Marcus Hahnemann

hey man, i hear you loud and clear, i would like to see bruce call him into a few camps. he was on the roster last summer for the confed. cup in france but got no games in. i wanna see him play!!


forza inter

 

Surely if he's that good, a Premiereship club will pick him up. If so, he will be in the national team mix. What's his age again? I may have spoken too soon.

 

There's a good bet he just may be on a Premiership team next year... without having to change locker rooms!

Currently Reading is second in the league standings, just one point behind the leaders... and they're now at 8-1 to take the league title with Ladbrokes.

 

I saw him play a half against New Zealand in Richmond right before the Confed Cup he did well, but Arena used Howard during the Confed Cup (and the way Timmy blamed, you can't blame Bruce's decision). I think that Marcus has just been caught in a numbers crunch, but might get a chance if Friedel retires from the National Team. But I agree, he deserves a chance to show Bruce what he can do, maybe if we have a friendly in Europe soon.

 

It's funny that certain Yanks Abroad - or even MLS based players - develop a certain cult of personality around them. People get really worked up about them, post extensively, speculate frequently, and get into impassioned arguments on behalf of these players. Then there are other players that, well, don't inspire that sort of behavior - Marcus is one of them, it seems. I'd guess Eddie Lewis is another.
These are players who perform remarkably on the field, yet somehow, something about their stories doesn't inspire the controversy that any mention of Mathis or Convey would. I mean, no one argues on this message board about how to pronounce Marcus' last name. No one makes perverted jokes about Marcus and his sister - I bet most don't even know if he HAS a sister. And I seriously doubt that anyone is counting the number of meat pies Marcus eats at a local pub.

I'm really proud of how Marcus is doing at Reading, by the way. It's nice to see another generation of American keepers coming up in England, especially since Keller and Howard are no longer starting.

 

The reason some guys are talked about more than other YAs, is that some are better than others. Eddie Lewis used to be one of the best American players, but the talent level has passed him by. Beasely is better than him and that is not going to change unless Beasley's level goes down through inaction. No amount of decent performances by Lewis in the Coca Cola Championship is going to change that.

MH is even a more extreme case. He has never been anything more than a top five goalie for the US. It's nice that he is playing on a team that plays good defense for his level. I have rarely, if ever, heard any neutral claim that MH is anything special. I do not have any reason to believe that MH is anything more than what he was previously -- a top five MLS keeper.

On a more positive note, if ever the stars were aligned, this could be the time with Friedel retiring, Keller rusting, Howard unable to catch and Johny Walker leaking goals.

But me, I think Joe Cannon is a better bet.

 

I dont' think it's fair to say that Marcus was never more than a top 5 goalie.

For a season+ he was the best keeper in MLS, and he was on some really really really pathetic Colorado teams. At times though he did keep them in games ala Friedel with Blackburn. He then moved to Fulham where Tijana used him to keep Lewis happy on the bench.

His problem is that he is effectively the same age as Keller, Meola, and Friedel. I think if he was given a chance... a real chance... (which he's never had) ... he could have been a very solid option in goal. Personally I think he's at least as good as Walker or Cannon.

As for not hearing anything great about him from neutral sources, there were reports from English news sources that claimed he was among the best keepers in England outside the premier league. His record over the years suggests this is still the case.

He's in a great situation with his club team, but sadly I don't think he'll ever be back in teh picture with the USA national team.

 

"Surely if he's that good, a Premiereship club will pick him up. If so, he will be in the national team mix. What's his age again? I may have spoken too soon."


Hahnemann was born June 15th, 1972. So he still has good years ahead of him being a goalie. I have seen very little of him since he joined Reading, but what I have seen, along with the English media reports, show that he has really improved his game. The move to England, along with him growing into a veteran seems to have done him a world of good. A good example of a move abroad working - raising the level of his play. I'd much rather have him in my goal than Joe Cannon.

 

Indicative of much of the quality of decision-making on BS -- "seems" becomes gospel and selective reading of media reports proves that those who actually evaluate the player are wrong.

 

I'd disagree about Eddie. He's another one that has flourished being PNE's go to guy and is a much better player than the one who got tossed against Guatemala in 2000.

He showed very well in the Panama game and in his time during the WC. I wouldn't be surprised if he takes a more central role. His main problem re : USMNT is that Beasley/Donovan is ahead of him.

You make it sound like the level of the entire team passed him by, when in reality, it's just one player. And my guess is that one of those players is going to end up centrally.

 

Well I didn't think that I did that. My intent was to say in the middle of the last cycle (before going to Fullham), Lewis was one of the top five USMNT players. In my view, that is no longer the case. When I say the talent has passed him by, I was referring to Donovan and Beasely who are first choice in attacking midfield roles, not the whole USMNT.

While I thought that younger players like Convey and Gaven might make him surplus to requirements altogether, that has not happened yet, so in that sense the talent has not passed him by.

I don't think that Lewis can play centrally and Beasley is not as good on either the right or centrally, so I don't see Lewis being a first choice starter for very long.

 

Top 5? Odd. I guess i never rated him that highly in the first place

and I thought he was playing in more of a central playmaker role for PNE than the totally left-sided player he was when he first got to England. Mebbe not - just I always hear good things about how most of PNE's attack flows through him

 

We don't have to agree about where Lewis was rated. But prior to going to Fullham, he was always in the side on the left. When he rusted out at Fullham, it really caused Arena problems as he had nobody else nearly as good there (JOB got a few games on the left in a 4-4-2, but otherwise it was a big problem -- remember Jovan Kirovski there in the qualifier against Guatemala in RFK where David Regis was relied upon to provide the wide offense and the Champines didn't even guard him?). The only solution was the emergence of Beasley and Lewis' move to PNE.

I have no idea where he plays for PNE. My comment on him playing centrally is just my own amatuer assessment of his abilities and strengths.

 

Perhaps I should have also mentioned that ahead of Reading's 8-1 odds on Ladbrokes to win this Coca-Cola Championship are Sunderland @ 7-1, Ipswich Town @ 6-1, West Ham @ 4-1, and the current favorite Wigan Athletic @ 2-1.