Its my opinion. There is no official way to measure who is better, so its all my opinion. Colback is the beneficiary of being a local boy who was in the Sunderland academy his whole life. His soccer skills are very limited. Every time he plays he looks severely outclassed. I know that its easy to look at his wikipedia page and see that he has played for better clubs than Sinovic, but that doesn't mean he is better. I'm not saying Sinovic is anything special, but Colback is an awful player. If there is room for someone like Colback at an EPL club, then there is room for Sinovic. Its also easy to look at Ki's wikipedia page and see that he plays in the BPL and Gil plays in MLS, so the easy answer would be to say that Ki is better. Having watched both players play numerous times, I can say with 100% certainty that I think Gil is a much better player. I keep hearing that Gil is not ready. I think this is a load of crap. The reason why he doesn't impact the game in the way that you would expect from a star player is because he plays a secondary attacking role for RSL. He has to play second fiddle to Morales who the offense is facilitated through, so its very hard for Gil to dominate a game. He hardly ever has a poor game though. I'm not the biggest fan of Benny, but is he really worse than Seb Larsson? Not from what I have seen. Its easy to look at Sunderland's roster and marvel that they play in the BPL, but they have a ton of mediocre players, which is the reason why they have such a poor team. Larsson, Ki and Colback are Championship level players, not BPL level players. Don't let the league they plan in fool you. Sunderland has a ton of really bad players who aren't up to par with the rest of the league.
Watching the replay, I was actually impressed by how quickly Besler reacted on this play, peeling off of Findley and getting over to Sabo. The problem from my viewpoint was Myers, who had been marking Sabo until Collin knocked the ball away. When that happened, Myers left Sabo alone and began to run towards the sideline to mark nobody. Just plain dumb. And of course, the initial attack that led to the goal began when Feilhaber overcommited and allowed Beckerman to turn upfield. And after Collin knocked the ball away, Beckerman got to it before Benny and was able to release an unpressured pass to Sabo. At the international level, we need midfielders who work to get to those balls consistently and fight for them. Or maybe Beckerman is just too fast for him?
aaaaaaand here comes the peanut gallery that did not watch any of the games giving their two cents LOL, as is custom and tradition.
Seriously? Fwiw, I watched a good chunk of the game but wanted to comment on the goal after I reviewed the video. Do you feel threatened by that?
sorry man, i sincerely apologize that wasnt directed at you, mostly at page 263, i didnt see your post there on the next page and you are a good poster who obviously watches the matches given your post history, that was 100% my bad. but to 263, the point stands.
Nice analysis and it gives me somethings to focus on when reviewing that particular play. Any thoughts on the RSL center back pairing and their potential as internationals?
Did the MLS Cup tell us anything about our PK takers? I don't expect Besler to have to take a PK for the Nats, so whatever on that one. Does Zusi normally take them for SKC? Wasn't too pleased about him missing his. Beckerman made his. 1 game does not a trend make of course, but wanting to know if this was par for the course from anyone who is a fan of those teams. Zusi may need to be a PK taker for us, so in particular want to know if this was "normal."
Ok, admittedly I'm not a big MLS watcher (but not a hater). Have a couple comments. Very surprised by the amount of diving, whining, and rolling around. Disappointed to be honest. That sequence on the corner kick on OT where Saborio got pushed and clutched his face and rolled around....disgraceful. The Sapong leap/dive in OT in the box......with the expected barking at the ref by benny. Love bennys touch but hate his tude. None of this groundbreaking analysis...but my therapist says that i should express my feelings instead of suppressing them.
There is more to this story than the above. Arnaud was SKC's captain and MTL clearly wanted Arnaud in the expansion draft - meanwhile SKC didn't just want to let the relatively older but experienced Arnaud go for nothing, and wanted to keep Sinovic for his potential. So SKC protected Arnaud and exposed Sinovic. (huh?).... Then almost immediately after MTL picked Sinovic up, MTL traded Sinovic plus some money back to SKC, for Arnaud. The speed of this deal made most observers believe it was pre-arranged. *Thus SKC got to keep Sinovic (whom they wanted) plus some extra money (nice, gutsy work there, Front Office) *And MTL got Arnaud (whom they really wanted, and as a new MLS team flush with cash, the bit of money given up was trivial in MTL's grand scheme at the time) Win-win deal. Point being - SKC exposing Sinovic in the 2012 expansion draft is not, by itself, indicative of Sinovic having no value/not being wanted. In fact the opposite is true - SKC was willing to trade it's captain for Sinovic and a bit of money. Is Sinovic USMNT ready? Sinovic's game has grown a lot the last 2 years. He comes up big in big games - his only 2 MLS career goals were lifesavers in the playoffs (check out his absolute rocket from the side vs. New England this year). One could argue he's on a Besler-like growth trajectory (although earlier in the curve, and no guarantee he has USMNT topside). Side note, Besler and Sinovic are both from KC, and have been soccer friends since their shared youth - they are also the same age. If you believe JK looks for "effective pairs" on the field: the left backline half of Besler/Sinovic have been youth and club paired for a decade. Sinovic is probably worth a look at Camp Cupcake - although I would not be surprised at either his inclusion or exclusion there. He would need to grow a lot more to be a USMNT/Int'l contributor - I've seen Sinovic burned by EPL loanees early in MLS 2013 - but on the other hand, that was almost a year ago, and Sinovic did great in CCL group play, so he's not a total Int'l game newbie today. Maybe give Sinovic a run at Camp Cupcake -if for nothing else than being a benchmark that any US MLS LB hopeful has to be greatly superior to in order to have a chance on the team (because I don't think Sinovic really has a chance on the team right now, unless he pulls some yet to be seen next level of game). After that, let the chips fall where they may.
Personally, I've enjoyed Schuler's playoff performances but feel like he'd end up as a deer in the headlights at the international level. As for Borchers, I think he's shown himself to be as good as Conrad or DeMerit ever were, but unlike the two of them, he never ended up in the right place in the shuffle, and pretty soon his age is going to start catching up with him. More generally, RSL has been such a nice team that it's understandable that USNT coaches and fans have looked for ways to utilize their players. But with the exception of Gil, I feel like the US players they've had are all marginal national team talents, at best.
Again I came away extremely impressed with Gil. Not sure next summer is the right time, but he is going to be a significant player for the US in the near future.
Borchers is an underrated player and big reason why RSL is so consistent. He doesn't get call ups which only helps their consistency in the back.
in RSA no doubt Schuler, Borcher, Gil, Velasquez and Rosell(if we could cap him ) are USMNT first choice vintage. In SKC Sinovic and mostly Dwyer are for sure USMNT quality players (of course i already count on beckerman, zusi, besler etc etc) Beltran also played well but with at least Chandler, Cameron and Evans ahead it is hard to him to become a A USMNT player( how far we have been gone to say this for a very good player...) Add zardes, rowe, nagbe etc etc and our team for 2018 WILL BE THE FIRST TEAM to compete (and beat) everyone, in everyplace at anytime. Period. Our current team still cannot compete against brazil in brazil or argentina or germany in their fields yet. But the next will.
I tend to agree on Borchers. I watch a lot of MLS and I believe the RSL CB pairing is the best in the league.
What stands out to me watching him is that he is willing to make the simple pass to maintain possession, and very rarely tries to force a play that isn't there.
Three things stood out to me: 1. He is fast. Deceptively quick and separates from other players. 2. His work off the ball is outstanding. One of the best players in the US in this aspect of the game, right now. 3. His work on the ball is efficient. He takes the fewest amount of touches necessary to make the play. Learning when to take risks and force the issue to make plays is his next step to me, but in Kreis's system he was likely supposed to defer play making to others, like Morales. If he can turn all those smarts and hard work into production, he will play a pivotal role for the US next cycle.
Good move for Villafana, a move to a much better team could get him more exposure for the nats if he can play well as a LB which I think he can. Him and Klute should get looks
Portland made a huge mistake. AJB is better than any CB that they have. I think this move could be good for AJB, actually. He will get to learn from a veteran like Carlos Bocanegra and will be able to get tons of reps defending each game.
That is only part of the story. Porter's real move was to get Zakuani in the re-entry draft, in part because Rodney Wallace tore his ACL and also because Porter thinks highly of his former Akron player. On AJB, Porter felt like he was talking to a brick wall at times. Talented kid who needed a wake up call. Hopefully this is it.