Was Danny Williams drunk? Gatt was worthless. He showed the touch of a baby elephant, and his only move seems to be the Damarcus Beasley/Cobi Jones "kick it past the defender and run" move. Only difference is that Jones and Beasley pulled it off with some success, on occasion. I was glad to see Altidore working so hard out there. Sure, it's disappointing that he didn't get on the scoresheet, but I hope that his workmanlike effort endeared him to Klinsmann and that he's back in Klinsy's good graces. His goal for Alkmaar last weekend was sublime.
It's a little bit disingenuous to say he "tested" Boca, Gooch and Goodson. We knew the first was consistent but aging, the second a shell of his former self, and the third not good enough to be anything other than cover. Ream isn't good enough, but calling him in was sort of defensible. Calling in Orozco and giving him as much time as he did was an immense waste of time, and totally indefensible. This isn't getting into some of the other poor roster choices early on. Now, Gonzalez was hurt for a chunk of JKs tenure, so it's hard to blame him fully for that. BUT, there were other options available at various times to look at, yet we pissed away valuable meaningless matches where we could have looked at different guys. We had one Camp Cupcake and 2 quasi games where we looked at some of the younger guys. That was a mistake that has a real chance of being our undoing, and I do hope the noise about no January camp or game is just Juergentalk and we do have one. We need as many opportunities as possible to look at CB options.
"Giving him as much time as he did" is a bit of a stretch. Orozco has only made 3 total appearances during JK's tenure. A 90 minute appearance in a friendly against Mexico where we tied them 1-1. Started and played one half in and had an assist in a 1-0 friendly win against Honduras. Came on as a sub at the 75 minute mark in the friendly against Mexico in Azteca. We all know what he did in that match. Those 200 minutes that he played is hardly "an immense waste of time" as evidenced by his play and his stats (1 goal and 1 assist). He is probably not the future in the back for us, but I see nothing "indefensible" about calling him in for a few matches to see what he can do. Once it was clear that he wasn't a fit for the team, JK stopped calling him up.
He has a another appearance in there somewhere. Can't remember the exact game off the top of my head.
I would say that it's generally not a good way to measure defenders by their scoring abilities. Orozco looked a little out of his depth with the national team and I think Klinsmann rightly recognized it, which is why he moved on. I understand what he wanted to do, he wanted a quicker more agile centerback to compliment Bocanegra, which was never going to be Gonzalez. He eventually found one in Cameron.
Those were 200 minutes too many. He was never going to be good enough to be an international quality center back. I though the previous regime correctly ID'd him as not having the necessary skillset. JK wanted to look for himself. I guess that was his prerogative. At the end of the day, did those 200 minutes alone hurt us? Not especially, but when you take those 200 minutes along with not really looking at any other new guys until Cameron got his looks and took advantage, it seems to me to have been a waste. It's water under the bridge now, though, unless someone here has access to a time machine. I do hope that JK gives Gonzalez a shot with the real team right away, as he appears to have been ready to do had LAG been eliminated. I also hope that we use the quasi Gold Cup as a proving ground for some of these newer CBs, so that they become viable options heading into late 2013 and beyond. In this respect, we're lucky that CONCACAF is so money hungry as to throw a biannual federation tournament, because it gives JK a bunch of meaningless yet still competitive games to blood some guys.
As I sit here wrapping up work on a year the team went 9W-2L-3T, where the players, coaching staff and support personnel are very happy all I will say is there was nothing disingenuous about my post. We just have a difference of opinion. JK wanted to play a backline with a different attributes so of course he need to test them and of course it made sense to start with the depth chart from BB's tenure with 1 addition. Lets not forget that after match 5 of JK's tenure most felt that the Gooch test was a rousing success. http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2011/10/12/onyewu-back-us-team-was-he-ever-gone Unfortunately Gooch had another fairly serious knee injury shortly thereafter. Who knows Gooch may be back yet again in 2013!
Anyone else could have been just as long a shot and we would have been here with you or someone else complaining about that player. As Real Corona correctly pointed out the pool of quick, agile CB is very small. Heck if Cameron had been thrown in in JK's first match instead of slowly groomed over CC2011 and two other camps he might have also failed!
-The team's 2012 W/L record, and your idea about how the players and coaches and support staff feel about the year have absolutely nothing to do with the idea that a "test" of the backline would include 3 guys who had already been consistent, regular starters with the national team for at least one major tournament. That's not a test. -If JK wanted to start a backline featuring guys who would help build possession, the absolute worst player for that would be Oguchi Onyewu. His attempts to play possession out of the back were so bad I felt genuinely sorry for him, since it plays to exactly none of his strengths, and he looked very uncomfortable doing it. -How does one article="most felt"? One artice <>consensus. He's looked bad ever since his knee injury in 2009. He's looked slow, tentative, and when he's on the field he's cost us goals.
There are similar articles from most major media but that is not the point. It won't change your opinion. Post the 3 or 4 different players you would have tested. Who knows you may see them "tested" some time in 2013.
John non-injured Gonzalez when he was non injured Besler Brooks Whitbread (debatable, apparently made from the same stuff as Holden) Edu to CB earlier and more often (I really think this would maximize his strengths while avoiding his weaknesses) And again, I'm very grateful that we have the off year Gold Cup. It's a real chance to correct the early failure to cast a wider net. I can't imagine, with WCQ happening at the same-ish time, that we won't take advantage of this.
Omar was clearly on Bob's radar screen, and had been called in a few times. Bob didn't call him in for the GC because he wanted to win the GC, and Gonzo was too inexperienced for that job security kind of tourney. If Bob had won, he would still be the coach, and I am fairly confident we would have seen him and probably John, along with Ream, but less of Boca and Gooch, and most certainly less of Goodson, and non of Orozco. Why bring in Boca, a guy at the end of his career to 5 straight friendlies? We know what he can do, lets experiment with some other guys. When I say he lucked out with Cameron, I mean that Cameron went to England and did not lay a big fat egg like Ream. Ream could have played awesome, rescued Bolton from relegation, and be starting in the EPL right now. But, he isn't so he really isn't in the conversation. Cameron could have tanked too. Thankfully he didn't and we have at least one serviceable CB right now. Beyond Cameron we are in trouble.
For those who want Edu at CB, I advise them to go to 1:50 of this video. Granted it was 2 years ago, but he hasn't played much at CB since. Don't want to see that type of mistake against a Ghana-type team in WC2014.
We will definitely see them tested, because this team will struggle with the current front line CBs we have. Hopefully, they can raise to the occasion quickly.
I'm giving my personal opinion that Orozco's play for the men's national team his play has been somewhat better than Ream's play or Goodson's play, not necessarily confined to the JK era. I suppose my opinion of Goodson may be a bit unfairly colored by his recent game by Russia given how I rate that performance. If you want to confine it to the JK era, has Orozco been worse than ... Goodson or Onyewu? Not in my personal opinion. I just don't think that Orozco has been disastrous in his appearances at CB.