News: Bruce Arena Calls 26 Players for October Qualifiers Against Panama and T&T

That would certainly increase board traffic. It would be worth it to read Billy Haisley's lava-hot take afterward.

 

We're worried because this team has played almost the entire qualifying cycle as if they think that all they have to do is show up and they win. I hope these guys play with a sense of urgency from the start and take care of business, but we should most definitely be worried, and I want the players to be worried as well.

 

Nice.

But you have Bedoya as both a starter and bench for 2014. You forgot Cameron.

Cameron should probably be starting CB and then drop Gonzo to D Sub1 replacing Bedoya.

 

Not worried in the slightest. #Get3

 

I'm not worried; there's an odd sense of peace with me that if we don't completely annihilate these two jobber teams, we don't deserve to be at the World Cup. Panama isn't that good and only didn't lose in March b/c they kicked Pulisic with impunity. Trinidad is going to trot out a B team. Their A team is terrible.

For me its still all about the midfield. If Arena finds a combo that works and/or we get good games out of 3/4 of them, we're going to stomp the crap out of these two sides. If our midfield sucks again, then the forwards will be marooned and the defense exposed, and it'll come down to luck.

 

Fixed....

NUMBER	POSITION	2017	2014	2010	2006	2002
1	GK	Howard	Howard	Howard	Keller	Friedel
2	GK	Guzan	Guzan	Guzan	Howard	Keller
3	CB	Brooks	Cameron	Onyewu	Onyewu	Agoos
4	CB	Cameron	Besler	Demerit	Pope	Pope
5	RB	Yedlin	F Johnson	Cherundolo	Cherundolo	Sanneh
6	LB	Villafana	Beasley	Bocanegra	Bocanegra	Heyduke
7	M	Bradley	Beckerman	Bradley	Reyna	Obrien
8	M	Nagbe	Bradley	Edu	Mastroeni	Reyna
9	M	Acosta	Bedoya	Dempsey	Dempsey	Donovan
10	M	Pulisic	Jones	Donovan	Convey	Beasley
11	F	Altdiore	Demspey	Altidore	Donovan	Mathis
12	F	Wood	Altidore	Findley	McBride	McBride
13	O Sub 1	Demspey	Yedlin	Feilhaber	E Johnson	C Jones
14	O Sub 2	Arriola	Zusi	Buddle	Obrien	Moore
15	O Sub 3	Feilhaber	Wondo	Gomez	Wollf	Wolff
16	D Sub 1	Zusi	Gonzalez	Clark	Conrad	Llamosa
17	D Sub 2	Besler	Bedoya	Holden	Olsen	Lewis
18	Old Bench Guy	Wondo	Davis	Goodsen	Berhalter	Regis

[/COLOR]

 

No, and neither do you credit Harvard with creating geniuses, either. Do you think Obama, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are who they are because of what happened once they got to Harvard? Similarly, if you send an average student to Harvard, they don't rise to the level of a Harvard grad just by being "challenged". So why do we think that way when it comes to soccer development?

This is the biggest and most easily disproven fallacy I see repeated about development. Ironically, it removes the responsibility of the player from the equation, which is by far the largest determinant of a player's greatness. Our best generation proves this point.

 

Here's a very interesting article about US player development for some pre-Panama match reading:

http://americansoccernow.com/articles/the-missing-years-u-s-soccer-s-development-gap

The only weakness is that I think Sciaretta underemphasizes the problems of the players born between 1975 and 1978. The 3 most talented players in that group - Mathis, O'Brien, Olsen - getting wrecked by injuries in the middle of their careers was a big factor in the failure of the 2006 World Cup.

 

Messi's a unique case, because he had a ton of physical issues Barca helped him out with. But otherwise, that's pretty much correct. Pulisic spent, what, 10 games with the reserves before jumping to the first team; do you really think that was the difference between him being who he is now and not another Brek Shea or Agudelo? CP would've been great even if he decided to sign for the Columbus Crew (not that I'm advocating that).

 

I am with you bud. I will be rooting loudly for the US, and might even put money down on the US but I do realize chance of winning any $ is pretty slim.

Simply put, Arena is still living in 2002. The guy is just outdated with the times. This roster just proved that, and even the rosters before that.

Stop with that "now is not the time to experiment" BS. The team is not gonna break if you bring in 1-2 talented young players. You're not being asked to bring in some U17 or High School kids.

 

Except off year Gold Cups!

 

let me put it simply this way for you.

there was a fish named 'Goldie' that was born with incredible athletic strengths, speed, and endurance. No other fish can swim as fast as Goldie or even come close.

however; Goldie live the rest of his life in a little pond by the school park. do you think Goldie will ever have the chance to fully utilize all his strengths and potentials?

now, imagine if you put Goldie in the ocean where there are vast open sea to explore. where there are sharks, and whales, and many other predators that prey on fishes like Goldie.

what do you think will happens?

 

Goldie gets a 3-picture deal from Disney?

 

I had to ask because was so random. I can't just assume it's a joke as if you posted it.

 

Sorry, I was just paraphrasing Cam Newton.

 

The big diff would be that people here would be flaming him for disappearing versus Mexico and Costa Rica, emphasizing how his poor quality is due to playing in a lousy league.

 

Oh, I'm behind the times on that story I guess.

 

If he was disappearing then MLS would have affected him in a negative way, as that is not what happened against Costa Rica. The coach set the team up poorly by isolating CP and providing him no support. He worked hard all game to get on the ball amke things happen.

Sure he didn’t have a good game by his standard and became frustrated by not succeeding and being fouled, but he didn’t disappear.

 

Somebody will eat her?

 

Wagner's doing pretty decently.

 

He is, but he started out in the C'Ship and has been given both time and support to build that team. Also, I'm really loathe to go down this rabbit hole but I'd hazard a guess that David Wagner is perceived by most Huddersfield fans as German. I could be wrong, though.

Bradley was unquestionably American and therefore subject to all the accompanying stupidity that follows our players when they're in England.

 

Isnt the A team Molino, J.Jones, K.Jones, Cato? It's not like they cant score goals.

 

From what I understand, Trinidad isn't bringing their main squad for MD10. And even if they were, quite frankly, they're a last place team. No excuses for not beating them handily, even if its on a cowpatch on the road.

 

I take heart from the possibility that one of either Chile or Argentina is not even going to make the playoffs without winning one or both of their last two games. Chile is in 6th place with two games remaining, one of them away against a Brasil team clearly in FU mode. Maybe if we miss out we could play a home and home with those guys at some point, and get slaughtered.

Crazy how disparate the level of difficulty for qualification is in different federations. Chile would stomp everyone in CONCACAF, Asia, and CAF. The ol' boys in FIFA have taken care of that though with the 92 team World Cup finals coming up in '22.