I used to dream about my team being saved. I prefer the dreams above about impossible players. Such sweet dreams!
When I fantasize about Crew signing a savior, I aspire to some guy who shouldn't have been a final cut out of the Argentine U-19s, not some 34 year old star the rest of the world has decided is washed up.
I'm dreaming of a 23 year old center mid that we can sign for 3 years, extend after 2 years and then sell after 4 for a handy profit, rinse and repeat. I'd take an aging Euro player on a free, but I want to build the team around a player that can give us 4 years where he gets better every year.
Jonathan Mensah was named to a provisional squad of 29 players. Afful was left off the list, due to his injury. Only 6 players will need to be cut to get from 29 down to 23, so there's a decent chance Mensah makes Ghana's final squad.
AFCON runs June 21 - July 19. Ghana group matches run June 25 - July 2, then group stage starts on July 5. Will we see Crognale back in first team action? Our defense is looking very thin.
Opoku just left his match for Birmingham in serious pain after a bad aerial challenge caused him to land very awkwardly with his right knee bending in a horrible way.
No. He's not that good anymore*, and there is no reason to waste an international spot, nor the salary he'd require to get a good American GK. Making GKs is what we do best. I'll never understand the impulse to import expensive ones. *I'll concede he's still probably better than what we have now once Steffen leaves, but we're talking about who's next here.
Probably only because I haven't watched the man play in quite some time. That was more couching my knowledge than his skill. Kempin wasn't half bad though. Bendik is shit.
Well, that's always easy to say of course and nobody disagrees with the theory but when you shift gears and have to actually hand the shirt tosomeone, it becomes a bit tougher. There are a few guys in USL but most have had at least a brief shot at MLS here and there and haven't cut it. Dallas Jaye is a Guam international which I think makes him an American, but he was with FCC for 2 years, got 2 games and has been dumped overboard. Andhe's maybe the best. There's Brian Sylvestre at Madison who was a backup in LA and Alex Mangels at Chattanooga who came from Timbers 2. Both meh. College has some guys maybe. Interestingly, one of the top, if not THE top college guys is Parker Siegfried out of Granville Ohio, an upcoming Senior at tOSU and a Crew homegrown if he chooses to sign. I don't know the rules about signings but if he was coming out he would have done so already. Probably just as well. He's a 22 year old kid (he took a redshirt year) and nobody is going to hand an MLS netminder job to him. But it would be the shock of a lifetime if the Crew don't nab him next winter. There are some other college guys, including a coming junior everyone likes but I'm sure he's someone else's homegrown and anyway he's probably20. No help there. As the commercials say: BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE. I have no idea who this guy is or what he knows and I'm not inclined to waste a lot of time figuring it out HOWEVER: He worked up a list of the "Top 100 American Goalkeepers"and right there, at #12, is Joe Bendik,with Jon Kempin at #26. In other words, the Crew currently has, according to him, 3 of the top 26 GK's in America. https://www.everybodysoccer.com/eve...1/2/top-100-american-goalkeepers-january-2019 And in looking down the list, it's clear he's not just throwing darts at a newspaper here. Just saying.
http://www.espn.com/soccer/manchester-city/story/3860130/sterling-i-want-to-play-in-mls-one-day Sterling: I want to play in MLS one day
That guy has Bendik ahead of Howard. After Steffen and maybe Horvath, the US doesn't have much at keeper. These aren't the old days where Meola begat Friedel who begat Keller who begat Howard.
Odd way to start the article: "Coach Caleb Porter and president Tim Bezbatchenko inherited a pretty good team when they took over Columbus Crew SC in January."
I mean, it wasn't a bad team in January. And then the injuries to our defense happened and Pipa started playing his age and Zardes forgot where the goal is and... well, y'all know the rest. Yeah. I know the author and I'm not sure what he was thinking with that line.