http://soccernet.espn.go.com/feature?id=290327&cc=5901 Is he really English or something? He uses the word "lad" a million times and apparently the guys had to explain American Football.
taking into account he has lived in singapore (american schooling though) and been with liverpool since 15 (20 now)... i think he is more than entitled to be using some different words than the rest of us
Like others have said, he was born here, in Houston, whist pops worked for Umbro. How often he's been back since, I have no idea. I do know that he's been in four different Youth National Team camps/competitions and none of them have been in the US: *Summer of 2002, the U23 team had a tour of England where they played the reserve teams of EPL and first division clubs. Whitbread was part of that camp, his first ever with the US at and level. *Late summer of 2003, the U20 team played in a tournament in Spain. Whitbread met the team in Spain and played a couple of games before returning to Liverpool. *Late fall of last year, he joins the U20 team to play in the World Youth Championship in the United Arab Emirates. Whitbread started all five US games. *Late January, this year, he joins the U23 team in Guadalajara for their camp that precedes CONCACAF's Olympic qualifying. He started for the US yesterday. So, despite playing for us at two different levels in pretty important game, he's never played for the US, or even trained with the US, in the US. Having said that, he was born in the US and has a right to citizenship and he has chosen to represent us. He seems jacked and proud about wearing the red, white and blue and I, for one, am glad to have him in the fold. Sure he talks funny, but no funnier than Mike Petke, Frankie Hejduk or Clint Mathis.
I'm paraphrasing here, but in earlier interviews, he was asked why he is playing for the States and not England. His response was that he had been asked into a camp with an English youth team, but turned it down. He then said that the US is on the rise in world soccer and will be one of the teams to beat. I don't know if he chose the US because he figured he had a better chance to make the full national team, if he feels more American than English, or if he feels the US does have a better chance at winning the World Cup than England. Whatever reason he has, I'm glad he has chosen to play for the US. I wonder if he will ever get to play his more natural position of centerback anytime soon. There certainly some talent in that position (Marshall, Spector, etc), but its a good problem to have.
Anyone know if Zak is ruled out for the rest of Olympic qualifying? Matchtracker read strained quads.
Torn quad, went back to England for MRI. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13918-2004Feb4.html