It is 4-4 1/2 months until WCQ time. Who will be the two USMNT GKs on the squad? Based on MLS performance (only 6 matches left) who do you think will be chosen by Arena? Brown? Hartman? Rimando? Walker? Cannon (has been in limbo actually)? Thornton? Any others (Busch?)?
Actually, I bet da' Bruce will want to bring in Howard, if he can. If not, Rimando would likely be 1st choice of his. After that, who knows?
BAsed on last time, why do you think that he'll bring in anyone besides Keller or Friedel? Even against Barbados, Bruce brought in Friedel (although he did go with Meola for the final Barbados game). Howard might be a special case (no US experience, but obviously able to handle the environment...), but I wouldn't expect to see Brown or Rimando in a qualifier unless all other options couldn't be released. And then, Meola or Thornton might get the call, since Bruce seems to like experience.
But most likely we're going to be playing teams that make Barbados look like Real Madrid. Other than Cuba and to a lesser extent Haiti, everyone else we could possibly play, we're really going to hammer pretty severely. Unless Adin Brown flips out and starts gunning down our players with an Uzi, he'll likely have very little impact on the outcome of the round if he starts all four games. Canada's U23s just flushed one of the Virgin Islands' U23s by 24-0 on aggregate and the gap really doesn't narrow when you get to the senior squads.
Considering what our opposition will be in the first round of qualifying, I think a folding chair will look to be getting it's first National Team cap.. Seriously, anyone who thinks Arena is going to trudge out a first team lineup against Puerto Rico or the Cayman Islands is deluding themselves.. As I said 6 months ago, the team we will have going to Athens, provided they qualify - which they will, for the Olympics is more than adequate to get us through the first round of qualifying.. I dare think a team made up of the following players should handle Puerto Rico with ease: --------------- Countess ------------- Onyewu ----- Gray ---- Stokes ---- Simak Beasley ----- Clark ---- Convey ---- Mapp --------- Buddle ------- Donovan -------- Bench: Conor Casey Ed Johnson Mike Magee Santino Quaranta My left gonad My right gonad Warren Of course this is only a theoretical lineup and it will change drastically come Olympic qualifying time.. Seriously, if we draw Puerto Rico, we can easily score 20 goals on them, it's that bad of a mismatch.. Chris Armas is the greatest player in Puerto Rican history.. Take that for what it's worth..
And yet, there are likely five other teams we could possibly play that are worse than they are. As many as 10 who are worse than the Cayman Islands.
Nah-- I think you're overstating the delusion. Since we've never played this sort of round, you don't really have anything to base it on. Do I think Arena will call Tim Howard/Reyna/Friedel in ahead of an important Champions League/UEFA match? No. It won't be a first team lineup. But Arena's not going to be handing out first caps to everyone either. I'd expect pretty close to the young MLS best 11 we've seen in other international competitions.
It would be silly to call in any European goalkeeper for the first round. Let's assume for the sake of discussion the choices will be restricted to MLS. From this premise, assume Bruce will either call in 1) young keepers with potential to contribute in more meaningful games, to give them experience (Brown, Countess, Rimando) or 2) Keepers with big game experience already (Meola or Walker). I know I'm going to take a bunch of flak for even suggesting that Meola might get a callup, but I'm dead serious. We KNOW that Bruce is reluctant to throw a totally green lineup out there, and that he values experience in important games, as much for continuity in training as for actual in-game performance. Meola is a competent keeper, a plus in the locker room, and he's seen everything. I would not be remotely surprised to see him called up. Not saying I'd agree with it, just that I think it's a very real possibility.
I think Meola (Barbados last time) or Thornton (Trinidad) ahead of any experiment. But no, we're not necessarily going to be playing teams much worse than Barbados. Is Barbados really better than Cuba (who they beat on a penalty shootout) or Haiti (beaten only by Trinidad)? People on this board can be so thick. Every time games come up, all of a sudden, you forget that we struggle against Guatemala in qualifiers-- even at home. And if Barbados could beat Costa Rica in a qualifier (something we seem to have a ton of trouble with), then yeah, we better put out a pretty solid team for equivalent teams like Cuba or Haiti. Maybe we only called in Friedel, Sanneh, Berhalter, Regis, Stewart, Reyna, Moore, Lewis and O'brien for Barbados because it was a must-win game because of a couple of bad results. But what do you make of the second line-up against Barbados (also must-win, but with a good idea of the team's strength)? Lewis, Stewart, Moore and Berhalter and, apart from Mathis, no real experiments?
No, but those are the only two. Here's how it works: Teams better than Barbados that have the chance to pull a shocker: Cuba, Haiti Teams we should probably beat, but are as good as Barbados: St. Lucia, Surinam, Bermuda, Belize, St. Kitts and Nevis Teams we'll beat fairly easily and probably pound some lumps on, but have a little bit of talent: Nicaragua, Antigua & Barbuda, Grenada, Netherlands Antilles, Cayman Islands, Dominican Republic, Guyana, (maybe) Dominica. GOAL, GOAL, GOAL, GOAL, GOAL, GOAL, GOAL, GOAL, GOAL, GOAL, GOAL, GOAL, GOAL, GOAL, GOAL, GOAL: Aruba, Puerto Rico, Bahamas, Montserrat, USVI, UKVI, Turks & Caicos, and the mighty Anguilla. Here's the results for Anguilla at the 1998 Shell Cup: Antigua & Barbuda - 7 -- Anguilla - 0 Grenada - 14 -- Anguilla - 1 Guyana - 14 -- Anguilla - 0 Grenada is the team Barbados beat in extra time to advance to the second round of qualifying last time. We play Anguilla, and I think Henry Ring would be a sufficient goal keeper. In fact he might have the most experience standing around and not doing anything as any player in the pool. Comparing any of these teams besides Cuba or Haiti to Guatemala misjudges their talent level by quite a bit.
I'm amazed at how Kevin "El Gato" Hartman is not the overwhelming choice for GK in this type of situation. He's got the best GAA in MLS over his career, has an MLS Cup to his name, has saved the Galaxy this year like no one else could, had an amazing All-Star performance that should have won the MOTM award, and on top of all this, people still put Meola and Rimando ahead of him. I think Adin Brown and Zach Thornton are very good goalkeepers, but no one has proven to be as consistent as El Gato over the years.
Hartman or Walker I agree that Hartman should be the first choice in these early rounds. He has proven that he is a top quality keeper. Walker also deserves a good look. He probably would have been capped already if he not been on the other side of the equator. Don't bother Blackburn, Tottenham, or ManU for one of the big three - especially when they may not be forced to make a save. Rimando, Brown, Cannon, Busch, Garlick, Meola, Thornton... heck, even Countess. If Pope and Bocanegra are playing, I don't think it matters.
I don't see how Rimando is even in the discussion. If I had to win one game, in order, I would start the following: Friedel Keller Howard Cannon Hartmann Walker (limited viewings) Brown Meola Thornton Then, maybe, Rimando. And, if I'd seen more of Hahnemann I'd likely put him up there as well. Likely, he'd take the best MLSer here, and that's Cannon, Hartmann and Brown (assuming he's not comfortable with Walker, though walker has played in bigger games in latin america than anyone on this list, which would likely be an aid in qualifying).
I don't care WHO DA HECK we put out there, but my goodness, we better not be losing to St Kitts/Nevis (i'm a dual citizen of the U.S. and there by reason of my mother being a citizen there). We need to be hammering these teams. If i see a 2-0 scoreline, I'll run down there and open a can of whoop-a$$ on them myself!!! by the way, has everyone seen this cute little Nike footage on Freddy Adu ............ http://www.nike.com/nikesoccer/adu/
Hey, fair enough. I fully expect most of those teams to be victims of ridiculous scorelines. But because teams in pot D aren't ranked (apparently-- please tell me if I'm wrong), you could possibly end up in the "Group of Mild Discomfort" (Haiti and Cuba), where away games in Havana and Port-au-Prince could just produce upsets. Unlikely? Sure, but Costa Rica went on to be the best team in the hex... Hartman? Yeah- it is weird. I see him as being a little less stumble-prone (with one memorable MLS Cup exception) than guys like Thornton and the current-vintage Meola.
Absolutely, and there's a thread on here where I voice my opinion on what I think of the new setup. Cuba and Haiti actually wouldn't be that bad since Haiti could beat Cuba and give us breathing room. What would be bad is Cuba and the US Virgin Islands. Then if we lose in Havana it becomes a simple matter of which team beats the USVI by the most goals, and I rather not have to go through that in the 1st freakin' round.
Nick Rimando is just behind Friedel and Keller. He is a solid keeper and have always seen good skills from him early on. Let's not forget he was called in against Mexico during qualification last go around, in Mexico. He's seen the atmosphere and I think can step up and take charge.
I say we auction off one of the spots in the starting XI (maybe not GK) to whomever wants it. Let somebody with money to burn get capped to raise dough for US Soccer. As for the GK's, it'll probably be Brown and Rimando. Could be anyone in MLS though. If we play Anguilia I think a few people in this thread should get called up. P.S. Anybody know how lax the immigration policies of all those banana republics are? I was wondering, if we fancied international caps, could we go get them?
This is the same Nick Rimando who plays for DC United right? Believe me.. I sit right behind Nicky for at least 45 minutes every home game and I can tell you he'd be the LAST keeper I'd call in for an away game down island. Why? He doesn't handle balls that take deflections very well. And those "fields" do nothing but give up odd bounces. His lack of height forces him to commit early to low driven balls, unlike, say Adin Brown, who can wait an extra half-second. Sachin
It's unfortunate for Rimando that he is injured, but he did TeamUSA the embarassment of him not being called into camp. He is an MLS keeper, that's it. He's still 5 or 6 on the depth chart, and that was before he was (likely) out for the year. If Bruce doesn't want to call in EPL keepers, it is on Walker, Cannon, Brown and Hartmann to battle it out for the job.
So Nicky is ahead of the starting keeping at Man U right now??? Thornton, Hartman, Brown, Cannon and Jordan are all ahead of Rimando right now. Nice littler MLS keeper, but thats it.
Thank you, thank you. Could not agree more re Rimando. He is injured now anyway and may not even recover in time for the beginning of qualifiers.
Plus... he absolutely giftwrapped and delivered one MLS cup (to DCU I think) AND failed on a stoppable ball for the Golden Goal in another one (against SJ/DeRosario). I only see him in the big games so that's what I remember.
Hartman I can't stand the Galaxy, but I have to say that Hartman has been very impressive this year. I have seen him play several times, and he has been consistently outstanding. He should have been the MOTM of the all-star game as well. Right now, the only 'keeper in MLS I might take over Hartman is Walker. Brown is behind those two in my opinion. I'm a Crew fan, so I would love to see Jon Busch get a cap in early qualifying. Unfortunately, he is somewhat vertically challenged like Rimando. I think Busch is the better of the two. In reality, neither one should be in the net for the Nats.