thedefender23
08 Aug 2006, 01:51 PM
With Eddie Pope gone theres an open spot in the center of the defense next to Onyewu(whom i assume should be a lock to play there barring injury or a huge drop in form). I think Gooch's partner should play to his strengths and help cover for his weaknesses:
Gooch's strengths: Heading/Leaping ability, Strength, Pace(granted he's not exactly as fast as say Kolo Toure or Ferdinand but for a man of his size he's pretty fast and quick), Tackling(he seems to have pretty good timing on tackles and delivers them with great force), 1 v 1 situations(i cant recall too many situations with Gooch behind isolated against a striker one on one but the few i can remember he did a pretty good job of shutting the player down)the Intimidation factor(his immense size and physique would be pretty intimidating to any striker that would have to face him plus remember the staredown against Borgetti lol?), Positioning(contrary to popular belief he puts himself in excellent positions to win balls in the air and on the ground)
Weaknesses: EXPERIENCE(or lack thereof), FOULING(maybe bc of his size and strength he is unfairly victimized by referees but its something he definitely needs to cut out of his game), Passing/Ball skills(he's not a bad passer and he's got pretty good ball skills but to take it to the next level he has to improve on this), Concentration(he does a pretty good job of being focused but as a defender he cant afford to have mental lapses that led to Borgetti scoring that goal at the Azteca and the Koller goal in the WC...Onyewu strikes me as a player who makes a mistake and then buckles down to play a MONSTER of a game as he did against Borgetti in that Mexico match and against Koller)
Most good CB partnerships are composed of two different types of players: one who is a proactive, physical defender that wins the headers and outmuscles strikers and one who is a more laid-back sweeper type with excellent ball skills and who can play the ball out of the back with ease( a perfect example of this can be seen for Man Utd when they play Ferdinand-Brown in the center or Ferdinad-Vidic in the center).Brown/Vidic acts as the more physical of the pairing and does the "dirty" work of the pair in terms of getting "stuck in", winning headers and making strong tackles...that isnt to say that Ferdinand doesnt do any of these tasks b/c he does but he plays more of a laid-back style in which he calmly wins the ball and starts attacks from the back
Right now the NATS seem to have too many of the first type of defender and not enough of the second...At his stage of development Gooch fills the first role easily and has shown SIGNS of being able to play the ball out of the back and start attacks..for him to be extremely successfull he needs a "Ferdinand" type defender next to him(granted its very difficult to find a CB with ball skills like Rio but GOoch still needs someone next to him who can play a ball out after its won)..the options are:
Conrad-pretty good in the air and has ok ball skills plus he looked pretty good in the World Cup...my problem is that he is kinda similar to Onyewu in style in terms of being good in the air(there is a major difference in athleticism however lol)...an Onyewu-Conrad pairing would be pretty good against a team whose attacking style was based on laerial battles playing long balls to big, tall strikers but if played against a possession-oriented team with small quick strikers it'd be very difficult for them to keep up. I'm sure Onyewu would be ok against a smaller striker bc he's pretty fast plus he can use this size to muscle the player but Conrad IMO would be destroyed against such a player
Beerhalter-He has the experience required to partner Gooch but honestly everytime i've seen him play he's never inspired much confidence and IMO he would be completely destroyed against quality opposition as he was when the USA was annihilated by Germany 4-0...he's always struck me as being way too slow and IMO i think he would hinder Gooch rather than help him because Onyewu would have to worry about his mark as well as trying to cover for Beerhalter's mistakes
Bocanegra-He seems good in the air as well and looks good enough on the ball to complement Gooch...however i'm not exactly sure of how good he is because whenever i've seen him play for club he's been paired with Zat Knight and has been forced to cover for his mistakes so much that its hard to tell what he would do with a quality partner
Gibbs-IMO i think he'd be a great partner for Gooch..he seems ok on the ball plus he is an excellent man-marker as he showed when he shut down RVN in a match against Holland a couple seasons ago..alongside Gooch the USMNT would have two pacy, strong CBs with enough ball skill between them to handle playing the ball out..the only problem with Gibbs is that he seems injury-prone
Gooch's strengths: Heading/Leaping ability, Strength, Pace(granted he's not exactly as fast as say Kolo Toure or Ferdinand but for a man of his size he's pretty fast and quick), Tackling(he seems to have pretty good timing on tackles and delivers them with great force), 1 v 1 situations(i cant recall too many situations with Gooch behind isolated against a striker one on one but the few i can remember he did a pretty good job of shutting the player down)the Intimidation factor(his immense size and physique would be pretty intimidating to any striker that would have to face him plus remember the staredown against Borgetti lol?), Positioning(contrary to popular belief he puts himself in excellent positions to win balls in the air and on the ground)
Weaknesses: EXPERIENCE(or lack thereof), FOULING(maybe bc of his size and strength he is unfairly victimized by referees but its something he definitely needs to cut out of his game), Passing/Ball skills(he's not a bad passer and he's got pretty good ball skills but to take it to the next level he has to improve on this), Concentration(he does a pretty good job of being focused but as a defender he cant afford to have mental lapses that led to Borgetti scoring that goal at the Azteca and the Koller goal in the WC...Onyewu strikes me as a player who makes a mistake and then buckles down to play a MONSTER of a game as he did against Borgetti in that Mexico match and against Koller)
Most good CB partnerships are composed of two different types of players: one who is a proactive, physical defender that wins the headers and outmuscles strikers and one who is a more laid-back sweeper type with excellent ball skills and who can play the ball out of the back with ease( a perfect example of this can be seen for Man Utd when they play Ferdinand-Brown in the center or Ferdinad-Vidic in the center).Brown/Vidic acts as the more physical of the pairing and does the "dirty" work of the pair in terms of getting "stuck in", winning headers and making strong tackles...that isnt to say that Ferdinand doesnt do any of these tasks b/c he does but he plays more of a laid-back style in which he calmly wins the ball and starts attacks from the back
Right now the NATS seem to have too many of the first type of defender and not enough of the second...At his stage of development Gooch fills the first role easily and has shown SIGNS of being able to play the ball out of the back and start attacks..for him to be extremely successfull he needs a "Ferdinand" type defender next to him(granted its very difficult to find a CB with ball skills like Rio but GOoch still needs someone next to him who can play a ball out after its won)..the options are:
Conrad-pretty good in the air and has ok ball skills plus he looked pretty good in the World Cup...my problem is that he is kinda similar to Onyewu in style in terms of being good in the air(there is a major difference in athleticism however lol)...an Onyewu-Conrad pairing would be pretty good against a team whose attacking style was based on laerial battles playing long balls to big, tall strikers but if played against a possession-oriented team with small quick strikers it'd be very difficult for them to keep up. I'm sure Onyewu would be ok against a smaller striker bc he's pretty fast plus he can use this size to muscle the player but Conrad IMO would be destroyed against such a player
Beerhalter-He has the experience required to partner Gooch but honestly everytime i've seen him play he's never inspired much confidence and IMO he would be completely destroyed against quality opposition as he was when the USA was annihilated by Germany 4-0...he's always struck me as being way too slow and IMO i think he would hinder Gooch rather than help him because Onyewu would have to worry about his mark as well as trying to cover for Beerhalter's mistakes
Bocanegra-He seems good in the air as well and looks good enough on the ball to complement Gooch...however i'm not exactly sure of how good he is because whenever i've seen him play for club he's been paired with Zat Knight and has been forced to cover for his mistakes so much that its hard to tell what he would do with a quality partner
Gibbs-IMO i think he'd be a great partner for Gooch..he seems ok on the ball plus he is an excellent man-marker as he showed when he shut down RVN in a match against Holland a couple seasons ago..alongside Gooch the USMNT would have two pacy, strong CBs with enough ball skill between them to handle playing the ball out..the only problem with Gibbs is that he seems injury-prone