A lot of these guys are looking at their final run out with their respective squads as most teams called in a bunch of youth for this tournament Oldest - Odelin Molina 38 GK Cuba Oldest field player - Fabrice Reuperne 37 MF Martinique El Salvador 1 Dagoberto Portillo 33 GK Canada 2 Lars Hirschfield 34 GK Julian De Guzman 32 MF Costa Rica 3 Patrick Pemberton 31 GK Michael Umana 30 D Alvaro Saborio 31 F Mexico 4 Alfredo Talavera 30 GK Moises Munoz 33 GK Joel Huiqui 30 D Rafael Marquez Lugo 31 F Panama 4 Jaime Penedo 31 GK Leonel Parris 31 D Juan Perez 33 MF Blas Perez 32 F Honduras 4 Donis Escobar 33 GK Nery Medina 31 D Mario Berrios 31 MF Jerry Palacios 31 F Trinidad And Tobago 4 Cleon John 31 GK Densill Theobald 31 MF Carlos Edwards 34 MF Cornell Glen 32 F Belize 5 Shane Orio 32 GK Elroy Smith 31 D Trevor Lennan 30 MF Elroy Kuylen 30 MF David Trapp 31 MF Cuba 5 Odelin Molina 38 GK Jorge Luis Clavelo 30 D Yoel Colome 30 D 'Yenier Marquez 34 MF Jaime Colome 34 MF Martinique 6 Jacky Berdix 33 D Gregory Arnolin 32 D Fabrice Reuperne 37 MF Gael Germany 30 MF Oliver Thomert 33 MF Frederic Piquionne 34 F Haiti 7 Frandy Montrevil 31 GK Julian Jospy 30 GK Jean-Jacques Pierre 32 D Kim Jaggy 30 D Constant Monuma Junior 31 MF Yves Desmarets 33 MF Jean Phillippe Peguero 31 F United States 7 Nick Rimando 34 GK Oguchi Onyewu 31 D DaMarcus Beasley 31 D Clarence Goodson 31 D Chris Wondolowski 30 F Herculez Gomez 31 F Landon Donovan 31 F
This is so typical of Klinsmann to the point that it makes me want to barf. While you need your vets.... soccer is a young man's game. Easily, we should have cut Goodson, Wondolowski, and Onyewu. That'd leave us with Gomez, Donovan, and Beasley as our three over 30 field players to add experience. We don't need more than that for this Gold Cup roster. Really... would we have been so bad off if we would have replaced Goodson with John, Onyewu with Hedges or Okugo, Wondolowski with Agudelo or Magee???? /Rant
#8 = Beckerman age 31. Only 4 US players are younger than 24 years, or below their prime athletic age (I usually think of prime age for a soccer player as 24-30, when the combination of athletic ability and experience mesh best): Hamid 22 Corona 22 Diskerud 22 McInerney 20 This appears to be a roster designed primarily to give many prime age and older players one "last" shot at staking a claim on the 23-man 2014 WC roster. And perhaps secondarily designed to win the Gold Cup with a largely prime-age or close to prime age squad. It is not a new talent search mission, as even two (Hamid and Corona) of the 4 young players are already well known to JK with regular callups to the 23-man A-team.
As it should be. I swear, BS is so predictable. This is a WC year. This roster is probably the last chance for some fringe players to make a statement. The top Euro players and some of the top MLS guys aren't going to be there. The U20 team just played in the WC. Yet some would prefer a U23 but over U20 team instead of the team we got. Every guy "over" 30 was 30 or 31 except for Rimando. Hardly ancient players. What we got was the MLS/Mexican/Scandinavian/vet fringe players, as we should have.
Interesting. Since BS is so predictable, what point was I making putting up this list? And a lil' fyi . . . it's next year that's a WC year.
My post wasn't explicitly trying to make a value judgment about the age of the roster. I just added Beckerman to the list and described what I thought JK was intending to do with this roster. I think one can make a fairly good case for using the Gold Cup to weed out the last of the borderline older and prime-age options, to help narrow down the serious contenders for the 2014 Cup squad. That appears to be exactly what JK is doing. What might be interesting is the comparison to fellow Hexagonal teams Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama, and Mexico, who are bringing half the number of older players than the US is bringing. They may be thinking about the Gold Cup somewhat differently than JK is. Or maybe it's just the outcome of a different player pool. Personally, I would have gone slightly younger and included different borderline guys like Lichaj, John, Pontius, and maybe another DM like Rico Clark (yes, he's 30) or McCarty. I would not have brought Goodson or Wondo. And I would have targeted Boyd for the Gold Cup rather than the Qualifiers. But I would not have brought in any U20 players, none of whom are close to helping the senior team.
That's kind of what I left hanging there/open to interpretation. There is a lot of World Cup experience on this roster, way more than any other roster in the Gold Cup."B team" or not . . . this squad should come away with the cup. The depth of the B team and C team in USMNT is far deeper than any other time in history. When I first started seriously following the game in '98, the drop off from A team to B team was pretty dramatic and the C team drop off was cliff-like. The rise of MLS has helped our depth . . . and also helped the other nations in CONCACAF.
Look at the the 2009 Gold Cup, did we really need Jay Heaps on the roster? No, he was a complete waste of a roster spot... And the same can be said for Oguchi Onyewu and probably Chris Wondolowski too. The point is if I have already a good number of vets on my teams, there is no need to call in the old fart who is comparable to the new young stud. In other words, I am not saying call in Caleb Stanko over Oguchi Onyewu... I am; however, say call in George John, Matt Hedges, or Amobi Okugo over Oguchi Onyewu.
George John is obviously done with the USMNT as long as Jurgen is there. Matt Hedges...wow. Okugo double wow... John will be 28 when Jurgen finally leaves...Fairly certain his chances are done.
I have no problem with the squad. The focus is correct I feel: To both have a valid shot at winning this tournament, and let these veterans fight for the their claim to the few roster spots that are still up in the air for 2014. My only complaint is that Agudelo was not in the original 35. Otherwise while I think there were a few slightly odd call-ups, they are all defensible.
I'm with Jurgen. The we need to develop a winning culture. Where the US is a threat to win every tournament they play in. Every match.
hahahahaaha. so you really are talking to my mom? she died 20 years go!!! man this guy is amazing! Is tony robbins even on tv anymore? that smile is so huge.
The thing with our defense is we don't have any of the aging veterans playing at a decent level with their clubs at the moment. It's on Besler and Gonzalez for the rest of this cycle. Lets hope that all the young defenders continue to get playing time at their clubs and improve for the next cycle. Hopefully, Besler and Gonzalez will have quality exp. at his level so we can bring those guys in without worry next cycle.
I think Besler and Omar are getting a lot of good experience this year. they also play in the MLS and I am hopeful they will do well.