Dont think Aquivaldo / Omar will work well together, both lack speed, would rather have seen Medina move to centerback. Hopefully it works out though.
Watched about 2/3 of the games this season, felt like that was Omars best game all season. The half time adjustment to have Manny Garcia and Medina sit more and attack less totally neutralized Monterreys attack. In 2 games this season to hold Monterrey to only 1 goal and score 4 is impressive. Any sort of tie or loss by only 1 goal and Pachuca will be champs, that shut out at home today was big.
competition for a spot in the NT is much more severe for Gonzalez then it was 2-5 years ago. Back then he had the emergence of Besler, Ream (if JK gave him a look) and possibility of Brooks. Now he'd be likely to ride the bench especially with Miazga good as a call-up in the future.
Anyway IMO Omar was amazing today. Comfortable on the ball, smooth distribution, good decision making when we were in attack mode. He usually loses the ball in bad positions when we're attacking but not today. Hella shameful that he wasn't on the US squad. He might not be better than Brooks, but definitely the best Americas-based US defender.
But putting Omar on the roster would take him away from these games for Pachuca, right? Better that he stays at his club for such important matches.
Yeah, he's probably 4th or perhaps 5th in the pecking order at this point which is a shame, but it's definitely close and there's an argument both ways. I watched him at Pachuca last night for the first time and he was certainly good. If he starts playing like that all the time he'll get serious minutes for us going forward.
He's certainly ahead of Michael Orozco. The only reason Orozco makes the roster is presumably his versatility of being able to play all along the backline. Not particularly well at any position in my view............................... Klinsmann actually thinks of centerbacks as left-sided or right-sided. Different positions to him. So Omar isn't competing with the left-sided guys, who are viewed as Brooks and Besler. He's competing with the right-sided guys, who on this Copa roster are Cameron and Birnbaum [supposedly a transfer target of Feyenoord.] I personally would take Omar over Birnbaum every day of the week. Of course, I'm biased. I think Matt Hedges of FCD is the best MLS-based centerback.
I didn't see the game. Glad to hear that he is progressing in a better league against a higher quality opposition. Now, that the new Liga MX foreign player rules render his Mexican citizenship irrelevant, I hope he will interest clubs in the higher quality leagues. And takes another step up in play. BTW, as I am a 3-5-2/3-4-3 formation fan when it comes to the current US talent distribution, a backline of Cameron-Gonzalez-Brooks would give the US a considerable height advantage on set-pieces. It would also move FabJ and DAY further upfield where their skills would come in quite handy. Birnbaum and Besler could provide depth centrally while Cameron, Chandler and Bedoya could could do likewise out wide. But thanks for being paranoiacly sensitive with regards to Gonzo. The tinfoil hat is on me.
Giving you some crap is not the same as paranoia in the English language I know and love, but I appreciate the post otherwise.
Klinsmann is a lot like Osorio in that sense. Only person he seems to have made an exception for is Layun who feels a lot more comfortable on the left wing.
Might be a little too risky to have Omar or Medina play as left center back. Medina is faster than both but he hasn't played CB at all this season. Alonso might change his mind but I think aquivaldo is the safer choice. Really the biggest issue is that our defensive mid is also super slow. Maybe we'll see a different formation this weekend. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Terrible first half. Defense is shook as fuck. We're lucky this isn't 4-0 right now. It will be though, if they don't change something.
That red was exactly why i said i was worried about Omar / Aquivaldo pairing, he didnt have the speed to cover Omar like Murillo. The left side Aquivaldo, Garcia, Lozano was getting killer the whole 1st half, so many opportunties. Pizarro Guti Manny Garcia and Medina got into Monterreys half maybe 5 times the whole first half combined lol.