Being discussed in the Copa Libertadores thread is the idea of sending an all-Euro team. I was just curious as to who people would believe we would send. I would look to see some of the younger players but I worry that they could lose a great deal of confidence in being killed in matches. I would be happy to see them rostered whether they get playing time or not is situational. 01. Keller 02. Howard 03. Freidel 04. Gibbs 05. Onyewu 06. Spector 07. Whitbread 08. Simek 09. Spector 10. Berhalter 11. Vanney 12. Cherundolo 13. O'Brien 14. Reyna 15. Lewis 16. Kirovski 17. Yi 18. Szetela 19. Casey ?????????? I can't really think of anymore forwards but I'm not sure of the roster size anyway. Most of these players are a stretch and not really nats material but please no "dmb will be in europe" stuff, because we just dont know what will happen. Convey as a Euro sure could have helped this roster. I guess theyd line up like this: ....................Keller....................... Onyewu...Gibbs.....Berhalter...Vanney ........Reyna...............O'Brien........... Cherundolo.............................Lewis ............Kirovski.......Casey.............. Kirovski and Vanney (and probably Berhalter as well) are players that I think we have seen enough of and have little left to offer. Bringing some younger players into the system may be a good idea. However I value their veteran experience and they are still better than those players from the little that I have seen (please correct me). I also think that Kiro will benefit from playing with a target player like Casey. Whitbread, as a member of Liverpool's first team is an exciting product and I hope the Liverpool faithful could give me a summary of what he is capable of. Likewise Yi getting first team football in Belgium will very much help in his developement I would assume. In the end though, for now our Euro options look limited.
Would Landon count since his contract is owned by BL? Also if we are naming youth players, don't forget Danny K at Arsenal.
If you include youth players, then the list would be about 75 or so long. Probably more. But I'm assuming you'd only be looking at the players who you'd want to play on the fulll side.
Alex Yi in midfield??? Cherundolo I can accept because he pushes forward a lot... but Yi is purely a center back.
Here's 18: GK - Howard - Hahnemann DL - Vanney - Barrett DC - Gibbs - Berhalter DC - Onyewu - Yi DR - Russell ML - E. Lewis DM - O'Brien - Enochs AM - Reyna - D. Johnson MR - Cherundolo - Thorrington F - Kirovski - Karbassiyoon F - Casey It should also be noted that next year, we're probably looking at Bocanegra landing in Europe somewhere, and possibly Mathis and Beasley as well. In the first 11, only Russell, Onyewu and Casey are capless, but all are reasonably in the current pool.
What about Wade Barret? It sounds like he's not been too succesful in Denmark, how is he in terms of form?
Well, with that super-direct style of play being drilled into him, he might look out of place in Arena's system (IMO). Vanney seems to be improving well and so has Gooch. I don't see JT, Enochs, or Jovan getting called in, though.