Ashlyn's not the worst national team player in our history, but she's certainly in the bottom quartile. No need to completely overreact based on her form the last... oh every game after Cuba for the national side, but there is no space on the team for her going forward.
Except Chris Carter could score touchdowns even when he wasn't playing NW North Dakota Polytechnic All-Girls 5 a side Pop Warner team. I'd say that's a significant difference.
Sure, but the poster was talking about Wondo with the Quakes and the USMNT. Implying all he does is score "tap-ins," which is lunacy. There's a strong likelihood Chris Wonolowski will finish as the second leading goal-scorer in MLS history. And that's after a "late start" as he was a reserve in his early career. Its not luck. He may not be international quality, but the bashing of Wondo goes waaaaaaaay overboard. Wondo does actually score goals at the MLS level. We have to call up SOMEBODY. When we ask folks to make a list of forwards they'd have called up over Wondo, they typically list people who aren't as good in MLS as Wondo in the first place. I would have called up Morris instead of Wondo, but Morris also only has 5 career first team goals. That's our great hope. We're upset that the coach didn't call up a kid with 5 career goals to the Copa America to play against Colombia and Argentina. Hello?
Robbie Findley takes me back. I recall he signed with a club in the Championship and got loaned to a League 2 club and still couldn't score
Two things I don't really like about the Wondo bashing. 1. I don't think he is nearly as bad as people have made him out to be. He is a good player. He is not world class and he is not our best but that doesn't make him deserving of all the scorn he receives and it doesn't make him the worst ever. I can think of several players in the past 30-40 yrs that I believe are worse than him but they wouldn't deserve this scorn either. 2. I have real personal difficulty criticizing players in this way. Even if he was the worst of all time, I would have trouble with the criticism. The fact that it is exaggerated makes it worse. I have no problem with saying one player is better than another or Wondo really f'd up in the world cup (the fact that he came out and took responsibility for missing is commendable in my opinion...although I'm probably not alone in wishing he didn't ahve to apologize...).
Without Agoos there is no game vs Portugal. He carried the defence and basically the whole team throw qualifying.
it's pretty rare when you can say that a team won or lost because of one player and even then it is often not very accurate. I know I used to hate it when some players would get angry at defenders (or a gk) after a loss when the the offense failed to score. If we lost 2-1 I definitely didn't think the offense had anything to complain about...they should have been able to score at least 2 goals. (Of course defense and offense are really everyone's responsibility but....)
Three goals against Belize and two against Cuba at the 2013 Gold Cup certainly make both of those "good games"... yes against weaker opposition but the you didn't specify that... at least it wasn't in a January camp friendly, there are plenty of guys who have only appeared in those and still never had a "good game." Even if we're restricting it to post-1990 players and those who went to major tournaments, Robbie Findley played in the 2010 World Cup and a few years later no MLS team wants him. Wondo should not be anywhere near the US national team, but that doesn't excuse idiotic statements that are factually incorrect. That's not really fair without also considering how much better Bradley's 2010 World Cup team would have been if not for injuries... Onyewu, Charlie Davies, Jermaine Jones, Stu Holden, etc. what could have been.
By which I assume that you mean they work day jobs as IT professionals? FYI, Altidore scored the lone goal vs Guadeloupe in the 2011 GC with a wonder-strike. And I had a rather extensive list of close games vs. minnows earlier in this thread that I think rather proves the point that scoring against terrible teams is not something that everyone does often.
I'd rate him above Feilhaber when it comes to his time with the USMNT and that's even without the goals. Make of that what you will
Jeff Agoos was terrible for the entirety of the 2002 WC. He was ineffective at defending v. Portugal and responsible for obviously the own goal and possibly also the Beto goal that pulled one back for them at the end of the first half; he surrendered the penalty that Friedel saved v. SK and was responsible for the Ahn goal; and I think he was on the hook for at least one of the first two Poland goals (Olisadebe/Kryzszalowicz). It was one of the worst single tournaments for a player in US uniform, and I think his injury in the Poland game ended up being a cover for Arena to bench him with a modicum of dignity. But all that having been said, Agoos absolutely does not belong in the conversation about worst MNT player because anyone who'd watched the UNMNT up to that point should have been totally shocked by Agoos' putrescent form. Until then, he'd been a rock in defense and one of our most consistent veteran leaders. He was a bit past his prime in 2002 but still had great moments in the run up to that WC, most notably a beautiful free kick against Costa Rica in the Gold Cup final that sealed a 2-0 win v. Costa Rica. And in the previous decade, he was a US mainstay and we probably would have been better had we gone with him instead of Regis in the 1998 WC. TL;DR version: Agoos was horrible in WC2002 but that was out of character and for most of his 100+ caps he was an outstanding player who does not belong in this discussion.
Deon Burton is laughing somewhere about all us talking about how great/not great Jeff Agoos was at defending the U.S.A. goal in the 90's.
Christ do I feel old! HAHA! I will explain the Hex of 1997 encounter between our guys and Jamaica. At RFK. It is our guys doing very well on the night. Understand that Jamaica of that era was a strong side and would go on to qualify for their first World Cup there for France 1998. The ref gifted us a slight handball call in the first half, which iirc Wynalda sloted home and we were on our way to collecting the full 3 points at home as time wore on. That is till Jeff Agoos had his say. He was at left back and got closed down by one of Jamaica's speedy forwards. Instead of kicking the ball down field, kicking the ball back to Keller or just kicking the ball outta bounds, Agoos waits to be closed down and kicks the ball off the Jamaican player. The ball ricochets directly to Jamaica's other forward Deon Burton who races unopposed in on Keller and fires home the late equalizer. Talk about a buzz kill. Recall that Jeff Agoos was with DC United in those days, playing left back for them. This WCQ was at RFK. So Agoos found a way to be playing in the exact same spot on his home ground that he plays on each week and kick the ball off some rival's shin to cost us 2 points in the Hex standing. In these years our qualifying was anything but easy. In fact our Fed had not been playing WCQ since 1989 as we did not have to endure the Hex or the like as Hosts in 1994.
He's back on the squad for two critical qualifiers. If he gets on the field, he will have played for 3 different National Team Coaches. Hard to call him worst ever with 3 different opinions