Or Mikey to left back and bring back Pablo! But then, I also think we should send Pablo to plug the oil spill and prop up the Greek economy.
Well, I'd rather have Pablo as a back-up destroyer too but that doesn't work all that well with the side-by-side midfield concept. But Bob is fitting the players into his system and not vice versa ... there are options available. Will he ever use them?
I think Mo played well at CB considering he was in CM mentality for 3/4's of the game. In not one of the dishes on Mo's performance did I read anyone's critical analysis of his game at CB. Third goal was not his fault, Health Pearce and partially Goodson's for not clearing. I thought he swung the ball well and looked confident playing the ball forward (and more naturally than Gooch usually looks). Not realistic to play him in the back, but the man has an ability to play in the back. No need to bash him on it. I wouldn't say he "shat himself." Health Pearce and Jonathan Bornstein, that is shatting yourself, but not Mo. On a better note, Goodson looked really good, and Stevie C. was his usual self.
And that is the worst part of all this. I bet he select Gooch .. who can't recover enough to play effectively in this World Cup, Beasley ... who had one good cross to start and then played totally ineffectively for the rest of the game, Kljestan ... who started well but then made horrible passes and spent the rest of the game giving the ball away (almost for a dangerous breakaway), Bocanegra ... who had surgery 3 weeks ago and, just like the Confederations Cup, will not be able to go for a few games IMO. Except for Boca, who is still a big mystery, none of the other 3 players should be selected. Sorry. We have better options. The problem with our American coaches is that they are too close to players. The comment Bradley made about, "we know how they have done in the past" ... is TOTALLY IRRELEVANT! Who cares about what they did in the past? What counts is what they can do NOW! Select the best players NOW based on fitness and form. Don't take a player and try to make him "fit" into a spot that he has no familiarity with. Edu said that he played CB in the Olympics ... WHAT?! How many years ago was that and at which level??? Come on Bob ... I hope you really think about the 23 objectively and not based on personal relationships with the players...
Oh Geez. Edu's play on the 4th goal was as bad if not worse than anything else we saw all night! I think it was the lowlight.
It was bad, but in a WC game you have to think if Edu misses that bad he turns around and dropkicks the forward and takes the red before the forward gets into the 18 for the 1v1.
I personally think we take one bad play and blow it up into more than it is (Beas confed cup blunder, Gooch's lack of jumping, Mo's mess up last night). Sometimes things go wrong but we act as if one bad play defines the players ability. I think Edu should get a look at CB. He may be needed and I feel more comfortable with him there than letting JB play the left side.
edu went a full 90 and was toast at the end... the czech kid was a late sub and much fresher than edu.. this was just a test, worst case scenario if edu has to play CB in a world cup match... edu is only there if reds or injury demolish usa back line in south africa...
Man, there is a lot of Edu love out there. I like all the people who are giving him two ratings, so they can try to rave about him as a center mid. He did play fairly well at CM, IMO, and I was very happy to see that. But he had the biggest head-up-his-ass play of the night on the 4th goal. And it was the kind of mistake a center back should never make. Deal with it.
People are dealing with it by two ratings. Appropriate enough--he played poorly as a CB last night, but he's not a CB. He got shoved in a position he doesn't play so that Bradley could get a look at Bedoya. No reason to hold that against him as a CM. He did a good job there. On the other hand, Mastroeni was invisible at CM.
The Czech kid is also 6'3" and is considered their next superstar. Just because Tomas Necid didn't start doesn't mean he's not as good as Martin Fenin, who did.
Sorry, you don't get two ratings. As long as you bring him up, do you think Mastro would have been given two ratings given the same deal and outcome? Hell no.
I think he would've, yes. Because most people know that Mastroeni and Edu aren't CBs. Edu was put at CB, in a friendly, because Bradley wanted to see how the sixth sub did. There's no point holding it against Edu as a CM that he's not very good as a CB. (If Bradley had thrown Donovan in as a LB so that he could get a look at Findley up top, same deal...)
See? This is what I'm talking about. ^ Sacha coughed up the ball. Not good, but nowhere near as bad a mistake in my book as Edu's. Edu's mistake was all his own. All on him. Nothing to do with Sacha. And it wasn't a mistrap or a failure to execute a good decision. It was a terrible decision which resulted directly in a (humiliating) goal. Nice try passing it off on Sacha though.
Where on here is any one claiming Edu was infallible? No one is claiming he did perfectly - he was out of position at the end of a game and he hasn't played 90 minutes much so he was probably gassed and having someone as poor as Sacha in front of him giving up the ball at every chance certainly doesn't help. It was a poor display on the 4th goal on a night full of them; your "deal with it" tone is flat out ridiculous.
With all the injuries to our back line, Bradley has to contemplate some worst-case scenarios where he doesn't have an available sub to use on the back line. I don't think anyone in their right mind wants Edu playing CD. But suppose it's the 75th minute; we need to throw on another attacker, but Gooch is gassed and has the mobility of a cubic yard of gravel. If we can move Edu back, then Bradley can substitute Torres or Feilhaber for Gooch, instead of Goodson or DeMerit. It gives us a better chance when we may need to grab every chance we can get.
The thought of Edu playing CB in a World Cup match terrifies me, and after visiting this thread I will probably have nightmares for a week.
Seriously Kool Herc?? You red-carded me? I haven't got a piece of bad rep for probably years. Talk about ridiculous, that's pretty bad form.
Mo Edu as a central defender is probably less scarier than Jonathan Spector, Jonathan Bornstein and Carlos Bocanegra at LB and Oguchi Onyewu anywhere.
ha ha well said. Nice irony. Bornstein puts on a tremendous form winning display. Again. Onyewu can't jump? I loved the shot of Bocanegra eating a burger. That's our speedy savior up there in the booth.
I might have said the same thing before last night, but that mistake was so fish-out-of-water elementary. Not the end of the world, just the most awful individual mistake/failure from an already bad night for the US. Please don't neg rep me for saying so.