Other then DONOVAN i believe GOOCH is our most indespensable player.Yes he's young and has a long way to go but without him we're a different team. My question. Is he possibly our best defender ever and how does he compare with POPE during his peak years. I'll probably take some heat for saying this but i can take it.
Re: Gooch I think this will be the case in terms of Gooch being the best ever US defender. As of now, not until he actually performs in at least 1 Finals flawlessly. As for indispensable, no, not even close. The USMNT has no replacement for Mastroeni, Reyna has a unique skill set and JOB is not reliable, Donovan has a long loss less streak going and McBride is our only decent forward. Don't want to tempt the gods, but Pope/Gibbs is not as scary to me as these other scenarios.
Re: Gooch Pope was utterly World Class in the last world cup. And has been world class for almost a decade for the USMNT. Gooch has a LONG ways to go if he wants to claim the title of Best US Defender ever.
Re: Gooch Gooch is the best player on the squad as of this minute and one guy I would definitely not want to have left behind going to Germany in June. If he were injured I would just about give up hope of having any chance to get out of the group stage.
Re: Gooch Gooch is still very young and this will be his first finals . He will be under some pressure . He has to watch his cards and play like he normally does . Hes going to be playing against some of the best forwards in the world...
Re: Gooch He would be a loss, but your analysis seems a bit emotional. Who would you rather see on the field -- Cory Gibbs or Ben Olsen?
Re: Gooch This thread is ridiculous. He's a very good player with a lot of potential, but he's nowhere near our best player or even our best defender. I'd say that Cherundolo and Gibbs have proven themselves to be our two best defenders at this moment. Gooch could prove to be our best ever, but right now Pope is way ahead of every other defender in that conversation when talking about the national team. With the way things are going I don't know that Pope will ever be surpassed based on sheer exposure. Pope played in a ton of friendlies b/c he was in the US and was a great player for us for almost a decade. I don't know that the overseas players will get to have that much TV exposure with the USMNT. Take Cherundolo for instance, he's been playing in the Bundesliga for the past 7 or 8 years with hardly any US exposure and we know that he's a good player, but we don't get to see him shut down people for the USMNT as often as we got to see Pope do it. I think it's going to be the same with Onyewu. He'll be a great player that we occasionally get to see play with the USMNT, but the number of his strong performances will be half as many as Pope's due to Pope's availability.
Re: Gooch Gooch is a great project for us. The only problem with him is he cant defend too many players who are on the dribble. Players in Germany can either dribble past him, or pick up a free kick. He's one of those tall defenders with slow foot-coordination. I think when he improves on this, he will be World-Class -- With great speed!
Re: Gooch I was just wondering that too. Does he pronounce it the same or like "chuch"? for reference: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=chuch&defid=257434
Re: Gooch I don't think that's a fair assessment of his worth. If Eddie had chosen to go to Europe at a very young age, and work his way through the 2nd Tier Leagues, like Gooch...er...Guch...has, then it's perfectly plausible that he would have been a sought after defender. As it stands right now, by the time Euro teams might have realized how good he is, he was already pushing 30 and perfecty content to stay in MLS. You're right, though, a one time layout of a large amount of money for a player who may, or may not, perform well for your team is a much better measurement of someone's contributions over the course of a career.
Re: Gooch it terms of upside, onyewu at his best will be better than pope at his best... and proving it in europe at a high level is the key that's not to say pope is a bad player, but more to say pope was very good... gooch can be better than very good.. if pope had gone to europe, been forced to raise his game, the argument would become even more interesting
Re: Gooch you watch the 2002 world cup? how exactly could he have played better as a central defender? He never needed Europe to "raise his game". His game has been risen enough thank you very much. What have you done for me lately?
Re: Gooch Wasn't Pope the subject of some serious Euro interest between say 97-99, before it became clear that he wasn't that interested in going abroad? It's so long ago, I can't quite remember it myself.
Gooch will be the best American defender soon. His "coming out party" starts June 12th. I do agree that Pope probably held that distinction, but he's had more than his share of battles with injury. But I think in the past year we have seen a return to his old form and I'm very excited about pairing him with Gooch in the back. And whoever said that Gooch doesn't have good feet and foot speed has not seen him play very much. All the tools are there...
I just played the EA FIFA World Cup 2006 Demo, and I must say, I am disapointed in the lack of massiveness of Gooch in the game. He's the same size as Berhalter in it...what gives?
They never seem to spend too much time on US players. Heck, one of our highest rated players on the FIFA WC '02 game was Bobby Convey. Or maybe they're just visionary?
Re: Gooch Oguchi Onyewu has a posse. Look for my avatar on my red shirt in Germany on a matchday or two
Re: Gooch hahahahahaahh. Welcome Newbie.We never heard how much was on offer but Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund were after Pope. I gather from Pope's comments later that Dortmund was the most serious. He said no because..... he wanted to stay and build US soccer. I know that sounds obscene but it is true.