i agree, just because they were signed by european clubs it doesn't mean that they are going straight to the starting line-up.
yo what are you taking about, then critize respected SI and ESPN, because they stand firm believe that they were own goals and its not that serious man. No one is talking about whether Thierry Henry got credit for the goal. but if you want to be mad at me because I said factual stuff while ya gooffed (saying he scored aganist Denmark when Petiti scored, my goodness) , than Amen to you my friend. and oh, i ask you, how many goals and assist did he score in World Cup 02, and how many did he score in Euro 06? Uncomparbale to his performances with Arsenal in that same time frame now, isn't it?
Yup, if Jonathan Specter is on the bubble despite performing well for Charlton, then it just shows you how the depth in this team has grown the last 5 or so years.
do you really think the domestic guys could take this lineup at 100%? really? besides, i'd probably go more like this (541) ...........keller ..gooch..gibbs..boca dolo.................lewis .......reyna..JOB DMB..............convey ........mcbride
IMO, Landon's been the weakest of the five. Having said that, I think the four of the five players you have brought up have surpassed any expectations as a group and Twellman and Dempsey as individual players. As I'd mentioned in another thread, the US Euro contingent is needed for defensive purposes ('Dolo, Gooch, Lewis) but the "Skinny Y" that Arena has deployed for offensive purposes has worked very well so far and probably be an even match even if Noonan was replaced by Beasley and Twellman by McBride. Having said that, maybe Arena's less favorite Euros have some uncapped gems too.
How would an all-MLS squad do? I think they would do better than any other all-domestic squad from a country whose league is supposed to be the equal of ours (with the exception of Brazil and Argentina, where it's arguable how close they are to us, but I think they are better). That's quite a positive statement for MLS in my mind.
My domestic for the WC would look like... ----------------EJ-----Rolfe------------ ----------------Donovan--------------- --Adu------------------------Dempey-- -----------Mastro-----Clark------------ --------Marshall--Conrad--Albright------- -----------------Cannon---------------- We'd do OK.
3 losses, 0 draws, 0 wins USA 1-3 Czech Republic USA 0-2 Italy USA 0-1 Ghana If you line-up an all-MLS starting line-up and an all-YA starting line-up, the only players who would beat out their European counterparts are Donovan and one forward (Johnson, Twellman, Wolff). However, that doesn't neccessarily mean the MLSers would lose.
I really think all of us need to wait for the upcoming games against Poland and Germany when a more realistic world cup lineup will be out there for both teams. Now, I don't know much about what Japan had at that game in terms of if their better players were missing, but from my perspective Japan was in control the 1st 5 mins and the last 15. The last 15 minutes simply because the US attack had been substituted out and EJ wasnt pushing it in one of his 1st games back from injury. Other than that the US really impressed me with their possession and precision passing. They made Japan chase them time after time. I never looked at Japan as a real tough opponent so i was surprised when it was expected to be a challenge. If Twellman keeps his form and EJ gets healthy by June, the 3 forwards will be very dangerous. Imagine Twellman coming off the bench in the 50-60 min range and being fresh while other teams will be getting tired. There is no real way to tell how good this team is yet, but when they play Poland, whose team will be at close to its WC team the game will tell you how much this US team has progressed since 2002 when they got dominated by the Poles 3-1. The Germany game will be a good tune-up for the WC especially if they can pull out a win or draw. That would do loads for their confidence. Some of the veterans already have that swagger that you need against teams like the Italians and Czechs, but the rest need to see that they do measure up with the rest of the world. And whoever said Dempsey is a weakness on the right side I ask what do u base this upon?
as its been said many times, that is Japan's first team defense as Ono is a valuble part of thier attack
Yeah, Czech and Italy would tremble in fear from that back line (god, at least Pope has experience--no question he'd anchor the back line). And a guy coming off injury and a guy who has never done anything at the intl. level don't make me feel flush w/ confidence. Nonetheless, we wouldn't get totally wasted w/ an all-MLS lineup, which you couldn't have said 4 or 8 years ago, particularly if this group of players had a chance to train together for a long time and play a lot of warmup matches together.
I don't think the domestic squad would do very well at all. But they are still better than any American "B" team from 10 years ago...
The YA team would have an enormous advantage at the back: the keeper and four defenders would all be much better than the MLS side. MLS would have pretty good edge up front (McB is certainly one of our two best strikers, but it's thin after that). The midfield would tilt towards YA pretty heavily if JOB and Reyna were healthy. Without them (which is a fair assumption) it's much closer, and the Euros would be a bit makeshift. LD gives MLS an edge centrally. I'd guess a JOB/Reyna-less YA side would look something like: Keller Stevie C Gooch Boca/Gibbs Lewis/Pearce DeMerit/Feilhaber DMB/PP Lewis/DMB Convey McB West/Casey OMG, tell me I'm missing something. This is not a lineup that would strike fear into the hearts of anyone. It has obvious holes, but would be pretty strong defensively. I don't see the MLS side having a lot of success scoring goals against them, esp with wing play that's only okay. I think the MLS defense is actually weak, but not sure this YA side produces much either. It would be a painfully boring three game series to watch. Fortunately, when combined, the team is much stronger. The YA provides most of the numbers, but MLS provides a few very important pieces, IMO.
Yeah, the defense for this YA team is significantly better than an all-domestic squad would be. I think the domestic squad would have a difficult time scoring. They could of course, they have the talent with TT, LD, EJ, Wolff , and Dempsey. It just seems that Convey, DMB and McHead would cause a lot more problems for Pope, Conrad, etc. If the domestic squad would have a tough time with this YA defense, then what about Italy..... There's just something about the cohesion that this MLS team has developed in their training camps and games that leads me to believe it would be a tough fight. Once again Arena has produced a team beter than the sum of their parts. Now if he can fold these Euros into the team and maintain that same spirit, I think we'll make it past the group stage at the WC.
The YA would kill this lineup, let alone any team we will face in the world cup. The strength of this team plays right into the strength of the YA. EJ, when healthy, is good, and so is Rolfe, but are you really prepared to say that Gooch would not manhandle them. Steve C is easily quick enough to handle Adu and has enough experience to dominate him. Landon would cause the most problems but I'm pretty sure Reyna and O'Brien could contain him. (Hey, you get to use Mastro, Clark and Marshall who are all injured, then the YA get O'Brien and Reyna). Assuming DMB on the right and Convey on the left, who's covering the flanks to contain them. 3 man back line, and Adu isn't exactly known for his workrate tracking back. I think the YA would own this game the same way any team at the WC would, down the flanks, and it would not be pretty.