I haven't seen enough of either players to make a sound judgment on who is the better player.But, having seen Dunivant play more than Burciaga, I think Dunivant would be an excellent prospect at Left back. he would be an upgrade other anyone we have at the position except maybe Bocanegra. he has good instincts, comfrotable on the ball, good speed, contributes very well to the Quakes offense, making very good overlapping runs and providing decent service, and gets stuck in fairly well. I have heard that Burciaga is a great player. Having watched the Wizards only 2 times last year, he looked great when he played. If I had to make a decision, I would say Dunivant.
If you want a Wizard, I'd put Garcia out there long before Burciaga, Jr. Jose has skill, but he has lost three years of development by blowing out both of his knees. He's finally healthy and getting some playing time. It's beginning to look like his future might very well be in the midfield. The Wizards even used him as a de facto attacking midfielder against Dallas last Saturday. His long passing is among the best in the league. His defending needs a lot of refinement. I can't overstate how much time he's been idled with injuries. I'm also concerned about his deportment. He's done well with the Wizards, but he picked up some pretty silly red cards with the U23s. It's hard to help your team when you're suspended. Jose Burciaga, Jr. needs to play a year or two before we start calling for him to get called up. I wouldn't count him out, yet - but he needs some experience at MLS level, first.
I agree that Jose needs refinement in his defending, but so does Convey. Bottom line is that both Dunivant and Burciaga have size and can attack out of the back just like Arena wants. They are both superb crossers of the ball.
One thing Dunivant has going for him is that cannon of a throw in. Even if you scout it I bet against a new opponent you get one shot where you can get at least one shot to get a guy free behind the defense in every game. I mean, you may here long throw as a player, but then seeing is somthing else entirely.
Dunivant has a cannon for a shot when he's on attack. He scored from about 23 yards out last year in a practice against the US at Stanford, before the Wales friendly. I think it got Bruce's attention.
I know that it sounds sexy having an decent offensive-skilled player in the left back position who can create a goal-scoring chance or two every game, but the fact is that you have got to be able to play international-level defense at that position. Convey might have MLS-level d-skills which ain't going to cut it. If Arena continues this experiment in the WCQ, it's going to be ugly.
Dunivant has got everything that Bruce could possibly want in a left back and unlike Convey he is a natural defender with defensive instincts. Convey's defense is good enough for a midfielder, but he won't cut it as a defender against international competition. If not for his injury, Dunivant would have probably already been called up by now.
How fast is he? From the limited amount of time I've spent watching him, he doesn't come off as being particularly fleet of foot. Not real slow, either, just... average. I think Arena is looking for speed merchants for his outside backs. If he wanted a natural defender with a good shot, Vanney would be a permanent fixture at left back, but he's not too fast, so Convey gets some looks there.
I suspect that Todd will have to play a few more games before he gets another look. Last year was his rookie year -- and he's been injured since then. He definitely looked good against Colorado. and the knock on him (at least in Quakesville) has always been that he lacks speed. It's not that he's slow by any means -- but people wonder if his speed will be exposed at the international level. Apart from that, he really is composed on the ball. He makes good short passes out of pressure, he crosses the ball well, he has a good shot (and he usually keeps it on frame!), his throw-ins are awesome, and he plays the game for the TEAM. He's definitely worth taking a LONG look at. I don't know anything about Burciaga except that he scored a NICE goal against the Quakes when Hart left him in free space.
If Burciaga had Hejduk's fitness, he would be starting for the USMNT later this year IMO. He is very composed on the ball, and shows an anticipation of the game that few of our current backs can match. His biggest drawback is that he is still not able to go 90 at this point, and at times in the match last saturday when he served as an emergency a-mid, he seemed lazy at times in doing all the extra defensive work that is expected out of attacking players in KC. He also showed why he's one of our most dangerous players. He had a great header saved by the hand of a sprawling Jeff Cassar, and had Gibbs beat when only an uncalled handball in the box stopped him from possibly adding to his total.
Oh yeah. Well Burciaga has a laser-beam of a shot. You should see the one he scored earlier this season in MLS (not a practice game)!!!!
I think once his fitness is 100 percent after the long layoff that Dunivant definitely warrants a look at LB for the nats. I like Burciaga but I don't think he's ready for the nats. Just not enough MLS games played. I would look at Chris Gbandi and Wade Barrett, Dunivant's predecessor in San Jose, at LB before Burciaga. I also wouldn't mind experiementing with Garcia at LB, either.
I thought Chris Gbandi had agreed to play for Liberia. He's not good enough for the Nats anyway. Wade Barrett has hurt his situation by not coming back to MLS. Garcia, while a decent player, does not have the skills to be a left back in our system. Funny thing is that ever since Dunivant has stepped back into SJ's lineup, their team has played better as a whole.
Well, Burciaga just made Gbandi look bad last week and 2 weeks ago so I'm not quite sure why that would be. I haven't seen much of Barrett so I can't comment there.
Dunivant definitely has the upper hand, at least as long as Arena is the coach. His style of play right now is exactly what Bruce wants from an outside back, and he's a quality player as well. I'd expect a lot of looks for Todd as he gets back to full game fitness and a strong position on the team through qualifying next year.
It's taken a real effort for a lot of us to see KC play this season. From what I have seen, though, Burciaga has been playing excellent soccer. His accuracy with long balls and crosses is remarkable. The one area where I would be concerned about him most is that he doesn't get up and down the sideline - in the games I've seen - as much as Arena seems to want with the US team. I don't know if that is a tactical difference between Gansler's and Arena's systems, if that is Burciaga's style of play, or if it could be a fitness and/or speed issue since Burciaga's come back from injury. With the Olympic Qualifying team - Burciaga IMO didn't look as good as he has with the Wizards, but there too he stayed at home most of the time. Dunivant, though, has already been called into one camp by Arena IIRC. I've been impressed with the way he's combined with Corales on the left for San Jose in the last couple of weeks. He's getting up and down the field, defending very well, and making the right runs. Last week vs. Colorado, two of his runs resulted in scoring chances for the Quakes. On the first, he cut inside, received the ball from Donovan, touched it down to his right foot, and got a pretty good shot off that Cannon stopped. On the second, he made a wide overlapping run that forced De La Torre to back off Corales, giving Ramiro enough space to fire an excellent shot shot that forced Cannon to make another save. The one thing I haven't seen a lot of from Dunivant since his return is great crossing. If he's going to be a left back in Arena's system, he better be able to serve a cross. Right now, I'd give Dunivant the nod over Burciaga on the depth chart. But I would be surprised if either were called in for the next round of WCQ.
Another issue that bears watching - Burciaga has shown a tendency to draw red cards at a slightly too-frequent clip for Bruce Arena's (or anyone's) taste. It has happened already once (straight red and not a hard call) in Burciaga's 20 or so matches played in MLS and I believe he also picked one up in Mexico at the Olympic Qualies U23 - I believe it was also a straight red. That is not the way to impress the Bruce.
I chalk it up to inexperience. I think Jose needs a full MLS season under his belt before we really know what we've got - or what his prospects are. There are some tantalizingly good signs, but he's also lost a couple years of development. There is a reason the Wizards held onto him through all of his injury problems. But it's way too early to tell if he's international calibre.
Hey, don't short-change Convey's goal-scoring mastery this year. He had a couple of open-net duffers that really took some special skill and extra effort to miss.
But let's not let this little issue get in the way of the consensus thinking that Convey brings valuable offensive skill to the left back position whereas a putz like Vanney can't cross or shoot. *obligatory *