Still, barring some sort of miracle, the players listed in this thread (Johnson, Whitbread, Zimmerman, Weaver, Ibrahim, Arguez, and Flores) are very unlikely to make it to the adult US team in time for the World Cup. I'd love to see another Mastroeni emerge from the youth ranks, but I'm not seeing that as very likely at the moment. YMMV.
Jeremy is right, his first cap was against Ecuador, in a game where first timers Joe Enochs, Mike Petke and John Thorrington played. That said, that was a match where 4 uncapped players took the field--In the middle of the Hex! Arena was smart back then to further expand his player pool, because boy howdy Mastroeni came in handy. Basically put, I think until we actually learn our group stage opponents, it's open audition. Jan 1, 2010, is when our actual team plays together and gels.
I never said JE wasn't "right"; although I think we're considering two different perspectives, that was all.
As those who read the YA Gameday board will know, I've been as big a Jemal Johnson fan as most around here. From highlights of his goals and assists, he appears to have a deft touch and powerful finishing ability that belies his professional level (League 1). He also has pace to boot, and is capable of scoring long range goals with both feet. I think, if you look at his skill set, he has abilities that make him useful to the USMNT on B-teams, and I wouldn't have any objection to him getting called into a camp in the next year if he keeps up his current form. But I think it's extremely unlikely that he makes any serious run at the 2010 World Cup team. Probably has the best chance of anyone on your list. He's had rumored interest from Premiership clubs, but it's going to be very difficult for him to displace anyone ahead of him on our center back depth chart...guys like DeMerit, Califf, Parkhurst, Orozco and even Jimmy Conrad. I don't see it happening...maybe ever. I see Zimmerman as a poor man's Taylor Twellman, and Twellman himself was never quite good enough to establish himself on the national team. Zimmerman will be up against stiffer competition over the next decade than Twellman ever faced. I think arkjayback said it best - "Ha. No." The Norwegian 2nd division is not anywhere near the requisite level of competitive football to warrant a USMNT call-up...ever.
Haha no, I said "Jeremy was right" because he corrected me--Mastroeni's first cap was against Ecuador. Although, after the confederations cup and before the Qualification restarts, the US really does need a friendly to test out some new players for the later part of the Hex. I'd hate to see Bob settle on a pool of starters and be dumbfounded if one gets injured. The fact is- In EVERY World Cup cycle the US has had since '94, the US has always 1-Had a key player injured before the world cup, and 2-Had another player injured during the course of a World Cup, and finally 3-Been forced to take an out of form player to the World Cup. If the US is going to be successful the US HAS to avoid those problems, and the only way to avoid that problem is to look at as many players as possible before the end of the year. Once the group opponents are known, the team will be set and will be forced to Gel. Arena didn't cast a large enough net in 2006, and the results were disastrous.
Maybe, but he has shown his intentions by jumping to Europe early and is playing pretty well. I just can't see him as a "poor man's Taylor Twellman." I think Preston will develop faster and become better than Taylor ever was. Twellman may always be the better athlete, but Zimmerman seems to have a better football mind, and that will only get better with time. But there can be no argument that he will face tougher competition than Twellmen ever did. Trying to beat out guys like Davies, Altidore, Ibrahim, Cooper, etc. should only motivate him that much more. If Johnson is good enough, he should be getting looks from better teams right now. Until he gets out of England's 3rd level, there's no way he should even be considered.
The disastrous results from 2006 were not caused by the size of Arena's net casting. They were caused by being in a group with Italy, Czechia and Ghana. One more undiscovered mythical player would not have helped us.
We were in a tough group but Arena built the team on many shakey assumptions that should have been discovered way before hand. 1) Eddie Lewis wasn't an outside back. 2) Pope's skills were diminished big time. 3) John' O'Brien was never going to be healthy for the World Cup. 4) Eddie Johnson wasn't a fit for the team and was never the same after his toe injury. That's just some of the issues. If the above were found out earlier, we could have built the team better.
If Napolean had a B-52, he would have won the Battle of Waterloo. If my aunt had balls she'd have been my uncle. And I contend that we still would not have made it out of the group.
I never said we would make it out of the group. But we would have had a better shot and we would have played better. But every single thing I listed was something that could have been prevented and was completely forseeable.
Well in that case, you should be able to link to the post you made prior to June 2006 listing the replacements for Lewis, Pope, O'Brien and Johnson.
there's a huge falalcy assuming there were options out there, arena didn't evaluate... new faces are gonna be problematic at best... it was JOB and gibbs injury, plus reyna being too old, and the predeliction to make mistakes... it's always the back-up qb syndrome, were the fans think the better guy is on the bench.. more often, it's the fans who are wrong...
The Gibbs injury is also what got me banned from USMNT N&A and resulted in the creation of JeremyEritrea.
You may say there is a huge fallacy that there were options out there but I don't buy all of that argument. I really do agree with Bshredder that Arena had serious roster problems and didn't nearly cast a wide enough net. Of course, part of that fault is the USSF's, after all, we only had 11 matches before the World Cup, before 2002 the USA played 15 including the Gold Cup. Furthermore, the opponents the US played in 2006 were cupcakes compared to 2002. 2002 "Friendlies" included sides like Italy (Away!), Germany(Away!), South Korea (Home and Away!), Mexico, Ecuador, Uruguay, Ireland (at Dublin) and the Netherlands. 2006 was a litany of soft opponents, only Germany at Germany would be a match to prepare us for a World Cup. As such, by playing such weak opposition, Arena couldn't see how bad his roster problems were and how to prepare a team for a genuine group of death! Of course, to say he couldn't have done better is ridiculous. For one, look at Michael Bradley, who was superb against Venezuela and Latvia, it was a shame he wasn't played more as a defacto replacement for JOB, who didn't feature at all until Morocco when it was clear that Kyle Martino would have been a gigantic improvement. Benny Feilhaber was briefly looked at against Scotland but never took the field- Considering his form in 2006 and 2007 he would have been a big help as a JOB replacement. Danny Califf had a run of great form in San Jose and would have been a significant improvement over Eddie Pope--In fact, Califf was largely panned as the "Orange Traffic Cone" prior to his move to San Jose. I'm sorry, but that's 2 big roster changes that would have greatly improved the US. JeremyEritrea is flat wrong here, we came dangerously close to advancing out of the group of death. I think the mentality that "There is nothing we could have done" that he displays is the main reason why we never advanced--The USA played scared, and scheduled pre-World Cup friendlies that were not serious. It is possible (Look at the Confederations Cup) that we may draw the Group of Death again in the World Cup. As such, it is paramount that we don't repeat the mistakes of 2006. The widest possible net must be cast, and BB tends to be very serious in his selection of friendlies.
As they say, hindsight is 20/20. My mentality had nothing to do with us not advancing out of the group of death. I blame Cobi Jones for picking the wrong balls out of the lottery for that.
Wow indeed because I can't believe you totally misunderstood my post. My point was, JOB sucked so bad against Morocco that even a hack like Kyle Martino would have been a step up. And this was *not* hindsight, I knew that as soon as JOB got his first touch at LP field. As far as mentioning Eddie Pope, let's look at Eddie Pope's form during 2005-6. And look at Califf's form during the same period. Yeah, I rest my case.
Yeah, this is hindsight. Unless, of course, you can post the links to the posts you made prior to June 2006 with you advocating Martino for O'Brien or Califf for Pope. At the time of the World Cup, the player pool was exhausted. There was nobody else to take. Finally, just the thought of Danny Califf and Kyle Martino wearing the US jersey in a World Cup makes me cringe.