Taylor Twellman

First of all, I disagree with anyone who thinks that Twellman had a poor game. He was double teamed for most of the game, it was his run that created space for the second goal, and he played a major part in maintaining long spells of US possestion in the Sallies half.

He does need good service to score, but maybe a frustrating game like todays will help him learn how to create for himself better. He could also do a better job creaking to ball sometimes. It doesn't always matter how good a scoring possition you're in if you're screened by three defenders from the ball.

 

I think it's going to be real interesting to see what Bruce does with Twellman. Twellman seems to rely on other to set him up rather than creating anything for himself, and he isn't all that adept at laying the ball off to others from what I've seen. He's pretty much the kind of guy who likes to camp in the box and knock balls in, a poacher of sorts.

Meanwhile, Bruce tends to like forwards who do more than score. In the world cup, he played McBride, who scores but also lays a whole lot of balls off to others both in the air and on the ground, Donovan & Mathis, who can create as much as score and are both almost equally at home playing out of midfield as up front, and only a little action for Wolf, who isn't a setup guy much either despite his layoff against Mexico, but is extremely fast.

I think Twellman's willingness to track back and tackle, hustle his butt off and his strength will help him earn Bruce's good graces, as will his ability to draw players out of position with runs and his general presence, but I can't say that I see him as being exactly what Bruce seems to like out of a forward. This should be interesting.

 

I'll wait and pass judgement after he plays with the "A" midfield....

 

I'll wait for this, and/or at least 2-3 more matches. It's hard to draw any definitive conclusions from one match.

 

Yeah, Kirovski should provide much better service, and Lewis on the left as well.

 

Real simple and real quick: Twellman and the rest of yesterdays' line-up will play better as a team while also playing to their strengths when they devleop a better familiarity with one another.

The misdirected passes, poor anticipation, and inability to spread the field are entirely understandable.

The potential's there, the talent is there, it's just going to take a while to smooth the rough edges.

The Magpie

 

i DISAGREE. i'VE ONLY SEEN tWELLMAN PLAY 3 OR 4 TIMES WITH THE REVS BUT IN THOSE GAMES i DID THINK THAT HE WAS CREATING CHANCES FOR HIMSELF AND TEAMATES. hE IS ALSO A GOOD PASSER MUCH LIKE cLEETUS. THINK HIS SKILLS FALL BETWEEN cLEETUS AND mCbRIDE. He doesn't have McBrides presence in the air or Mathis' confidence. But I think he'll see a lot of action in he qualifiers and WC ahead. IMO

 

When Sasha Victorine was hesitating for a nano second before depositing the ball betwixt the Sallie keeper's legs it may well have been to thank TnT for the diagonal run that allowed Mathis to look left, wave his foot and nutmeg the defender to roll the ball to Victorine while the keeper's attention was on a streaking Yank #20 moving across his line of vision.

Watch the tape. Certianly Twellman got less than great service but there were a lot of one foot balls that went either way, including the ball that Mathis crushed and the cross that Olson buried. But, overall, he did a terrific job and definitely merits further looks.

He is NOT just a poacher, not at all. Ask some of the Slavador backliners who are licking their wounds today. Note, for example, after Taylor got upended by a lowbridging Sallie defender he went straight to the box, went up for a cross and almost decapitated the keeper. Not a dirty play, just a hard one. Further, he laid balls off quite well, keeping movements going again and again.

None of these things are anything that a top level forward shouldn't be capable of doing, plus scoring. But that requires precise service which may come with familiarity or, maybe, Steve Ralston.

He does seem just a tad slow at this level, but that may well be due to the fact that they were playing on an increasingly poor pitch as the game went on.

Overall, a good first time out.

JIM DOW

 

There are a lot of valid points about Twellman in this thread.

Its true that he didn't get service, but you can't say that the US didn't provide good service in this game.

Just off the top of my head I'm thinking of Ben's goal, Sasha's goal, Mathis' volley from the top of the 18, Olsen's diving header that went wide...

I think if we create for our teammates 4 scoring opportunities like that per game we are in good shape and especially with players like Donovan and Clint running around and creating their own shots too. And more opportunities will come the longer the team plays together. Of course less opportunities will come when we play strong opponents.

However, Twellman's good attributes from yesterdays game will mean nothing as far as saying he should start for the NATs. He battled and he made good runs. We have tons of players that can battle and make good runs. Arena likes to play with at least one speed forward to stretch opponents though and Twellman isn't that. Twellman is strong and good in the air, but is he going to be a better target forward than Casey or McBride in 4 years?

The bottom line for Twellman is that he *has* to produce in his next start or two or he may find him self slipping way down the list. I'd have to think that Buddle would have been more dangerous yesterday than Twellman was.

But no matter how good Twellman turns out to be I don't see his game being better than Donovan and Mathis if BA were to choose to put both of them up front. Twellman's job is probably to prove so valuable that Arena decides Donovan can play in the midfield instead of up front.

Everybody wants to see the nats succeed and I think that means we definitely need to be giving Casey, Buddle, Twellman, and Wolff strong looks up top in the next year. Of course BA likes to change lineups so you may see Casey in against smaller central American teams to dominate in the air and Wolff in against older teams that are slow in the back. What is going to be the compelling reason to put Twellman in? Basically he needs to score and score often.

Oh yeah, he is the most physical US forward I've ever seen. He plays tough very tough. Where as we've seen players like McBride hold starting roles up top who seem to be a lot softer and definitely a lot more whiny 8(

 

Dunno if anyone else saw it, but Twellman was open on the near post on the cross where Olsen scored. Gotta figure that if Klein hit Twellman instead of Olsen, Twellman would have had a good crack at the net there.

 

TT had a good outing. Bad conditions, some unfamiliar teammates, a ref who keeps his whistle in his pocket were factors that came into play today.

I would think that TT will be battling for a spot for the next few years. He has alot of upside.

 

Reminds me of JMM a bit. Lots of hustle but not much accomplished.

Both of these guys lack the flexibility and creativity of a world class forward.

Both are/were great players at the MLS level.

Twellman's best asset is his heading ability and toughness. Against big strong defenders he can easily be neutralized. Just ask LA.....

 

His work rate certainly drew a comparison from me to JMM. Twellman playd a decent game. To me his greatest contribution was the defensive pressure he put on the backline that led directly to the Nats gaining possession back almost immediately in the midfield. Would he have that kind of success against a better defense (a defense with better ball distribution)? Maybe not, but that was a big positive for TT on Sunday IMHO. But we will need forwards who score goals and TT will have to prove that he can do that on the internation stage.

 

Taylor has much much better first touch than JMM. Taylor can very quickly put his first touch in an "optimum" spot which is away from defenders and allow him to strike cleanly. He can do it not just with his foot but with his chest, head, or body. JMM does not have that ability. Taylor can pull the trigger a lot faster too.

The only thing I have against him is his foot speed. He is not going to run away from too many people in international soccer.

 

TT is quick off the mark and makes shots out of nothing. He reads the field very well and he uses his strength well. As far as I can see, is the only US player capable of playing with his back to the goal. He is in the battling mold of McBride, but appears to have a more consistent knack of goal scoring. That remains to be seen at the international level, however. Several folks have mentioned his need for better service. Yesterday, the ball practically never came to him. He went to the ball often, but it was nearly always as movement away from the goal. His opps will come as he is a good poacher. However, don't forget that he won the MLS scoring championship because of his assists, too.

 

Doesn't the fact that we actually have guys COMPETING for a spot on the roster unlike um, lets say WC94, give you a warm fuzzy? Look how far we've come in less than a decade. I think we'll do at least one round better in Germany.

 

Good enough?

He didn't really look connected with the offense. If Ralston was out there he probably would have had a goal or two.

Cullen had the opportunity to serve him and put it back post. Ralston would probably have served Taylor on the near.

Having said that, it must be remember that El Salvador is our bitch. They sh:t their pants at the sight of us. Joe Max scored five goals on them in ONE game. McBride got, what, a hat trick against them?

Should've been the perfect debut for Twellman. He shoulda stuck one in the net.

 

I haven't jumped on the TT Bandwagon yet, but I did like his game on Sunday. Similar to Landon, he didn't do anything spetacular on Sunday, but he did do alot of little things that make a team successful.

Since I haven't seen a lot of him (Quakes game, MLS Champsionship, and this friendly), I want to see how his second season in the MLS and a couple of more friendlies before making a more objective judgement.

Lastly, although the competition was pitaful on Sunday, he just didn't have many opportunities. That happens sometimes...

 

We have to do more than just have competition for spots on the team to compete for a spot in the WC semis.

 

Twellman is nothing special. A good finisher who for the most part requires the ball on a platter(not a silver one, though..) He's not particularly great holding the ball, passing the ball, or creating for himself. Its kind of sad that everyone seems to be saying that he played well when his best move was a rather ordinary off the ball run against a, um, shall we say, weak opponent.

Trust me on this one, Quaranta and EJ will fly by him.

 

Hottest finisher I ever saw for the US National team was Frank Klopas in the run-up to WC'94.

Granted, the games were friendlies and he was no Mathis, but Klopas was making pretty goals out of half chances when we had no offense.

And he didn't sniff the field during World Cup...


Any statmeisters here able and interested enough to post Frankie's goalscoring streak in the last ten friendlies before USA '94?

 

This is a great post and I agree with every word you say until your comments about McBride being soft..

I sit here ruefully shaking my head thinking that someone out there thinks McBride is a soft player considering the pounding he has taken for the USA in the past few years....

 

hahah coming from a crew fan, all that mcbride gettin to you?

 

what does club allegience have anything to do with anything.

Its highly documented that I supported wolff over McBride. (thankfully bruce stuck with mcbride, who netted two goals in the world cup if you had forgotten)