I think Eskandarian is back to his old form now. I was thinking we are gonna score alot of goals if those guys are paired together in Germany, is it a little too late ? i hope not.
Re: McBride/Eski combo. From the game I saw today, he was very decisive and seems to be full of confidence. It's probably too late, but I'm down for anyone but Wolff and probably now Twellman and Ching. I don't recall if he created chances for himself or his teammates, but he did do one thing and that's put them away.
Re: McBride/Eski combo. He plays for DeeCee, so it's never too late. But seriously, attackers who shine in MLS Playoffs should always be at the head of the queue for camp invites among unproven internationals. Pity that non-hackers like Twellman and Ching and Wolff get the invites.
Re: McBride/Eski combo. Esky is a very promising young player with one extremely positive attribute: he can finish with tremendous power and accuracy with his left foot. He needs to round of his game a little more and gain more confidence in using his right foot when needed (though he didn't need it today). Also, he isn't very good off the dribble. Nowhere near Rolfe or even Wolff wrt creating his own space. All his goals are from speed and power and smart runs. Which is fine...he is certainly a very smart player, not just in the box, but all around the field. But creating space for himself is essential if he hopes to ever play regularly for the USMNT.
Re: McBride/Eski combo. Unfortunately, I think it is too late for Eski. He definitely would have gotten a look if he played last year. Luckily for him, he is young enough that he does have a great shot at 2010, provided he doesn't have a recurrence of his concussion issues. If he doesn't, he really has shown great form this year, and a when we won the title. If he keeps it up, he could move on to Europe because he does have a nose for the goal, he's tough, and he finishes with power. Unfortunately, I think it's just a little late. He won't have played in any of the recent international matches and i don't see Bruce picking someone who didn't attend camp in LA, or play in those matches.
Re: McBride/Eski combo. It's a bit of an oversimplification to limit Esky's attributes to his left foot. He has something I don't think any of the forwards in the current USMNT pool do (w/the possible exceptoin of an in-form EJ): the ability to run at defenses with confidence and just the right amount of aggression. The goals he scored in the 2004 postseason illustrated this. There's something about Esky that reminds me of Clint Mathis; he's just short of recklessly confident and rips a wicked shot. Of course, there's no indication that Esky can produce at the international level like Clint did during his year or so of great form, but the seeds are there. For this WC cycle, though, it's too late.
Re: McBride/Eski combo. I agree...along with being smart he is a bit reckless (you could call it bravery). He's got a low, Maradona-like center of gravity and build, and like you said, he has a wicked shot (with his left foot). He scored so many golazos two years ago I thought he was the real deal, but he wasn't that impressive in his limited USMNT minutes. Certainly, Esky has scored goals in MLS that probably no other USMNT player would score. He scores both the Clint Mathis type pinpoint accuracy finishes in and around the box along with the EJ or Buddle-like speed and physical based solo runs and finishes. I think Esky has a great attitude right now and is going to have a blow up year again. He'll be back on the USMNT radar and will get another shot. It's up to him to make it count. He's got lots of competition for the young forward spot with the likes of EJ, Rolfe, Herculez, Buddle, Barrett and others all on the verge of making a big breakthrough (EJ already has of course). Esky is just another promising young forward...the question is whether he makes the next step and develops into a truely world class forward, which is what I think he'll need to do if he is going to be a regular for the USMNT.
Re: McBride/Eski combo. Help me out on this--when did he play for the Nats? I remember him being in some YNT games, but can't recall any appearances for the senior side.
Re: McBride/Eski combo. Really one game I can remember was mop up duty aganist Wales where all the DC United and San Jose Earthquake players had the week off in MLS and for that, were given national team caps. That's the only national tem cap he has received, and I think one more, but it was both before his breakthrough 04. And in that game, Ryan Suarez, who got suspensed from MLS play that week for FC Dallas when he was on that team, was rewarded by Arena by being capped by the national team. Compared to what he did for Dempsey, I thought that was hypocritical of Arena to reward a player than received a red card in that match a national team cap just because he wasn't playing for his club team.
Re: McBride/Eski combo. First off, your basically dissing the MLS regular season and the difficulty it is to score in the regular season with this silly opinionated view of whose national team quality with MLS playoffs. Second, if we use that logic, than once again I say, Pando Ramirez is better than DaMarcus Beasley , Pablo Masteroni, and others that haven't scored in the playoffs. Back to Eskandrian, that capriciousness that he has in the box is great, its like Mathis in that unpredictability for an America, so uncommon. But sadly, his time has run out as well.
Re: McBride/Eski combo. BA said the roster hasn't been finalized yet, anything can happen and basically he is still looking for 5 more right players to complete his dream team roster so, obviously it isn't too late for anyone including Eskandarian ( and Conor Casey for that matter ).
Re: McBride/Eski combo. I'm sorry, i wish Esky was going to be on the team, but we have to think with our minds instead of our hearts. It's not happening.
If someone could get any picture of Eskandrian spitting out the Red Bulls please, that was just sensational I think, he beat Dempsey to the punch.
If everyone stays healthy, no way Esky makes it...lets hope for 2010. If Esky has a chance, then so does Meola...and he has no chance.
You can find it here https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=342766 also you can see it on www.mlsnet.com highlights for the video
but since he is an iranian american, i don't know if that will happen because politic will get in the way here.....unless if Iran surrendering it's nuclear experiment.
I wonder if Esky is a fool. We all do foolish things every now and then, so I wonder if this is normal type of behavior or not. Entertaining it was. But I expect MLS to hand down some discipline for excessive celebration. The spitting part was provocative and were it not for NYRB being so passive, it would have caused a bench clearing brawl against many other teams. Try that in Europe or South America and all hell would have broken loose. It also sends a bad message to all MLS sponsors that their their products are liable to be disrespected. So I think the league will act as a sign of support to all league sponsors. Who knows what the next wise guy will spit out - Sierra Mist? Bud Light?
I'm following up my own post from a few hours ago. It now seems likely that the gamesmanship/humor or drinking and spitting out Red Bull beverage was a pre-planned team event, and Esky had to do it because he scored the first goal. If that is the case then all I can say is that it was ill-advised and should be investigated by the league's discipline committee, and if I was RB, I would file a complaint with the league.
i'm surprised it took this long for a thread to pop up. I would've thought an Eski for the WC thread would've been 100 posts long before he was done spitting his red bull.
and if RB is so damn pissed that they should file a complaint, Garber should tell 'em to play better defense next time. it's their own damn fault Eski scores on them everytime. if it bothers RB, defend the guy or shut up.
i'm all for the BMB/Eski combo.... Say in the WC, BMB needs a drink..Eski throws him the water bottle...he seems to be into that... Oh, on the field, you mean? hell no!... for that matter, what's the difference between trying Eski and/or say, Kenny Cooper? Other than one scoring vs. a very poor Metro/RB defense and another who's played relatively well all games, vs. a tad higher competition, especially this weekend?
I don't follow you. I did not say it was not funny, I said it was entertaining. The issues I raised had to do with disrespecting an official league sponsor, and provoking possible retaliation.