Under-23 Men’s National Team Roster by Position GOALKEEPERS (3): Chris Seitz (Real Salt Lake), Chris Brown (Boston College), Billy Chiles (Towson University) DEFENDERS (8): Sean Franklin (Cal State Northridge), Steve Purdy (1860 Munich), Patrick Ianni (Houston Dynamo), Greg Dalby (SC Charleroi), Julian Valentin (Wake Forest), Pat Phelan (Wake Forest), Mike Randolph (Galaxy), Chance Myers (UCLA) MIDFIELDERS (8): Stuart Holden (Houston), Johann Smith (Darlington), Dax McCarty (FC Dallas), Stephen King (Maryland), Alejandro Bedoya (Boston College), Eric Avila (UC Santa Barbara), Arturo Alvarez (FC Dallas), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew) FORWARDS (5): Robbie Findley (Real Salt Lake), Charlie Davies (Hammarby), Preston Zimmerman (Hamburg), Chad Barrett (Chicago Fire), Kamani Hill (Vfl Wolfsburg) http://www.ussoccer.com/articles/viewArticle.jsp_4554752.html
U.S. Under-23 MNT Roster by Position GOALKEEPERS (3): Dominic Cervi (Chicago Fire), Tally Hall (Esbjerg fB), Chris Seitz (Real Salt Lake) DEFENDERS : Kamani Hill (Vfl Wolfsburg), Patrick Ianni (Houston Dynamo), Chance Myers (Kansas City Wizards), Michael Orozco (San Luis), Mike Randolph (LA Galaxy), Nathan Sturgis (Real Salt Lake), Anthony Wallace (FC Dallas), Marvell Wynne (Toronto FC) MIDFIELDERS :Arturo Alvarez (FC Dallas), Maurice Edu (Toronto FC), Eddie Gaven (Columbus Crew), Stuart Holden (Houston Dynamo), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Dax McCarty (FC Dallas) FORWARDS: Josmer Altidore (New York Red Bulls), Chad Barrett (Chicago Fire), Adam Cristman (New England Revolution), Charlie Davies (Hammarby IF), Robbie Findley (LA Galaxy), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew)
kamani Hill looked excellent vs Sweden in the summer last year. He looked better at foward in 10 minutes then Dempsey and Donovan did for thier 80 minutes. I still dont like Kamani Hill being switched to defense under Nowak.
I am concerned about the lack of quaility games the 23's have had leading into qualifying. The 20's had 10 or more games before WC including freindlies with Chile, Argentina and the Haiti FMNT. I am still amazed that the 23's and FMNT did not at least have camps in the same location so they could at least play each other in some decent scrimmages.
Still out of the country and wont be back for another month, but I wanted to second this thought. I understand the complications involved and the reasoning behind the decision, but I see not having a joint camp as a real missed opportunity.
Hopefully they will have a few more games. 2 games against China, 2 games against the youngers and one game against an MLS team does not seem to cut it.
I watched every minute of Hill's B'liga time. He is cluleless on the field. Limited vision and touch. Tactically naive. Yup, he is fast. A dime a dozen player in the US. Of course, I am sure you can deduce more from 10 meaningless minutes than Euro coaches and evaluators who have all passed on Klaus Augehthalers desperate gamble. He cost nothing, Augie had no money to spend and he rolled the dice on speed. Speed wasn't enough. The guy is a project. Then again, I am sure you know better from those 10 minutes, as usual. Smith is a slightly better version of Hill. That's it. A couple of more moves. A bit younger. A little more time to learn. Still raw as can be. Then again, you evaluated him on longballs, and outrunning completely overmatched opponents in U20 Qualies. That works against men and tactically sound quality teams...right? Smith has a lot of work to do before he becomes truely viable. Until then, he can be used in the proper situations as a part timer. Late game sub when other teams are tired, against physically over matched opponents and when the field is stretched so he can use his speed. Has an upside IMO, and we will see how he develops. Still very raw. Just ask an y Bolton fan who has seen him. Wait, you saw some clips on the USSF site. You can surely judge fom that. Right. We need more than raw speed. We need brains and tactical/technical sense from our players. Raw speedsters work in the small time, not the big time. Time to evolve son. Hill = Not that good. D is his best bet to do anyhting here, or in MLS. That limited. Smith = Young, poor timing on injury (U20's), speed and needs to learn more. Can be usefull. Note - I remember you wrote once how Smith was on the lips of all the scouts before the U20. He was the big player. Not Jose or Freddy. LOL. No one knew who he was or cared. It was all about Adu and Jose. Funny, funny stuff. How do I know? Hmm. I was there and talked to a few scouts. Johann who? You can either lash out at this like the kid you are or learn a bit here. Your choice. If you reply you will show where you stand. My expectations are low however.
I said in that thread Johann Smith was part of the big 3 or 4 in that game, merely as high as Altidore as a striker or winger during that time frame; no way would i say hes any where near Adu. (just look at my name) Your were making sense in your post and it was accurate and understandable until you hit that inaccurate remark and contined like always to challenge somebody's age on a soccer website, which only kids do themselves. And you were anwsering my post like i was stating why did Nowak not include Smith in the roster and that i had a grudge, i was actually stating wheres Johann Smith? did Bolton want him back like Hamburg wanted Zimmerman back.
Smiths a good player. Hopefully he works his way into the roster. I was suprised Rogers recorded the fastest time trial because Smith and Davies are burners.
If you watch his games Rogers is constantly torching opponents up and down the sidelines. I think the reason you are surprised is that, when talking about Smith and Davies, people unfailingly lead with their pace. Whereas those talking about Rogers usually bring up his technical skills and mentality. Now since we know from his play (and now from a totally unbiased test) that Rogers has blazing pace, we can only conclude that either a) Smith and Davies don't have the technical skills or mentality so the only outstanding quality to talk about is their pace. Or b) there are societal assumptions and preconceptions at work that I really don't want to get into here.
For CONCACAF qualifying? Mexico's full team will be great; their qualifying squad we should be able to challenge with Jozy, Davies, Rogers, Alvarez, Holden, and Dax. So I'm not the only one (rubs chin). He's probably a winger and he needs to go on loan to Holland or Belgium, what he has shown me is that overall he's a decent finisher from the 18 and in. Maybe people are surprised because they're bad judges of talent? Wasn't Rogers considered a bigger talent by Heerenveen than Bradley, I wonder why? Has anybody here seen Rogers take corners with both his feet?
I have a feeling Johann Smith might have a lost a little bit of a step when it comes to his speed, or he was still a little bit injured and not 100%; but i remember watching the game vs Poland in the U-20 world cup; the goal that Altidore scored. When freddy Adu mad a nice pass to rogers down the sideline the LB of poland had a 3 yard lead on rogers to start and by the time a player reached the ball, it was rogers and he was about 5 yards in ahead of the polish LB and i just went "wowww i have a feeling this guy can run a 10.3 too or at least a 10.4".
I predict that Smith will not make the final cut for Qualifying or beyond. We have plenty of pace available from other players, and Nowak will be looking for players that can bring other dimensions to the play. I'm afraid Smith has a poor first touch which is one reason he's struggled to break through at Bolton.
The U 23 soccer blog is back in action although not listed anywhere: http://u23mnt-ussoccer.blogspot.com/
That blog is pretty lame. Pat Ianni and Stuart Holden have one about the training camp on the Dynamo website. http://houston.mlsnet.com/news/team...t_id=135109&vkey=news_hou&fext=.jsp&team=t200 Don't know how much more helpful you'll find it but it's something. BTW Stuart Holden = Olympic MVP