Now, I don't know whether Bruce will treat this game as an all hands on deck match or not, but I'm presuming for now that since MLS has a full slate that weekend, we'll see limited MLS participation. I'm assuming just one guy per MLS team here. No U-20s, lots of Euros, and assumes currently injured players don't rush back for a friendly. Because of all those caveats, this is obviously NOT supposed to be an evaluation of my first-choice 18 for the Nats. FORWARDS: Eddie Johnson - hottest striker on the team, wants the exposure to the English audience. Brian McBride - next-hottest striker, and available. Conor Casey - available, may make sense to get another look at him before the rest of the Hex. Landon Donovan - It's just not the full squad without Landon. He probably wants this game, too. Yes, I know he'll probably start in midfield even though I'm listing him here. Left out: Wolff, Ching, Twellman - all suffer from not wanting to pull too many guys away from MLS. MIDFIELD: Clint Dempsey - Wants the exposure, and I'd love to see the head-to-head with whatever midfielders England chooses to play. A great test for his further development. Claudio Reyna - Could be very helpful keeping the team organized against a high-level opponent. Knows how the English side will play. Pablo Mastroeni - Kind of a "yet another d-mid" pick, but he's pretty versatile, as are the above two, and with the available players, a 3-5-2 might make some sense anyway. Bobby Convey - I'm sure this will be wildly popular, but with Beasley and Lewis out, plus his versatility, and his probable desperation to prove himself at the moment, I want him on the squad. Plus, it's not like he's missing a game, either. Justin Mapp - Make the local fans go wild. He's hot, he can handle the pace, and this is a great shot at a first look. Brian Mullan - Been left out a little lately, and basically takes Ralston's spot on my theoretical squad because of my one-guy-per team rule. Left out: Zavagnin (too many d-mids), Noonan (one guy per team), Gaven (U-20), Olsen, Jones, Mulrooney, Ralston (one guy per team), Hejduk, Beasley (injury/ Amstel cup), Lewis (injury). DEFENSE: Steve Cherundolo - Better-prepared to handle the England attack than most of our defenders. Carlos Bocanegra - Former Fire guy, and can we please let him play in the center again? It would be beautiful to see him have a great match at CB... Oguchi Onyewu - His performance in Mexico shows that he's a talent whom we need to give more experience to cut down on mistakes. Here's another chance. Eddie Pope - My only MLS defender on the squad, but he's the steadying influence we may need with our other central defenders working toward confidence. Jay Demerit - The emerging YA of the year may have earned a look with his breakout season. What a thrill it would be for him, too. It would be interesting to see how he measures up in practice. Jonathan Spector - Yet another Chicago guy, who showed well last time he showed up with the Nats. Would benefit from continued grooming, and a clear long-term potential callup. Left out: Albright (one per team), Marshall, Berhalter, Conrad. GK: Kasey Keller - It's just a question of whether he wants to play this game or not. Marcus Hahnemann - Giving him the nod because he's outplayed Howard this year (from what I can tell). May benefit the team to give him a half, so that he's more ready if needed for summer qualifiers. That's my thought process. Obviously, Bruce could get may more aggressive about pulling guys out of their MLS matches than my roster does. But there's a solid starting 11 in there, plus a group of guys who would be excited to be called in even to sit the bench in a game like this.
I think the roster for england would be guys who played against mexico or guatemala... usa is getting ready for hex matches against costa rica and panama the week after england, so getting guys some time together makes more sense to me than giving new players some camp... gold cup seems a bit more of a realistic option for experimenting
I doubt Reyna will play. Beasley is out as is Eddie Lewis. for England... GK: Robinson RB: Gary Neville CB: Rio CB: Jamie Carragher (assuming 'pool doesn't beat Chelsea) LB: Ashley Cole RM: SWP LM: Stewart Downing CM: Gerrard CM: Owen Hargraeves FW: Jermaine Defoe FW: Wayne Rooney this big assumptions I'm making are that Arsenal and Man Utd release their players. They play the FA Cup final the weekend before and that Chelsea make the Champion's league final and take their 3 starters with them
i hope you're right about this as these are some big names and big talent. i've been expecting a more watered down version than this and would be pleasantly surprised.
So is the thinking that Arena will not release his MLS starters back to their clubs for their Saturday games? I know this game is a WCQ tune-up, but it's still just an exhibition.
These are dangerous assumptions. I see the England game as a tune-up game for the Costa Rica and Guatemala qualifiers the following week. I would not be surprised to see Bruce put together a lineup pretty close to what he's got in mind for the WCQs. I would, however, expect more MLS players to arrive in camp after the games that weekend, but I doubt Bruce will be reluctant to call players he plans on playing in WCQs for the England game. As to Zavagnin. He frankly doesn't deserve a call right now. He's struggling.
Casper mentioned Donovan as a midfielder, it's a No No No, Donovan does much better play as a forward, look at him at Galaxy now, he scored goals at will.
My guess is that it will be a Euro-heavy US lineup for the same reasons that the last two friendlies were MLS-heavy. Starters possibly something like this: ------Howard or Hahnemann------- (or each 1 half) Dolo----Gooch-----Boca-----Convey Ralston---Pablo---Landon---Noonan -------BMB--------GAM------------ I look for liberal subbing with Mapp coming in at 60 or earlier for Noonan, Dempsey coming in relatively early for Pablo OR Landon, Casey for EJ, Spector for Bobby Convey (though this could be visa versa) and ? for Dolo. BMB will play the full 90 up top and Boca will play the full 90 in central defense. Of course, I reserve the right to be entirely wrong . . .
This is a whole 'nother debate which should not cause this tread to be jacked. That said, I think Landon remains our best AM (though I would like to see others -- read Dempsey -- get time at this position in the Gold Cup) and when he plays well there he makes everyone around him better (see last Mexico friendly and his last USMNT match against Guatemala). He has looked VERY GOOD as a forward in LA, but that is over 3 matches -- not really a fair sampe size from which to judge.
Clarence Goodson and Bobby Rhine can make a lot of ordinary forwards look very good if said forwards get past Simo Valakari, which Steve Simpson did by booting the ball over. As I've said before, I don't think LanDo is a forward but, oddly enough, playing forward for Galaxy may be more useful for him now in terms of acquiring skills and toughness that he'll need for the international matches. He still shies away from contact though.
my cloudy crystal ball says... keller (howard at the half) cherundolo pope onyewu bocanegra ( gibbs hejduk at the half for pope and dolo)) mastroeni dempsey donovan noonan mcbride johnson (ching at the half for mcbride)
In theory couldn't MLS teams refuse to let players go for this one? Everyone says English teams aren't necessarily allowing their players to play so the MLS teams would have the same right, although it's only been done once (by colorado, poorly). I think the 1 per team might be surprisingly accurate.
I think it's the right time for bruce to give Boca a little help by putting him in the middle instead of left ( the position he hates the most ) so that Fulham people will see how good he is in the middle.
Write-Phillips would be foolish to pass this oppurtunity up. He needs every chance that arises to prove he's better than Beckham (which he isn't by a country mile). And USA is a good opponent. These players will be out of season and whether they play or not will be upto the players themselves. Both the club managers and Sven-Goran Ericcson have already said this. This is a FANTASTIC oppurtunity for some of the younger talents in England such as Defoe, Andy Johnson, Stewart Downing, and Ledley King among others
this friendly dosn't fall under a FIFA friendly date so teams that are in season have every right to not release their players and Bruce wouldn't have an official say in the matter. Bruce, in the past, has shown that he won't kill any single team with call-ups. The Revs, for example, won't lose all 4 of their players I bet.
And, yet, SWP should play? You may be right, Beckham right now will take some serious performance to replace, but it's just a friendly. If he plays, SGE does the 11 swap thing again (not a ref on his personal life) and he goes 45. but, with an official _ public _ request to rest him, why burn another bridge. As for the US, why run McB out there in a friendly when he's just finished a season in which he played...never mind. With lewis and DMB out, Convey is a very likely option, and, sadly, both will be very available.
what other chance will SWP have other than this tour? the only other matches are qualifiers and Polamd is only a point behind England so they won't mess around with them
I also think Pearce is being incredibly unfair here to. He's trying to publicly pressure SWP into turning his country down
Putting 1 & 2 together Reyna plays on the same team and just came out as saying he doesn't want to play in as many games anymore ... I've got nothing as far as an answer.
this difference? Reyna is the 30 year old captain, SWP is a young, talented player fighitng for a spot. imagine if Steve Nichol publicly asked Clint Dempsey to sit this match out.
If Barcalona clinch before the final weekend of La Liga then I expect we'll see Beckham and Owen. Becks will definitely want to play in America and I think I read that Owen wanted to come also. Madrid could prevent Owen from coming, but Becks has a clause in his contract that says the club cannot prevent him from playing with the nationa team.