Y-A.com: 23 Tickets to SA [Feb 17]

[mcnaulty21]

Pack Your Bags (4)
Michael Bradley, M
Steve Cherundolo, D
Clint Dempsey, M/F
Tim Howard, G

Nearly a Lock (4)
Carlos Bocanegra, D (DOWN)
Oguchi Onyewu, D
Landon Donovan, M
DeMarcus Beasley, M (DOWN)

Fairly Safe Bet (6)
Freddy Adu, M/F
Brad Guzan, G (UP)
Josmer Altidore, F (UP)
Jay DeMerit, D (DOWN)
Kasey Keller, G (UP)
Bobby Convey, M (DOWN)


In a Battle (5)
Eddie Johnson, F
Benny Feilhaber, M (DOWN)
Heath Pearce, D/M
Jonathan Spector, D (DOWN)
Maurice Edu, M (UP)


Work to Do (4)
Frank Simek, D
Ricardo Clark, M
Jeremiah White, M/F (UP)
Neven Subotic, D (UP)



MOVING DOWN
Josh Wolff
Danny Szetela
Jonathan Bornstein
Marcus Hahnemann

OTHER BUBBLE BATTLERS
Adin Brown, Bobby Boswell, Jose Burciaga Jr., Danny Califf, Brian Ching, Jimmy Conrad, Charlie Davies, Brad Davis, Cory Gibbs, Sacha Kljestan, Eddie Lewis, Dax McCarty, Drew Moor, Pat Noonan, Michael Parkhurst, Matt Pickens, Eddie Robinson, Steve Purdy, Chris Seitz, Taylor Twellman, Quentin Westberg, Marvell Wynne, Sal Zizzo

[mcnaulty21]

Lots of questions from me again

Bornstein off?
Bocanegra down?
Spector down?
Pearce not down?
Keller up, again?


This is my 2010 Roster, as posted on 30 December in the 2010 World Cup Lineup thread (http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=549995&page=13)
Starting XI
GK: Tim Howard
LB: Jonathan Bornstein
CB: Carlos Bocanegra
CB: Oguchi Onyewu
RB: Steve Cherundolo
CM: Michael Bradley
CM: Landon Donovan
LM: DeMarcus Beasley
RM: Clint Dempsey
CAM: Freddy Adu
ST: Josmer Altidore

Bench (12)
Brian Ching, Ricardo Clark, Jimmy Conrad, Jay DeMerit, Maurice Edu, Benny Feilhaber, Brad Guzan, Marcus Hahnemann, Eddie Johnson, Justin Mapp, Frank Simek, Jonathan Spector

Alternates (8)
Bobby Convey, Kenny Cooper, Sasha Kljestan, Pablo Mastroeni, Michael Parkhurst, Heath Pearce, Chris Seitz, Taylor Twellman

On The Radar (14)
Joe Cannon, Cory Gibbs, Frankie Hejduk, Kamani Hill, Stuart Holden, Drew Moor, Ben Olsen, Matt Reis, Robbie Rogers, Chris Rolfe, Johann Smith, Danny Szetela, Marvell Wynne, Sal Zizzo

[FC Tallavana]

If Donovan can't pack his bags nobody can.

[narko]

" Danny Szetela - The move to Zaragoza only looks weirder after being loaned to Brescia. (MA)"

What move to Zaragoza?

[mcnaulty21]

" Danny Szetela - The move to Zaragoza only looks weirder after being loaned to Brescia. (MA)"

What move to Zaragoza?Y-A.com is doing all it can to make their 23Tix less legit

[FC Tallavana]

Someone I wouldn't write off is Zak Whitbread. If he continues to stay healthy, he will become a factor.

He is someone I really believe would benefit greatly from being selected as one of the over 23 players for the Olympic team.

[Marko72]

Ah, one of my favorite periodic speculation pieces! Though I frankly think their analysis is always about as off as off can be. :)

The dropping of Hahnemann in favor of Keller is a little bit strange. Leaving Bornstein off (I've never been a fan) is frankly bizaare. Benny losing ground after Mexico makes no sense at all, despite a horrid club season (he should've lost a lot of ground in their LAST edition), Spector losing ground (um, why???), and, of all the young wingers to promote to the ticket range, Jeremiah White is frankly the LAST one I'm actually expecting to claim it in the end (with Nguyen not far behind him in the line to buy a ticket to the stadium). Tons of quibbles with their analysis.

Nevertheless, I do love YA and their 23 tickets! :D

(I'll do my own version after the Euro friendlies, just before Barbados/Dominica.)

[Plan B]

yeah, a lot of oddities, some mentioned

LD is a lock
Boca isn't falling
How is Pearce over Bornstein?
DeMerit is a fairly safe bet?
So is Keller?
Jeremiah White?

[Marko72]

Alright, nobody twisted my arm but I'll do one now (after the Olympics and pre-WCQ friendlies would be more optimal, but what the hell...)

Howard
Guzan
Hahnemann

Cherundolo
Spector
Bocanegra
Onyewu
DeMerit
Robinson
Bornstein
Pearce

Bradley
Feilhaber
Edu
Clark
Donovan
Beasley
Adu
(youth winger TBD)

Dempsey
Altidore
Johnson
Ching

Grouped by position as opposed to likelihood. VERY hard to say who the youth winger will be, but he'll almost certainly be one who features in the Olympics unless he turns out in the end to be Justin Mapp, and, like I said,of those guys in potential contention, White is the guy I would least favor to make it.

[bshredder]

Robbie Rogers will be a major player in 2 years I feel.

Ching has a good shot at making the team since we are short up top.

DeMerit may have peaked. I am not so sure he's going to make the team.

Jeremiah White doesn't have that much of a shot.

Heath Pearce has issues

Bornstein has a pretty good shot at making the team.

Is Subotic even going to play for the US?

[IndividualEleven]

Mmmm. I think it's safe to say that the players who participated in the last WC and will be 30 or under in 2010 and do not have serious injury related issues will bo on the team. That would include:

Howard
Gooch
Boca
Cherundolo
Donovan
Dempsey
EJ


Add to that:

Guzan: clearly the Bradley's favorite as 2nd choice
Bornstein: an automatic starter for Bradley
Bradley: an automatic starter for Bradley

Add to that:

Getting minutes with high quality team:

Adu
Spector


Add to that:

Too obviously dominate and talented to leave out:

Altidore

[Marko72]

yeah, a lot of oddities, some mentioned

LD is a lock
Boca isn't falling
How is Pearce over Bornstein?
DeMerit is a fairly safe bet?
So is Keller?
Jeremiah White?

Apparently they think he doesn't look good at RW, just like so many here. Kinda odd, since I can't remember the game in which he's looked bad there, he's had good games and so-so games, and for all the moaning about how we lacked attack cohesion, the one good run of attacking play we managed was the 20 minutes in which he was torching Salcido out there, making him look worse for that stretch than Vela and Arce were making Moor and Corrales out to be. During this stretch, we managed 2 goals and a near third, and yet once Donovan dropped back to support an out-manned Moor (someone he won't have to cover for against a strong opponent anytime soon) we couldn't get anything else going all night.

Yeah, Donovan's a disaster at winger, isn't he? :rolleyes:

[Marko72]

As far as the Subotic thing, they're fishing a little bit. I wouldn't say they're "wrong," I'd just call that one "highly speculative" at this stage of the game.

[Marko72]

Of the wingers currently on the outside looking in, I'll rank them as to their likelihood to join the team in SA (at this very early point, the U23 quals and Olympics will make this a lot clearer):

Holden
Alvarez
Rogers
(All three are pretty close, IMO. I suspect Holden has the very slight early lead.)

Mapp
Davis
Zizzo

The fringe possibilities:
Hill
Smith
Nguyen
White

[StillKickin]

yeah, a lot of oddities, some mentioned

LD is a lock
Boca isn't falling
How is Pearce over Bornstein?
DeMerit is a fairly safe bet?
So is Keller?
Jeremiah White?
They put Pearce over Bornstein because he's a Yank Abroad. That's their No. 1 criteria for evaluating anybody.

[mcnaulty21]

They put Pearce over Bornstein because he's a Yank Abroad. That's their No. 1 criteria for evaluating anybody.Very true

[giffenbone]

Howard
Guzan
Hahnemann

Cherundolo
Spector
Bocanegra
Onyewu
Gibbs
Parkhurst
Subotic
Bornstein

Bradley
Feilhaber
Edu
Clark
Beasley
Donovan
Adu

Dempsey
Johnson
Altidore

I'm torn about the other two players (I only have 21 listed) and the defensive selection.

I think Gibbs will be in if (big if) he can remain healthy over the next 2 years (he is back in full training). Subotic, if he chooses the USA, will be hard to leave off. However, I could easily see those two questionable spots (Gibbs, Subotic) going to two of Conrad, DeMerit, Pearce (seeing as how I only have one true LB listed, probably Pearce and either DeMerit or Conrad).

The two others to fill out the 23 could be a lot of options.

Convey, Mapp, Rogers, Holden, Alvarez at winger
Ching, Rolfe, Twellman, Cooper at forward
Jeremiah White, Johann Smith at winger/forward

finally, Szetela could pip one of Clark, Edu, Feilhaber for that last D-mid/two way mid spot (won't take Baby Bradley's spot obviously).

I'm sure people will make cases for others, but that's just what I see.

[mcnaulty21]

I think Gibbs will be in if (big if) he can remain healthy over the next 2 years (he is back in full training). Subotic, if he chooses the USA, will be hard to leave off. However, I could easily see those two questionable spots (Gibbs, Subotic) going to two of Conrad, DeMerit, Pearce (seeing as how I only have one true LB listed, probably Pearce and either DeMerit or Conrad).I haven't seen Subotic in action yet, so I've been reserving judgment on him. He's obviously on my radar, but I won't put him officially on my radar until I've seen him do his thing.

Too bad I have to work today. I'll be able to catch the first half on Friday though, then I have to go to class.

[giffenbone]

I haven't seen Subotic in action yet, so I've been reserving judgment on him. He's obviously on my radar, but I won't put him officially on my radar until I've seen him do his thing.

Too bad I have to work today. I'll be able to catch the first half on Friday though, then I have to go to class.

Yeah, but we're talking 2010 here, not today and now...and what Subotic has already done only leads me to believe he will be on the WC roster, or at worst a top alternate, should he choose the USA.

At the very least, professionally he's done no less than a couple of guys on your official radar (which, don't get me wrong...I like all your selections that you have made).

[mcnaulty21]

Yeah, but we're talking 2010 here, not today and now...and what Subotic has already done only leads me to believe he will be on the WC roster, or at worst a top alternate, should he choose the USA.

At the very least, professionally he's done no less than a couple of guys on your official radar (which, don't get me wrong...I like all your selections that you have made).Oh yeah, I get that this is long term, and I understand that he has great potential. The only thing keeping him off my Official On the Radar is the fact that I've never seen him play. I've seen everybody else on that list at least 4 or 5 times (with the Nats or club team). When I see him once or twice, and he performs as well as I expect him to, he'll be on in a heartbeat (maybe faster).

I really don't like judging players without at least a little sampling.