I bow to the great memory of so many BSers. Can you help me recall the USMNT captains over the years. (Of course they didn't captain every game over the stretch, but was the primary captain) And if you absolutely must make a captain-for-life joke, please make it clever. We have standards around here. 2013 - ?? Clint Dempsey (with Howard as likely primary sub, though may soon change to Bradley) 2009? - 2013 Bocanegra (less a stretch when Landon held the captaincy) 2002? - 2009? Claudio Reyna (I get fuzzy here. Maybe it was a stretch of captain by committee) 1998 - 1999 Thomas Dooley (seemed longer) 1995? - 1998 John Harkes 1990 circa Tony Meola Thanks for the help!
Not for any length of time. BUT, I think he captained a club team in Germany. That's quite an accomplishment.
I think the OP has a good grasp on the basics. For individual World Cup games, Planet World Cup is an excellent source, if not FIFA itself. 1930: Tom Florie (F). All three matches. 1934: George Moorhouse (D). 1950: Harry Keough (D), Ed McIlvenny (M), Walter Bahr (M). 1990: Michael Windischmann (D). All three matches. Not Meola or Harkes or Ramos. 1994: Tony Meola (GK). All four marches. 1998: Thomas Dooley (D/M). All three matches. Was subbed in the last two, can't remember who got the armband when he left (Reyna?) 2002: Earnie Stewart (F/M), Claudio Reyna (M). Stewart subbed at halftime of first game. Reyna for the rest of the run. 2006: Claudio Reyna (M). Reyna subbed out before halftime of last game, can't remember who got the armband after that. Keller or Boca, I'd guess. 2010: Carlos Bocanegra (D).
Reyna was known as Captain America by the British press, so he wins no matter who actually had the most caps as captain.
Data from USSF match reports for 187 matches from 11/6/1998 through 1/23/2010 (sorry, not updated recently): Captain # of Matches Claudio Reyna 42 Carlos Bocanegra 28 Not Listed 22 Kasey Keller 21 Landon Donovan 12 Earnie Stewart 7 Jeff Agoos 6 Eddie Pope 5 Jimmy Conrad 5 Pablo Mastroeni 5 Brad Friedel 4 Brian McBride 4 Clint Mathis 4 Cobi Jones 4 Tony Meola 4 Chris Armas 3 Brian Ching 2 Dan Califf 2 Eddie Lewis 2 Steve Cherundolo 2 Carlos Llamosa 1 DaMarcus Beasley 1 Frankie Hejduk 1 So Beasley has been captain before, what's the big deal?
That's a good trivia question, actually. Quick, without looking, when was the match when Beasley was captain, and who was the opponent?
Captains since 2010, not counting the January 23, 2010 match which Conrad captained since it looks like that is on the above list. 33 - Bocanegra 7 - Dempsey 4 - Howard 2 - Jones 1 - Beckerman, Bornstein, Cherundolo, Donovan, Guzan, McCarty, Onyewu
Thanks for the great information guys! I thought the list NoSix provided was rather interesting. Including the 'leaders' who haven't captained often, with McBride and Cherundolo at the top of the list. Both captained their overseas club sides, which is impressive enough, but they were doing so when the national team didn't have a strong overseas contingent. (Yes, I know dolo is still playing, but 'the mayor' has been captain of Hannover for what? 50 years? ) I'm not trying to make a particular point - I don't think any pertinent conclusions can be drawn from it - but it is interesting to look at. (and thanks to the mod who moved this. I should have posted here initially)
Except perhaps that with ~30 captains over the last 15 years, there's no reason to get too upset if your choice gets passed over for the armband: if he keeps making the team, there will be ample opportunity to get the call.
Boca captained starting with 2007 Gold Cup. Reyna retired from international competition after 2006 WC.
Here are the most common captains within various eras since I can remember: 2013 - present: Clint Dempsey 2007 - 2012: Carlos Bocanegra 1999 - 2006: Claudio Reyna 1998: Thomas Dooley 1995-1998: John Harkes 1994: Tony Meola That's as far back as my memory goes. But Bocanegra was captain for the US for virtually every match in which he played from 2007-2012, and same for Reyna for two WC cycles (2002 & 2006).
Wikipedia lists Meola as being captain for 1990 WC as well. Astounding considering very rare for a GK to be captain, much less for a WC or 2.
As noted by TrueCrew in post #4 above, per the official FIFA match reports, the US captain for the 1990 WC was Michael Windischmann.
Ching was captain for the 2009 Gold Cup semifinal vs. Honduras (7/23) and final vs. Mexico (7/26). Califf was captain for the 2007 Copa America match vs. Colombia (7/5), and again for the 2009 friendly vs. Sweden (1/24). Mathis was captain for consecutive friendlies vs. El Salvador (2002/11/17), Canada (2003/1/18), Argentina (2003/2/8), and Jamaica (2003/2/12).
Meola was barely older than a boy at the 90 WC. I remember that team though. Windischmann was out quite a bit during matches through qualifying and leading up to the Cup. Steve Trittschuh captained a number of games, as did Des Armstrong. Before that John Stollmeyer (for Indiana U fans) captained some matches and he was seemingly older by the time the Ramos, Harkes, Balboa, Wynalda, Meola group came into the team.
Yes, I remember that team too. The ecstasy of qualifying, followed by the agony of being destroyed by the Czech Republic, outclassed by Italy, and finally losing to an Austrian side in a match that perhaps was there for the taking.