This is quite an interesting thread. Wynalda or McBride. Both pioneers. Wynalda was probably the first American to score goals in a top division and won an award or 2 I believe with his team. Not sure what happened as to make him leave the Bundesliga, unless it was just to return for the start to MLS. McBride was arguably a flop in Germany, but I doubt he had as many chances to prove himself. But he did have a decent career in MLS and longer career. Not to mention the first consistent scoring American in a top 5 league in Europe over his time at Fulham. McBride has 3 WC goals. Wynalda has 1. Wynalda has 9 Gold Cup goals. McBride has 8. Though Wynalda had 3 goals in Copa America '95 and was named to the All Star Tournament I think. With that kinda performance I am kinda shocked he didn't get more interest throughout Europe. A goal scoring American in the 90s was quite a rarity. I'm curious how many matches did they play together for the NT and how many goals/assists did they score or provide for 1 another? was there any criticism between the 2 of them around the time McBride began to get NT caps? And hows does Joe-Max Moore figure into things?
Wonder if the appearance by Brian was an audition of sorts? I don't know enough about his training skills - could he become a permanent assistant coach?
23 year old Altidore will be better than both Wynalda and McBride. 17 goals in 60 matches. He's likely to outscore both by the time he retires (probably score a bunch in the next few WC's and Gold Cups). Just needs to have a great consistent goal scoring run for his club, which is something our strikers have never achieved, outside MLS. Gomez is doing his thing in Mexico. Wynalda was a beast in 2 Bundesliga 20 years ago. McBride had a decent record at Fulham, but nothing to brag about. I really believe Altidore is the standard by all future MNT strikers will judge themselves by... Agudelo, McInerney, Salgado and more.
Kind of interesting to think about what would have happened if Wynalda had not torn his ACL (I think that was his injury) in '99 or 2000. He retired in '01 or '02 at only 32 or so. McBride played until he was 38. Wynalda's last WC was '98, when he had just turned 29. Based on who we had on the bench in '02 (older guys like Joe-Max and Cobi) it's not a stretch to think Wynalda would have had a shot if he would have still been playing and injury free. I think a lot of people forget that McBride went to Fulham at the same age Wylanda walked away from the game. And McBride was starting in the '06 WC 2 years older than when Wylanda retired. Wylanda compiled 107 caps and 34 goals by the time he was 30. Just some interesting musings about their careers (at least I think so).
One thing about McBride at Fulham, he did everything. At least, under Coleman. He played Centerback defending set pieces. And, virtually all of their offense went through him in the midfield. They're standard practice was to play a highball for McB to knock down at midfield, then they'd hold things up for McB to get into position in the box. That summarizes a huge amount of their possessions in that era. McBride's contributions to those teams were massive.
Wynalda or McBride. I wish there were goals by Wynalda so I could compare them to say McBride's. Sure there are some of his MLS goals and of course his NT goals, but not much more than that. For the 2 decades that we've been back at the WC, I'd say we've done pretty well in accumulating strikers for the NT and who can do battle in the federation. Really hopefully to see how a fully charged Jozy does at the next WC. Maybe first hat trick by an American (since the 1930 Cup). Eventually maybe he gets people to forget his predecessors and trust in him.
McBride is the better all-around player but Wynalda was the more explosive goal-scorer. Wynalda is the guy who takes FKs, and McBride is the guy on the end of them.
Are there any top games where they both played together that you guys can recommend? well that might be on Youtube. would like to see how they interracted.
Home WCQ vs Guatemala, 1996. McBride comes on late as a sub, pairs up top with Waldo, and gets a goal.
21 goals in 66 matches. He's destined to beat them both but remains to be seen if he will ever be as important as either were on the NT or regarding club statistics as his time in the 2 best leagues in the world is testament to "flop" But he is young and he can always get better.
I am not sure Wynalda would have done anybody in today's EPL. Wynalda wasn't a bad player, but I never saw anything to suggest he would have been able to have been anything more than a championship level player. He probably would have done well in the championship and would have played for a team that could get promoted...and then relegated. He could have made it in England during his playing days probably about as well as Harkes.
Now that I would have loved to see. He gets a lot of press despite only having played what 1 season of Bundesliga and 3 in the 2 Bundesliga. But again 20 years ago he was the only American doing it.
I didn't follow Wynalda's career like I did McBride's, so it's hard for me to compare the two. McBride was just a joy to watch. He had fantastic pure instincts in front of goal and left everything he had on the field every time. Just watched the video above. Wow, what a finisher. Always looked so confident taking the shot.
The goal at 2:02 is remarkable and you will not see many like it. Running full speed to catch up to a 75m punt and while still at speed, leap with back towards goal and head ball behind him, spin in air while descending from leap and hit ground running, pick up flight of ball and before it hits ground cleanly volley to far post. World Class proprioception and ability to judge and anticipate the path of a flighted ball. That goal was when he was with Columbus Crew as was the impressive leaping side volley goal following it. The header goal against Man U (poor Gary Neville) at :43 is picture perfect technique for generating power on a leaping snap header. Bullet. David Moyes brought McBride in on short term loans to PNE and Everton. He scored 4 goals and had 2 assists for Everton in 8 appearances on his loan. Not bad.
You're right about that. His heading ability is 2nd to none. Despite not scoring that many PL goals, I'd have to wager his percentage of goals from heading or assists from heading has to be up there in the top 10 for the PL records/stats. Never understood why Everton didn't just buy him after his successful loan. How restrictive was MLS back in the day?