myself do it. Also, it would be easy to shuffle Chandler and Johnson around, but i went with them in these positions because it puts the best 11 on the field at the same time, and allows Donovan to play RW instead of LW. Third, the RB position is wide-open really btw Loyd, Beitashour, and Myers. Finally, the winger positions was like throwing darts drunk and without looking...they could easily be different. #1 GK 1) Tim Howard 2) Brad Guzan 3) Nick Rimando #2 RB 1) Steve Cherundolo 2) Jonathan Spector 3) Zach Loyd #3 RCB 1) Oguchi Onyewu 2) Clarence Goodson 3) Geoff Cameron #4 LCB 1) Carlos Bocanegra 2) Tim Ream 3) Zak Whitbread #5 LB 1) Tim Chandler 2) Jonathan Spector 3) Edgar Castillo #6 CDM 1) Jermaine Jones 2) Maurice Edu 3) Daniel Williams - 4) Kyle Beckerman #7 RW 1) Landon Donovan 2) Joshua Gatt 3) DaMarcus Beasley #8 CM 1) Michael Bradley 2) Jose Torres 3) Sacha Kljestan #9 FW 1) Jozy Altidore 2) Herculez Gomez 3) Chris Wondolowski #10 CAM 1) Clint Dempsey 2) Freddy Adu 3) Graham Zusi #11 LW 1) Fabian Johnson 2) Brek Shea 3) Chris Pontius Contenders: Bill Hamid-GK Sean Johnson-GK Heath Pearce-LB/CB/RB Seb Hines-CB Michael Parkhurst-CB/RB Matt Besler-CB Chad Marshall-CB Seth Sinovic-LB Justin Morrow-LB Steve Beitashour-RB Chance Myers-RB Sam Cronin-CDM Alfredo Morales-CDM/CB/RB Ricardo Clark-CDM Jeff Larentowicz-CDM/CB Mikkel Diskerud-CM Joe Corona-CAM/RW/LW Benny Feilhaber-CAM Kelyn Rowe-CAM Robbie Rogers-LW/RW Nick DeLeon-LW/RW Joe Gyau-RW/LW Juan Agudelo-FW Edson Buddle-FW CJ Sapong-FW Terrence Boyd-FW Andrew Wooten-FW Kenny Cooper-FW Honorable Mention: Joe Willis-GK Tally Hall-GK Matt Pickens-GK Dan Kennedy-GK Ryan Meara-GK Zac MacMath-GK Quentin Westberg-GK David Yelldell-GK Jeff Parke-CB Michael Orozco-CB AJ De la Garza-CB/RB/LB Eric Brunner-CB Drew Moor-CB/RB Sean Franklin-RB Marvell Wynne-RB/CB Sean Cunningham-LB/CB Greg Garza-LB/LM Tony Beltran-RB Sheannon Williams-RB/CB Ray Gaddis-RB/CB Amobi Okugo-CDM/CB Perry Kitchen-CDM/RB/CB Tony Cascio-CM/CAM/LW/RW Danny Cruz-RW/CM Eddie Gaven-CAM Luis Gil-CAM/RW/LW Alejandro Bedoya-CM/RW/LW Brad Evans-CAM/RB Dilly Duka-CAM/RW/LW Lee Nguyen-CAM/RW Sebastian Velasquez-LW/RW Bobby Convey-LW/LB Conor O’ Brien-CAM Teal Bunbury-FW David Estrada-FW/RW/LW Steve Lenhart-FW Will Bruin-FW Charlie Davies-FW Robbie Findley-FW Conor Casey-FW Justin Braun-FW Serious Injury List: Omar Gonzalez-CB Stuart Holden-CM/RW
Dang, our contenders/honorable mention list looks pretty good. We actually have some decent depth in each position very nice. Hopefully some of the promising younger players are givin a chance later in the year/Camp cupcake.
This isn't who I think who would or should start at the positions (obviously since some are #1 at multiple positions...) just how my personal three deep chart would look. No Holden #1 @ CM and no Gonzalez #2 @ RCB on my list because of injury. #1 GK 1) Tim Howard 2) Brad Guzan 3) Nick Rimando #2 RB 1) Steve Cherundolo 2) Timothy Chandler 3) Eric Lichaj #4 RCB 1) Oguchi Onyewu 2) Clarence Goodson 3) Geoff Cameron #5 LCB 1) Carlos Bocanegra 2) Tim Ream 3) Zak Whitbread #3 LB 1) Fabian Johnson 2) Eric Lichaj 3) Timothy Chandler #6 CDM 1) Jermaine Jones 2) Michael Bradley 3) Maurice Edu #8 CM 1) Michael Bradley 2) Jose Torres 3) Sacha Kljestan #7 RW 1) Landon Donovan 2) Timothy Chandler 3) Josh Gatt #9 FW 1) Jozy Altidore 2) Clint Dempsey 3) Cooper/Gomez/Wondo??? #10 AM/SS 1) Clint Dempsey 2) Landon Donovan 3) Freddy Adu #11 LW 1) Landon Donovan 2) Fabian Johnson 3) DaMarcus Beasley
thanks...i had one major typo in that i couldn't decide who i wanted on the left/right spector or lichaj. For the sake of argument, keep Spector on the right and Lichaj on the left.
#1 GK 1) Tim Howard 2) Brad Guzan 3) Ryan Meara *just heard of him, captie him in the game vs antigua, don´t lose him #2 RB 1) Steve Cherundolo 2) Timothy Chandler *captie vs antigua, then gradually retire Cherundolo 3) Eric Lichaj 4) Alfredo Morales *good you win him and not Peru. Make sure hes is still comitted, captie him in the game vs antigua #4 CB 1) Omar Gonzalez *what are you waiting for? *captie vs antigua to bad MLS didn´t allow him to play with America, he would learn a lot in Mexico´s league 2) Jonathan Spector a defender in the premier league? don´t say more 3) Alfredo Morales *good you win him and not Peru. Make sure hes is still comitted, captie him in the game vs antigua #5 LB 1) Fabian Johnson 2) Eric Lichaj 3) Gotoku Sakai *what happened here? he has not played YET with Japan national team, I would try and call him. 4) Greg Garza *if Gotoku is not available, even if he is, I would call Greg and captie him. He is playing in Mexico for god´s sake! don´t lose him like you lose Miguel Ponce #6 CM/DM 1) Michael Bradley 2) Daniel Williams 3) José Torres 4) Brek Shea 5) Joshua Gatt 6) Sebastian Lletget 7) Sacha Kljestan 8) Joseph Gyau #7 AM 1) Michael Bradley 1) Clint Dempsey 3) Joe Corona 4) Fabian Hurzeler 5) Joseph Gyau #8 LW/RW 1) Clint Dempsey 2) Brek Shea 3) Joshua Gatt #9 FW 1) Landon Donovan *USA best weapon, a real tank... or is there another crack? 2) Jozy Altidore 3) Terrence Boyd *captie!!!! 4) Conor Doyle *captie just in case, even if he is commited. 5) Teal Bunbury *one last chance. #10 SS 1) Juan Agudelo 2) Freddy Adu 3) C.J. Sapong #11 Nationality issues 1) Michael Hoyos CM 2) Gotoku Sakai LB Starting XI (vs antigua in USA land to captie and test) 1 Ryan Meara / Guzan 2 Gonzalez / Morales 3 Spector 4 Chandler 5 Johnson 6 Bradley 7 Corona / Lletget / Hurzeler 8 Williams/ Shea 9 Jozy 10 Donovan 11 Dempsey / Boyd / Doyle Meara Chandler Gonzalez Spector Johnson Williams Bradley Corona Dempsey Jozy Donovan Bench Morales Hurzeler Torres Lletget Boyd Doyle Cherundolo Shea Guzan
Pisku: you use friendlies to captie, not WC Qualifiers. The fact that you don't even mention Tim Howard tells me all I need to know about the rest of the post.