Wow I'm amazed this thread is still going. I think I wouldn't mind seeing both playing at the same time. Hope Johnson continues his growth (no pun intended). We have some exciting players emerging so it's a great time to be a US fan. Thank you all for your input.
Did I miss something? I saw E.J. scoring 4 goals on one game against Panama.....About EJ my opinion is that he have the angel that is require to score so lets keep triying to find out how good he is....
My vote is your man....Many people here try to use personal attacks as a last resource when they see their opinions colapse under the weight of reality, I can still see no point into insulting other fellow members....
I think that right now they are about the same in terms of benefit to a team, but I don't think there is any doubt that EJ has a much greater upside. My intention is not to disrespect Ching, but he really strikes me as one of those guys who is a very good league player (Twellman, Kreis, Lassiter) who doesn't have the combination of ball skills and athletic ability to be really good at the international level. That's not to say that I think he's a terrible international, just that I don't think he can be much better than what we've had because he doesn't play fast enough or run fast enough. Johnson, on the other hand, clearly runs fast enough and I think he has the ball skills and instincts to become the best forward we've produced yet.
See, I don't get this. Ching has 2 goals in 4 international appearances, 2 of which were as a sub, and 1 of which was a game a year and a half ago when we didn't have our full team. The guy puts the ball in the back of the net on his first 2 WCQ appearances, has ONE bad game (at Panama, when the entire team played like crap), and hasn't been called into camp since. I don't get it, especially when McBride isn't exactly setting the world on fire.
I am sure most people here and even Bruce would perfer McBride any day over Ching. About two or 3 weeks ago McBride scored a great goal against Chelsea and Ching wasn't doing much to help San Jose win that much towards the end of the season. It's so obvious how all San Jose fans are so much in favor for there players even when they ain't all that great!!!! I mean we can make a poll with Ching and EJ or Ching and McBride and let's see who wins!!!! That's what i thought!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
while I love the chinger, maybe bruce just see his role as a fill-in player right now ... when McBride, Casey (?) or EJ aren't available, he knows he has Ching to rely on. As a quakes fan, I'm lovin' that he's on my team ... but I'm not so sure I see him having the same role with the nats. of course, I'd love to be proven wrong.
He was indeed injured. My guess is that he's ahead of Casey in the depth chart right now. Casey's not getting much playing time for his club (admittedly at a higher level of play), but more importantly, Ching's been far better when playing for the national team, against similar opponents.
Is this even an issue anymore? I mean, come on. Three games for us and Johnson is already in second place for overall 2004 goalscoring and leading the team in WCQ goals.