I'm no Kljestan apologist, but I will take that extra pass to a wide-open MB in the area Every Single Time.
I leave town for a couple days and the 80s-music expertise on BigSoccer crashes that much? How horribly pedantic would it be for me to point out that you misspelled "wot"?
You are right. It hasn't been. The problem is that Orozco has nowhere to go. He has zero potential. None. The ceiling is what it is. Tread water at absolute best. Nothing else. Even the other guys had something going for them, and I have never been a Ream booster from day one. There is just nothing in Fiscal's ability that's ever gonna be more than mediocre to poor at international level. Ever. He is what he is.
I thought they were classic goals. We were attacking a lot and scored typical goals with a knockdown and volley. I don't understand the complaints with the implication that the team couldn't combine well regarding our goals. I think Klinsmann can't help but notice that we won't beat teams regularly with brilliant ground combinations (like the old Donovan Beasley days), but I like how we play much more now. We have a much much better defensive line and can play more possession which only makes us a better team when we also add in the same old long ball.
Susaeta rather effectively argued on his blog [which I am blocked from accessing at work] some time back that Orozco was brought in for stylistic reasons as JK was attempting to transition to a different type of defense. I also do not think either Orozco or Ream have been as bad as the conventional wisdom seems to suggest. The latter had a very good outing [Paraguay]; an outing where we were horrible as a team [Spain]; A solid game versus Canada followed by the Panama pk debacle next game and 10 minutes characterized by a mistake versus Ecuador. I am not arguing that Ream should be a cb candidate [he needs to get minutes at Bolton before that], just that I think his performances in a US shirt have been more mixed than the CW that "Ream's been awful" suggests. https://www.bigsoccer.com/community/threads/us-honduras-the-defense-r.1831712/page-2#post-24481496 As for the argument that we need experience as gauged by total number of professional appearances, I think this is problematic. There must be a certain threshold of professional appearances [presumably not capable of standardization] when experience becomes less important than ability, talent and athletiticism. If not, let's by all means call in Danny Califf [~300], Nat Borchers [~300] or even Jeff Parke [~200+]. Shoot, Carlos Mendes has nearly 200 appearances if you count his games with the Rochester Rhinos.
Every successful National team uses a balanced lineup of seasoned pros and a group of newcomers. America is beginning a phase of being forced to bring in newbies because our core is nearing retirement age as far as international soccer goes. That is not a bad thing but indicates growth because overall the skill levels are also maturing with the group now coming to the fore.
Early on, I was a strong advocate for checking out the play of Tim Ream on the National Team. He has a unique and very alluring skillset to our pool at Central Defender. Unfortunately, during his time on the USMNT, the NYRB and at Bolton he suffers from occasional huge mental lapses or brain farts. These have been very costly both in terms of results and his further participation on two of these teams. Unfortunately, Central defender (I would even say more than goalkeeper) is a position where this cannot happen. It's very destructive on a team. The solution for him is to win back a starting position at Bolton, he has now buried himself at CB but he did get a recent start at DM, and deliver a successful streak of consistent performances which will merit him a call back. Until he does this, I would personally prefer that we continue to consider other options.
http://latinflavoredsoccer.wordpress.com - but it looks to have gone private and invite only. I requested it, but have yet to be granted access.
I don't disagree with any of your post concerning Ream. Mine was an obnoxious meta post concerned with urging more expansive analysis of evidence than "Player X has sucked for USMNT" or "Jurgen tried Orozco because he played in Mexico."
Yeah, I saw that as well. I don't think he had updated it in a while. We can only hope he does again as the posts were quite good and thought provoking.