Can compete Eddie Johnson Cherundolo Beasley Dononvon at times Mastreon a very underrated player Casey..potential is there Onewyuuu..whatever Gibbs and that is it Vanney Convey Heydude Armas Ralston Berhalter Zavagin Wolf must all go. Those guys r bad and is killing your team. They dont have the smoothness to play internationally. They run straight and lack futebol instints. Casey has good potential.. he has good feet and a good hard shot. Ya , ya , he aint scoring for u cabreos , but he has that euro style quailty that is needed to play for ur "can compete" team. matter of fact..he has better technique than Mcbide
Ever hear of a healthy John O'brien. Very rare, but probably our most skilled field player when healthy.
Your right, we'd much rather only use the first group of players, unfortunately that doesn't always happen. We also thrive playing with speed and effort so in a world cup we need lot's of quality subs which we are hoping to develop. Many people agree with you that the second group should go but we just don't have enough players without them. I also like Casey and hope he can start scoring to cement a spot.
your in and out list didn't include a number of solid players. where to do put them? in my opinion, there are at least another 7-8 who easily fit in with the 8 you've listed. in addition to your list, i'd add: goalies: keller, howard (friedel as well, but he's internationally retired) defenders: bocanegra (plus cherundolo, onyewu, & gibbs) mids: reyna, o'brien, lewis (plus mastro, donovan, & beasley) forwards: mcbride (plus EJ & casey) combined with the group you listed, it looks like a full team to me (15 players). and, if you're going to include Casey on potential, you probably add in Dempsey as well and Ching once he recovers from his latest injury. these can hold things down until younger guys like Spector, Gaven, Feilhaber, and Adu are ready. aaah, can't wait 'til Columbus.... other than wanting to diss the guys who are in the next group, what's your point?
Your exclusion of McBride in the first list devalues this thread. He's already competing against Euro teams and doing quite well.
There are some players who are good vs. mediocre competition, but quite useless vs. quality teams. Armas and Ralston come to mind. Casey has been useless against any kind of competition though (at the international level). He's not a poor man's Brian McBride, he's a poor man's Brian Ching.
Before this thread goes any further, we need to get a couple of terms defined here: 1) "compete" What does that mean? Compete as in "not being made to look ridiculously stupid", compete as in "catch a break or two and you might actually win this game", or compete as in "you should be able to beat this team at least half the time on a neutral site"? Tell you what, on a given day, the US can play with (compete), and beat, anybody. Yes, you heard that right, anybody. Including "euro teams"... Oh, yeah...that brings me to... 2) "euro teams" Huh? OK, Germany is a "euro team", as is Italy, England, Spain, Holland, etc. Of course, there are other "euro teams"... Moldova. Malta. Luxembourg. Andorra. San Marino. These are also, by fact of geography, "euro teams"... I'd wager that you could put me in goal, grab 10 other US-eligible posters off Big Soccer at random and we could probably "compete"... ...meaning "not being made to look ridiculously stupid"... ...against San Marino. They might win, though...I am, after all 48 years old and don't move quite as fast as I used to.
I'm sick and g-dammed tired of San Marino not getting any respect on these boards!!! Have you seen them play? No. Do you know anything about the team? No. So keep your useless opinions to yourself! C'mon. I'm kidding. San Merino f-in' sucks.
I agree! The Tarheels always seem to blow it for us. Pope looked crappy in the USA vs England game and Berhalter helped us lose a game against Brazil in the 2003 Confederations Cup.
So, an accountant thinks the US team can just suit up eight players. Thats brilliant Mr Accountant. Ooop, a team has 11 players plus 3 subs. Just a minor footnote wouldnt you say.
I think we overvalue some Euro teams and undervalue a handful of players we have. Most of our players have competed and have competed fairly well against Euro teams.It is agreed, however, there needs to be more. We are no longer minows against Euro teams and its ridiculous to think it has been attributed to 3-5 players. We have somewhere in the neighborhood of 13-18 guys, I believe could survive against all of the top Euro temas week in and week out.
We're always going to have a long list of over the hill/overrated players and an even longer list of talented young players that don't get to play until we get rid of Arena.
fixed your post...you just described a national team in general. Not Arena's fault...I'd say he's not overly conservative (hence Quaranta, Dempsey etc.) yet not dumb enough to abandon experience where needed. You can always argue this or that about player selection, but when it is an important game it is tough to find something flat out wrong with Arena's starting 11.
I disagree about Josh Wolffe. In the friendly that the US played against England in Chicago a month or two ago, he played very well against England.
Ok Silver... What has Bruce not accomplished yet that he could have if he had used other players? What... get to the semifinals of the last world cup or have already qualified for Germany?
Others have already pointed out the glaring omissions of O'Brien, McBride, Reyna, and the three 'keepers. Each of these players already have or currently do "compete" against top-level, First Division Europeans on a weekly basis. Reyna's omission is the most blatant. This is a guy who regularly starts in midfield for a Premiership team. He is the most accomplished field player in US Nat team history. I think he has been sold for the highest transfer fees of any US player ever. How does this not qualify him for a list of players who can compete against Euro teams???