Top 100 Prospects for 2006 World Cup...

Discussion in 'USA Men: News & Analysis' started by voros, Jun 20, 2003.

  1. voros

    voros Member

    Jun 7, 2002
    Parts Unknown
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    ...aka a total ripoff of the Ursuline 100 which has seemed to disappear as of late (been 6 months).

    GersMan, feel absolutely free to correct me on a lot of the players and rankings and add guys I missed. I'm not trying to steal your gig, but I got the bug after the Turkey game and decided to see what I'd come up with.

    All outfielders must be born after the arbitrary date of 5/31/73, which would make them no older than 32 on May 31, 2006. (Will discuss possible excpetions at the end). Keepers get an extra four years with 5/31/69 being the date.

    Also the players picked are the guys I think with the best chances of being useful in 2006, but are ranked according to how good _I think_ they are now. Feel free to disagree, you're probably more likely to be right than I am. Players listed with Age on 5/31/06

    Goalkeeper
    1. Brad Friedel, 35
    2. Tim Howard, 27
    3. Adin Brown, 28
    4. Marcus Hahnemann, 33
    5. Kevin Hartman, 32
    6. Nick Rimando, 26
    7. Joe Cannon, 31
    8. Zach Thornton, 32
    9. Johnny Walker, 27
    10. D.J. Countess, 24

    Left Back
    1. Todd Dunivant, 25
    2. Greg Vanney, 31
    3. Wade Barrett, 29
    4. Cory Gibbs, 26
    5. Chris Gbandi, 27
    6. Joey Franchino, 29
    7. Joey DiGiamarino, 29
    8. Peter Vagenas, 28
    9. Eric Denton, 28
    10. Paul Broome, 29

    (Now THAT is a group lacking depth)

    Right Back
    1. Steve Cherundolo, 27
    2. Nick Garcia, 27
    3. Frankie Hejduk, 31
    4. Robbie Russell, 26
    5. Rusty Pierce, 26
    6. Ryan Suarez, 28
    7. Jimmy Conrad, 29
    8. Oguchi Onyewu, 23
    9. Phil Salyer, 24
    10. Ricky Lewis, 24

    Center Back
    1. Eddie Pope, 32
    2. Carlos Bocanegra, 27
    3. C.J. Brown, 31
    4. Gregg Berhalter, 32
    5. Mike Petke, 30
    6. Jim Curtin, 26
    7. Danny Califf, 26
    8. Frankie Simek, 21
    9. Carey Talley, 30
    10. Brian Dunseth, 29
    11. Eddie Robinson, 27
    12. Chad McCarty, 28
    13. Alex Yi, 24
    14. Jeff Stewart, 25
    15. Jonathan Spector, 20

    Left Midfield
    1. DaMarcus Beasley, 24
    2. Eddie Lewis, 32
    3. Eric Quill, 28
    4. Brad Davis, 24
    5. Logan Pause, 24*
    6. Antonio Martinez, 28
    7. Grover Gibson, 27
    8. Justin Mapp, 21
    9. Arturo Alvarez, 20*
    10. Craig Capano, 20

    *Felt that there was a lack of depth at left mid, so I put Pause and Alvarez there despite that it might not be their best positions.

    Right Midfield
    1. Chris Klein, 30
    2. Steve Ralston, 31
    3. Ben Olsen, 29
    4. Brian Mullan, 28
    5. Ian Russell, 30
    6. Sasha Victorine, 28
    7. John Thorrington, 26
    8. Pat Noonan, 25
    9. Jacob Thomas, 29
    10. Davy Arnaud, 25

    [I'm sure you can replace the last three with a bunch of others and not be wrong]

    Defensive Midfield
    1. John O'Brien, 28
    2. Pablo Mastroeni, 29
    3. Rico Clark, 23
    4. Richard Mulrooney, 29
    5. Ramiro Corrales, 29
    6. Kelly Gray, 25**
    7. Leo Cullen, 30
    8. Daniel Hernandez, 29
    9. Brian Maisonneuve, 32
    10. Seth Trembly, 24

    **Gray plays everywhere. This is as good a spot as anywhere else.

    Central and Attacking Midfielders
    1. Claudio Reyna, 32
    2. Bobby Convey, 23
    3. Kyle Martino, 25
    4. Dema Kovalenko, 28***
    5. Kyle Beckerman, 24
    6. David Johnson, 23
    7. Ross Paule, 30
    8. Francisco Gomez, 27
    9. Memo Gonzalez, 20
    10. Eddie Gaven, 19

    Forwards
    1. Landon Donovan, 24
    2. Clint Mathis, 29
    3. Josh Wolff, 29
    4. Taylor Twellman, 26
    5. Ante Razov, 32
    6. Jovan Kirovski, 30
    7. Jeff Cunningham, 29
    8. Conor Casey, 24
    9. Edson Buddle, 25
    10. Santino Quaranta, 21
    11. {name withheld due to Nike copyright), 16
    12. Chris Carrieri, 26
    13. Alecko Eskandarian, 23
    14. Mike Magee, 21
    15. Ed Johnson, 22

    An embarrassment of young talent at striker.

    Overage exceptions:

    The only one who I'd put at a good chance of being over the age limit is Brian McBride only because he's playing so well, keeps himself in shape, and posseses a unique skill-set. Stewart will be 37, Sanneh's been hurt and will be 35, Keller is just over the age limit, but I don't think he'll last that long without being the #1 keeper. Who knows what will happen with Chris Armas.

    Okay, get the skewers out and let me have it. I tried my best.
     
  2. LiveFreeOrDie

    LiveFreeOrDie New Member

    Dec 21, 2002
    Nice list, but I would remove everyone over 30 years old in 2006.
     
  3. FC ChillTown

    FC ChillTown Member

    May 1, 2002
    Delaware
    Club:
    Philadelphia Union
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Antonio Martinez was born in Mexico- although he his not listed as an international player by MLS- so I'm not sure of his citizenship status. If he was a citizen- I would think he would have at least been called into a camp by now.
     
  4. The Wanderer

    The Wanderer New Member

    Sep 3, 1999
    Ricky Lewis and Phil Salyer can play both left and right back.

    I hope most of the guys on this list are ready to contribute, because we need players at right mid, right back, left back and dmid.
     
  5. Knave

    Knave Member+

    May 25, 1999
    Not at goal.

    I look at that list and I think - yes - that's why Bruce was trying Convey at left back. :rolleyes:
     
  6. voros

    voros Member

    Jun 7, 2002
    Parts Unknown
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I picked 32 as the cutoff age as that seemed to be the age that was most common amongst teams as the oldest field players used. Both Eddie Pope and Claudio Reyna will be 32 at the next World Cup and one would think that they still figure heavily into our plans.

    As an example, 7 of the USA's 20 outfielders for Korea were 30 or older: but only Agoos was as old as 34, and only two others were 33. Korea had 5 players 30 or older with the oldest being two players at 33. Portugal had 8 players 30 or older, but the two oldest were 32. Poland had six players 30 or older but only one 34 year old above 31.

    It seemed like 32 was a good, if arbitrary, cut off.
     

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