Oops, forgot about Adu. So Adu, Martino and Dempsey. Should be fun. I honestly have no idea which of those three would come out ahead. I'll agree Adu is the sexy pick. Dempsey really has to pick it up.
What caused their injuries ? there is no league matches going on right now, wasit a car accident or fell off the roof ?
ouch. keep in mind that this isn't the last camp, there are still six months til the WC so that may give Clark enough time to get in form and show Bruce something. Honestly unless there are serious injury issues I doubt we'll be seeing any of Dempsey/ and or Martino in germany, not that I agree with this but I think theres a better chance of Bruce bringing along Olsen.
With the Crew Martino had a really phlegmatic demeanor to contrast with the fire cumlinating in that golazo. I'm interested to see what he brings too.
He's got the pedigree. I don't think Carroll would hurt the team but he's not really going to help the team either playing a specialized d-mid role behind Mastroeni. Not unlike back up goalkeeper.
Backing up a postion that is a magnet for yellow cards and receiving hard hard tackles? I think there would be a strong possiblity for action. Our central midfield options aren't all that many...and considering the health of Reyna and O'Brien, they look thinner everday. Any central midfielders that make the roster would be a good bet to see time.
Even if he plays I don't see him particularly helping the team, meaning bringing in someone who excels in the position the way Mastro and Eddie Lewis did last go around.
You heard it here first: with John O'Brien and Reyna hurt, and with Clark injured, Arena will call in as the primary backup none other than... Richie Williams!
reyna has more than enough time to recover from injury... JOB, well let's see how chronic he is once june rolls around... unfortunately after, job and reyna, the drop-off to those who do what they do is huge... carroll is a direct replacement for mastroeni, although if REYNA and JOB show incredible health, I do wonder the chances of arena NOT going with a direct d-mid back-up, but consider playing o'brien and reyna IF the occasion arises for mastroeni to miss time
Martino is a CM. Period. The thing is that he has always been looked at as a AM because of his size, but he prefers to play more like a 2way mid. He is very good at controlling the pace of matches - as we saw against Panama. I would not be surprised or unhappy (given good performances for the Crew) if he were to step up as a CM for this Cup.
Yes, but there are so many defensive center midfielders who are better than Carrol. I think our best defensive midfielders in order are Mastroeni, Reyna, O'Brien, Mulrooney (I know he'll be rusty, but he'll still be good), Ricardo Clark,Chris Armas, Kerry Zavagnin Brian Carrol, Michael Bradley, and Ben Olsen. This really shows how little depth we have, but it also shows that there are better options than Carrol.
Hmm... look at your list a little closer: Mastroeni- the starting d-mid Reyna- plays several positions, but the lone d-mid is not one of them. JOB- Also plays several positions including d-mid. Injuries though... Mulrooney- Arena plays him out wide, not at d-mid. Will be back from injury but then integrating him into the team makes him a long shot. Clark- Arena seems to put him closer to goal than d-mid. When he's not injured. At any rate Carroll is rated higher at d-mid than Clark by Arena. Armas- ACL crosses him off the list. Zavagnin- It looks like Arena has Carroll rated higher. Bradley- Not even close. Olsen- Interesting player but I'm not sure that Arena think he can be a d-mid by himself. Sort of like a cut rate Reyna these days. Summary: Of the guys you listed, the d-mid pecking order seems to be Mastroeni, JOB, Carroll with Reyna and Olsen providing help. So I don't see the "so many" d-mids here.
Reyna, O'brien, Mulrooney, Clark, Beckerman, Mastroeni, and Zavagnin definately. Perhaps Bradley by next year. But the bottom line is coaches always have 'their guys' and so certain players will always get the benefit of the doubt.
Reyna and O'Brien are both sort of halfway attacking midfielders and half way defensive. If they started together, we would still have the defensive and offensive balance in the middle that we would with a Mastroeni (DM) and Donovan (AM) combination. I know that is what the pecking order probably is, but I don't think that's what is should be. As Mr. Scoobs says, all coaches have their favorites, and Arena seems to like Carroll, Olsen, and Zavagnin in particular. I find it worrying that Carroll, a player who doesn't start for his club team, and was one of our weakpoints (or so I thought) against Scotland, has a good chance of making the World Cup team. Against Scotland, a significant problem was that we were losing the battle in the middle of the field big time, as we weren't winning enough balls there and weren't able to keep possession. That's why Beasely often pushed in. In fact, Beasely is almost as effective as Carroll in the middle (that's not saying much.) It is too bad Mulrooney and Clark have been injured. They would really help the team's depth. I know Mulrooney has played outside, but he has also played in the middle for us, where he is more needed and better suited. Also, what about Clyde Simms? I thought he played well in his sole game, but was not called up again.
Carroll starts for DeeCee. Arena ran a Reyna O'Brien central midfield against Korea and the results weren't too good. He's asfaik gone with a d-mid 90% of the time. I didn't see the game, but Carroll got positive reviews from diverse corners concerning the Scotland game. Personally I don't see the ballwinning, tackling skills to excel in a four midfield and even in a five man setup DeeCee got reamed pretty hard down the season stretch but--hey--Arena has a fixation on him like the cat was Conor Casey or something... Clyde Simms. That is just so wrong.
Hey, I'm just noting what Arena has done with Clark. Do you think being pissy at me will change Arena's mind? Thew reality of the depth chart for dedicated d-mids with Armas injured is Mastro, JOB, and Carroll. Reyna's not a dedicated d-mid. Clark and Mulrooney seem to have future's elsewhere, at least according to Arena. Olsen, I'm not sure about. Zavagnin is below all these guys. Michael Bradley's not in the picture.
Answering your question would require me to 1) agree that I was being pissy and 2) accept the DC fan group think that they know what Arena thinks. The fact that Rico can attack and will while Brian can't and shouldn't does not mean that one's only an amid and the other only a dmid. Ricardo does everything Brian can do faster and better while also being able to attack.
My bad on Carroll starting for D.C. I am surprised to hear he received such good reviews. He didn't make any big mistakes but Scotland seemed to be in complete control of the middle of the field. Arena ran the O'Brien Reyna central midfield against Germany as well, probably our best game of the tournament. There probably aren't any other examples of these two starting together, mainly because they have never been fit simultaneously. Yea, Clyde Simms is no good for D.C., but I thought he played better than Carroll did with the U.S.
In a 3-5-2. United States (3-5-2): 1-Brad Friedel; 23-Eddie Pope, 4-Pablo Mastroeni, 3-Gregg Berhalter; 22-Tony Sanneh, 21-Landon Donovan, 10-Claudio Reyna, 5-John O'Brien, 2-Frankie Hejduk; 7-Eddie Lewis, 20-Brian McBride
No, but Ursula is telling you to give up your own ideas and look how Arena has used Clark -- and it is not at dmid. The only weakness in his argument regarding how Arena views Clark is that there is very little to go on -- for me, it is possible that Arena wanted to use Clark that way as it was his first game with the Nats.