I disagree. Both confederations need to have their respective tournaments this year so they can start WC qualifying in '08. And I don't think Copa brass will be too unhappy. They sure as hell don't want a CONCACAF team winning their tournament. We're guests to help fill out the field, and while it's a great experience our team can take something from, I bet the higher-ups at Copa would be happiest if we sent our not-quite-A-team.
BEN OLSEN??????? Gaven????? Moor??? But no Cletus? No Cunningham? I hope this is last audition for them, Twellman and Bernstein. Nice to see Hercules get a shot hopefully they give the only US forward willing to shoot from distance a chance.
Michael Bradley is 19 years old and has played surpisingly well in the Midfield. At Gold Cup he made mistakes a young player at that level would. He is not going to Copa America because he will be playing in the U-20 WC in Canada. No doubt, his door opened when his Dad got the job- and I think he has done fine with his opportunity. I really like his vision in the midfield, his reaction time is sometimes slow, but in time, he will become even more instinctual and respond quicker to the speed of play. As far as the "A" team and "B" talk. I don't think B. Bradley, Nowak and Sorber think of their pool as A or B in this early stage. Our nation has more professional players than ever before and we have enough players to field at least two World Cup caliber teams...
Eddie Gaven is not a regular starter for his club team. Guzan and Keller are the keepers...no Cannon, Hahneman, Reis, or Howard. This is in no way a B or B+ team.
I absolutely love this roster for Copa America. OBVIOUSLY it isn't the ideal roster if we planned on going in there and winning but for what we want to do I love it. I'm pulling for my boy Eddie Gaven to go in there and get some confidence back after really struggling with the Columbus "Career Killers" Crew. I love Kliejsten out of SHU on this roster as well, as he is the true CM of the future, not Michael F'n Bradley. As for the rest of the roster we do have a handful of players that could start for the USMNT anyway so I think if we can get some chemistry we can be competetive.
Yeah, my only complaint is that Twellman was taken instead of Cunningham. TT's already been in 1 summer tournament; let's see if Cunningham's speed will do better.
I think we could field two squads that could qualify for the World Cup, but I'm not sure that would be qualify the team as World Cup Caliber. Our best team struggles in the World Cup, and only a select few members of our team are sometimes World Class. But I think you're right in that Bradley is open-minded about who can play in our National Team. Except that he loves Bornstein and played his son over Feilhaber.
I was wondering if Bob had other options for this Cup. I understand that Donovan is tired and Chin, Mastroeni, etc, but did they just say NO. I didnt like his selection exept for Olsen, Twelman, Johnson and a couple of others.
Getting back to the original question, "Does Bob Bradley know what he is doing": 1) 11 matches played this year...10 wins, 1 draw, no losses... Getting results...check. 2) In those 11 matches, he has played, I believe, around 44 guys. Giving lots a people a chance...check. (Oh, and that number may go up even further during Copa) 3) Some of those guys...Bornstein, Feilhaber, Cooper, Bradley, Spector, Demerit, Simek, etc...are the guys BS Nation have been screaming to look at for quite a while now... Bring in the new blood...check. 4) Has beaten Mexico twice in 5 months, including a come-from-behind win (never done before) in the Gold Cup final (never been done before either)... Reminding Mexico who the real CONCACAF giant is...check. 5) Won the Gold Cup. Reminding everybody else who the real CONCACAF giant is...check. 6) By accomplishing number 5 above, fulfilling one of the stated goals of the Federation, namely qualifying for ConFedEx Cup 2009... Keeping the bosses happy...check. 7) Broadening the potential Olympic player pool by taking youngsters to Venezuela... Deepening the pool...check. 8) ...while leaving intact the U-20 side that really has a chance to do something special in Canada... looking at the big picture...check. So, to this point, the answer is... Yeah, I think the guy knows what he's doing. (honest to goodness, I think some of you guys would be fine if his first name were something other than "Bob"...maybe Bora or Predrag. Or Juergen.)
Well the coach was educated at Princeton, so he must possess some brain cells. He won the Gold Cup. Methinks he knows what he is doing.
are you serius charlie davies?? he's rookie!! arent some of the other mls guys avaliable?? he should of brought mickael parkhurst. Lee Nguyen deserves it though hes been playing good for his club.. of course the starters are decent gk=keller rb=pearce cb=conrad cb=demirt lb=bornstein dm=clark dm=feilhaber rcam=beckerman lcam=mapp st=twellman target=ej of course you cant start these guys every game...
All great points. But admit it: after Bradley said there would be a core of 8-12 players who would be in both tournaments, you had your hopes up for Donovan, Beasley, and Dempsey coming to Venezuela. This is a missed opportunity for them, and thus, us. Hell, I bet Bob is disappointed they won't be there. This will be good experience for the players that go down there if their confidence isn't completely shattered. But anything is better than scheduling another friendly against Guatemala late in the summer instead.
I believe the team selections Bradley is forced to go with are also the crux of why Jurgen Klinsman did not accept the position of US National team coach. Bradley, unfortunately, has to balance European players desire to get both caps and some time off before their pre-season training starts in July. He has to consider MLS teams desire to not gut a team to the point of making them non-competitive ( Chivas USA is close to that position). Also in the mix are u-20 competions this summer, injuries, players out of form and the whole mix of issues a coach has to consider. I, for one, believe Bradley has done an excellent job of balancing all the competions and setting competition priorities. The Gold Cup was the most important competion because we wanted to 1) maintain our dominace of CONCACAF, especially the pesky Mexicans 2) gain a place in the Conferations Cup in 2009 in South Africa 3) continue to identify and build new talent. This COMENBOL tournament is a throw away. My guess, 2 losses, 1 tie. Go home with no major injuries and every one is happy. Claim we have lessons to learn - Blah, Blah - the normal coach speak. Klinsman, IMHO, was demanding the top team at each competition and I could visualize Gulati rolling his eyes just thinking of all the complaints from MLS and European coaches alike. Jurgen wouldn't put up with anyone dictaitng who he was selecting.
I hope that the Venezuelan fans throw batteries, rocks, bags of urine, have huge street parties outside our hotel and are generally horrible hosts and fans.........Everything that some of these young guys can expect when we play WCQ's in El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Mexico, etc over the next couple of years in games that actually REALLY matter............ On topic: Yes, coach Bradley does know what he is doing. GO NATS!!!
A couple people mentioned Hahnemann - he broke his hand at the end of Reading's season and needed a number of pins put into his hand. He will be lucky to be ready for the start of Reading's season let alone CA.
I admit it, I would have loved to see those three in Venezuela right now. ...and I won't take that bet about Bob's disappointment, either.
iam starting to think we should of turned down the invite to copa america, theres just too much soccer going on to bring a very comptive team. copa america starts at a bad time for us...
does anyone know of any other players worth bringing that bradley didnt bring?? i mean there must be someone more deserving than davies and gaven right??
We want to maintain good relationships with Yank clubs like Fulham, Rangers and MLS. LA need Donovan, MLS needs LA to improve and it will benefit USSF (long-run). I'm actually quite happy with the roster. Davies may not "deserve" a shot, but we need to start developing our 2010 forwards, Davies is one of the promising prospects (the others are playing for U20s). I think the injuries to Hannemann and Cooper really hurt us. This could've been Cooper's chance to really shine and I have to believe Bradley would've called him up over another look at Sir Missalot Twellman. Overall, we get a chance to develop our young players in a hostile environment. This is not a WC warm-up, but a good tournament to develop our pool and see where we are on the international stage. I've been longing to get a real solid look at players like Pearce, Wynne, Davies, Gomez, Mapp, Nguyen, Boswell and Califf. This competition could prove vital in the development of our young core.
COPA AMERICA = 1/2 WC >> COPA ORO, IMO CA 100 times more important than Gold cup. It's is about half as important as WC because SA=EUROPE >> other 3 Continents. I guess they (USMNT Staffs) mixed up their priority and place important on Goldcup instead. I believe CA is a chance to show the world that the team is much better than WC result. Oh well.
So you see absolutely no use in playing young guys like Davies, Mapp and Bornstein in tournament matches against the likes of Argentina, Paraguay and Colombia? Are you afraid of watching the U.S. lose? Are you scared of what other countries' fans might think? Are you unable to see the bigger picture (ie: developing more depth to challenge the veterans)?
davies can devolope at his club team(not waste a roster spot for copa america), thats what club ball is for. i like twellman, hes the best pure scorer in the usa, he doesnt miss alot. pearce,gomez,mapp,boswell and califf ok i dont have a problem with them they deserve it but davies and nguyen just rubs me the wrong way, even gaven since he doesnt even start for his club team if iam not mistaken.