It's pretty easy to compare Clark to Bradley as they both have significant minutes with the national team. Clark and Feilhaber have been better and their respective stats support this. Neverminding Szetela for now, the pool will soon have to add Edu and Sturgis. Those two have put in better performances as 1st and 2nd year players respectively in MLS than Bradley did in his time with the Metros. When all of the players are available at the same time is when things will get interesting over the next year or so.
Nothing wrong with discussing the coach's selection. The rapidity with which some people genuflect to authority is mind boggling. This is reminisicient of certain postyers stumbling over themselves to defend Arena over his selection of Carroll ahead of Clark.
Glossing over? I've mentioned it repeatedly. You are complete shit at both reading comprehension and soccer analysis. I rescind my apology, you are as ********ed in the head as the rest of the nepotism contingent. Bullshit, and this has already been covered in this thread. Michael and Benny were both available for the first Mexico match of the year and neither were called in. Gold Cup minutes were more heavily weighted towards the players unavailable for Copa America. It's about availability and not about favoritism or nepotism. I agree that Mastroeni looks to be one of BB's top choices at cmid, I've stated this from the beginning. Bradley has a different evaluation of Mastroeni than you or I might have but I don't equate that with favoritism. I thought it was a poor call too until I reviewed the play and read the analysis on the ref's forum. No one has provided video footage that clearly shows if Hume did or didn't get a touch on that ball. If Hume did get a touch on the ball, even the slightest of touch, then the offside call was correct. It's an extremely close call. The linesman saw something that we weren't able to see on TV. Reviewing available evidence is called analysis, you and the rest of the 90% of US fans should try it sometime. DeRo's retaliatory headbutt was a clear red card offense and took place before Bradley's red card. That was poor officiating but you choose to ignore the obvious because your bias compels you to. We don't know how DeRo's red would have changed the match. More bullshit. You guys would be pissing yourselves over a 20 year old starting in the Eredivisie. The cap him now threads would replace all the favoritism and nepotism threads. You and the rest of the idiotic nepotism brigade would be just as pissed off if Clark had played Bradley's minutes and vise versa. You would be whining, why did Bradley get to play against Argentina, Paraguay, Columbia and twice against Mexico and Clark only got to play against crap sides like Canada, Panama, Guatemala, and El Salvador. You know it's true.
I've added plenty of information and analysis to this thread. Explaining player availability and how that directly effects BB's roster selection process, posting comparative minutes played, posed the probability that having one's face caved in might limit their playing time, mentioned the circumstances that limited BB's option for the China match and Copa America... simple concepts for you and me but there are some people on this thread that haven't grasped them yet. I tried. There's the old saying "You can lead a small horse to water but you can't make the jackass drink". I was home with a cold yesterday. I'll limit myself to 2 posts today.
The explanation is simple and I didn't even need to use my superior logic. It's called a vocal minority. The lunatic fringe have a huge impact on our society. Why should bigsoccer be any different. Sorry for a third post Mr11
why MUCH?What percentage is MUCH? Should Felipe Alou have sat Moises? Why penalize someone for being related to you?For all you know,Mike didn't ask to be born into that family.
I read it as converting Edu to central defender. Is that what you meant? If so, I think it's a waste of Edu's talent, and I wonder who would body up against larger forwards on set pieces.
Since we're on this, I thought Hume should have been sent off, too. He committed two clear yellow card offenses, and I seem to remember a couple other questionable displays. And he didn't even get a warning, as far as I could tell. The reffing in that game was just atrocious regardless of which team you care for.
I don't even know if Edu can mark anybody, so it's a dream world. But I don't believe that Gooch, Boca and DeMerit are even close to NT quality, and Gibbs is always injured, and with nobody on U-20 (I like Sturgis but he isn't a natural center back and wouldn't be able with Parkhurst), and nobody in MLS (Boswell see Boca/DeMerit) we are in a deep trouble. Edu is not smaller than Boca, Demerit or Pope and Parkhurst is an automatic starter to me. Set pieces might be a problem, but look what's going on on set pieces now. Total chaos. It's not just size. It's organization first. And Edu's talent gonna be wasted on the bench. Center mids is the strongest position on the team. Here list of players that appeared in the center of midfield (never mind that some of them got no business to play there): Feilhaber, Clark, Mastroeni, Bradley, Donovan, Dempsey, Convey, Beasley. Thats eight players that when healthy are on any NT roster and will be put ahead of Edu. If we are talking about the world class center backs they do have a lot of skills and talent so I would say that for us it's more like a luxury but not a waste. The ugliest thing about Edu, that he has no international exposure and is rotting on Mo's team. That's the waste for you.
You also have to look at the assistance coaches Peter Nowak and Mike Sorber. Two old time friends from a decade ago it may workout or it may create a team of one way thinking. Also how does one fire your best buddy in the event of unforeseen circumstance.
Most of what you type here makes good sense. The one minor quibble I have is that while Edu is not "smaller" than Bocanegra, I don't believe he will be able to use his body as well. Bocanegra is dominant in the air. Whether it's his strength, his leaping ability, or just plain savvy (or some combination of the three), the fact remains he's great in that regard. Of course, your "chaos" description is dead on. I almost pee my pants when we have to defend a set piece. So who knows?
Can't we just link an Arena UVA thread and find/replace the names? This is always going to be an issue when you hire coaches from within the same country's league/U system. They will know and have a history with many of the players. For good or bad depends on how smart the coach is. But it is not on the face of it a problem. Some coaches are clever and knowing what a player can do is good for them. Some are not so clever. I can just see the thread if Jurgen had gotten the job. "He only plays Donovan because he hung around the Depot!"
Agree about Bocanegra in the air. Too bad he should play on the ground sometimes. That's when it gets scary. And when I sad "nobody in MLS" I missed Ianni. Haven't seen him enough, but any young player from Houston or New England has a chance. Coaching does matter.
There is no proof that Heerenveen were willing to release Michael Bradley for Copa America. They weren't required to because Copa America is only on the International match calendar for CONMEBOL nations. Heerenveen previously refused to release Michael for U20 world cup qualifying. http://www.ussoccer.com/articles/viewArticle.jsp_281592.html "The Dutch club had already released midfielder Robbie Rogers, but despite numerous discussions during the past week, ultimately decided it would not release Bradley."