Brush the haters off Ives, you're one of the best sports writers in America. Not just soccer, sports. Most of us enjoy rumors about Yanks and MLS, it's a blog, not a freaking publicized story, sometimes shit falls through the cracks. I check your blog at least 5 times a day, reading it usually gets me through 30 minutes of my boring work day, thanks.
What makes you think Ben Haim would be OK for West Ham who have one of the best defensive records in the league? If we are going to sign a defender it will be to improve what we have, not sign that average journeyman. As of today, goals conceeded West Ham 21, Bolton 39, Fulham 42. Aston Villa 31 , Man City 34, Blackburn 31, Portsmouth 23, Everton 23, Spurs 40, Newcastle 39 etc etc, I suppose Ben Haim would be OK for Bolton, he was OK when he played for them before signing for Chelsea.
Ben Haim should go to Newcastle. Anyways, on Gooch, he'll finish off the season with Liege, but hopefully he makes a move out this summer.
Remind me then. Did the refs in that board think that the non-call in the German game was clearly a bad call, and the non-call against JOB was clearly a good call?
No, they sided with the ref call against us, and against the ref call for us. Which is typical for that forum. They take their desire to seem "fair" to a level that is actually against the USA when it's controversial. JMO.
For a guy who gets as much crap as Gooch does, he's been one of the best and most consistent central defenders the US has produced over the past 10 years. Watch his performances for the USMNT (not Newcastle) for a second time. He has some games where he looks like he's a world-beater, and then once in a while he's doesn't. He was fantastic against Italy in WC2006, and his performances in qualifying were excellent. Gooch's problem on the highest levels (games against the top 20 teams in the world lets say) is that he's inconsistent. Great game followed by awful game. I'm often amused when people say he's not good enough for the EPL. Do people watch the EPL? The defending I've seen from the teams in the bottom half of the table this season is laughable. People look at a couple of games where he was thrown into the first team at Newcastle (a den of failure and underacheivement) and have made their determination of Gooch. Watch Derby, Fulham, Wigan, Sunderland, Reading, etc. and tell me Gooch isn't better than some of those clowns. He's not gonna be a star in the EPL, Germany, Spain, Italy, etc. but he could definitely play there. As could Parkhurst and other Americans.