didn't Clark do well during the 09 Confed Cup? Bornstein was pretty good in his 2 caps at the WC though he failed in the 2011 Gold Cup Final Findley is just a reminder of what happens when a potential star for us (Davies) doesn't turn out as we had hoped? If Bob didn't bring on Findley as his Faux Davies, who would he have chosen to partner with Jozy up top?
Eh, Whellan is not big shakes. He's like Lee Cattermole with a better touch. Naingollan is really top notch though. Not really. Beckerman was basically the fifth defender (almost wrote the "filth defender" - that would have also been apropos) and Wondo's athleticism is way underrated here. Sure his touch and shooting techniques are awful and he doesn't seem to be the sharpest tack in the drawer but the guy can run and hustle. I mean, Clint Dempsey ain't going to run back fifty yards and arm-grab Messi. Deuce wouldn't even been in the frame. Or, if he were, he'd be a total bokeh.
BTW, I thought that of the US players with a moderate number of caps (not counting Jay Heaps or Kerry Zavagnin types), Chris Armas was just awful. Even worse, Bruce loved him. Chris was Bruce's man. When Chris got hurt in the last game leading to the 2002WC, both were grief stricken. Then Bruce had no choice but to stick Pablo Mastroeni into Armas's spot and ride into the quarters with him because Pablo was ten times the player on both ends.
When an NFL offense plays Pete Carroll's Seattle or Wade Phillips' Denver or Ron Rivera's Panthers, it's going to look like crap. The Packers played at Mile High last season and got humiliated. The US really had no business even looking moderate against Argentina because Tata Martino and his two holding mids will have a lot of teams look impotent. The fans attention is on Messi but people forget how much money Man City paid for Otamendi. And, when people bring up Venezuela, they forget the US has no Rondon.
so odd how people pine for arena and bradley...but if not for some FORTUNATE injuries/suspensions...their biggest successes would not have happened. armas, agoos, etc.....in the 2009 confed cup...bradley only played davies/altidore (best lineup)when he was forced to......
A holding mid in a two-man central midfield is a holding mid. Even RSL don't play him that way any longer. And he doesn't have JJ's reserves elite athletic ability to draw upon. Dempsey played as a flanker in the EPL. Wondo is a slow-footed poacher.
Dempsey's better days are long behind him and, like I said, Wondo can run just fine ... at least, without the ball. He did catch Messi after starting from way behind the play. One of the benefits of being on the job a long time is getting fortunate breaks and then using them on the resume as an achievement. But everyone needs these breaks, even the Belichicks and the Fergusons of the sports world.
No, he is not. There is probably a bunch of candidates from the WC drought days pre-1990. He just has a ceiling below the Hexagonal-grade teams, maybe mid-table Hex on a good day. But WOAT? Not by a long shot.
He has 1 goal vs. Mexico and 2 vs. S. Korea's B-team, in friendlies. 10 goals in 33 caps (0.30 g/c). By comparison, Aronjo has 4 goals in 19 caps (0.21 g/c), with a goal vs. Denmark in a friendly his top one.
Not in his current gig. Prime ages are only prime when the player is in a situation that pushes him to achieve his potential. Being a lock down starter for your team and making what he makes in comparison to the vast majority of players around him puts absolutely no pressure on him to succeed. Can't blame the guy for saying yes to a contract that would give him that much money, but it's human nature to slack in that situation. Same applies to MB. Clint Dempsey is an anomaly. His form and ability is unchanged from when he played at Fulham. One could say he has become indispensable to the USNT. Whereas if you look at MB and JA, I could forsee a starting 11 without either of them in the near future and not be disappointed. Weirdly, they are both significantly younger than CD. Again, can't blame MB for saying yes to those $$$. Oddly enough they weren't thinking about the fan's satisfaction with the USNT performance when they signed those contracts.
Clint Dempsey is not an anamaly. He's the norm. Jozy and Michael have had injury issues, which are much more likely the culprit for a fall-off of form than anything else. No pressure to succeed? Where do people get such silly ideas?
There was a great quote from Bill Parcells, "Ideally, you want to have a team with every player in the last year of his contract". Suffice it to say, Jozy Altidore and Michael Bradley would not be on that team.
Dempsey has 3 goals and 3 assists in this tourney. Wondo was not engaged in a sprint with Messi. Argentina were moving the ball laterally, a pattern which allowed Wondo to catch up. Hell, he had time to just put in a proper tackle. But he panicked. Not in a competitive match.
Of course, I remember watching 2011 GC and seeing this thinking, "the only reason you are on the pitch is to finish this kind of chance!". Still, not the worst.
She says something like "at least US fans don't have to see Messi carving up the nonexistent defense." Nope. We got to see that too, just a couple years later...
As a fan of the goons (seriously, i am) it has been a big annoyance of mine that Wondo's given such credit for his playstyle. He is possibly the most successful overrated player in history. People always say to me 'shut up, look at his goal scoring ability.' i always think back at world cup 2014 where his game winning goal shot over the wood and into the stands. We were forced into extra time and lost the game at the very end. He simply can't produce, and he simply isn't a good forward. If he were, the goons would've won the mls cup in 2012, and they would've been playoff contenders every year since. That hasn't been the reality whatsoever. Wondo is a finisher, plain and simple. He hangs around the goal and taps it in. Sometimes I swear the ball would've gone without his assistance. And in those cases he steals the goal credit from the scorer and they get a measly assist. If you have time, I suggest listening to the most recent extra time radio podcast where they interview alan gordon. After his segment, they do an analysis of our crushing loss to argentina. you'll snicker when one of the analysts says bluntly that he'll never watch another usmnt game again if wondo's in the starting lineup. I can't say I blame him. I just hope Klinsmann has done some deep searching regarding our performance in copa america and apply some drastic changes for the upcoming world cup qualifying. And I seriously hope wondo's allowed to stay home for those matches. from my bigger plastic brick
This is like saying all Chris Carter did was score touchdowns. Hello? Scoring goals is the point of the game. Even if he's just a guy that knows how to be in the right place at the right time, it sure seems few others in the pool can even do that. Why can't Juan Agudelo score easy goals? I happen to agree with you that we should move on from Wondo. And we probably would already have if Johannsson could stay fit. Actually Johannsson, Boyd, Agudelo, Altidore, and a host of guys can never seem to stay fit. Rubin was out most of this season. Alexi Lalas actually said something I agree with once. He said "staying fit and available is a skill." Its something Altidore and Agudelo can't seem to master. Wondo is always fit and available...............and he's always banging in goals in MLS. Regardless of their quality, he's always banging in goals in MLS. We all know Wondo is the next in line of a bunch of really good MLS forwards that aren't good enough for the international level for one reason or another. You can make a line stretching from Lassitter to Kreis to Ravoz to Cunningham to Twellman to Wondolowski. And that's fine. Not everybody is Landon Donovan. We need depth guys. The problem is that due to a lack of options, Wondo the depth guy has become Wondo that's counted on in big games. I mean, we do need to call up a warm-blooded mammal to start at forward for us. I would have called up Morris over Wondo, but that's almost all of the options right now. And there seems to be very little help on the way based on the recently completed U23 and U20 cycles.