Just for fun...the lineup the US used in its first match after the '98 WC v Australia...aka Bruno's debut... Thornton Agoos Llamosa Pope Williams (Armas 46) Lewis (Olsen 73) Mathis (Chung 69) Moore Jones Lassiter (Brown 90) McBride
Night and Day... With the exception of the backline, there is a significant upgrade in almost every position from midfield to forward... This speaks volumes to the growth of MLS...
Well, if the 11/98 team had had to go out and win, it would have had a different lineup. Both groups are mostly young players with few or no caps, plus a handful of veterans.
US/Oz was a 0-0 draw, right? By the way, anyone know if that was Lassiter's last appearance as a Nat?
I think the biggest difference is the players that are available for this matchup now and the players that aren't. This sounds jumbled, but what I am trying to say is that it goes to how much more of our NT's are making an earning in Europe. In other words, with O'Brien, keller, Reyna, Friedel, Dolo, Sanneh, etc. several of our top options today in europe,this MLS team is more inexperienced internationally as players who normally might get called in are unavailable in Europe.
This is elsewhere - I didn't see this thread earlier. Looks at a few other things More connections between the two post WC friendlies Thank God for MLS
Lassiter I'm pretty sure Roy had a sub appearance against Argentina at RFK during the summer of '99. I might be wrong though...
I don't know about he sumstitution in against Argentina, but I know he played against Chile in Febuary 99 so I'm positive that game wasn't his last.
Thank you for that well-thought out and erudite analysis. BigSoccer is better for having a poster of your considerable verbal acumen. Anywho, there can no longer be any question of whether or not MLS has improved national team depth - on all levels. Even if half these guys never see a WCQ roster (highly unlikely), we're still deeper and more talented than we've ever been before.
Well, 2700 odd posts in four years, some will demonstrate more erudition than others. While my problem appears to be communication, yours appears to be reading comprehension, because this thread is not about depth but about the starting 11. And when you look at that 1998 starting 11 versus our current starting 11, the differnce isn't so huge.
10 of the 11 starters from Nov. 98 played significant roles in the qualifying run for WC 2002. Interesting if that holds this time around, too. This could turn out to be less of a "young, experimental" lineup than imagined.
Re: Re: A comparison: 6 Nov 1998 v 17 Nov 2002 Good point. However I believe the player pool is much deeper now than ever before. I would be very surprised if 10 of the 11 starters will be key players in the 2006 cycle.
OK, let's look at that line-up. Thornton ... maybe the 6th best goalkeeper candidate for the U.S. today. But still not a bad option, we're strong at that position. Agoos ... awful in World Cup but darn near the best U.S. player in World Cup Qualifying Llamosa ... moderately useful in WCQ, didn't play in Cup Williams ... thaaaat Williams? Oh, dear. Lewis ... has had his ups and downs, got a nice assist in the Cup Mathis ... say no more Moore ... also has had his ups and downs, although he has scored a few U.S. goals, too Jones ... see Moore Lassiter ... ick McBride ... mainstay of U.S. front line since '98 Overall, not too bad. Goose, McBride, and Mathis were major cogs in Arena's '02 plans, while Carlos, Lewis, Moore, and Jones made the bench in the '02 Cup. And of course, we're not talking just any team -- we're talking a good team, one that made the quarterfinalists. If the '02 lineup is "night and day" better than these guys, we should be contenders to win the next Cup.
Of note is that for the following players, this was there very first cap, all in Arena's 1st game, quite amazing really: Thornton Llamosa Williams Armas Lewis Olsen Mathis Brown
Lassiter had 6 caps under Arena. The last being in Jan. 2000 at Chile. He started 2 matches. You can check out everyones caps under Aerna at my website...I'm looking forward to updating it on Nov. 17.