From the ESPN game report: Hughes' upbeat mood contrasted sharply with that of City boss Kevin Keegan; a mood not helped by the recurrence of Claudio Reyna's groin problem within five minutes of his introduction as a substitute after a seven-week absence. The midfielder is expected to be sidelined for a similar period, ruling him out until the New Year, increasing the injury misery already inflicted by the loss of Trevor Sinclair and Sun Jihai for the remainder of the campaign. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/report?id=153252&cc=5739
WOW, 5 minutes only. Like JOB, he needs to think about retirement at least internationally. You know, for his family's sake.
Who cares? Reyna is so far past "it" that he can't even see "it" in his rear view mirror! The USA has done quite well with out him.
So the docs knew f***ckall when they said he was ready to play, eh? Wait. No, we can't blame them. Or why f Keegan put him in the match in the first place? God forbid he gets a run out for a full 90 with the reserves first.
It's an extra burden on the bodies of these players that surely does not help them with their clubs. Whether or not they got injured on international duty is irrelevant, because in Reyna's case, we can't ever know if the qualifying games weren't the extra something that led to his injury. I remember seeing Reyna struggling at the end of the Panama game, mightily ........ and then he immediately got hurt on his return to Europe. Think about this for a second. Bruce Arena, before the most recent qualifying games against El Salvador and Panama, stated that he was going to call in Reyna. This was while Reyna was still recovering from an injury and was not playing for his club team. As it turned out, he didn't call him at the last second, but the fact that Arena was even thinking of calling him was pure idiocy.
Yes, you have a point. If the concern is number of games, clubs are just as at fault as the national teams. But Keagan didn't need to put him into this game at this point. And one would assume so cuz Reyna's been training and given a thumbs up by the docs. So was he really ready?
I understand what you are saying, but there is no way the teams are as much at fault as the national squads. Remember, the teams are a professional league who are providing them with their salary. Although there is some stipend, the national squads are a whole different story. My job will allow me (and doesn't mind me) going to do pro bono work on the side, as long as it doesn't interfere or conflict with whatever I'm doing at work. If i'm pressed for my own personal social time, there is no way i can say that my regular job is at much at fault as my pro bono work for my lack of time. That just doesn't make sense.
I hope Claudio recovers quickly. I'd be surprised if he has much more Premiership-level football in him anyway. His USA days may be numbered now too, at least as a guaranteed starter. At least JOB is a bit younger, so there's still a glimmer of hope for him.
Quote: Originally Posted by DixieDean Who cares? Reyna is so far past "it" that he can't even see "it" in his rear view mirror! The USA has done quite well with out him. [Get ready to be flamed.] Burn baby burn, Reyna inferno, Burn baby burn, Johnny O's hammy died, Tell ya Burn baby burn Reyna inferno, Burn baby burn LD will be da guy
*winces* TAKK Please sober up. Grazie. and I think Reyna's got something left in the tank - especially against the better teams out there. unfortunately the tail pipe's cracked, the engines overheated and the tires are flat. (If I did such parlour games like predicting the US 2006 or 2010 line-up, I'd be making my plans without him and JOB. But I have better things to do in my life. Like send hate mail to Nick Sackiewicz and Tyrone Willingham.)
yes those matches against the mighty soccer powers of El Salvador and Panama are clearly indicators that we don't need Reyna at the World Cup level.
Like when we played in the ConFed Cup? Oh, wait.... we're basically ********ed if we have to play a good team without either Reyna or O'Brien EDIT- Other than our friendly neighborhood bitches Mexico. Who can apparently beat with anybody
Sorry but I have to believe we can beat anyone without Reyna and O'Brien. The 2 of them have been so often injured, I can't afford to expect them to be available. If they are, great, lets bring them in and see where they can help. If not, oh well, we move on. But no way I'm blaming travel for the national team for the injuries to either of these... they simply don't travel enough for us that it should make a difference.
We're looking to the future here. It's all about potential. Just because we haven't done it in the past doesn't mean we won't be able to do it in the future, with the way our team is developing and the players are developing. My gosh, we haven't had O'Brien since the World Cup and Reyna lately hasn't been around either - and yet we are getting better and better, with the players who ARE there growing by leaps and bounds. So yeah, I'd say we can beat anybody out there without Reyna and O'Brien...doesn't mean we will every time or that we will the first time. But this team is developing so that we can take on anybody anytime without Reyna and O'Brien. You love to talk about Convey and his potential and blah, blah, blah - apply that reasoning to the National Team as well.
we've played 2 games without Reyna thuhs far in qualifying. El Salvador and Panama. El Salvador was nothing to brag about. We didn't play particularily well. We went in there and did what we had to do against one of the worst teams I've seen play at this level. Panama was a tremendous win. They were a team I feared and we put on a truly impressive performance. Donovan, Convey, Beasley, Gaven, Eddie Johnson have NOTHING to do with Reyna and O'Brien. They play completly different positions. Apples to Oranges. Different responsibilities. One set play defense when they want to, the other two play it because their position requires them. One set are attacking midfielders, the other are 2-way midfielders. What everyone is saying is that they are happy with Kerry Zevagnin or Chris Armas playing the position that either O'Brien or Reyna would play. Want to give the arm-band to Donovan? fine, whatever. do so. We don't have a single young player who shown he's capable of playing the position that Reyna and O''Brien do. Not yet. Arena is bringing in Rico Clark and Clint Dempsey, probably to see if they can give us some depth behind Reyna and Zevagnin and Armas. But I can't see how you can call Kerry Zevagnin and Chris Armas better central midfielders than either Reyna or O'Brien
All I'm saying is that you continually look to the past to point out that we haven't beaten the big dogs without Reyna and O'Brien (not that we've really had many chances to do so) and so we MUST have them in the lineup to have a chance to beat the big dogs. I'm saying we really can't count on having them available to play in Germany 2006, so I'm willing to go with the POTENTIAL that some players (those we see now and those that haven't arrived yet) will step in and fulfill promise (like LD and DMB did in WC02) and we'll manage to beat some big dogs. [And I'm referring to the overall team and how it plays; not specific players in specific positions. It's the team that wins or loses.] So whatever....I'll be optimistic about what we can (and have done) without them and you can continue to be pessimistic.
How old is Reyna ?...sometimes old age for a player comes at a relatively young age.....( look at Ryan Giggs, a player whose game is built around pace loses a step....not quite good enough at the VERY top level )....maybe it's time for the USA to move on....without Reyna...
ok, this might be the first time I've been called pessimistic in my life perhaps I'm going about this the wrong way then. Basically what I'm saying is that we need Reyna because thats how damn good he is. And you can only really tell how good he is when playing against teams that are as good, or better than we are. I admitted a few weeks earlier that we're probably better off without Reyna when playing weaker oppononents. I guess I am being somehwhat pessimistic when I say that I don't think we can beat the likes of Holland, England, Spain, Brazil, etc. without Reyna and O'Brien playing at their best. And even then I'm probably wrong because Donovan and Beasley have the ability to make something out of nothing even we get dominated. But its my wish to not simply get a win against the run of play, but to go toe-to-toe with these powers and then walk away sating we gave as good as we got. Like what happened against Germany. If given a choice between getting dominated in that match for 95% of the game and squeeziong out a win at the end, as opposed to what happened I think I would take the latter.