HA! This may be a BS first! An apology for exercising a home-town bias. I agree that Rolfe is an EXCELLENT choice for these friendlies - no apology forthcoming.
not only does bruce not have a left mid in camp he has only mediocre right mids. now in scotland he used pearce as a left mid at the end of the game and i have seen quaranta play on the left occasionally. so those might be his options. hope pearce gets time at left back tho. there is little chance for him to get into the team as a left mid with dmb, convey, and lewis all ahead of him. whoever plays left wing in these games is simply playing it as a stopgap. they should view it as a sign of doom (meaning, there's no way they're making this team). if i were a player and bruce penciled me in to the left mid position in these games, i'd do my best, but i'd go home and cry! by the way, i think bruce will use the more experienced lineup too. the man always experiments slowly.
SOmeone will correct me if I'm wrong, but Bruce isn't limited to his campers for these friendlies. He can (and probably will) pull in some of his euro guys for these matches to build some chemistry. It's of little use to him to see these new players on the field without seeing how they mix and work with his core team. I'd expect to see DMB and Convey sharing time out on the left.
I'd think adu, pending a solid janaury camp, would get a token 5-10 minutes at the end of the canada match... canada and norway really aren't fit for adu's style... the south korean CLOSED scrimmage seems the ideal style and place to START adu... and playing japan again fits his style.. so 5-10 minutes against canada ... 10-15 against norway 45 minutes against south korea and another 45 against japan...
there is absolutly no pointi ncalling freddy up if he doesn't get the chance to play with our best players in camp. I don't care what he has or hasn't "earned" or "deserves". I don't care if starting him is a slap into the face of other players. The only thing I care about is the fact that he'll be one of the 3 most purely talented players out there, and playing him with the rest of the scrubs is utterly pointless.
If Freddy plays for the USA in any "A" international, then he IS cap-tied to the USA. The upcoming friendlies are all considered "A" international matches.
There is no rule limiting him to the camp players. However, the match against Canada is not on a FIFA approved date for international games, which means clubs are not required to release their players to the national squads. The Euro-based players will all be in season or training with their clubs and will definitely not be present.
"A" internationals are matches that involve the "A" team of two national teams. These matches will not count as official FIFA "A" matches. As a general rule of thumb, thos matches faling on official FIFa match days, and tournament matches are the only "A" matches
I am looking forward to seeing who will play and for how long. I expect most everyone who is in camp to see some playing time.
1-i think we all know that is completely incorrect 2-again, why are we supposed to throw out the way things work for freddy? i must have missed that FIFA world player of the year cerermony if he looks terrific, he will get in if he doesn't, he wont and that's how it should be, always, without exception from now until they stop playing soccer - i think you can agree we are long past the point of 'throw someone out and pray'
The only thing I care about is building the best WC team we can possibly have. I couldn't care less whether Freddy sits, plays with the "scrubs," or starts with our best players. Whatever fits into fielding the best team possible is what I want to see.
Pick a goalie Albright - Pope - Conrad - Pearce/Dunivant Quaranta - LD - Mastro - Adu? Ching - Johnson Dunivant was solid all year with the Galaxy, that's how he got the callup. If he continues to impress Bruce he may well get stuck in there. However, I also want to see Pearce. We've got a promising defensive future with Gooch, Gibb, Spector, Whitbread, Pearce, Dunivant, Cherundolo, and Albright. There will be tough competition to make it into that line. I think Bruce will want to see more of Quaranta on the right. Donovan will captain the side. Mastro's pretty much a lock at this point and will play if only to give hime more experience with Donovan. As everyone else has pointed out, no left wingers (or right wingers, but what the hey). I stuck Adu in there because he is left footed and attack minded. Do I actually think he'll play? He's got as good a chance as anybody in camp. Right now we're deep at left mid. It's the right side we need to worry about. As for forwards, Johnson is back healthy, so that's pretty well a lock. Bruce likes target men, and I think he's got a special place in his heart for Ching, much like he does for Hejduk. I think, therefore, that Ching will at least start the first game, though he may use Rolfe or Wolff for the later games. Wolff really needs to live up to his potential, or he'll be going the same direction as Mathis.
sorry, I should have explained my thinking. Let's consider Reggie Bush. Next year, when he comes out of school, he'll be the #1 pick in the draft, he'll be incredibly hyped. He'll also be playing with the first team from Day 1. At the expense of a decent tailback for the Texans. We wouldn't be throwing Freddy out there to pray he does well. My thinking is that it gets him used to playing with players similarily talented as he is. The fact is that Freddy is much closer to Landon Donovan and Eddie Johnson, than he is to Brian Carroll and Steve Ralston and Kyle Martino...and how did we acclimate those guys into the National Team? we started them out with our full first team. That's my theory here. I want Freddy to play with our best players to get him used to the higher level of play. He's probably one of those players who gets better as the talent around him gets better.
Wrong. Essentially any match involving the senior teams of any two confederations is considered an "A" match. There is no requirement that the match fall on a date reserved for international matches on the FIFA match calendar.
that is the effect, not the cause. "A" internationals are matches that involve the "A" team of two national teams. These matches will not count as official FIFA "A" matches. As a general rule of thumb, thos matches faling on official FIFa match days, and tournament matches are the only "A" matches" Cause: only matches between First teams will count as "A" matches Effect: FIFA sets aside around 10 matchdays that gives countries to gather their first teams
Per FIFA: "An international “A” match is a match arranged between two Members of FIFA and for which both Members field their first representative team. 3 The terms used to define a match are those that give an appropriate political and geographical description of the countries or territories of the Members whose teams are involved in the match and over which countries or territories the Members have sole control and jurisdiction." I'd say you're closer but it's vague, particularly "first representative team". Perhaps intentionally so.
I suspect we'll see less of donovan and mastroeni than many think....guys fighting to back them up should see FAR more playing time than them... now, donovan and mastroeni against poland and germany is far more likely....
I tend to agree with this -- at least for the first game or two. Regarding Adu -- I think he will be a late game sub -- but get more than a token 5-10 minutes. Arena wants to test his ability to be a game changing player. We don't have anyone else who can do that off the bench. Our last player that really filled this role was Preki. SR
Here's the link to FIFA's search page for international results. http://www.fifa.com/en/mens/results/resultsdetails.html Note the bottom of the page where it states that the database includes all world cup data from 1930 and all "A" matches from 1985. There is no mention whatsoever of any non-"A" matches included in the database. From this, I infer that only "A" matches are included in the database. Run a search on the USA's results. You'll discover that every one of the USA's recent friendlies are included in the database, even ones that did not occur on a FIFA-approved matchday. See, e.g., our friendly matches against Columbia and Honduras on 3/7/05 and 3/19/05. Ergo, "A" matches need not fall on a FIFA-approved date to be considered "A" matches. More explicit is this website http://www.rdasilva.demon.co.uk/football.html which explicitly lists all "A" international matches. As with the FIFA site, all of the USA's friendlies are included, even ones that did not fall on a FIFA-approved match date. Shibb's citation comes from here http://www.fifa.com/documents/static/regulations/Statutes_09_2005_EN.pdf page 52. Note that there is nothing requiring international "A" matches to take place on a date reserved for match play under the international match calendar.
for what purpose??? it doesn't mean sh!t if you do it with our best players on the field, and means less if you play poorly without them on the field. This is NOT about beating Canadia or who ever we're playing. We could lose those matches by 20 for all I care. The back up role players should NOT be the focal point of this camp and set of friendlies. they MAY make 1% difference in the world cup. We should be trying to find players who can make an impact. Donovan and Johnson and Mastro should start and go at least 75 minutes of each and every match we play
are you doing this on purpose? who exactly argueing against? who said that it was a requirement it had to fall upon on a specific date? for the 3rd time. it is a GENERAL RULE OF THUMB that if a match occurs on an offical FIFA Matchday, then it is also an OFFICIAL "A" Match. they SPECIFICALLY set those dates aside so they could play "A" Matches.
you basically know donovan and beasley and GAM will be on the roster... it's the back-ups who aren't clearly defined..... and the three mentioned will be playing with a MOST euro based group of guys, hence, poland and germany they go 90 minutes.... 45 minutes for the three per match is MORE than enough to get some match fitness.... i'd rather have live action to test the marginal guys... don't really care if this compromises the results at all
it lists both friendlie's and "A" matches. it doesn't distinguish between the 2. In other words, you have no way of telling what is an "A" match and what is NOT an "A" match
I disagree that LD, GAM, or any other established starter should play the majority of the minutes especially in the early games. We need to find players that can make an impact and step up when called upon. We need more depth with our Nats. Plus we may find someone who can challenge for a starting position.