I'm just glad JK has reached out to Parker. It's an interesting situation...continue to play with the Germany U-21's and risk not getting called up to their senior team or head to the US Senior team which is pretty surefire. Parker would be a legitimate option at LW along with Shea for 2018.
I would like to see the top alternates brought in with most of the projected XI, we still have a ways to go with actual team cohesion you get only from playing together. No way do I see anyone brought in who has not already been brought in (47 this year), Brooks is the least USMNT experienced player I see getting calls.
Agree. People throwing out names like Beltran, Danny Williams, etc....don't get it. I also don't think it's time to call in Arriola...too early and we still have a lot to accomplish with other forwards like AJ.
Lumping Williams in with Beltran and Arriola isn't correct as Williams was a part of this team earlier this year.
Beltran was part of the team too. He played at Camp Cupcake, was on the March qualifier roster, and he was Parkhurst's backup at the Gold Cup (and started one game).
I don't believe that's true. There are four pots, not one, according to what I've read. The top pot just gets more attention for obvious reasons. After the first pot is drawn, then the next pot is drawn. If a team from the same region is drawn, then it's a redo (somehow). The only exception is that there can be 2 European teams in a group. With 15 Euro teams in various pots and only 32 spots, obviously it gets tricky and that's why this is not especially relayed in the media. The way it seems to be done is not transparent. I'd be all for doing the 4 pots in the open with little to no restrictions and then people will know it's all on the up and up. Cos we all know that FIFA is not above collusion.
There are four pots, but only one pot is seeded. The rest is regional. A European pot, a pot of Africa+Asia or CONCACAF, etc.
Parker has absolutely no chance of ever playing with Germany's senior team. There's too much of a log jam in the attacking positions, and no end in sight of promising young attackers.
One thing to consider, if someone gets a red in the Panama match, it would carry over to the WC. Not an issue for Panama, but I wouldn't have anyone in the top 14 starting the Panama game.
Why does this keep coming up? Are people just basing this stuff on the CL or something? Draw from 2010. http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/tou...91/fwc2010_final_draw_procedure_en_021209.pdf Pot 1 was the seeded pot. The top 7 teams based on FIFA rankings from Oct 2009. It took the top 5 European teams and the top 2 non European teams. Plus the host South Africa. Pot 2 was Concacaf, AFC, and OFC Pot 3 was CAF and Conmebol Pot 4 was UEFA Draw from 2006 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_FIFA_World_Cup#Groups Pot A was seeded. It had the previous champion, host, top 2 non European teams, and the rest were the top European teams. Pot B was Conmebol, Caf, and OFC Pot C was UEFA Pot D was Concacaf and AFC They also had a special pot with one UEFA team to ensure no group contained 3 European teams. Granted the way the pots work has changed a little bit each time, I doubt they're going to do full seeding like UEFA does for qualification and the champions league (which I personally hate). In all likelihood, the US is going to be in a pot w/ the rest of Concacaf, AFC, and potentially OFC (depending on who wins the playoffs) again. So expect a UEFA team, either a South American or African team, and a seeded team in the US group. Edit: Are there any more international games this month? Can anyone figure out what the FIFA rankings for next month are going to be? If so we could probably figure out the seeded teams right now (if they follow the formula from South Africa). It's probably going to be Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, and either Portugal/Croatia/Belgium right?
Cool. Thanks for the clarification on the pots. What I read was ambiguous and made it sound like it was still based on rankings after the first pot.
My 23 man team would be. Guzan, Rimando & Hamid/Johnson Brooks (just to get him cap-tied), Goodson, Orozco-Fiscal, Yedlin, Klute, Parkhurst, John & Lichaj Corona, Beckerman, Torres, Williams, Kljestan, Shea & Davis. Jóhannsson, Boyd, Wondo, McInerney & Agudelo. Decent mix of some of the bench guys with the A-team and then some fresh faces. I REALLY doubt Klute gets called in but the dude has been killin' it in MLS.
It's not complicated. We will play in this group: Germany USA Russia Egypt Cant wait for the photo of Obama and Putin in the stands.
If that were the group, we'd want ties with Germany, Russia and to beat Egypt. And then if Egypt upset someone, we'd be gold. That group would be fun cos of the Bob Bradley match. I could care less about Obama, Putin stuff. I think both of them are schmucks.
So, you want to leave all the big guns at home? I'll say this much; I'm interested to see what JK's deal is. My philosophy would be to fine tune as much as possible between now and the WC. I'd go with mostly the same line-up from game to game with maybe 2-4 adjustments max.
If we looking for a young wild card attacking player to fill out the roster (circa Dempsey 2006), I wouldn't mind seeing Kelyn Rowe get a call up...he's been standing out to me the last few weeks.
If we looking for a young wild card attacking player to fill out the roster (circa Dempsey 2006), I wouldn't mind seeing Kelyn Rowe get a call up...he's been standing out to me the last few weeks.
If they use the October (or November) rankings, it looks like we could have 4 CONMEBOL teams seeded. Brazil and Argentina are locks. Colombia is ranked really high, and Uruguay is going to make a big jump when they come out tomorrow. That may mess up everyone's pots, but as of right now, we'd be looking at: Pot A: Brazil, Spain (1,514), Argentina (1,263), Germany (1,261), Italy (1,199), Colombia (1,180), Belgium (1,159), Uruguay (1,126). Pot B (UEFA = 9). Draw the 8 and the one left over goes into the next pot. Netherlands (1.058), Switzerland (992), Russia (968), England (947), Bosnia-Herzegovina (934); + 4 playoff teams. 4 highest ranked = Portugal (1,029), Croatia (1,051), Greece (1,016), Sweden (836). 4 lowest ranked = France (812), Ukraine (799), Hungary (744), Iceland (599). Pot C: CONCACAF/Oceania (3+1) + Asia (4). Assuming Loss to CONMEBOL for Jordan. Pot D: Africa (5) + CONMEBOL (2) + UEFA (1). First draw the COMEBOL teams in a pot and randomly draw them both into 1 of the 4 groups w/out a SA seed. Then do the same for the lone remaining UEFA team, this time into a group w/out a UEFA seed. Then draw the remaining 5 African teams ===================== Could all change based on the seedings and who wins the playoffs, but that is how I think it will probably look. If UEFA seed the pots, there could be a serious big time team (France) on the outside looking in, or with a potential Portugal/Croatia PO match. Further, look at the unseeded UEFA pot: Dutch, England, + possibly all of Portugal/Croatia/France/Sweden. Could be multiple groups of death this time around.
I know this discussion regarding experimentation with new players for the last two qualifiers is a good one...but I can't help but think of all the benefits we would have of playing as many regulars as possible (include with that 2/3 of the gold cup roster). Both these games mean something for the opponents and they should for the US in terms of results. Especially the Panama game where winning in a hostile environment against a team that will potentially have everything to play for is an obstacle we need to take head on (couldn't do it in Honduras or Costa Rica, draw in Azteca was fortunate but never much hope to win that game, and Jamaica away win was a 90th min goal) The worry about injuries doesn't make any sense to me. All of these guys have many club games to play between now and June, anyone can get injured at anytime. Why should we worry about looking at a player because of this sort of worry? Healing up from injury (Bradley) is a different story, of course. But let's put out there a mostly A-team and finish the Hex off with two big wins, thus adding to the time together for this current A-teamer pool. We don't exactly get a ton of games between now and roster decision time....and even then, they will be friendlies. Putting Guzan in for Howard, Johannson up top, and Brooks in central defense are great moves because they are already in the A pool. But let's forget about all of these lesser B teamers and dare I say C teamers who don't have a chance at making the WC roster (Lichai, Boyd, etc). Their time begins August 2014. Dempsey and Landon need time together, Bradley should work with Johansson, we need to see a consistent RB/LB pairing with Gonzo/Besler/Goodson as CBs. I'd love to see Zuzi start and overcome a poor performance against CRC. All of these guys need to find a way to play well in Panama when the other team is possibly playing for their WC lives. Point is, bring the majority of the A teamers back in October to prep as the actual group who will be on the field in June and leave the experimenting for year 1 of the 2018 WC cycle.
This is why I doubt they'll use straight rankings again. I suspect they go back to a combination of rankings and past performance which would drop teams such as Colombia and Belgium who haven't made a World Cup in a while in favor of teams like the Netherlands and France, Portugal or England. Perhaps Colombia and Belgium deserve a seed, but it would be a new precident to seed a team that hasn't made the World Cup in years.
Have Bornstein play against Panama, then he'll concede 5 goals and send Mexico home. It will add to his resume. Sent Costa Rica home. Check. Send Mexico home. Coming up.