Re: Re: Re: September edition - the Ursuline 100 Your love affair with Donovan has blinded you. He may be the leader in games and minutes played, but he is not the leading goal scorer. Here are the U.S. leading goal scorers since his debut for the U.S. in 10/2000... Mathis 9 goals, 16 starts - 6 sub appearances. McBride 7 goals, 19 starts - 1 sub appearance. Donovan 7 goals, 23 starts - 5 sub appearances. Mathis has also set up more goals than Donovan in that time frame as well: 6 assists to 4. McBride has 3 assists. Brad Friedel, Kasey Keller, and Claudio Reyna are the best U.S. players - not Donovan. Donovan is in Mathis' class, as is McBride, O'Brien, Stewart, and Pope. This is the beauty of the U.S. team, there are nine players that are definitely international caliber. Some others may be in that group (Beasley), but the U.S. still needs another nine before we can seriously think about winning a World Cup.
Regarding the Corrales debate, I think it should be pointed out that Ramiro does have 3 caps with the senior team, earned under Steve Sampson in 1996 and 97 between the first 2 MLS seasons. Corrales came off the bench in a loss @ Peru and a loss @ China then went 90 minutes - at left back - in a 1-1 tie @ China. Can he play left back at the next level? Probably but I doubt he'll ever be the top player there on the depth chart. But, he's only 25 and he shouldn't be written off, especially since he's starting regularly for the league's top team.
Ouch, now that you mentioned it, I remember that game. I felt sorry for him because I wanted him to succeed, but he was bad, really bad... This brings up a good point. Jason takes a lot of shots, but very few go in. Normally, you don't have that many opportunities at National Level (ask any English fan about Andy Cole). I think that's the reason Jason won't be back on the NATS.
Time to start putting Convey back as a central mid, and pretty high up on the list. Now that he's playing regularly and creating goals in the middle...
I agree. Kyle Martino may be better at this moment, but the last few games have shown what Convey can do. Martino had a big jump in play by getting into a pro environment, but his level of improvement will be less than Convey's in the future.
I think Zach Thornton with some recent buffoonery moments should drop some, probably being passed by Brown and Hartman, who are both in form.
As long as we're talking about keepers, we need to include the name Marcus Hahnemann, who has four shutouts in seven games this season in English Division 1. He should be in the mix.