A goal and a shutout - that's a great game for any back. Well done, StevieC. Honestly, combining his form in a top-tier league with the fact that MLS will be out of season when qualifying starts and I don't see how Cherundolo isn't the starting right back against T&T and Mexico. And, if you can play in some of the hostile barns in the Budesliga, I think he can handle Azteca.
I think your ideas about mathis' situation are about right. same with your thoughts about stevie, even though in the 02/03 and the 03/04 season many fans thought he was not good enough and blamed him for some mistakes. But he improved a lot since Lienen is now there. Our former coach's name was Ralf Rangnick btw... ;-)
Rangnick!!!! Thanks... don't know how that escaped me. For my part, I've always liked steve and thought he should have been a regular for the USA. I like his competitiveness... he's just as tenacious as Hejduk, and will even take the man out if the need arises. He has shown me good speed and the ability to get into the attack down the flank. I never saw the need to have huge outside backs if you could put a couple big bodies in central defense... which is something we can do these days. Steve is only 25! (will be 26 in Feb)... wow... I thought he was a couple years older. Good for him, he'll be in his prime in 2006.... nice.
You outside backs can be small if your center midfielders are big. In US cases, if you have Reyna, Zavagnin, JOB, Mastro, Armas, Donovan in the mid and with Beasley, Ralston, Lewis on the outside, and Wolff is the front, then put Cherundolo, Hedjuk, Convey on the outside back, that will be very difficult to defend on set pieces with three tall people to do defending--McBride plus two center backs--Pope/Boca/Berhalter/Sanneh/Onyewu/Gibbs. Of course, if you have Dempsey/Clark on the mid or Klein on the right, etc. it is OK to have two short outside backs. Normally we dominate Mexico, Guatemala, etc. physically but not doing that good with Jamaica/T&T, but now with Johnson/Ching/Casey pair with McBride, with Gaven/Dempsey come up in mid, with Albrigth/Russell/Spector come up outside, we probably can use Cherundolo at the right back or even right mid position.
bah. this isn't for this forum, but with a backline of Pope, Gibbs, and Bocanegra that's plenty of height to support steve. I think it's great that steve is scoring goals from the defense. What more can any coach ask for?
all this talk of Steve's height.Has anyone ever seen him beaten in the air on a goal? have never seen it and I ave not heard of it at Hannover either. I think it is a red-herring.
Ahhhhh "The Round Mound of Rebound"... of course he was short as power forwards go... but he was definitely stocky enough to bang with the best of them. As for myself... I don't think Steve is too short to play right back. Even at 170cm (roughly 5'7") I think he's fine to play ... that's the great thing about soccer... size is often secondary to skill.
Kinda. Steve has played well for Hannover, but more promising than his level of play at any given point over the past 5 seasons was that everybody knew he could be even better. Finally this season he is realizing the potential that others have seen in him - which is why this year's performance is big news. Think of it as the equivalent to EJ's coming out party, only as an outside back, where statistics can't even begin to depict an accurate story. It is also not much of a surprise that Steve's emergence happened later in his career. It's part of the defensive gig. Congrats to another great performance, Steve.
I am not sure it is from Steve himself.Rangnick had some very "unusual" ideas about defending.I read an interview with Steve last year where he said that the coach simply insisted that he go forward, even when he himself felt it was a bad idea.He said he was constantly facing 3v2 and 2v1 , and he invariably looked bad.Sill, he said, it is up to the coach to decide the tactics.I is important to note that I don't think Steve was making excuses- he liked the coach and basically everyone agrees that Rangnick was not too much into defense.
It was a problem in the New Zealand friendly...I wouldn't want Steve at RB if, say, Jamaica went 4-3-3.
Lack of height hasn't been a hindrance for a guy named R. Carlos. But I'm not trying to compare Dolo with Mr. Carlos, and you're right, a 4-3-3 might be more of a problem (but that's later, and we will have the MLS guys like Frankie), but it sounds like Steve will be battle tested and ready to go against T&T.
Well, Mr. Carlos didnt make his name by defending. In fact he doesnt do much of it. Not that he isnt a great player, I just dont think he is a great defender. Also, I'm not implying dolo isnt a great defender. I think he should be our #1 rb choice.
FWIW, both Roberto Carlos and Steve Cherundolo are listed at 5'6" (173 cm) on Yahoo's World Soccer. Frankie Hejduk is listed as 5'8" ... unless he is in the process of making his famed two-legged lunge tackle ... then he is a foot off the ground.
Dumb analogy, and not just because Roberto is actually a mediocre defender. When you have RC on your team, the other team isn't gonna play an attacking 4-3-3, they're more likely to play a 6-4-0. Seriously, is Jamaica gonna send 3 attackers flying at Brazil in order to force RC to beat Onandi Lowe on a cross? Of course not. So why make the pointless comparison?????? I just wish people would think about what they're writing sometimes instead of getting a stiffy because they found something they can argue with. A discussion board only works if people put thought behind the discussion.
Sorry, are you all actually saying that the height of a player mattters for your national team? Not just right back, but some posters mention that it is essential to have center backs of a certain height? Poppycock. Some have much to learn about the game if that is how you assess. Unless you are an English side, height isn't generally ever thought about--ever, in assessing who should be your starters. And how good has England done in the last 40 years? Perhaps most of you should factor in heading ability independent of height of person? As a 6' person with a 10" vertical would be where compared to a 5'5 player with a 25" vertical? Perhaps this is some homoerotic American sports fascination? You look at an individual, and the absolute first thing you can say is, boy he has niiiice size...mmmm. Really, when you first assess a player, try to watch **how he plays** and how high he jumps and how fast he runs before looking at how much of a physical specimen he is? Also, those of you who claim Roberto Carlos isn't much of a defender, you are not to smart. He is one of the best defenders in the world. Yes, often he pushes far up, but he knows when to go up, often runs 90 meters full speed back after an attack to defend, forces otehr team to change their tactics to be defensive. He pushes up for that purpose. Like in chess challeging the other team in their end of the field. Of course there is some gamble to this, but he plays the perhaps best "battlefield offensive tactic" known. You really need to watch his individual battle to appreciate the whole, and this benefit to the team.
It does happen every now and then though particularly when it's between two teams that have no money to give one another. Normally though the teams prefer to have the cash.
I'm a big fan of Cherundolo's at the right back spot. That Arena sometimes prefers Hejduk back there is one of the eternal mysteries of Bruce. Frankie bought himself 4 more years of playing time in Korea it appears. That said, Cherundolo's height has been exposed from time to time with the Nats, but it usually takes a purposeful effort to do it. Brazil, kings of the 1v1 short passing game, spent much of the match sending long balls down Steve's flank and Steve was winning very, very few of them. Damn Brazillians can;t be satisfied at being better than everyone else, they have to be smarter too. Anyway, despite that they never did score off us that way (the only goal came when Berhalter decided he was going to beat Adriano off the dribble) and I think that's one of the difference between a lack of height/strength for a center back versus a full back. What Steve has that none of our other right fullback candidates have (except Albright maybe and in the future Spector) is the necessary ability to get forward and contribute to the offense. Frankie gets forward, but then he crosses the ball for a goal kick. Steve would be an automatic starter for me.
Everytime, when Mr. Carlos pushed up, there was an English man named McSomething who played as a left side defensive midfielder would help to defense the space that left. In the right side, it was also a little guy called Somelele who doing all dirty works. After all those guys being dumped, Real Madrid really become a great team who can beat teams like Leverkusen or Barcelona by 3:0.
Actually Steve maybe improved in the area at defending the far post with a cross coming from right, this is the only area he needs to improve to beat out Hedjuk for starting spot. But don't underestimate Albright. He played a near perfect defense game against Jamaica, and he can be dangerous pushing forward. Also Russell is pretty good at forward too.