View Full Version : Eddie Pope retires
soonertony
03 Aug 2006, 01:26 PM
http://www.ussoccer.com/articles/viewArticle.jsp_281230.html
dark knight
03 Aug 2006, 03:56 PM
bump
Hed7181
03 Aug 2006, 04:16 PM
This retirement obviously comes as no surprise, but the quiet, almost faint manor in which it has happened just doesn't seem fair to arguably the best defender the USMNT has ever had. 11 years of service and leadership. I guess the manor of the announcements fits the manor of the man himself. I'll miss him.
I know there are alot of bright young names coming up in defense, but none can compare to the pure class of Eddie Pope at this time. I'm not just talking about quality of play, but quality of the player. He's a class act, just like Mcbride and Reyna. This truly is the end of an era for the USMNT.
(as a sidenote to Soonertony) It's good to know you haven't done anything too drastic since the recent news of Bomar, et.al. I hope everything is going well. Good luck with all that.
YankBastard
03 Aug 2006, 04:20 PM
I think all the old timers who are retiring are doing this in a planned stage. They'll retire, have their last 15 minutes of fame, then the next player will announce retirement.
Who's probably next in a few weeks? Heydude, Beerholder, and Eddie Lewis IMO if they didn't announce it already.
ugaaccountant
03 Aug 2006, 04:30 PM
We should have a testimonial match for these guys, unless that's what the WC was.
Father Ted
03 Aug 2006, 04:49 PM
I think the fact that all these players retiring now reiterates the point the Bruce held on to them too long. Reyna, McBride, Pope with maybe Lewis and Keller(who knows?) soon, all played significant minutes in the WC. Other teams don't have that many important players retiring right after the WC.
evanpemsocr
03 Aug 2006, 04:55 PM
I know that Eddie Pope has struggled the last few years but I still think he is our best defender ever! Of course thats just my opinion. Reyna was our best player ever and McBride was one of our best forwards ever. Thats a lot of quality players retiring. But it needed to happen and there needs to be a change of the guards.
JeremyEritrea
03 Aug 2006, 05:13 PM
http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=389987
Tony in Quakeland
03 Aug 2006, 05:18 PM
So long to one of the classiest players ever to wear a US Men's shirt.
onefineesq
03 Aug 2006, 05:24 PM
So long to one of the classiest players ever to wear a US Men's shirt. Absolutely. My favorite guy ever retires. He didn't have it in the end, but it was great while it lasted.
deron
03 Aug 2006, 05:49 PM
A lot of guys have received a lot of praise, because they had Pope backing them up. Quiet, classy, and really the first guy who had a very real shot at Europe, but passed it up for MLS.
The Old Lady Hertha
03 Aug 2006, 06:00 PM
I think he's a good player, but I think he should have retired 2 years before. I thought he had a poor World Cup, but that should not belittle the fact that he was a very good USMNT defender.
superdave
03 Aug 2006, 06:19 PM
I think the fact that all these players retiring now reiterates the point the Bruce held on to them too long.
No it doesn't. The Gold Cup is so 3rd rate that for us, it's a 4 year cycle. That's 40% of a long international career.
Most other teams that we would hear about, they have Euro 2008 qualifying or Copa America coming up.
Shackleton
03 Aug 2006, 06:29 PM
I think the fact that all these players retiring now reiterates the point the Bruce held on to them too long. Reyna, McBride, Pope with maybe Lewis and Keller(who knows?) soon, all played significant minutes in the WC. Other teams don't have that many important players retiring right after the WC.
The fact that the retiring guys played such a large role on our team is an indictment on the players who are 25-31 and never stepped up to take the spot of the older generation. Players in the 25-31 age group should be in their prime. But, we had relatively few of them make the team, let alone starters. Arena didn't hold on to these guys too long. We simply didn't have the players step up to push them out sooner.
EL MONO MARIO
03 Aug 2006, 07:10 PM
Did well but was out of gas by 2006. Could have been a great one. Never went to Europe while he was hot and then became a MLS driffter.. Went to 2006 as a gesture by his coach.
BUT on his BEST DAY was the GREATEST NATIONAL TEAM DEFENDER AND AT ONE TIME ONE OF THE TOP 20 in the WORLDDDDDDDDDDd
england66
03 Aug 2006, 07:20 PM
We should have a testimonial match for these guys, unless that's what the WC was.
LOL.....the World Cup as "testimonial match"....
JeremyEritrea
03 Aug 2006, 07:51 PM
A lot of guys have received a lot of praise, because they had Pope backing them up. Quiet, classy, and really the first guy who had a very real shot at Europe, but passed it up for MLS.
Harkes? Lalas?
dsp87260
03 Aug 2006, 08:17 PM
Harkes? Lalas?
How about Caligiuri? (who I believe was the first one over there in his generation.....opened up the way for many that followed)
russ
03 Aug 2006, 08:57 PM
Harkes? Lalas?
Those guys went to Europe and came back to MLS.
Eddie started in MLS ,received offers from Europe, but chose to stay in MLS.At the risk of opening the whole MLS/Euro debate up in yet another thread,I'll just say I understand why he stayed,but really wish he had gone.
Elninho
03 Aug 2006, 09:17 PM
The fact that the retiring guys played such a large role on our team is an indictment on the players who are 25-31 and never stepped up to take the spot of the older generation. Players in the 25-31 age group should be in their prime. But, we had relatively few of them make the team, let alone starters. Arena didn't hold on to these guys too long. We simply didn't have the players step up to push them out sooner.
It's interesting you should say this, because, if you look at the age distribution of American players in MLS, it looks like there's a big void at ages 26-28. In most national first divisions, the distribution of ages is a skewed bell curve with the median around 24-25 and the mean somewhat higher; but in MLS it looks like someone took a big bite out of it right at the prime ages, while players just above that age range are still well represented in the league.
Here's a look at the relevant ages (on MLS rosters as of July 1):
...
24 - 32 players
25 - 19 players
26 - 6 players
27 - 9 players
28 - 10 players
29 - 18 players
30 - 11 players
...
So where are these guys? Even Europe doesn't explain it - while the majority of the Scandinavian-based YAs are in that age category, even if you were to bring back every single YA in that age range playing in any European first or second division, it still doesn't make up the difference; and there are older and younger YAs too.