...that's all it could take. One injury to the wrong player, and all the World Cup dreams could suddenly melt like frost on a sunny day. To wit: Wayne Rooney gets stretchered off in the dying moments of today's ManU-Chelsea match. No official word, but it doesn't look good. Who do we need...not want, but really, really need...to survive the weekend intact?
I see why you include Keller, but I wouldn't. I believe that if he got hurt, Arena would give Friedel a call, and Friedel would accept.
I agree with the importance to the team because these four will probably be four of the biggest minute loggers, but the person who I am very worried about losing would be Dolo. I think at right back the drop off is huge, if Landon or BMB went down, we could still have EJ and Convey in the lineup, which is a dropoff but not a huge one. But if Dolo goes down we are starting either Hejduk or Albright if Arena starts 4 in the back. I think Sanneh last time around showed how important a fast back who can get up the field and contribute to the attack while still playing pretty good defense (besides slipping on the Ballack goal) is to a team, which is another reason why I think Dolo is gonna be a key to US success.
McBride, Donovan, Beasley, Reyna and O'Brien are all irreplaceable. I predict that they (along with Keller) will play every minute.
i certainly agree, PEOPLE don't realize how good of a player Cherundolo is and the lack of ture proven quality depth we have at that position. The guys is really one of Europe's most underrated backs, he can do it all not terrifically but very well.
rooney out for 6 weeks. many teams are like this. what if ballack does down for germany? drogba for oivory coast and the list could go on
I was about to post about Rooney, out 6 weeks with a broken bone in his foot...That's rough. Hope something doesn't happen to the US like that. Could you imagine LD tearing an ACL?
Knock on wood. If somebody does go down, I would hope it were one of the MLS forwards. I don't see a huge drop off there between them, and the replacement won't be to hard to find. Of course I wouldn't want to see anyone get hurt. Dolo is a very good back. If there was a way to play Dolo, Gooch, Pope and Gibbs (in a working way) at the same time that would be a very nice backline, not to take anything away from Lewis, but convert a LM player to the LB never rubbed me the right way. I think Donovan's the most important, but anyone in the starting 11 is very vital, I think it's team work that really makes up the bulk of our success.
Players to not get injured: 1. Gooch 2. Reyna 3. JOB 4. Cherundolo 5. Mastroeni 6. Donovan 7. McBride 8. Dempsey
1. Gooch 6. Donovan 5. Mastroeni 8. Dempsey 3. JOB - EJ 7. McBride 4. Cherundolo Dutch, I rearranged your list based on my opinion, and replaced Reyna with EJ.