USA Roster for 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup

For the same reason some get out of college with a physics degree and all they can do with it is teach high school, while others go on to develop theories on particle physics.

Basically, there is ability, there's experience, and then there's brains. Dempsey got those.

 

Roster change now made official:

 

Come to think of it, how did all those crumbs get on the field?

 

Jones has been paired with Mike twice in a 4-4-2 formation, the Poland game and the Paraguay 2nd half. If you think Mike is clearly been the better player then you really need to rewatch those two games. The overall concensus (all sources) has been that Jones was much better than Mike in the Poland game and was just as good if not better in the Paraguay game.

 

Hey, he scored as many goals from the run of play as any American in that tournament, except Beaz (who had a visor - 2/3's of a hat trick) in one game.
.

 

You're right on the Poland match but wrong on Paraguay.

 

I stand corrected on all points. Bad post!

 

Unfortunately based on Jones' showings so far, the Poland game appears to be the anomaly.

The Poland was a near flawless performance. He has shown moments of brilliance in other matches but has been downright awful in two matches as well.

 

That tends to happen when a guy gets so scared of his counterpart dribbling by him again that he starts giving him more space on the hopes that he will at least be able to keep the player in front of him. It generally doesn't work.

 

huge blow not having benny....just what we need right now...

 

but when the ball is a ways away? And, how can he not be ball side? If he's hold thing the line, and ball side, it's hard as heck to thread a through ball to the guy he's marking.

I'm not disagreeing w/ you. I'm just saying "sheesh."

 

Indeed. The other mid-game spark player I thought we'd have was Chandler. Now instead we have Bedoya and Rogers and that's a significant downgrade from what I thought we'd have.

 

Yeah, I think the team can cobble together a basically solid XI (especially if Dempsey plays second striker). But the bench depth is worrysome.

 

I'm not disagreeing either, but I've seen it happen on the non-ball side defender all the time. It's too late to back pedal when your opponent has the ball on your side, so the defender gets a head start. They do it subconsciously.

 

So in your opinion which of these is true when Mike and Jones were paired during the second half of the Paraguay game:
a) Mike had a much better match than Jones or
b) They had similar performances.

 

I'm curious to see if Bob was saving Adu for Canada or indicating back of the roster status.

 

a) that's what I remember from the ratings that one guy compiled in this forum.

 

I already answered this with this.

How many games have we played since Chile? At least give Bob a chance to prove that he isn't giving Lloyd a chance.

Shit, after 1 call up and two games later you are claiming Lloyd as an example that Bob doesn't give guys a chance with the A squad. That's a little extreme don't you think?

 

Indeed. And Adu is a bit of a wild card among wild cards.

 

This isn't a response to this post per say, but more or less the whole MB, Jones, Edu debate in general.

We have see all three with the A team. As a body of work, Mike has clearly been the best of the three. Any impartial observer would come to that conclusion. Unfortunately, a lot of people in these threads will never be impartial because of Bradley's last name.

But when all three have had their chances with the A team and one is clearly better than the other two, there really is no point to pairing the other two up with the rest of the A team to see what happens.

We already know what happens, our best player at that position is sitting on the bench. And it doesn't take Jose Mourinho to figure that out.

 

You should rewatch the match, they were both very good in the second half. Either that or go back and re-read the post match thread or midfield performance thread.

 

Sorry, but using BigSoccer as a measuring stick for how M. Bradley performed compared to another player is like asking Kim Jong Il his opinion on North Korea's record on civil rights.

In either case, you aren't going to get anything that even approaches an honest answer.

 

Well actually Jones had a better rating but the distribution was rather... unusual. Most posters had Bradley around a 6.5 and Jones around a 6, but a group of 25 or so guys rated Bradley less than 3 and Jones greater than 8. Similarly, there was a group of 5 or so that rated Bradley above an 8 and Jones below a 3.

I could never figure out why some people had those views.