I'm impressed by the strengh of our squad, top to bottom. I just put some names together, but I think the players who will not be starting this year could revolt and form their own team, and be able to compete in MLS. Complete team: GK- Busch, Ueltschey. D- Marshall, Wingert, Hejduk, Clark, Fraser, Herdsman, Denton, Akwari, Traeger. M- Elliott, Oughton, Maisonneuve, Paule, Martino, Lagos, Marriagui, Sutton. F- Testo, Cunningham, Buddle, Barclay, Ritch. First Team: _____________Busch_____________ _Herdsman_Marshall_Fraser_Hejduk_ Paule____Elliott__Martino____Lagos _____Cunningham__Buddle________ Reserves: ___________Ueltschey___________ _Wingert__Clark__Akwari__Denton_ Sutton___Oughton_Mais___Marriagui _________Ritch__Testo_________ I have confidence in that "reserve team" against clubs like DC United and Dallas.
I was thinking about the depth of the team too. The Crew have a bunch of interchangeable players this year. Every year it seems that we hit a stretch of games with several people hurt/called up, and every year we slump those same games. This year we have HeyDude for any outside position, Paule at any mid position, Kiwi #1 at RB or DM, Sutton mid/up top, Testo mid/up top, Denton on the left side, Traeger has been getting looks at d mid and in the back, Kiwi #2 can play d-mid or CAM, Maze (if he makes the team) will give some late season cover at any mid position, Wingert can play in the back or on the wing. I duno...for some strange reason I am not dreading this year. As an aside, anyone else see that Andrulis said he was messing w/ HeyDude in the middle in front of Denton (?) and that Sutton was pushing Paule for time. Can you imagine Herdsman/Sutton on one side, HeyDude/Denton on the other, with Cunny and Buddle up top. That would have to be the fastest perimeter in the league. Add Kiwi#2's shots from distance, and I am cautiously optimistic about this year. The middle of our D might be a bit suspect, but hey...we could win'em all 5-4 right? TBAR
How about: Bushie Hejduk****Frasier ****Denton Duncan/Mais**** Simon Paule *******************Lagos ................Martino Buddle *****************JC Plenty of support in back (especially in the middle) and 5-6 guys in every attack...? Seems close to what we were so successful with when Harkes was here. We scored lots of goals from the midfielders that year.
Well, you might want to let your first team qualify for the play-offs first, before you begin talking smack about your reserve side.
if you are going to play a 3 man back-line those defenders need to be more "defenders" and less outside wing defenders that like to get forward...which is what hejduk and denton are, and it doesn't matter if you have 2 defensive minded midfield in front of them. there is no way a 3 man back-line with frankie and eric on the outside would work...at least in my humble opinion. you have to have more of a man-marking defender in the mold of herdsman on the right and maybe...maybe marshall on the left, but his youth may get exposed out there much easier.
Yeah, I do believe this thread's on the Crew boards. Why don't you go head over to some other board, say maybe the Quakes or Rapids, where posters might actually give a damn about your worthless suggestions? Though, if you do decide to hang around the Quakes boards, it'll do you some good to change that smiley into a "happy" faced one, GS doesn't stand for unhappy smilies.
That was my hope. Both of them can cover until help arrives. I don't know how to take Herdsman and certainly Akwari could replace Denton on the right.
hold up a second Hey, the Crews starters may not be a decent MLS team, they certainly weren't last year when many picked them first in the East going into the season. I would hold up on the enthusiasm for the subs until you see if the starters can play.
Everybody looks good in the preseason - terp fan has it right. We're still missing a proven AM and 3rd forward. The PR people can make the stats spin very positively when nobody is competing against players with similar stats. KMart has yet to prove he can be an average MLS level AM and we have lot's of "talented" forwards behind JC and Buddle without any real goals vs. MLS defense. Needless to say, if we don't have some decent TACTICS and STRATEGY the best line-up will be only moderately successful. Great potential, with a few major question marks, IMO. I happen to believe the allocations will write the final chapter. As you can tell, last year left me immune to the marketing mavens. I now know of 3 season ticketholders who went from 10 aggregate tickets in '03 down to 4. Read that as about -$4000+ in preseason revenue vs.'03. If this is somewhat representative - Jim Smith is sweating bullets. If the Crew don't act more like a pro sports team and less like the IRS, this team is in deep trouble in '05. If this season in any way resembles the clusterflock of '03 - they'll be down another 4 season tickets and -$4000 from '04 and that means deep trouble regaining a solid financial base. Pretty scary scenario for Smitty and HSG, which makes me believe they have grasp on the urgency of a good show this year. As the inimitable uberbitch would say - That's a good thing.
You can wait for the official announcement if you want to BUT Clark is gone. There are reasons, which I have been told in good faith and can't divulge, for not announcing it until some time next week. They are reasons similar to the delay in announcing McCarty was no longer with the team.