That wasn't the point I was trying to make. I realize Soccer America, or any media outlet for that matter, has their own biases, which are many times driven by writers or a particular writer themselves, and this may very well be the case with Soccer America, because you are right in that it *seems* they do not like Twellman very much. Regardless of what you think of Soccer America, I still hold to my guns in what I say, and I'm sure you'll agree with it. To repeat: Twellman's got to produce. Soon. Otherwise he's just another [fill-in-the-blank-alsoran-forward-who-is-a-good-but-can't-finish] for Bruce Arena. I hear the argument that if he's not getting the proper feed, then how can he do his thing. But I don't buy it because, well, if he's not getting the proper feed (that in itself is a limitation), then he should find a way to get that feed, if even creating it himself by positioning himself differently at certain times. I like Twellman. I want to see him do well. But I also think his time is now or wait until much, much later (like after WC'06).
REMEMBER--You Heard it right here---FIRST TnT, teamed up with Eddy Johnson will get the start against Panama on 12 Oct, will have a breakout International peformance and will score at least two goals and be named MOTM.
this is how I see it. twellman has an incredible workrate, and that creates chances for others, and has a good ability to be in the right place to score. but he is not a great target (decent maybe), and is not a dribbler. In some respects, he is like Josh Wolff for the Nats, not in style but in effectivenes. Has some things that are special and plays great games - but ends up with the goose egg on the score sheet. I thought he did the right things, and looked good against guatemala. but lookin' good don't win games. he blew 2 clear chances that if he made, would have changed alot of how people view him. EJ hasn't done anything since his time off, yet he has some banked credibilty, because he was on fire for a while. If Twellman catchs fire, he could be #1 if not, he will remain 3-4-5th choice guy with an outside chance of makeing the squad. you can be a suck ass teamate and sit on your ass all game, but as long as you pop in 1-2 goals a game, you could be the #1 fwd.
Cherundolo plays right back, Reyna center midfield and Ralston right wing... Is Cherundolo better than Reyna at center mid? Absolutely not. Is he better than Ralston at right wing? Probably not. But I'd take him any day over either of them at right back. And if based on this season's form Cherundolo's crosses have been better than Ralston's. I think he's one of the players who have clinched their tickets to Germany already and I'd be shocked if Bruce didn't start him at right back.
In defense of Twellman, on the play where EJ muffed the header, TT laid the ball off very nicely to Landon to set up his cross. If EJ had blown his chance, TT would have had an assist. Also, the commentators spoke approvingly of Twellman's high work rate. But he does better when he's paired with other folks like Noonan who worry the defense and open things up. Cunningham's poor play increased the pressure on Twellman.
thanks for the update. ralston and renya both have played as outside backs. I'm betting their both better than cherundolo at right back. I don't think its even a question when you look at reyna vs cherundolo at outside back. you could make an argument on cherundolo vs ralston.
When is the last time Reyna played outside back? The closest he's been anytime recently that I know of is right wing for Man C.
wc 02' - or maybe he was right midfield? i can't rememebre - edit - now that i think of it it was rm at wc02.
Ok let's see. I didn't remember him playing that in WC '02, so I decided to look it up. VS. Korea, backline listed as 2 Jeff Agoos, 2 Frankie Hejduk, 23 Eddie Pope, 22 Tony Sanneh with Reyna in midfield VS. Poland Starting backline of 12 Jeff Agoos , 2 Frankie Hejduk, 23 Eddie Pope, 22 Tony Sanneh with Reyna in the midfield VS. Mexico Backline listed as 3 Greg Berhalter, 4 Pablo Mastroeni, 23 Eddie Pope, 22 Tony Sanneh with Reyna in the midfield VS. Germany Backline listed as Greg Berhalter, 2 Frankie Hejduk, 4 Pablo Mastroeni , 23 Eddie Pope, 22 Tony Sanneh with Reyna in midfield Am I missing something? Even if he had started there then, I don't think it's safe to assume 4 years later putting him in a posistion he hadn't played in 4 years would make him better than someone who plays that posistion day in and day out for club and country.
I see you just edited that into your post... Anyways, I think you'd have an extremely tough time arguing at this point that Cherundolo doesn't have the starting spot (if healthy) at right back or that Reyna will be moved out of his normal central midfield posistion.
he probably does have the starting spot. but thats the differnce between my opinion, and bruces. i think reyna is a great player, but I prefer other options running the middfiled (style/tactics). i think he needs to be on the field, and he adds a lot so i want him at RM - and I think he is better than any options we have there. When I coach the USMNT against Guatemala (in my fantasy world) we win 5-0 every time. We all know what bruce is capable of
But this is a completely different topic. Who plays right mid and who plays right back is a completely different person, unless you know of some cloning device? Anyways I'd much rather see Cherundolo at right back then any of our other options (Hejduk, Sanneh, Ralston?, etc.) and I don't think that's just because the other options aren't great. Now back on topic. I see this starting spots as being all but filled already (assuming a 4-4-2: Goal:Keller RB: Cherundolo CB: Onyewu CB: One of Boca, Gibbs or Berhalter LB: Open likely either Lewis or Bocanegra RW: Wide open CM: Reyna CM: O'Brien/Mastreoni LW: Beasley CF: Donovan ST: McBride At right wing right now I could see a number of things. Ralston is still a possibility if he can return to forum. Other options are moving Beasley to the right and starting Lewis on the left. Reyna could also be pushed to the right as you mentioned and Donovan or Mastreoni/O'Brien could take his CM spot, possibly opening up a forward spot. Noonan or Quaranta also have outside chances at it. This is probably the one posistion a Revs player has a shot at starting in. As far as Dempsey, if he shows well in the upcoming matches, he could definitely make the roster and his versatility is a big assest. Obviously he needs some solid performances for the nats first though. Twellman (and Noonan) will have a tough time at making the roster because this is a spot the US has some depth in at this point. Right now in front of them in Bruce's eyes I'd think are McBride, Donovan, Casey, Johnson and maybe someone else I've overlooked. I'd say McBride, Donovan and Johnson (probably) are locks if healthy. One of them could knock out Casey, but they will have to perform well if given the chance and score in these upcoming matches.
I thought Twellman was decent, but he does need to put one away to quiet the murmurs. He almost had it against T&T, he should've finished one tonight, but I have faith that it'll come. I've been saying this for about 8 months. We don't need an out-and-out right winger when we have a right back who can get into the attack like Cherundolo. He's a really classy player that I think is underrated by a lot of US fans. A bonus of this would be allowing Landon and DMB to combine a bit more. I imagine it looking like this: ---------McB---------------------- ------------------GAM---------- -----DMB-------Landon------------ -----------D-Mid-------D-Mid-------- Lewis----Gooch---Gibbs/Boca--Dolo- -------------Keller----------------- with JOB, Reyna, Pablo or whoever else filling the D-Mid roles, according to health, form, and opponent. fyi--Reyna played about 3-4 times as right back for Rangers sometime in 2001 when they were hit really bad with injuries. It was an emergency measure and though he was okay, he was clearly out of position. Of course, this led toabout eleventy billion "reyna to right back" threads on BS.
Sorry to keep going off topic in this thread, but I hate the USMNT forums, so I don't feel like posting this there. If I was in charge and had a friendly match against a top flight opponent to experiment (and every player was healthy and on form), this is the line-up I would try. -----------------------Keller--------------------- Cherundolo---Onyewu-Bocanegra---O'Brien ----------------------Reyna-------------------- Beasley------------Donovan------------Lewis ---------------McBride---Johnson------------- Bench: Hahnemann, Gibbs, Berhalter/Hejduk, Mastreoni, Ralston, Twellman/Dempsey, Casey And I probably left someone off accidentally.