Right now, Dempsey seems best suited to the roll he had last night: coming off the bench. He can play any of the midfield or forward positions and has a crazy work rate that will drive opponents with tired legs nuts. Depending on how he plays in friendlies and for the Revs, I think this is the role he'll play in at least a few of the games in the Hex. Judging his offensive creativity based upon last nights game is unfair. While he was in the US was a man down and playing for the tie, so when he pushed up he was heavily outnumbered (if not alone).
Dempsey could easily develop into the closest thing this country has ever come to developing a Patrick Viera. He could completely redefine the role of the center midfield for the U.S. if things go well for him. In the meantime, he's still learning on the job.
Re: mixed emotions I love Clint Dempsey and his game. He is much better on the ball than Heydude. If I was Bruce I would start him in the US's next friendly January 30th, according to the ESPN schedule. I have Dempsey slotted in to start in 2006 if Reyna or O'brien can't go, and by 2010 he and Szetela will be one of the top 15 midfield pairings in the world.
Re: mixed emotions Im suprised that people dont remember Dempsy's first dozen minutes or so. He was awful. Ramiro Corralles awful. That could have been the more constrained role he was asked to play, that could have been nerves. I dunno. But if you watched his time up until Oneywu's ejection you'll see some very poor play from him. It was a mixed game from Dempsy Id say.
Re: mixed emotions Then you didnt watch closely. Watch the tape, I can remember quite clearly him hitting a square pass from the center of midfield that went nowhere near anybody and straight out of bounds. There were more bad touches from him. As I said, he improved considerably after the red card, but prior to that he played poorly.
Re: mixed emotions More nerves and not reading a couple runs I thought.He settled down pretty quickly.He did make a bad swiutch pass late when we could have killed the rest of the game off in the left corner.
Re: mixed emotions Yes, Dempsey did have a rough first five minutes or so. Then again, I can't fault him for only taking five minutes to adjust to the international game. As Dempsey got more comfortable, he started tackling and challenging more, and once he was fully involved in the game, he started to contribute to the attack. Also, in the post-match interviews (at ussoccer.com), Dempsey mentioned being nervous/starting out badly. I wouldn't worry about it, and I think he deserves another shot in the upcoming friendlies.
Re: mixed emotions I think he and Dempsey go to the same hair stylist, kinda hard to pick out who's who from a distance