How fat, slow, intolerable, out of shape, or injured are you Justin Mapp that you cant displace Convey, playing not well to say the least, and Old Lady Lewis? How hated are you Heath Pearce that you cant break the squad with one of the worst left side defenders in recent memory playing 90minutes? Is Spector hurt? Granted he's not the speediest guy around, but he would have done very well. Rogers is fast. He is a battler. You cant tell me he would have played worse than Convey. Arnaud played some minutes against Sweden a while back and he was good. I have seen a few Wizard games and he impressed me. Why not play him at right back? He certainly has the speed and ability going forward. For all the talk about Bob Bradley bringing in new faces, I fail to see why these players were not given playing time.
Obviously something's up with Mapp, cuz he didn't even make the freakin' bench against freakin' Sweden! Pearce, probably shot his mouth off, and may not be in game shape. Spector stayed with West Ham in exchange for his being released for the Olympics later this year. Rogers is with the U-23s and nobody expected Convey to be that ineffective. And Arnaud isn't exactly youth. That's why.
Spector has officially moved himself from quantity to necessity on this squad, he absolutely needs to be there for us if we are doing anything serious. Rogers, 2009 camp cupcake cant come soon enough. Him, Holden, and Alvarez will grant you your wish. Its frustrating having that sort of talent in the pipes and not being able to use it i admit, but theres a halfway decent reason at least. Itll pay off i think. Mapp, if he cant beat out Convey, Davis, and Noonan, i think that says all we need to know about him.
Mapp is not going to do anything, because he does not want to. That's his problem. He has talent, but just does not want to work very hard. This, by the way, is learned from very reliable sources.
My guess is that Mapp is one of those players who just doesn't put out much effort in practice. So he tends to be continually underrated by his coaches. Just a guess since I don't get to see the practices.
This thread now screams for an Iverson graphic or mp3. "Practice?We talkin' about practice?We talkin' about practice!Practice? " Not that I can do that,mind you,but hey we've got some talent on this board.
There are a lot of people that expected Convey to be exactly, that ineffective. It's what he does. I think there was a whole thread about just how bad he is before the game even. I agree, all the players mentioned in this thread would fit great on the flank or outside back.
Just for the record... Arnaud - recovering from surgery Spector - left off roster for Mexico in exchange for being available for U23 qualifying Rogers - with the U23 team and, apparently, didn't show as well as Holden as it was Stuart who was called in to the camp for Mexico. To be clear, this isn't saying Rogers has been bad, just that Holden must have shown more. Pearce - hasn't played a game since early December. Mapp - the great enigma. As others have noted, he's very talented but not very driven and he isn't much of a practice player and his fitness sucks. Till that changes... I think Rogers will emerge as an option on the flanks very soon. Same with Holden and Arturo Alvarez.
I understand that Rogers showed the best of the three at the final scrimmage. But they are all good and offer different things. Holden is steady. Rogers has the more dynamic play. Alvarez is gritty and tough on the inside. Be nice to find a way to get them all on the field at the same time.
Simek is injured. I don't know if Wynne is healthy or not as he certainly would have been an upgrade on the right or even the left over Moor and Corrales.
First off we got depth at right back Dolo, Simek, Wynn, Freeman, and many others. Now for the LB/LWB we got players who should be given a chance sometime soon besides Spector, Boca, Pearce, Bornstein, and others. Lets take a look at Burciaga, Dunivant, Whitbread, and let's not forget all the defenders that have come in this season in the MLS some will show their worth in two years for ex Eric Brunner. Let's not forget our fallen injured Gibbs he can return to great form in the next two years also. Overall the defense is deep with talent we just got to find them. Rogers, and Mapp should be the next two after Beasley in the LM/LWM one of them is going to step it up some point soon hopefully both of them do so. The RWM/RM we got players they just need time to adjust to its position, and the other positions are much better now. At the striker position we got enough for the future with EJ, Jozy, Cooper, Davies, K.Hill, Zimmerman, and many others who we hope can step it up. Also whatever happened to David Arvizu? I think he may become a top striker someday.
As a Fire fan, Mapp has been one of our biggest frustrations. He has tremendous talent but fitness and heart hasalways been an issue. You can get by on talent in the MLS but lack of fitness and heart makes it difficult to succeed on the international stage. Bradley coached Mapp when he first came into the league when he was young and raw. The fact that Bradley sent him home says a lot about his future with the USMNT. The performance of Convey shows how important having a healthy DMB will be for our squad. Mapp and Rolfe have been my biggest dissapointments for 2008.
It should be noted that on those rare occasions when Mapp has been given playing time with the Nats, he has usually played quite well. In the end actual performance on the field should trump practive work habits. I'm sure, however, that certain coaches just love their practice worker bees and some might punish lazy players with less PT even when they show well in games.
Seriously...seriously...it's a darn shame about Mapp. I really thought he was going to be the savior coming in and electrifying the game. Still a chance?
The way I see it, he's effin Justin Mapp. He can work as hard as he wants in practice. I wish coaches would take a back seat and do whats better for the team instead of their own ego. Not surprisingly, this has a very ODP, american club team feel to it, where a players attitude is deemed bad and he's shunned. It's like putting Stephon Marburry on the bench imo. Players in other sports have clashes with the coach, but media and front office pressure assist in keeping that player in action. Mapp can play both outside mids. I can't believe he didn't see more time after what he did to Poland.
Spector - Olympic qualifying - Vastly more important to our soccer future than a friendly against Mexico. We absolutely need to make the Olympics since so many of our 2010 squad will be from this group. Altidore, Adu, Bradley, Feilhaber, Edu, Spector all look like near locks and plenty of others will have a chance. Mapp, Rogers - Brad Davis seems to have won that one. He played pretty well against Sweden, but he seems alot more of the Convey/Lewis mold than the Beasley mold and our team is built for Beasley if we're ever going to score much from the run of play. However if we're looking for our scoring to come from set pieces Davis may offer alot. Pearce - no clue Arnaud - who cares
ah yes, well he would have balanced the extreme asset we displayed at right back. Every time I see him listed it is as right back.
Face it people, the US has a lot of bodies who can play defense but is "EXTREMELY THIN" when it comes to quality. Even slow as molasses big soccer favorite Spector is usually crap when he wears a US bigboys shirt. Without Cherundolo the US right side is a big open gate. Bocanegra and Onyewu won't be mistaken for world class defenders anytime soon either. The US has no "DEPTH" anywhere except the keeper position.
attitude is deemed bad? what are you talking about. none of us is at the training ground, but people who know him say he just is never fit, and doesn't play hard. you can't take chances with that stuff at the international level!!