Looking back at this World Cup, only Landon Donovan, DMB, and Pablo had zero caps after the first post-WC 98 match. I'm pretty confident Buddle will be in Germany (assuming we get there, of course).
I think you will see young ones from the Crew in Buddle and Martino. I think TT and Santino Quaranta will be there. Other than that I really don't see that many MLS players getting into the mix. From Europe Connor Casey and Cory Gibbs might have an outside shot. I am also going to throw this in before anyone else does, but Freddy Adu will be 17 then, you never know.....We still have a strong continent from our older World Cup vets that can still play, you don't know. -PB20
Buddle or Casey Gibbs or Gibson or maybe both. Onyewu Kazlauskas Lewis-Clemson's Lewis Clark-U20 dmid Stokes-UNC's Popesque defender Mapp Broome Suarez-not actually capped even though he's been called up Moore-NY's dmid Hernandez Brad Davis Eddie Johnson Santino Quaranta Capano Saavedra Stone Gomez Potentially we could see 11 guys who've haven't been capped at THIS TIME. If you mean guys who haven't been capped by the time the WC rolls around, my guess would be 1 maximum.
Kazlauskas? Puh-leeze! Guy couldn't make the 20s, hasn't been called in for the 23s, ever, and has yet to play first team football for a run-of-the-mill first division Dutch team. And you're speculating that he might make the World Cup team?!?!?
I don't know anything about this U-23 guy you are talking about, but Berhalter and Lewis did, at times have Premier League and/or First Division action in England. That's far better than riding the bench in the Honor division. They were also older and more experienced than this guy AND played at a time when there were fewer options. The player pool is probably realistically 50% to 100% bigger than it was 4 years ago. There was no way we could field a US team of MLSers AND one of Euro-based players that could probably both do well in CONCACAF quailfying. I'm not saying both teams would beat Mexico, Honduras, Jamaica etc... all the time, but they'd be competitive for sure. Never will we see guys like Michael Mason playing for the Nats... there are too many other players that deserve a chance. I expect we see 3 or 4 that aren't capped right now on that team. I also bet that we see 10 or so that have 10 or fewer caps right now. A lot of this depends on the goalies... If they stay healthy that's 2 spots that aren't going to someone new. We do need some new blood on defense. That's where the real lack of depth is for the US these days I think.
There's been little to zero pub on this guy, so I don't think anyone knows what's going on. They're mid-table, and I think you'd be surprised at the technical standard that they have in Holland. Even Bocanegra remarked how technical it was. If Suarez and Broome can come out of nowhere at 23 or 24 years old then why couldn't this guy? Neither one of them were U20s or U23s either IIRC. He could just as easily be a bust, but he might turn it up a notch in a year or two--defenders peak later, and he clearly has some kind of ability otherwise the Dutch team would have never signed him. FYI, he was 19 in 2001 and had really just recently signed with NEC. The guy is still young, and it's way too early to give up on him IMHO. He's significantly more athletic than someone like Dunseth or McCarty for instance. Give me a break Sandon, you're the king of touting college boys who ain't even professionals yet!
he is a kid and he rides the bench in the dutch top flight... get off his back. most 20-23 year olds should be so lucky. my point is berhalter and lewis played in a world cup and didn't do ************ for their club teams all season long. i understand eddie had a bit of a situation at fulham, but he still had not played competitive soccer in a close to a year. this guy may not be tearing it up now... hell, i don't even know anything about him hardly, but i wouldn't advise writing him off in some hypothetical starting lineup for germany06. four years ago chris albright was promising... four months before the world cup those two above weren't even considered substitute material. things change.
Actually, he's scored a goal for the Senior national team and he played decently against Honduras when Mathis drilled the GWFK.
He had a tap-in on a goal-mouth scramble, whoopee. I didn't see the Honduras PPV match, so I'll take your word on it. He's never shown anything the times I've seen him in MLS or with the Yanks though. -Kevin
I'll agree that his stock is way down. However, a certain Brian McBride @ 22 years old was a senior at St. Louis University. Chris Albright was already a professional for two seaons at this age. Do I think that he's going to end up making the snr national team in the future? No. Could he? Yeah, because I think he's going to get better with age a la McBride.
He may very well. I would be pleasantly surprised though. One thing McCasaba has is a monstrous work ethic. I'm not sure Albright does. -Kevin
That is a very good point. I've heard that he likes to spend significant amounts of time smoking pot. Nothing kills your motivation like smoking bud.
I'm sure there are some guys on here that would like to find your weed procuring connections. Carrieri will only see the national team if we have tons and tons of injuries.