To me what's obvious is that FCD isn't going to want the USMNT to take both Zimmerman and Hedges away for the Gold Cup. They have little experience to back them up as homegrown Aaron Guillen would appear to be the #3 CB. So one or the other for the Gold Cup, and it'll probably be Zimmerman.
I'm always a fan of going younger in the GC, but I will understand and support the decision if Bruce brings the full A squad.
Deal with it, dude. Thus is the price of success. How about we'll leave Acosta and take Sean Davis, Cristian Roldan, and Dax McCarty instead. Where are all your homegrowns now? You can play Figueroa at CB and Hollingshead at LB.
Why are you working so heavily from what Klinsmann wrongfully did? It already looks like he got a minimum of 6 wrong from January camp (they were all fine rosters, maybe 1-2 wrong, 1-2). That was with Hedges, Hamid, and Acosta at cm going down to injury. Rosenberry had to be left off because he wasn't going to be used in qualifiers yet. Klinsmann left us in a very precarious position, making it not the time for grand experiments. But that's where the b-team GC comes in after the next set of qualifiers. It has to be used to make up for lost time. You can't just cycle so many of Klinsmann's old failed faves through. As if there's any point to that. And what's that fw list? You went out of your way to not include many real fw's. There's only 2 on there, and they were guys that Klinsmann capped. And Stanko? Orozco? Zusi? Castillo? Yarbrough? Are you serious? I guess so. He had maybe 1-2, 1-2 wrong. lol
FCD is an extemely deep team, but CB is the one position where they're not particularly deep. Maynor Figueroa, as far as I know, is still an option for Honduras at the Gold Cup. It won't surprise me if FCD grabs one of the free agent veteran CBs still on the market (Marvell Wynne, Clarence Goodson, etc.) If they can figure out the roster shenanigans to do so.............................. FCD has cover for Acosta. I'm not worried about that. Vic Ulloa is a good MLS-level player.
Not sure about the roster yet. I'll think some and but if I was Arena I would want to focus on players that fit into two categories: 1. players that maybe can help immediately in qualifying (could be young or could be older but probably not much older than 28 or 29). 2. young players that may not be ready now but could possibly be able to play a role in 2018. With that in mind, I expect a very young team. I don't think there are too many players in the 26-29 yr old range that are significantly better than our current backups let alone first choice players.
I'll be a contrarian and say Hedges has a real shot at the #3 or #4 spot. With possibility that Cameron could be moved to d mid and Brooks, Cameron and Besler have all had injury issues that makes #4 a pretty important spot. Hedges is not only the MLS defensive player of the year but the vocal organizer for FCD's defense. It's why even though Zimmerman is close in ability I'd rather have Hedges at this moment playing in games that count because organization has been weak.
Looking for the NEXT BIG THING on youth teams is one of the reasons why Klinsmann cultivated so little depth to where he'd be in so much trouble when there was some attrition to his starting XI. Then he just threw his hands up and said what could I do, we had a few injuries, so we were doomed from the beginning against the mighty Guatemalans. The other reason was trying to win b-team comps like these, so he did precisely what Ghost said he shouldn't have been interested in, which was to bring b and c team vets, i.e.: Orozco, Onyewu, Parkhurst, etc. But it's disingenuous to conflate guys like Marshall and Hedges of course. I mean one just won the MLS defender of the year, is mobile, has never had a chance internationally, and is in his prime. The other one is pretty old, has had his chance, and is immobile. It's a way just to discredit MLS, Hedges, and rationalize that Klinsmann discards aren't worthy of a shot (Jan. camp reinforced the opposite). He has a good shot at the 4th, or even 3rd CB spot on the WC squad, competing with the likes of Zimmerman, Miazga, EPB, Campbell, etc. in my eyes (Cameron should be a dm, and maybe EPB too), and he cultivates depth for qualifiers + going fw. To act like this is unimportant is short-sighted. Don't some of you guys ever tire of being embarrassingly wrong to protect Klinsmann's cred?
It's still really hard for me to figure out the general strategy for this GC roster. We absolutely want to find newer and/or younger players who can help in 2018, but I think we also need to work on re-establishing a foundation and sense of identity of this team, things which Klinsmann absolutely demolished. To achieve the latter goal, we need at least a decent number of presumed first-team guys. Then there's also the issue of balancing club situations. Is it worth to pull a guy from his MLS team in order to mostly ride the bench in the GC? Is it worth it to call in established guys like Cameron when he's had an injury-plagued season and might be better off with the rest and relatively easy time spent with his club in preseason?
Klinsmann tried to establish a foundation and sense of identity with the team. That was his excuse for bringing Jones and Bradley into so many friendlies, but it clearly didn't work, and they just operated to block other younger players and depth from being cultivated. That should be the primary goal of this tournament by a wide margin, with winning to get a place in the Confed Cup playoff a distant second (we'd still have another crack, and I can pretty much guarantee you Mexico and Costa Rica are not bringing an A-team to this). Don't call in established vets like Cameron period. It serves no purpose. Fringe guys who are vets now like Dax McCarty and Tim Ream can provide the leadership. Look how Dax is trying to change the culture in Chicago. And if he proves indispensable to the U.S. in the process, and transfers over to the a-team bench, two birds one stone.
But Ream is terrible. There should be a mix of old and young and skewing more young in this Gold Cup. Horvath, Hamid, Frei Payne, Villafana, Rosenberry, Chandler Hedges, CCV, Glad, EPB, Zimmerman Acosta, Hyndman, Zelalem, Roldan, Nagbe, (Harrison, Davis, McKinnie, Gaines, Parks) pick one young one Gooch, Arriola, Manneh, Perez, Craft, Green Agudelo, Johanssen, Morris (at least one of Wright, Weah, Mukwelle, etc) Then add a vet and another kid or two till the roster is full. Plus anyone like Wood who needed a boost for a better club situation during the summer window. Winning is important but so is putting our kids into the deep end and letting them learn to swim. The future is bright and Bruce should grab onto it.
Edit above add Miazga. Switch one or two out as your preference goes. Regardless, go young and see which of these guys is ready to help in Russia and start pushing out the old crew for 2022.
You have a number of the youngsters out of position, plus a number of them are nowhere near NT ready. Just to give an example, Tim Weah doesn't even start for our U-17's.
Weah's selection or not for the U-17s isn't a reflection on him but more on our selection process and whether PSG will let him go. He was an example as most of those names for the young guys are. Sabbi would probably be ahead of him but he's a guy out of sight out of mind. Point being Arena could mix it up with several young guys getting minutes or on the verge and add a few vets like Chandler, Nagbe, Hedges, etc...then mix in a few younger ones if they're available and there's a slot for an extra winger/cm and the like. I left off a ton of names that may be closer or better chosen. I did that without a list in front of me which is why things get mixed up. Nagbe should be on the wing. If McCarty, Feilhaber, Beasley were included I wouldn't complain but there's no reason Bedoya, Jones, Bradley, Gonzalez, Wondo, should be anywhere near this roster.
If I were Bruce I would take the best players I can get with a few new players I want to try. Taking a B team only means we are not taking this tournament serious and is not like he has a lot of time to work with for the next qualifying games. This whole changing 7 players for the next round is non-sense. You want to try a B team? Get more friendly games.
There's June qualifiers that are likely to have a few friendlies proceeding them. That alone could be a 3 week camp and the Gold Cup will be about a month. Guys aren't going to dedicate almost 2 months of their summer to us, especially when MLS is playing games. Additionally we can't just play friendlies when we want. We can probably cram a few friendlies in June and then there's no more fifa date friendly camps til November and that's assuming we avoid a playoff. There's only more after that next March and then it's off to Russia.
I will still try to get the best players I can get for the Gold Cup, that would be a good measurement to see what I have for the qualifying.
The amount of experimentation in the Gold Cup will be more of a reflection of the success of the next two games. Get 4 or 6 points we will most likely see a B team. Get 2 or less A team with tweaks.
I was thinking exactly the same thing: I like this thread as an exercise but I can't really apply much thought to it until we see how the US-of-B-A looks when the games really matter. Another factor preventing me from considering my 23: I forget the availability of Euro guys for the Gold Cup. If they are healthy/not limping to the finish of the Euro season, they are usually available right?
It seems everyone is forgetting next season is considered a "world cup" year. Most of our Euros need to be with their clubs in July, getting ready for preseason so they have the best chance at getting playing time. Just remember how Pulisic's season started. With the exception of players on the fringes of making the 23 man roster (Ream, Lichaj, Rubin etc.) the Gold Cup roster should be made up of liga mx and mls players.
Interesting POV, I disagree. I think that - as long as we're gotten a toe-hold on qualifying, we should call in Euro's and MFL guys that comprise the roster spots 24-46. There are a lot of guys that have been on the outside looking in, that we could take a look at. Williams, Morales, Lichaj, Chandler (if he's not in the Qualie 23), Arriola, Gatt (if he has a good spring), Kitchen, Castillo, Oroszco, Boyd.
old thinking imo. We have enough talent. The question is A) can they play together - or who plays together best, i.e., has the chemistry and B) who is committed. Of course, I'd be happy to give an established player time off to rest muscles which is where I differ from Klinsi. I don't see the point in aggravating Fabian's physical problems when we know what he brings and the best thing for him is rest. The same might apply to Brooks. Yedlin, otoh, might be fighting for a prem spot but I would call him in to get him integrated anyway and working on teamwork. I'd say the same goes for Wood. I wonder how we should look at Miazga at this point.