or, he just doesnt wanna help the "old guard" sarachan, williams, etc look good and ride his coat tails to permanent roles....
or he just doesn't want to play in meaningless friendlies during a contract year and risk injury. He also might just want to concentrate on his club career at the moment as well. Or............he really is injured
It's not this complicated. Look down the roster of any USMNT in the last 15 years. Compare them to the WC roster for 2002. We had better players then at almost every position, and we had our best run ever in the WC. We don't have the players, period, to compete at the world level. Maybe the new crop of kids will grow into something, but in the meantime, complicated conspiratorial excuses for the last 10 years are just whistling in the wind -- we didn't have the players. Period.
Part of our problem was depth. That is an area in which we seem to be improving (IMO). The problem with a lack of depth is that one or two injuries (or what ever) to a key player or two can make a big impact. 2010 had Davies and Holden that missed due to injuries. If Mathis hadn't injured his knee and had better training habits he would have had a chance to impact our team. 2014 was missing Donovan, I know that many feel Klinsmann was right to leave him off but if things had played out a bit differently he could have helped us a great deal. Altidore had his injury in 2014. O'Brien had a short career. Most big countries have all of those same issues but they are 2-3 deep in all positions except the very best (Messi, Ronaldo, Modric, Zidane etc).
Michael Bradley did nothing to help Pulisic when he was getting wacked. Such a great "nominal captain" as Dave "the puppet" Sararchan would tell you. Stuart Holden, its ok if Garber pressured you into kissing butt. You wont be the first nor the last.
That was what pissed me off, and it started at the Panama game. We were up 3-0 and 4-0, the Panamanians decided to take out their frustration by hacking the fxck out of Pulisic, and our fxcking so-called "captain" did Jack Shit about it. In fairness, neither did our coach--someone like Dax McCarty could have been subbed in with specific instructions to crack a skull or two in retaliation. At that point it didn't matter if we picked up a red card (we needed to win the game by 2 to ensure that a draw at T&T would qualify us). I even called in to one of the shows on SiriusFC about this the next day, I said this softness would bite us in the ass but I didn't think it would that soon. I'm 100% convinced that if Jermaine Jones plays in that last set of games, we qualify for the WC comfortably.
Man, I’ve wanted to reply to this thread for weeks, but held back until after I met up with my buddy that, as some of you know, played for the Nats. Oddly enough, of all the convos we’ve had about the team (past and present), MB hasn’t really came up. So, I made it a point to ask about him last night. They had very little overlap as teammates, but he liked him “on a personal level” in the limited time they played together. Told him about the theory amongst some fans that MB may have influenced who got called up and his response was interesting... “Nah, but Mikey was definitely a ‘yes man’. If Bob or Juergen leaned towards calling up A over B, you weren’t going to hear an argument for B coming from Mikey”. Mentioned “Carlos” as a prime example of MB just “nodding in agreement” as he was “prematurely forced out”. Speaking of Bocanegra. He actually texted my buddy during dinner. Was cool to see his iPhone light up with “Carlos B”.
If your buddy is who I'm guessing it is (based on your username and the timeline it sounds like he was on the national team), has he considered getting into coaching?
but was Boca "prematurely forced out"? He was playing 2nd division Spanish football on loan from a relegated Rangers. With the likes of Gonzalez/Besler/Brooks forcing their way in to the team.
The enigma that is Bradley. I'm at the point where at best he is walking malaise. Maybe he is a nice guy, I don't care. I do not want him near the program anymore.
Well, IIRC he was Captain, then JK called him in and basically told him "you're done, hope you enjoy this game against *whichever team*", and CB was super sad about it. Something like that, it's been a while and I could be wrong. Even if the gist is there, that's poor man-management of a vet who had done nothing wrong, right there.
It’s all about perception, I guess. From his teammates point of view, I can assure you they weren’t happy. Not my opinion, I heard it straight from his mouth and he mentioned 2 other guys (1 regular CB and one part time LB) who apparently were not happy about it either. As I’ve mentioned in the past, Landon’s omission from the WC roster still infuriates him to talk about. Believes it was “personal, without a doubt”. Thinks Feilhabers exclusion was due, largely, to the friction between him and Dempsey and that the lack of having him on the team lead to MB being forced in to the 8/10 spot. So much more shit we’ve talked about, but I can’t recall it all at the moment. Exhausted from traveling all day.
Very interesting....especially in the context of this thread where Bradley is being accused of influencing the roster. (I am not accusing or blaming Dempsey....the decision, in my mind, is with the coach...) Not to mention that Dempsey does not seem the type to actually go to a coach and make a request regarding personnel.
Dempsey liked to "try shit", but Feilhaber liked to "try merda". If once thing Jurgen knew, it was that Jurgen knew his Scheit.
By no means was it implied that Dempsey spoke up about the inclusion/exclusion of Benny. Just that the friction was there (I think they had a skirmish at a training camp).
Boca himself came out and said that was not true, That in fact Klinsmann was always very up front and they had been having conversations about Boca's status the previous fall. El Homie Castillo blurted out something similar in an interview after the US win v Guatemala during WCQ group. He said that Klinsmann told him that this was Castillo's last chance with the NT. If he did not take it he would not be back. Nobody had any idea that was the case.