Goalkeepers: Brad Guzan (Aston Villa, England), Marcus Hahnemann (Wolverhampton, England), Tim Howard (Everton, England). Defenders: Carlos Bocanegra (Rennes, France), Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover, Germany), Jay DeMerit (Watford, England), Clarence Goodson (IK Start, Norway), Oguchi Onyewu (AC Milan, Italy), Jonathan Spector (West Ham, England). Midfielders: DaMarcus Beasley (Glasgow Rangers, Scotland), Michael Bradley (Borussia Moenchengladbach, Germany), Ricardo Clark (Eintracht Frankfurt, Germany), Clint Dempsey (Fulham, England), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles), Maurice Edu (Glasgow Rangers, Scotland), Benny Feilhaber (AGF Aarhus, Denmark), Stuart Holden (Bolton, England), Jose Torres (Pachuca, Mexico). Forwards: Jozy Altidore (Hull, England), Edson Buddle (Los Angeles), Robbie Findley (Salt Lake), Herculez Gomez (Puebla, Mexico).
yea man, ching looked like he had dropped some weight and was in form. outside of that, i like the roster, just a bit concerned about the center backs and lack of expierence in the forward position. Altidore/Gomez...hows that sound?
OMG, I want to vomit! Findley and Buddle over Ching??? No Bedoya? Borstein earned a spot with that performance last night? The shockers for me are Findley and Borstein. The latter looked wretched last night. And apparently Findley was too good to even challenge for a spot (since he was on the bench for the game). I cried all my tears for CD9, but if I had any left, they'd be for Findley and Borstein.
so right now it looks like jozy, landon, clint, and Bradley are gonna play almost every minute is south africa
I think that sounds good. But, last night Adrian Healy mentioned that Gomez has been very effective off the bench. So, who starts with Jozy? Buddle? Deuce?
My guess is that starting forwards will be Altidore and Dempsey. Buddle will back up Altidore, and Gomez will come on for Dempsey. With some luck, Findley will never see the field.
Would have liked to see Ching over Buddle, maybe, and I guess BB knows that Gooch will be better by June, but overall i agree with tis 23. There you are - the best American players who are (relatively) fit, and who want to play for the US.
While Ching is slow and finishes poorly, he can hold and pass. We saw the difference when he came on in the second half. I just don't see the other forwards with much creative instincts when assisting in an attack -- or holding up play, meaning a quick loss of possession -- particularly Findlay. That was an odd omission, I think.
I would've also taken Ching over Findley. He's about the only forward we have that can effectively hold the ball in the box with his back to goal, helping to create scoring opportunities. Sure he may not score many goals, but what else has Findley done to derserve the nod?
I haven't been a Ching fan in a while now, but I think I'm starting to realize maybe there just weren't many alternatives... It's Jozy and Buddle up top for me, with Herc coming on at ~60 minutes. Other than that, I like it. Hope Gooch can improve on last night, he seemed to get beat in the air as often as not, and that would be a big problem...
ehh johnson will be the one that nvr will be..we have no choice...bornstein or pearce who hasnt played a real international game in years..and we do need speed with findley
Findley is an egregious choice. But no one has mentioned Bornstein. Bornstein earned a spot with that performance last night! Are you kidding me!!?!
I'm really, really tired of hearing about Findley's speed. Just because you can run fast doesn't mean you can play soccer. His skills are laughable. He only has 1 goal in MLS this season, and he looked WAY out of his league against the Dutch. Just a very poor choice on BB's part, and one that won't endear him to the fans.
I said in another post this was pretty much what I expected. I would have taken Alejandro Bedoya since he has been a constant spark for the NATS when entering games. He is a player few coaches, our opponent coaches, have even scouted and could have been a real surprise. He was an ACE up our sleeve. Instead Bradley takes Torres who has done less than Bedoya and DMB who is a non factor for Rangers. DMB gets 45 min last night does okay and merits a WC roster spot over a kid who in less than a year went from sub, to starter, to team best in Sweden... That does bother me. Same can be said about Torres, who could have given his spot to DMB. I would have taken Bedoya over those 2.