Just thought I'd play Devils Advocate for a minute. In most sports, the starter isn't usually replaced unless it's because of poor performance or injury. Here, we have a case where a guy (Magee) paid his dues as an 18 year-old rookie with 7 goals in a rebuilding year and a great header in the opener only to be replaced. In the other case (Wolyniec), we have a guy who scored two goals in the opening two matches, only to be benched for the next game. Is it fair? I think those of you who also grew up in the Cosmos-era, probably can see what I'm getting at better than others. In those days, I was surrounded by the Euro-snobs, who would scoff at an American such as Ricky Davis playing. 20 years later, European teams are actually scouting and signing OUR forwards. There was a certain pride on that opening game vs The Crew that we could win with American born players playing upfront and how far we've come when a guy like Jeff Parke, a 4th rounder, can start in a season-opener. There's no doubt, that Taylor and Galvan Rey (and probably Cornell Glen) are better and more experienced now than Wolyniec and Magee. Having said that, we all realize there is almost no chance Taylor will back next season and it's likely that only one of the other two will return as well. As a Metro fan, I obviously want to see the best lineup on the field, but on the otherhand, watching yesterday's game reminded me of the Cosmo days when we'd bring in a foreign player to be a quick-fix. You've got to feel bad for a guy like Magee, who started the opening two games and yet, couldn't get off the bench vs NE and is now the team's 5th forward. How do you make everyone happy?....do you deal one of them for a veteran defender?.....what are you thoughts???
Re: Are Gaven and Wolyniec being screwed? We do? Why would they leave? Let me guess. All three will score 40 goals and will be transferred to Chelsea to give them a decent attack?
Re: Are Gaven and Wolyniec being screwed? You know, actually, he was a 6th rounder. Actually, yeah, there is. A good deal of doubt, I'd say. What? Why? He's here on loan with an option to-buy, I can't see any reason that, if he does well (which you obviously think he will), the team wouldn't buy him, pay him some money, get some goals, and reap a tidy profit by selling to him Europe in a couple of years. I think you let them be. Nobody's going to want guys who haven't proven anything in MLS, and you certainly don't want to trade your American forwards. Magee will get his opportunity.
wolyniec is the freakin man. last year he totally got robbed of the GOTY, and holy ********! the diving header he had against us last week? the was another goal in particular last season where is was so "un pretty" that it was beautiful. he basically ran through a gaolie, sheer will, sheer determination. look at guearva (sp). that guy has tons of stlye,,... and "flair" and the way he went down grabbing his face after being flicked in the chest with a towel was the most absolutely pathetic thing i have ever seen as a soccer fan. p ussy . i swear i don't mean to troll, but even as a United fan who hates the mutts with great hating, i have absolute respect for Wolyniec, and he is getting shafted over there. Why don't you guys give him to us? we'll give ya quarantra, ********, you can have cerritos too.
Listen, we're playing a 4-4-2, and we have 5 strikers who could probably start for any team in this league. There are going to be odd men out every game, Americans and non-Americans. Taylor was magnificent last week and earned a start. Galvan Rey was brought in here as a veteran striker who would be part of the core of the team, he's healthy, he'd been here a week, and he deserved a start. I hope the depth at striker doesn't start causing drama within the team. We may get into a position where each guy is trying to score goals for himself and pad his own stats cause that means he'll start the next week. That's not the way it should be. But there's no need to trade any of these guys now. We have no idea what will happen in terms of injuries, and we have little idea how different tandems up front will click with each another. There may come a point towards the end of the summer where a trade would make sense (we could always use draft picks, for instance). But that time is far away. In the meantime, I think Bob will continue as he has to this point, choosing the starting XI based on the form of each individual and the needs of the team, week by week. Woly will get his starts. Galvan Rey and Taylor will as well. And while Magee and Glen seem to be less likely to start right now, that could change quickly. Depth is a good thing, as long as the team is managed well. And Bob seems to be doing just that. I don't feel bad for any of these guys. None of them are being "screwed." They're all professional athletes and competition - even intra-team - is something they have to deal with day in and day out. It could actually be a good thing, stoking the competition during training. If it ever becomes a bad thing, causing turmoil and tension, then we'll deal with it at that point. But saying we're at that point after a 2-0-1 start is jumping the gun to say the least.
Would you need an allocation to buy Talyor at the end of the season? If so, this might be a reason why he might not come back.
I have no idea. However, there's no doubt that, if Taylor looks like a good investment (and if he keeps scoring like he is now, he definitely is), MLS will make sure to acquire him.
Who ever thought that the day would arrive this quickly that an MLS team has too many quality forwards?
Magee is over rated, as good as he might get later, he is not a starter yet, he also cant take game upfront in his hands and create chances if Guevara or the whole team in general having an off game
Ok, first of all, everyone is making it like the Metrostars have 5 all star forwards. Magee had a good rookie year and has a lot of potential, but a lot of his goals last year were him being in the right spot. He is unexperienced, and although playing time would help him, I dont think it is his time to start just yet. Wolyniec plays harder than anyone in the league, and that is what got him recognized last year. He came off the bench and provided a huge spark, and that is when he played the best. He deserves to start, but he causes the most damage when coming off the bench, so I think they should use him as their 12th man. Taylor looked impressive even last game, and from what i saw of Glenn he showed more skill than Galvan Rey. Galvan did alright, but just the fact that Glenn scored a hat trick in preseason against the Fire should give him enough credibility to start. The Metrostars always lack a scorer, and every good team needs that in order to win. There most succesful season came when they have Valencia who had 16 goals that year. I think that Taylor is the most capable of repeating that type of season, so he needs to start every game in order for the Metrostars to find their one big scorer.
This is the answer. This is not the cosmos. We are operating in a much more constricting environment, with salary caps and foreigner limitations. There's no danger that we will buy a world 11 with no Americans. Really, let's take pride in the American players when they assemble for the national team. As for the MEtros, I just want the best 11. Americans doing well in MLS doesn't well me up with patriotism. I just hope that the best players are on my team.
I think that the quickest way to find yourself in BB's doghouse is to start playing for yourself up front. Can't see him putting up with that...whether you score a goal or not. I'm sure he will point out how many opportunities were missed by a player, if they are selfish, and score one. Just don't see it from our next Nats coach.
Wolyniec scored 2 goals in 2 games then you should stick with the hot hand. Him and Taylor up front are a good mix of size and speed. Depending on the match-up, Magee should be used instead of Taylor. If its not broke, why fix it.
Because Galvan Rey certainly has a better track record than Wolyniec. I mean, I don't want to disrespect Woly, who has had a nice couple of games with us. But it's a long season, and we want our best 11 players to gel at some point. And, unfortunately for Woly, he's not one of our best 11. There will be a place for his for sure, but he can't expect to start ahead of Galvan until Galven loses his place. IT is a shame that we don't get our best team together until after the season starts though. That's an old Metro problem.
Define "skill." From where I sat during the game, and on tape last night, I saw Galvan Rey making good touches and smart passes and gettting himself into dangerous spots.
Any talk of next year and playing time for forwards needs to be consolidated with the likelihood of expansion and open spots available on other teams. If Chivas USA goes through with their "spanish language only please" ideas, that only leaves Galvan Rey as a potential for them, but often in expansion you see deals brokered between the expansion teams and others in the league. Galvan Rey is the only one whose professional record seems to be clearly better than Magee's and Wolyniec's, while Glen's and Taylor's must be balanced about the relative levels of competition they faced. I think Magee actually has the stronger case than Wolyniec in that if you view two candidates as roughly equal, the idea of playing the young player for development purposes has some merit. While Alecko Eskandarian has seen a bizarre increase in his reputation as a player due to factors well beyond his control, everything I've seen indicates that Magee can be a similar player, but superior across the board to Eskandarian. He certainly has earned the right to play in this league (and I suspect he will continue to) even if he's not quite as dynamic as you might like from a young forward. John's a very valuable role player as a target guy, but Bradley seems to want to increase his talent base first and foremost and fit players into roles once he has the kind of talent in place he wants. Wolyniec still has value to him as a role player, but Bradley has, since last year even, preferred to pick his spots with Wolyniec rather than run him out there every game. We'll see how it works. Really all of Galvan Rey, Taylor, Glen and Magee are worth giving significant PT to, but it's going to be hard to get them all minutes, much less get additional minutes for Wolyniec (a far more known quantity than the other four) in the process.
Here's my 2 cents. Magee is a helluva kid, but I guess you'd have to classify him as a poacher. But that Columbus header was a great exception, not what you see every game. Woly is a helluva worker - I kinda see him as a Chris Sutton/Alan Shearer type of guy - tall, strong, not the fastest or best shooter, but a great target forward - although I'd say he's a better all-around forward than either of them (who might be one-dimensional as a forward) They should be 2 of our top 3/4 forwards. Taylor - you can't help but be impressed after his outing vs DC. that performance alone was worthy of a start, or at least our #1 early 2nd half sub. Gaven - I'm not sure if he's more of a forward or a really attacking-mid. Either way, the kid is good. Rey - kinda unknown at this point, but you gotta give respect to him and Taylor, who have proven their goalscoring skills in other places. As the coach, whaddaya do? Well, you can either go with the hot feet/heads as far as scoring in the last few games. or if you're Bob, you can get all cerebral and ********** and try to figure out stuff that maybe the casual fan doesn't see, like a) who's better at making runs for Guevara? b) who's better at getting crosses from vaca? c) what kinda defence are we up against? 4 tall guys in the back? 6 defenders playing in the box on the road? 3 defenders, and wingbacks who will play up a lot and be out of position for a counter-attack? d) what kinda attack do we want - multi-forward assault, 1 man taget forward/counterattack, etc? e) do we need an attacker who can track back cuz I think it will be needed? Factor in things we don't see, like who did well in practice, who looked hung-over it, how many minutes can I expect from ___, who has a bit of a stomach-virus, who picked up a knock in training, etc...and well, that's just some of the stuff we don't see. With a team with 4 or 5 forwards who look like they can do the job - yeah, 3 of them will get boned. You want all of them out there, but we can't hardly go back to the ancient 4forwards, 3 mids, 3 defenders style, can we? We don't have a Ruiz who you can't leave on the bench. But we still are high in the league for goals scored. I guess my conclusion is...damn, I bet Bradley hasn't has this many choices in his life, and I hope he can make the right choices to keep balls flying into our foe's nets.
And I must fess up on something. last year I thought Woly was a semi-pro journeyman who worked hard but was used cuz we had nothing better. WRONG. He got mad dedication and also skills - not flashy, not always pretty, but I'd pick him for my team. I hope to hear many "Woly woly" chants to the wipeout tune for the rest of the year.
Woly has to be one of my favorite Metros right now. I want this guy to start every game. Will it happen? Doubtful. In any case, I would like it to happen. My belief is that with all of the Metro firepower up front, they start 3 up top, Woly, Magee and Galvan Rey. Taylor is a super-sub. The guy comes in with bursts of speed and scores goals after the defense has worn down. Magee will provide the speed at the beginning and Taylor at the end. Woly works the whole game with Galvan Rey. They are solid players that work the entire match.
Our midfield is playing too well to try this right now. If you want to start three up top in order to get playing time for Magee, you either have to go to a 3-4-3 or go to a 4-3-3 and bench one of Clark, Vaca, Gaven, and Guevara. Not to mention Mark Lisi, who doesn't make the field in the any of the above scenarios. I think the 4-4-2 works well for us. A three-man backline with Pope, Parke, and Bonseu is possible, but I think our four-man back of Pope, Parke, Leitch and Ziadie with DiGiamarino and Bonseu providing depth is simply a better plan for us. Strikers are so frequently substituted that all of these guys will see playing time. With the roster limitations that MLS teams have, we've really maximized our talent. However, three months from now one of these five forwards will probably be hurt, or we'll be calling Galvan Rey to slow and old, or Glen will just not appear to be up to the job - something like that is bound to happen. These problems tend to take care of themselves. Wolyniec almost always looks his most dangerous coming off of the bench when the other team is tired anyway. That's when he creates maximum chaos. Magee has the instincts to take advantage of that chaos. If those two are our strikers off of the bench as a tandem in any given game, that's a great weapon. Add in subbing in Lisi in the midfield (absolving him of defensive responsibilities) and we could have as much ability to make comebacks as anyone in this league.
For as long as I can remember I've read post after post complaining that we have no depth, or we can't afford depth with the cap, or what if he's out on point accumulation, not to mention injuries. Now we're going to worry about players feelings? While both Magee and Woly are dedicated, hard working players, they must assume their role as junior players.... not disrespected players. This should make them strive harder and be a learning experience. They'll have plenty of chances to play. Bob has 10 different striker combination possibilities now. How will other teams defend against all of the possible lineups? He's smarter than he looks.
Best player plays. If Galvan and Taylor are the best then the yanks sit. If Parke is the best the Ugandan sits.