years and years ago we thought of our team as being built around four players waldo...harkes...balboa and ramos. i think we're seeing something similar now in donovan...beasley...convey and martino...and today we saw a glimpse of what this combo might produce. for a brief moment convey and martino BOTH ran the midfield and played out wide-right....sort of a reverse of what portugal does with costa and figo...it produced immediate confusion for new zealand and the most creative soccer of the match. i think in the coming years this will define our team...beginning with the olympics and continuing through the next cup. donovan will play up top and beasley will play wide left....though there will be switching...donvovan dropping back...convey going wide...or martino going wide....and sometimes beasley going up top....all of this will be fluid and it will confuse the hell out of opposing defenses. our other players will be plugged in to compliment these four...so we might see the second forward being someone like buddle when he's ready or maybe conner casey....someone to win headballs and do the dirty work for these four.
It was certainly intriguing. But I don't hink Bruce meant anything by putting those guys out there. I think he was just trying to get Convey and DMB a little run. Convey is head and shoulders above everybody else except for Lewis though.
Re: Re: the four horsemen i aggree that martino isn't quite there yet...but i think it's only a matter of time. martino is better now than convey was last year...give him a year and i think he'll be capable of having the impact on a game that convey had today and donovan\beas have been having for the last year or so.
I don't usually make a big deal about this, but Martino's gonna get killed unless he puts on a bit of poundage. He doesn't seem to have the same wirey toughness that DaMarcus has.
What Martino needs is minutes in quality friendlies such as those against mid-table international teams like New Zealand. Instead we have a shiftless Earnie Stewart in his hole for 70 minutes. Yeah, JP, let's have Stewart in 2006!!! I love Earnie, but we need to be getting the youngsters ready.
This is a great point. Martino would have definitely been an improvement over Stewart. He couldn't have been worse, that's for sure.
he'll get his shot in one of the 3 matches in France. Stewart proved today that he isn't a central midfielder. But I'll be very dissapointed if Convey isn't our 1st team A-Mid. I love his game and its still evolving as he is becoming more of a goal scoring threat every game.
I agree regarding Martino v. Stewart. I was extremely disappointed not to see Martino get the full 90 as the attacking center mid. With regards to building our team around four players, I disagree. No doubt that Beasley and Donovan work exceptionally well together. No doubt that Convey can work exceptionally well with the other two. I agree that they would wreck havoc for opposing teams with their ability to change positions at a whim. But, Lewis shows that Beasley's position on the left is by no means a lock. They bring different attributes to the table. Bruce is flexible and he wants a team and a bunch of players who exude this flexibility. So he can diagram the opponent and come up with the best strategy to counter the team that he is playing. Sometimes it will be Beasley on the left, sometimes it will be Lewis, sometimes it might even be Convey or JOB.
Apocalyptic players The four horsemen are war, famine, pestilence and death. I think Suarez, Pierce, Garcia and Kovalenko fit the parts best.
Re: Apocalyptic players well played sir Well played No if only you could have worked ABMOD in there...
I was gonna say something about AMBOD as a horseman but it's too mean. Instead... I kind of agree with MLSNHTOWN and disagree with the gist of this thread. Back in the old days... we didn't have enough raw talent to go around. While DMB, LD, BC and KM stand out now, they could be joined or surpassed by any of a number of guys. A whole hell of a lot can happen in 24 months, much less by 2010.
Re: Re: Re: the four horsemen I know he turned pro later than the others, but he is two years older than Convey. It'll be interesting to see if Martino "has it" at this level. Martino (2/19/81) is a year older than Donovan (3/4/82) and Beasley (5/24/82) and two years older than Convey (5/27/83). Each of them turned pro earlier and made their "big move" with the Stars-and-Stripes just before/around when they turned 20. Martino is 22 -- will his game grow by the leaps and bounds theirs did/is?