Re: Taylor Twellman an alternate? www.mlsnet.com "Few players have a longer or deeper relationship with Arena than Olsen, dating back to his college career at the University of Virginia a decade ago and continuing through United's early '90s dynasty era, when Olsen lived with Arena and his family as a rookie" Sickening? I agree! But then again I'm sure Benny did all of his chores...
Re: Taylor Twellman an alternate? "You have given out too much Reputation in the last 24 hours, try again later." And it wasn't going to be positive. Hope someone can cover for me until tomorrow. You're sickening. I would NEVER wish injury on any player named to the roster. You disgust me.
Re: Taylor Twellman an alternate? Does this go back to someone's earlier Tonya Harding joke? Are you asking if someone could, oh I don't know, go in for a tackle really really hard against someone ahead of them on the depth chart?
Re: Taylor Twellman an alternate? Taylor was robbed! Josh "the Diver" Wolf should not have been selected. He took Taylor's spot. Josh must have naked pictures of the Bruce with goats. I agree with all of the other selections including Ben's except the Twellman exclusion for Josh.
Re: Taylor Twellman an alternate? What was that again? Sorry, don't understand that. Because, as I said before, I think it's comical and ironic. Maybe you should just "Be easy" and ignore me. Get it? (probably not). Really? Then why do you go around telling people to "Be easy"? Fixed your definition. I think my dictionary is better. Yep.
Re: Taylor Twellman an alternate? He is described as scoring garbage goals. If diving headers and bicycle kicks are perfect service, then I am MLS bound. Personally, I would take Twellman over Ching 100% of the time, but that is just me, I am not really impressed by Ching. Alas, there is a reason that I am not the US manager, so hopefully im wrong and Ching comes up huge.
Re: Taylor Twellman an alternate? TT not going is absolute BS. yes, i am biased. and i am drunk. and i am pissed. here's to you taylor.
Re: Taylor Twellman an alternate? Everyone bags on Wolff because he doesn't score goals but hes a role player for bruce. Late in games when we need a goal he will be a sub on to get the offense going with his passing and setup abilities. Hopefully we wont ever be in that come-from-behind situation but if so we need to be ready. It isnt about the best talent of 23 guys its the right fit. Just ask the USA basketball team. As far as I see it Twellman is a younger,less experienced, less polished (so far) version of BMAC. We will probably end up using him uptop with EJ (if he ever develops to his potential) in the future but its not about the future its about this summer and gaining respect and popularity.
Re: Taylor Twellman an alternate? Odd thread. Anyway the week three game of NE @ KC was telling. In that game Conrad marks Twellman out of the game despite several good balls into him. Conrad goes, Twellman stays. Pretty simple really. Then last week Ching scores on a set piece against Mastroeni. pablo's going anyway but Ching ups his credentials.
Re: Taylor Twellman an alternate? I think that old adage about "a forward's job is to score goals" can be put to bed now--Ching and Wolff's inclusion means that Bruce passed over the better finisher (TT) for other players. Ching & Wolff have their strengths, but I don't think anybody can argue that they are better or more consistent goalscorers than Twellman. To all those who would say "yeah, but against Italy & the Czechs you don't get those chances" I will kindly direct you to your tapes from WC2002, and point out the O'Brien poached a goal in the six vs Portugal. Look at the goals Poland scored against us. Look at the goals Senegal scored all tournament. Goal poachers can and do find success quite well at the World Cup. My guess is that Bruce wants Ching for defense on set pieces, and Wolff to play the Cobi Jones role (which I think TT could fill just as well, but I'm not the manager). The unbridled hate against Twellman is unnecessary, and unwarranted. Dude works his ass off when he's wearing the jersey, represents his federation well, worked hard...and that's all we can ask for. If you can't respect that, then I wonder just how much a fan you are of your national team.
Re: Taylor Twellman an alternate? Can anyone tell me how come Ching got picked over Twellman considering what they've done for the national team lately? This is a shock !
Re: Taylor Twellman an alternate? So he can get in a good posistion 6 yards from goal and send it wide? In well over 40 games for the US, Wolff has 4 assists (from what I could find). He's been less successfull at setting up players than Twellman if we take at at assists per game for the US. Sorry, you haven't convinced me.
Re: Taylor Twellman an alternate? TT is a great MLS player but not a good international player. He's like the Division 2 running backs who break all kinds of rushing records in college but never make it in the NFL.
Re: Taylor Twellman an alternate? This is the only decision that I have a problem with. Conrad probably shouldn't be there but Bernhalter and Albright are awful alternatives. But Twellman brings more to the table than Ching and a hot start against a few awful defenses doesn't really change my thinking on that. To me it's more important to have done well in a recent INTERNATIONAL camp than start off well in the MLS. I'm not saying Twellman is God's gift to soccer but he is clearly the superior alternative to Ching. Not to Wolff or Olsen mind you, but to Ching.
Re: Taylor Twellman an alternate? I remember Ching came up with a couple big goals for us in qualifying before he got injured...if I remember correctly one was a game winner. Twellman got a hattrick against a crap Norway team in a friendly..wonder if that weighed on Bruce's mind at all.
Re: Taylor Twellman an alternate? when i saw ching's name on the roster, i really expected to see johnson or wolff left off. I'm a little puzzled as to the exclusion. You can't base the decision on form. Although TT has not been hot in the MLS this season, he has scored just as many as Wolff and Johnson. He has been quite hot with the national team this year. It's also hard to base the decision on the past few years of performance. Wolff and johnson have been unproductive save for a stretch of 5-0, 3-0, etc qualifiers in which johnson had a substantial amount of goals (he did have some important goals though). You could say that twellman doesn't create for others, but johnson registers a lower assist rate over the MLS/National team games. Wolff however does create a lot of extra space for teammates. Despite his poor form and poor finishing, i guess bruce wanted someone who could break a defense down by non-traditional methods. As people have been saying, he could be a spark-plug in the last 20-30 mins against defenses that have been smothering our forwards the whole game (i can see this happening in the italy game). I'm still perplexed though as to how johnson gets the spot over TT. People say he creates for himself, but I really haven't seen much of that from him at any point in his career. He is good in the air and garbage balls, but TT is usually considered better at both. Johnson has also shown less vision on the field. I don't expect any nice layoffs from him when he is near the goal. I expect him to take a crack at it no matter what. TT on the other hand does sometimes lay it off unexpectedly, and the element of surprise is pretty huge on all goals not scored off crosses. Some people say that johnson translates better to international competition, but i really haven't seen johnson do anything special against internationals. Even against MLS competition, he seems to be a run-of-the-mill forward. If the object of the team was to win games (not to mention cut my payroll), i would choose many other players to play forward over. Off the top of my head: ching, TT, moreno, ruiz, cooper, r. obrien, derosario, and several others. perhaps i have a selective memory. Could someone remember some games in which johnson was very solid against strong competition?
Re: Taylor Twellman an alternate? Yeah, you know you defeated someone when they edit your own posts, that some sick stuff my friend, editing other people's posts, tisk tisk. Man, I hope you're life is fun, but I don't know about that, since you editted more words, my goodness. Shows that i did my job in showing you how to know what your talking about instead of picking inane fights. Sorry if you were using the word wrong, truth hurts doesn't it.
Re: Taylor Twellman an alternate? My friend, it is all about speed, upside, and potential, that is why Johnson is over TT. The better question is, is size really the only reason why Ching was picked over Twellman, because basing it on a goal aganist Jamaica when he actually produced for the national team back in 2004 doesn't seem like the best criteria.
Re: Taylor Twellman an alternate? Wolff, sure. Ching, IIRC his MLS goals-per-game figure is right there with Twellman's, he just hasn't been able to stay healthy.
Re: Taylor Twellman an alternate? And with more games I thing, but that doesn't matter, size and goals aganist Colorado Rapids are more important.
Re: Taylor Twellman an alternate? Twellman has two people to be upset with: himself and Steve Nicol. Since March, Twellman has scored one goal, and the 3-4-3 formation that NE is playing leaves him isolated in the middle, thus denying him the scoring opportunities he needs to have a chance to impress Arena.
Re: Taylor Twellman an alternate? I love that movie. It is beautifully shot, artistic, and has a poignant message about indecision and the fear of happiness. The musical score also fits the tone of the film very well....wait we are here to talk about soccer? What's that?
Re: Taylor Twellman an alternate? Yup, and I hope people realize now that Jamaiaca and El Salvador are NOT crappy CONCACAF teams, since Ching scored in two goals in semifinals qualifying and the latter one was an easy day for the National team. But then again, Twellman haters would of said straight up, that wsa some Crap competiton. So ambiguous is Big Soccer posters.
Re: Taylor Twellman an alternate? Ching is two inches taller (6'1") and 25 pounds heavier than Twellman. Now, as for Ching being a hot scorer in MLS right now, I would add a caveat: 1) 5 of 6 goals came against Colorado which as a team is just ahead of RSL in the West Conference standings, 2) his 1 assist came against RSL. So, obviously McBride is going and Wolff has historically paired up well with him. Johnson is a similar type to Wolff (btw, Johnson has 1 MLS goal so far), and Ching is probably closer to a McBride type as others have mentioned. Now, I do think that Twellman would probably pressure the ball more and defend more than Ching...but I can't quite remember Ching to compare appropriately. Well, I guess he will be the first Hawaiian to play in a WC final