I agree, but it might be these 3 instead... Bradley/McCarty/Nagbe. Either way these games could help the MF trio, who ever they are, get some minutes together.
I dont think Rowe ever played CM or DM in his minutes at the GC. Weren't all these miuntes given Dax, Acosta, Roldan and Bedoya? Rowe seemed to be used mainly as an AM or WM. His comp is Pulisic, Zardes and Johnson.
There is another purpose, some may not like it, but he has an opportunity here to integrate the GC group players with some of the A Team. Maybe he kept the guys he thinks have potential to be in the 23 or at least in the top 33? Just because he brought in a bunch of A Team guys does not mean the main goal is to win. Of course he does not want to lose, but another possible goal is to integrate players with A team players. Looking at this way Rowe and Dwyer makes some since. These guys are in front of Dwyer... Jozy, Dempsey, Wood. Maybe he rates Morris and Agudelu ahead of Dwyer. These guys are in front of Rowe... Pulisic, Johnson. People may not like this, but maybe Arriola, Zardes, Pontius and even Bedoya are in front of Rowe.
There is also Bedoya, and Cameron. Cameron plays CDM for club at times, and Bedoya just played CM at the GC and of course he plays there for club too. I don't know a lot about Pontius... does he ever play CM? I thought I heard Arena wanted to try him in a different role with the NT. Is he an option for CM?
For me, Dempsey makes no sense because this is the last tournament before the World Cup and we know Dempsey can play, we just don't know if he will be too old next year for Russia. Giving Dwyer more time, under the pressure of Gold Cup in the year before the WC, would have given Dom the opportunity to acquaint himself with Arena and the USMNT more; at the same time, we could have demanded more to test his ceiling. I understand why Bruce sent Rowe home instead of Pontius altho I don't agree with him and would have sent Pontius home, not Rowe.
Short version: If he loses it is Dempsey's fault. If he loses without Dempsey in camp, everything becomes Bruce's fault.
He plays Acosta against the weaker opponent, theoretically ES. If he isn't playing well enough he subs him. He can always use Bradley for free kicks to avoid the embarrassment of Acosta's free kicks. Then, to face Costa Rica he can say he will use McCarty to rest Acosta for Mexico in final , thereby keeping alive the suits' façade that Acosta is somehow better than Dax. If Acosta screws up against Mexico he can pull him and put a tired Dax in.
That's a good show. I listen to it a lot. I'd argue that some changes were warranted, most were planned, but that doing none would have been a bad idea. Leadership and experience in this group was sorely lacking. I don't get Rowe going home and pontus staying. Would have liked to ser dwyer with more help and tougher competition. The others make sense given the situations.
OK, sounds more like Osorio gave up his right to call guys in for both, more than the clubs disobeying the mandate....
If Bruce doesn't start the Besler-Miazga pairing next game, likely ending the tournament with Hedges on 4 caps and Miazga on 1, there are only two conclusions you can make at that point: 1. he's blind as a bat in his older age 2. he's trying to shield Omar from serious competition out of confirmation bias or their past relationship Your move, coach.
I think the biggest point to my argument is that Bruce didn't start O'Brien at all during key WC qualifying games despite the fact during the 01-02 year O'brien really was playing well for Ajax. It should have been clear by his play at Ajax and dominating play in the prior Olympics that he could play the two way mid role or DM role or even left back if we wanted. Bruce didn't play him basically until we qualified for the WC in a final game where Reyna wasn't called in. Remember in those days we simply didn't have players excelling on major foreign squads at the time. We were a rag tag group that was better than the sum of our parts. O'Brien was one of the few parts that seemed to have real quality and Bruce left him on the bench as Reyna's back up until Reyna got a knock and Bruce had to play him. Credit Bruce for realizing O'brien's value after that Portugal game and playing him from then on. Beasley just came of age late. He would've started WC qualifiers if he'd been ready earlier in the the cycle but he had barely turned pro.
Well, O'Brien basically missed the entire 00-01 season for Ajax. The qualifiers took place during 2001. He injured his MCL in February 2001, immediately before the last round of qualifying began. He was unavailable until he recovered from the injury and, he re-entered the lineups against Jamaica (which is also when Reyna returned from injury as well). He also played in the subsequent match in T&T. That was a frustrating qualifying period because JOB and Reyna were both injured.
We don't know what kind of deals Arena may have made with MLS coaches. But certainly bringing in A team players provides an a chance to see how the GC team fits.
Reyna didn't play well at qualifiers anyway. His injury forced Bruce to play Mathis who was easily the best American player back then. And injury of out of form McBride forced Arena to play Wolff who was the best in form forward. Some luck with injuries.
Eh, I don't call a three game losing streak in qualifiers that great and having to close with victories to finish third in qualifying (although I hope history repeates itself and we make it to the quarters or beyond after a weak qualifying campsign). Mathis had moments of individual brilliance we had rarely seen for a NAT, even if he disappeared for large chunks. Wolff had great instincts and speed before injuries robbed him of them. Still, to me the key moment for that team was that match against Jamaica where Reyna and O'Brien are paired and we retook possession of the center of the park, which we had been unable to do the previous summer. We now had two players tha could maintain possession. That allowed us to better exploit Mathis and Wolff's talents. But hey, all that is so long ago
Again, this is not true. 1.) As has been pointed out, O'Brien was injured for most of our key qualifiers. 2.) It is not true that Bruce didn't play him until we qualified in a final game where Reyna wasn't called in. In fact, O'Brien started alongside Reyna in the game in which we qualified for the World Cup against Jamaica. (I believe he subbed in during the prior qualifier or two after coming back from injury.) 3.) It is not true that Bruce left JOB on the bench as Reyna's back up until Reyna got a knock for the Portugal game and Bruce had to play him. In fact, in the four A team friendlies in 2002 prior to the World Cup for which O'Brien was available, JOB started alongside Reyna in all four: the last two sendoff series matches against Jamaica and the Netherlands (JOB was unavailable for the Uruguay one), and two European friendlies against Ireland and Italy. (There was also a friendly in Germany that year, but reports from that game note that JOB and Reyna were both injured for that one.) I only harp on this because, as you've indicated, it would have been pure madness on Arena's part to bench a player of his quality -- one of the few players we had starting at a high level in Europe, and if I thought he was prone to making decisions like that I would be a lot more skeptical of his coaching right now. I think there's plenty of criticism you could justifiably level at him, but that's probably taking it a little too far.
The way we played that game made me wonder, for the first time, if we could actually do some damage at that WC...