Donovan's interpretation of what happened in the 2nd half.

Yes, Landon is certainly a different type of player than Kirovski is. Just as Stewart is a very different player as compared to Klien. Both those substitutes in yesterday's game changed how the game was played.

 

The pace and intelligent runs of Donovan, Stewart and DMB made the difference between the US being lackluster first half and dangerous in the second.

 

Difference??????poor choise of words!!

Donovan and kirovski ??here is no ground to compare, Donovan s a superior player in any position more BALL CONTROL, BETTER PASS, MORE SPEED.....

 

lets include john o'brien among donovan, beasly and stewart

he got the ball to landon - and could be our 'playmaker' in 2006

 

"Could be" I think he will be our playmaker in 2006. He will be our next Reyna

 

But will Ajax put JOB in a position to make more plays?

 

*Ancient tribal curse.

 

Donovan & Adu up front , JOB center mid come WC 2006 , and I think we will be ok and do fine in that WC, we are getting better and better. Bruce is the Man.

 

You mean, he'll be hurt 50% of the time and ineffective as goal creator when healthy?

Sorry, an old battle ... I couldn't resist ... Reyna has done some good things for USA but rarely as what I would term a "playmaker." More like, as a useful 2-way midfielder, sort of a junior grade Edgar Davids or Roy Keane.

Actually, that describes JOB pretty well, too. JOB already is our next Reyna.

So far, I like Donovan better as forward than as playmaker. Maybe Freddy Adu, over time? At any rate, I don't yet see a true U.S. playmaker for 2006.

 

I thought he was our playmaker in 2002. At least he was in our two big wins.

 

Expecting JOB to be the USMNT playmaker shows a lack of ambition. Me, while JOB is an excellent left back and an excellent two-way midfielder, is not and never will be a "playmaker" for a team with aspirations of improving upon a quarter-final finish. Maybe it's Donovan, Mathis, Adu, Convey or maybe the guy doesn't exist.

But Mastroeni/JOB in central midfield is too limited offensively unless Arena uses a wide midfielder like Stewart who is creative and a partial playmaker as well. And hopefully, we can find someone younger than Stewart to play this role.

 

From your mouth to God's ears my friend. One can only hope. Although my wish would be to put McBride (hopefully he'll still be effective by then) up with Adu and have JOB and Donovan in the midfield. Man, that would be sweet.

 

No ... he's already so much better than that. Reyna never did much more than average for the USMNT...

 

Reyna never had good enough players around him until 2002. Reyna was sending great passes to players who couldn't hold the ball. Face it, the U.S. just wasn't skilled enough until this last World Cup where we finally had quality players at most of the positions.

For 2006 I expect quality at every position with some good depth too.

 

Anybody that doesn't think Reyna is one of the top two players we've ever produced (Ramos was the other) doesn't know anything about soccer. JOB is very good and may be the next center mid but Reyna was great.

It remains to be seen if Reyna will be able to play well enough and fast enough to regain his center mid position but if he doesn't, he still can say he's one of the very best we ever produced. He's also getting a little long in the tooth to continue

 

I never thought about that. You're absolutely right. I'll look at Reyna in a different light now. I've always thought he didn't do that much for us - but now I've changed my mind.

 

Nice to know that a few of us actually know the game of football.......

 

Oh, the Reyna-was-too-good-for-his-teammates argument.

Well, OK, I buy it to some extent. Reyna is not a solo style player. Ruud van Nistelrooy's teammates can suck, but he might still take the ball, dribble past 3 guys, and score, as he did vs. Fulham. Ditto for Freddie Adu. That's not Reyna. He needs good players around him to be effective.

The problem is, this argument is often attached to correlary, the Reyna-didn't-create-a-lot-of-goals-because-his-teammates-sucked argument. Nope, I don't buy. Reyna didn't create a lot of goals because he's just not a create a lot of goals type of guy.

Let's look at it another way. If you had 10 Reynas + a goalkeeper, you'd have a hell of a team. (OK, you'd need 20 Reynas, because at any one time 10 would be hurt.) That, I'll grant. But if you had 9 hard-working but limited players plus a goalkeeper, you wouldn't pick Reyna as your 10th guy. Better to go with somebody who is more spectacular, who can create more goal-scoring opportunities.

That's the quarrel with Reyna, not that he wasn't good but that he was miscast and misbilled.

 

Assuing that Reyna and JOB are healthy come 06, how would we fit them both in our midfield? Or could we see one of them playing a backline position (JOB at left or Reyna at right)? If everybody is healthy, we will have a huge log jam at midfield with JOB, DMB, Reyna, Pablo, Armas, Olsen, Convey, and whoever else works their way onto the team. Also depending on what happens with the forwards Landon, Mathis, and Adu.

 

Misbilled? Perhaps by you.

Just pay some attention to how our midfield plays (or not play) in the absence of Reyna (and JOB).