2002 -v 2006

[Kernel KlinK]

2002 2006
Friedel Keller
Keller Howard
Meola Hahneman (Reis)

Pope Pope
Sanneh Gooch
Dolo Dolo
Hejduk Hejduk
Llamosa Gibbs
Berhalter Berhalter
Regis Dunivant/Spector
Agoos Conrad/Bocanegra

Mastro Mastro
Beasley Beasley
Donovan Donavan
Lewis Lewis
Reyna Reyna
O'brien O'brien
Jones Convey
Stewart Dempsey

Mcbride McBride
Mathis Johnson
Max-Moore Twellman
Wolff Wolff

Now I know that O'Brien and Reyna and others may be injured an unavailable which would necessitate bringing in Noonan, Zavagnin and/or others. This would be a drop off. However, if all goes well (A big IF) overall I'd have to say the team is not only better and deeper but more experienced and versatile. Although depth at goal may be a problem, Keller not playing every game is highly unlikey and thus keller for Friedel is a wash. The D is much better, the mid field, if healthy is more experienced and we now have more speed and size with Johnson up front. Overall, our team is faster and taller (sub Gooch for Agoos).

Comments would be welcome but I just thought I'd throw this out for consumption.

[goussoccer]

This is an interesting comparison. If the assumption is that any replacement of your selection for the 2006 squad is better than the one you picked, it does show some marked improvement.

Comments:

Like it or not, Sanneh proved to be a stud at right defense in 2002. Not sure that we really have that this time.

Pope/Pope is not necessarily a wash or an upgrade.

Sanneh/Gooch is not really the same position...from my vantage point, it is more Agoos/Gooch, Sanneh/Dolo and we still haven't figured out the starter on the left...

The midfield, is probably all positive with each Name/Name 4 years of experience later. The only issue of course being injuries, but that has been discussed before.

Stewart/Dempsey will be an interesting comparison. I love Clint, but he doesn't have near the international experience that Stewart had in 2002.

Forwards - if we assume that McBride is better given where he is playing that is, in general a more positive group. No one quite has the 'danger' that Clint had in 2002, but between EJ, Twellman and Wolff that is an overall upgrade of the group across the board and will overcome any lack there.

Interesting comparison...

[Elliott]

A few areas of improvement:
The defense looks better; too bad our defenders don't have more experience together. Nothing lost losing Agoos, Regis, and Llamosa in their 2002 form.

Twellman is playing better than Joe Max-Moore
Mathis was pretty good in the run up to 2002, it may be an upgrade if Johnson is healthy. Convey is a big upgrade from Cobi.

DMB and Donovan should be better now than they were.
Hejduk is older and not as good as he was.


Here is my issue: Sanneh. I remember watching the final game of the season for his club side on FSW prior to the 2002 cup. He was incredible; and this from a player that I thought was an embarassment to the league watching his horrible touch for DC United prior to going to Germany. For two months of his life he was one of the 10 best players in the world .. its possible another US player will have another 2 months like that but its not likely. If this were a bad sports movie this would be the time to go find Sanneh whatever he is doing and try to get him to train hard one more time (sorry I saw rocky today).

[ty webb]

We are much more experienced in big games now. Beasley and Lannycakes are no longer 19. Also, I think we look much better everywhere with our replacements. We will have to get our Euro defenders to gel together, since most of the starters will come from Euro.

Our defence will be much stronger than 02... Agoos.

I see much more talent. If comes down to playing well as a team, which is what BA has been able to do during his career.

[USA4Life]

Agoos out with Bocanegra, Gibbs, or Berhalter in. This is the biggest plus.
Regis is gone and Twellman is much healthier than JMM

Hejduk, has actually improved his skill level over the last four years. I think he is better.

Stewart didn't contribute much and was one year too old.

Now Friedel was unreal in 2002. Friedel was the second best goalie after the German Goalie (can't spell his name). Keller will be solid, but not as good as Friedel was in 2002.

Obrien and Sanneh are the biggest loss. Obrien was the best field player hands down. He also was great with his hands against Mexico :)

The 2006 will be solid if guys like Johnson, Reyna, and Mastroeni are healthy. Otherwise, we will not make the second round.

[mrliioadin]

personally i think Hejduk is just meaner. I saw him in one match punch a guy in the head while trying to win a header while he was wearing his huge cast for a broke arm or wrist (i forget which)... looked like it was intentional.

I'm not sayin it's a bad thing internationally especially during the world cup but it's somethin

[ty webb]

Agoos out with Bocanegra, Gibbs, or Berhalter in. This is the biggest plus.
Regis is gone and Twellman is much healthier than JMM

Hejduk, has actually improved his skill level over the last four years. I think he is better.

Stewart didn't contribute much and was one year too old.

Now Friedel was unreal in 2002. Friedel was the second best goalie after the German Goalie (can't spell his name). Keller will be solid, but not as good as Friedel was in 2002.

Obrien and Sanneh are the biggest loss. Obrien was the best field player hands down. He also was great with his hands against Mexico :)

The 2006 will be solid if guys like Johnson, Reyna, and Mastroeni are healthy. Otherwise, we will not make the second round.

Kahn is the name......

We can still make the second round. And, that has no bearing on whether not we will be better. We are in a much tougher group this time.

[Kernel KlinK]

Here is my issue: Sanneh. I remember watching the final game of the season for his club side on FSW prior to the 2002 cup. He was incredible; and this from a player that I thought was an embarassment to the league watching his horrible touch for DC United prior to going to Germany. For two months of his life he was one of the 10 best players in the world .. its possible another US player will have another 2 months like that but its not likely. If this were a bad sports movie this would be the time to go find Sanneh whatever he is doing and try to get him to train hard one more time (sorry I saw rocky today).[/QUOTE]

I agree. I saw Sanneh at RFK against uruguay and at times he was awesome and at times he sucked. But at the World Cup he was lights out. yet, overall, our defense looksd more solid and versatile than 2002. I also like the try of Lewis at LB.

[USA4Life]

2002 2006
Friedel Keller
Keller Howard
Meola Hahneman (Reis)

Pope Pope
Sanneh Gooch
Dolo Dolo
Hejduk Hejduk
Llamosa Gibbs
Berhalter Berhalter
Regis Dunivant/Spector
Agoos Conrad/Bocanegra

Mastro Mastro
Beasley Beasley
Donovan Donavan
Lewis Lewis
Reyna Reyna
O'brien O'brien
Jones Convey
Stewart Dempsey

Mcbride McBride
Mathis Johnson
Max-Moore Twellman
Wolff Wolff

Now I know that O'Brien and Reyna and others may be injured an unavailable which would necessitate bringing in Noonan, Zavagnin and/or others. This would be a drop off. However, if all goes well (A big IF) overall I'd have to say the team is not only better and deeper but more experienced and versatile. Although depth at goal may be a problem, Keller not playing every game is highly unlikey and thus keller for Friedel is a wash. The D is much better, the mid field, if healthy is more experienced and we now have more speed and size with Johnson up front. Overall, our team is faster and taller (sub Gooch for Agoos).

Comments would be welcome but I just thought I'd throw this out for consumption.

Great list by the way. This pretty much sums up the 23 man roster.
I just wish Arena could talk Friedel into sitting on the bench and be available if Keller gets hurt. It would be the easiest money he would ever have earned.

Only Keller has earned a GK spot anyway.

[dsp87260]

"Max-Moore" ????:confused:

Who the hell is "Max-Moore"????

Oohhhh.....

You meant "Joe-Max......Moore.":p


Sorry, I only bring it up (it's kind of funny) because I remember hearing commentators, and even Joe-Max himself once, talk about it being a pet peeve of his (people getting his name wrong).;)

Anyway, interesting comparisons as someone else said (re the actual topic of the thread).........

[falvo]

I agree! Great list. You know a lot of World Cup fans think time stops and there are never 4 years between cups. I remember everyone talking about Clint Mathis in 2002 and now he is almost history even in the MLS. Brian McBride certainly has a lot more EPL experience and has been deadly as of late. I just hope his 33 year old legs will hold up. I think it was Bruce Arena who said that its a young man's tournament. I remember Stewart and Jones vaguely but can't remember much. I remember Sanneh as standing out against GMNY but then he hit the side netting. Can you imagine if he scored that goal? Brad Friedel was spectacular in 2002 but I think he and Keller are about equal in talent. I think Bruce liked Brad's wing span. He did save 2 pk's so I guess he had something extra than Kasey. I don't remember watching Llamosa in the WC however, I always liked his style of play in the MLS. If memory serves me correctly, I think he held his own as did John O'Brien, Lewis and Reyna. Some of my friends in Italy couldn't believe Reyna was from the US. I had said he was Argentinean descent, and they would always say , "Oh ok now we see why he is so good". I guess they didn't want to accept an American born soccer player being any good.

[BED-STYPUNDIT]

Great list, to comment later.

[coldfusion]

Around here, we often wonder how fast (or if) the US is catching up to top national sides. Some suggest that this can only be accomplished by more rapid replacement of vets, on the assumption that the succeeding generations will produce better players. This list shows 10 of 23 spots turning over from 2002 to 2006. Anyone got a view on how that compares with the world's top sides, or if any such comparison is meaningful?

[sidefootsitter]

The US seems to have one more quality player at each position than it did back in 2,002 ... and that's huge.

[Justin O]

Regarding Sanneh v Cherundolo, I think some people have short memories.

Leading up to WC 2002 Sanneh was regarded as a liability, for the US and in the Bundesliga. Not that he couldn't be great. He could. He was just frightenly inconsistent. Luckily, we got the very good Sanneh for the duration of the WC. In fact, he was one of our 2-3 most important players.

So, in that regard, Cherundolo has a tough act to follow. But in terms of overall play and consistency, I think Cherundolo is definitely the superior player. I think close followers of the Bundesliga over the last few years would be surprised we would even discuss it.

[falvo]

Around here, we often wonder how fast (or if) the US is catching up to top national sides. Some suggest that this can only be accomplished by more rapid replacement of vets, on the assumption that the succeeding generations will produce better players. This list shows 10 of 23 spots turning over from 2002 to 2006. Anyone got a view on how that compares with the world's top sides, or if any such comparison is meaningful?
Well those 10 of 23 were all starters, so I'm not sure about the turnover ratio. The core group of players are still the same guys. I'm not sure if Heyduk & Mastro will start this time. O'Brien & Reyna may be hurt so I guess we have a lot of depth and a new group of guys who will replace them. This is something we haven't really had in a while.

Pope Pope
Hejduk Hejduk
Berhalter Berhalter
Mastro Mastro
Beasley Beasley
Donovan Donavan
Lewis Lewis
Reyna Reyna
O'brien O'brien
Mcbride McBride

[Galaxian]

Well I think the main imporovement over 2002 is the defense . Yes , we lost Sanneh and his awesome runs from the right side , but Dolo is probably the most consistent player we have , and is just a good all around player .

Without Agoos around , we should concede a lot less goals . Gooch taking over in the center will be a huge improvement , and he is big , strong , and gets the job done , and now we just have to hope his inexperience only helps him this WC . ( not being scared of anyone , no matter who they are , where , it could work against him , and he could have one horrible tournament , because he hasnt played in games that are so important )

Our offense is a lot faster and more experienced , and I think LD and DMB will play a huge part in our attack this time around , and BMB is in great form right now for Fulham , and will be a vital part of our attack .

Reyna coming back to form and fitness is very important for our midfield , and we need him this summer . The right mid spot is up in the air , DMB could move over , LD could play there , and Dempsey has been playing great there in the past friendlies , so we will have to wait and see about that position .