As a follower of national team players and potential national team players, but one that does not follow MLS - is Nate Jaqua a possibility as the Great White Hope for displacing Ching? A quick gander at his Wiki page shows 6 goals so far for the Sounders, a team loaded with top-tier MLS strikers. My only prior impression of him are his pittance of caps with the national team a few years ago and he was far from dominant. But I know he's probably better with the ball than Ching and has the size to lead the line. Is he an option or someone with a weakness not immediately apparent to me?
He's not as good a finisher as either Ching or Casey, the two guys directly in front of him. And more importantly he's a much, much slower decision-maker and not an instinctive #9, though he's made great strides in both of these areas over the past two years. I suspect Bob sees him the same way.
And Casey. Jaqua's gotten opportunities with the USMNT in the past (camps, and has 3 caps), and really hasn't done anything with those chances. He's out of the running for this cycle at least. And he'll be turning 28 this fall. By WC14, he'll be 31-32............and the younger players like Altidore,Davies, Cooper and others will be the focus of this team. I'm fairly confident in saying that Jaqua will never be a major component of the USMNT.
That has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with now! Past form (good or bad) has no bearing on what value a player adds CURRENTLY! Are you telling me that if he were tearing it up at Seattle today, his 3 caps X years ago would trump that? I was a heck of a player 25 years ago, but I couldn't make the same claim now! Sure, that's an extreme example, but this is a "what have you done for me lately" business. Current form is the most relevant indicator of performance for a call up to the USMNT. Any time with the team outside the last 9 months carries very little weight in the evaluation.
Your were doing so well until the last sentence. See DmB, Adu, and Altidore who have done nothing the last nine months. However, experience does carry more weight for some coaches inclusing BB.
Good assessment. Jaqua has made a conscious effort to learn the target role and while still a work in progress, so far so good. I think he might have an edge in combination play but Ching does this well too. Jaqua has been involved in some great attacking sequences for the Sounders this year and looks right at home interchanging with Ljunberg and Montero in the attack.
Personally, I think it is a disgrace that we capped Jaqua in that game in England. It was one of the low points for me as a USA fan. Not that we lost that match 2-0 to England, but that we let Nate Jaqua play an international at Wembley. Jaqua was booed out of LA just a couple seasons ago after missing so many sitters that he was approaching Chad Barrett status. The guy is a complete and total shambles. I don't care how many goals he scored in Austria or in Houston's system that seems to make goal machines out of a lot of retread players. Nate Jaqua is nowhere near the caliber of Edson Buddle, and Buddle doesn't even get looks in Camp Cupcake. I would recall Eddie Johnson long before I'd bring Jaqua into the fold.
I don't really see it. I just looked up stats for Jaqua for his last 3 seasons and compared him with Buddle. This was difficult because Seattle's MLS-linked website is really overdone and requires way too much clicking; it's like those old "Java shows" of the late '90s that nobody liked. Anyway: 2009: Jaqua: 6 goals in 1375 minutes (229 min/G); Buddle: 3 in 723 (241 min/G). Jaqua has a small advantage in minutes per goal this year. 2008: Jaqua 4 goals in 901 minutes (225 min/G); Buddle: 15 in 2218 (148 min/G). Buddle blew Jaqua away last season and was a scoring machine. Jaqua, again, was mediocre. 2007: Jaqua 7 goals in 1772 with 2 teams combined (253 min/G); Buddle: 5 in 770 (154 min/G). Again, a huge advantage for Buddle. (MLS stats only.) Keep in mind that in 2007 and 2008 Jaqua was scoring his goals with Houston, which was an excellent team. Buddle played for a terrible team in 2007 and a terrible team (with a good attack) in 2008. Last 3 years combined for Jaqua: 17 G, 4048 minutes. For Buddle: 23 G, 3711 minutes. Jaqua is waaaaaay behind in production. Jaqua has 6 goals in 1375 minutes this season. Josh Wolff has 6 goals in 1232 minutes. This isn't an infomercial for Buddle or Wolff. This merely demonstrates Jaqua's lack of production. He certainly hasn't done anything that merits special consideration. I actually think Chad Barrett merits more of a look than Jaqua - has a more dynamic skill set and is almost 4 years younger than Jaqua.
Wow...someone other than me that remembers how HORRIBLE he was. Remember him being referred to as a giraffe on the LAG boards? I didn't stop laughing for two days.
I have always been a Nate Jacqua fan, ever since he was with the Fire. He works hard out there and has managed, through will power mostly, to carve a halfway decent club career. That being said, he's really not a target forward -- Ching is way better than him in that role, and so is Casey. And he is slow by international standards -- he can't blaze by guys on the dribble, or push the ball into space and leave the mark behind. As for the England game, well, there you go. Out of his depth. Meanwhile, someone mentioned Buddle. I always thought Buddle was the FIRST Jozy Altidore. A player with amazing strength and size...yet he has really underachieved in his career. Maybe one day he'll get his shot.
That's for the courts. Me, I rely on uninformed snap judgments to make my decisions. It's my right to treat other people exactly as they would treat me in a similar situation: with unfair speculation and assumptions of guilt. At the very least he should be considered dangerous even if not felonious.
I'm saving this to use out of context the next time we disagree on something. Which will probably involve Bob Bradley.
Jesus this board really has become useless. Nobody has a sense of humor anymore. How could you not tell my post was facetious?
Not this time anyway. I was just kidding. (And I thought the "dangerous attacker" joke was pretty funny.)