It just does not seem right to have anyone other than Eddie Pope wear #23 for the USA, particularly at RFK! Some day maybe when he's retired from the USMNT but not while he's out injured and certainly not Dan Califf! Couldn't they have found another number to give Califf?
Yea, that really irked me too! To have given away #23 when there are plenty of other numbers available was bad enough, but then to give it to Danny "I never met a striker I couldn't maul in the box" Califf... ARg!
It does seem a bit odd to see another #23, but hey, Twellman wore #20 - McBride's number IIRC, and Victorine was in #12 (though its pretty safe to assume that Agoos will be vacating it now). And after all, Eddie took #23 because it's Jordan's #, so us identifying him with it is in fact derivitive of Eddie's identification with a much more famous #23. That being said, the solution is to no longer call in Califf - not give him another number!!
Califf did well enough by the number. He only had one really glaring piece of matador defense that I recall and that was stopped by the keeper and other defenders in the first half.
I once asked Eddie's father if it was because of Jordan (don't forget the UNC connection, slacker), and he said it wasn't. Dave
Gotta disagree, Topo [stop the presses!]. Califf dependably won balls in the air, staking out position very well and getting up with force. However, I was left with the impression that he will need to make big strides in the intelligence department. Although he doesn't mention Califf's outstanding aerial game, I think Robt Wagman of Soccer Times mostly captured my Califf memories: "Defender Dan Califf - 4.5: Continues to show he is distressingly error-prone. His mistakes cancel out stretches of good play. He did not help himself today. " http://www.soccertimes.com/usteams/2002/nov17.htm JMO, YMMV GM