Figure to start a new thread on this board. What woudl be the likely starting XI for the 2003 GC for each country?
Canada Assuming all players are present and healthy and Holger Osieck sticks with 3-5-2: -------------Hirschfeld---------- McKenna-----Menezes-----deVos or Fletcher --------------Bent-------------- Nsaliwa------Stalteri-----Brennan or Imhoff -----------deGuzman------------ -------Radzinski--deRosario------
About Canada: No way does Fletcher start over McKenna. McKenna is actually good. He's been looked by big clubs such as Celtic. Fletcher is 30 years old playing in the A-league because he couldn't land a gig else where. US: ---Mathis-Twellman ------Donovon Beasley--------Olsen -O'Brien-Mastroeni Bocanegra--Sanneh -------Pope ------Friedel
Mathis will be hurt again. I would start Wolff or Razov in his place. Probably Ante. I'm not too sure about Ben Olsen. There are two other Olsens that I'm absolutely sure about, but that's another story for another time. I'd say Howard or Cannon over Friedel.
Actually, Fletcher turned down an MLS offer (can't remember which one) because the money wasn't as good as what he good get in the A-League. The same thing happened with Vancouver's Jason Jordan, who was set to join Colorado Rapids, but then spurned the offer on account of the low-salary.
That is usually the case with players who are A-League stars but would be bench players or marginal starters in MLS... I also think McKenna is better than Fletcher.
It's not necessarly about being "better". McKenna seems quite slow and that's why I chose Fletcher. What if the opponent has a quick forward? Who do we use to mark. Another possibility would be to put Imhoff in the midfield and drop Nsaliwa back in the defense (although I believe he's one of our midfielders qith the most potential).
A quick forward. LIke who? Landon Donovan? I think the US will use that game to test a lot of players, so Idon't know if the lineup will be that set. JOB is the most likely Euro to play, but who knows? YOu might want to give them the summer off altogether. They've been playing a lot of games in the past two plus years.
Marty plays for Rochester in the A-league, where frankly I don't think they have the strikers to fully utilize Martin's passing talents. I expect he may very well be in the Gold Cup squad for Canada next year because it will be held in the summer & he will be in mid-season form & our coach tends to like to call players in those circumstances.
Hmm. Rhinos strikers in the past few years whom Nash has had to pass to, with former MLS teams noted: Greg Simmonds (DC, I think) John Wolyniec (NE, Chi, NY) Neathon Gibson (Colo) Onandi Lowe (KC) Jimmy Glenn (Colu) Dan Stebbins (Miami, I think) And Aleksey Korol (Dal, Chi) just got added. My point is that each of these guys was considered good enough to be in MLS at some point or another. Lowe is a genuine star player. Nash has had decent enough strikers to feed. And while the Rhinos don't score much, they win a lot, and Nash is part of that... so the lack of scoring isn't very indicative of his level of play IMO. Fletcher also played in Rochester last year. He was a good enough player, but didn't look like an A League all-star even, so I don't see him as an international.
Don't get me wrong, I think Marty can play at a very high level. This year, from what I've seen (incl.two matches live) Marty doesn't seem to have the best strikers to play with in order for Rochester to fully utilize his talents. When he plays with the Canadian national team he sets up nearly a goal a game. We won the Gold Cup in 2000 partially because when Nash was brought on as a sub, he kept putting the ball right in the head or foot on an on-rushing attacking teammate. As for Fletcher, he's on the national team for Canada because of his speed & ability to man-mark. He quicker than many of the other defenders, though Hastings & Pozniak may soon take his spot now that they are playing in 1st Division Austria & Germany respectively. Fletcher's weakness is ball distribution from the back.
Thanks for the info...I just remember watching him in the WCQ against Cuba. Here's a nice article...did a Google search (to find out exactly how old he is--26): http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/020509/6/mbgr.html
Got a link because I find that hard to believe. I've seen Fletcher play in several A-league matches this season. He isn't very good and would get smoked in MLS.
I don't remember where I saw it myself, but it may have been from the MLS site. It appeared in a story about Rick Titus who got his shot with Colorado because Carl Fletcher turned them down for reasons of money and recomended Rick Titus as an alternative. Don't think Fletcher would get smoked in the MLS, myself. When he plays for Canada he does a very credible job against better forwards than the MLS offers on a game in game out basis. There are certainly international class forwards in the MLS, but there are a lot of pretty average forwards as well.
I like to see Canada in a 4-4-2 formation, as they did against Switzerland. Might they use it against the Scots on Oct 15th?
Hoping Holger goes 4-4-2. ------------Hirschfeld Bent----McKenna---DeVos---Pozniak Nsaliwa------Stalteri-------Brennan ------------DeGuzman ---Radzinski-----De Rosario Subs will include Fernandes and Nash Menezes will not be brought back from China as theirs is a summer season.
Our backline is definitely in flux. I hope that McKenna-Menezes-DeVos are quick enough to do the job, but it they aren't I think we're looking at a back four and who is in said back four is anyone's guess. re: Fletcher. I saw him play for Atlanta once this year and he was terrible. In fact I don't think I've ever been impressed by him in a league match (I haven't seen too many mind you), but he has always done the job internationally. In a way the right back spot seems to be the easiest to play in our set-up. With Bent/Bircham/Imhof perenially playing on the right flank they had the defensive support of guys who were used to be right backs, plus Menezes reading the play and cutting out balls and DeVos to do the job in the air. Our last three right backs all looked fine to me Ñ Watson, Fletcher and Pizzolitto (for his brief experiment) Ñ and yet none have had a real standout club season in awhile (at least since Watson left Oxford). But they did the job well for us. GC03 Hirschfeld Bent-McKenna-DeVos-Menezes Nsawila-Stalteri-Brennan DeGuzman Radzinski-DeRosario Lots of versatility anyway.
US Olimpic team i would like to see -----------Thorton/Howard--------- Garcia Petke bocanegra hernandez mastroeni Convey Quaranta Donavan Twellman razov, connor On team Berhalter cherendolo Califf Kreis Vagenas martino ?????????? Any more sugestions ?