Here are the 32 defenders on the list. As always you can quibble with the choices, but I think all the guys who obviously belong are on here somewhere. It's worth remembering that if we get a new coach, the new guy may view certain players considerably differently. The new guy might like Wynne's speed, or Parkhurst's positioning or Spector's hair more than Bradley did, so they could suddenly find themselves in favor. 1. Oguchi Onyewu, 32, AC Milan (volunteer) 2. Jonathan Spector, 28, West Ham United 3. Chad Marshall, 30, Columbus Crew 4. Clarence Goodson, 32, IK Start 5. Omar Gonzalez, 26, Los Angeles Galaxy 6. Jonathan Bornstein, 30, Chivas USA 7. Carlos Bocanegra, 35, Rennes 8. Steve Cherundolo, 35, Hannover 96 9. Edgar Castillo, 28, San Luis (on loan from Club America) 10. Gale Agbossoumonde, 23, Sporting Braga 11. Marvell Wynne, 28, Colorado Rapids 12. Michael Orozco, 28, Philadelphia Union 13. Heath Pearce, 30, FC Dallas 14. Jay DeMerit, 35, Watford 15. Frank Simek, 30, Sheffield Wednesday 16. Brandon McDonald, 28, San Jose Earthquakes 17. Kevin Alston, 26, New England Revolution 18. Kyle Davies, 25, FC Dallas 19. Eric Lichaj, 26, Aston Villa 20. Michael Parkhurst, 30, FC Nordsjaelland 21. Greg Garza, 23, Sporting Lisbon 22. Ike Opara, 25, San Jose Earthquakes 23. Amobi Okugo, 23, Philadelphia Union 24. Hunter Freeman, 28, IK Start 25. Jeremy Hall, 26, New York Red Bulls 26. Daniel Williams, 25, SC Freiburg 27. Jared Watts, 22, North Meck SC 28. Drew Moor, 30, Colorado Rapids 29. Cristian Flores, 22, Monterrey 30. Parker Walsh, 23, Karlsruher 31. Andrew Souders, 20, Columbus Crew Academy 32. Zak Whitbread, 30, Norwich City Daniel Williams would be considerably higher on the list if we were entirely sure he was going to play for us. At the moment that's pretty up in the air as my understanding goes. Maybe I'm underrating Omar a bit, but he has no senior international experience (which will almost certainly change very soon) and it's worth it to be a little cautious here. Agbossoumonde looks rated a little high, but everyone who sees him seems to really like him. If he could latch on permanently at Sporting Braga, that would be a big opportunity for him. His high ranking is as much due to the un-great options below him anyway. I probably underrated Davies a bit, but I'm too lazy to change it. Midfielders are next, and that looks like a much more promising group, at least in terms of upside.
Looking back at these threads from 2006 its always pretty amazing to see how guys come out of nowhere. Anyways, I might rate Boss even higher, theres a decent chance the 35 year old Boca or Dolo will be retired (from int'l play at least) by then.
I'm throwing my hat in the ring for Lichaj to be our starting RB. He seems to be developing well and had some great reviews while he was on loan this year.
Yeah, I was hesitant at this early stage. I mean Parkhurst is probably one of the top 10 defenders in league history, at his peak and is out in the wilderness. Yes Parkhurst has physical liabilities Ream doesn't have, but it's still real early. Also Ream and Brunner have an age group problem. The 1986-1989 group is actually pretty deep. Hall was the last player from that group I added, and I really like him. From 1986 on and younger we've got a whole lot of maybes, but only one solid looking pick in Spector. Also I wanted to add Williams just as a sort of informational bonus. He's as good a prospect as is on the list, he just might not be _our_ prospect. Somebody from there is going to step up big, I don't pretend to be able to guess who.
Was Sean Franklin's omission intentional? He's an obvious choice. There is very little lacking in his game. He has above average speed, anticipates, is an above average distributor, has an accurate cross, and makes intelligent runs off the ball. I think he'd be in the Premiership or some top European League if it weren't for Work Permit restrictions. He has no glaring flaws in his game. The only real question about him is injury issues. I'm not sure why he never was in favor with Bradley...but probabilities are the next coach will have an affinity. He has a lot of fans here among those who endure MLS games. And I'm assuming Shea will be classified at another position....but IMO his skill-set projects to fullback. Hodgson thought so also. Can't be married to where he's employed by one particular club because of their other personnel. They don't use Pearce their either.
1. I'd list Rodney as a midfielder probably as an international, but it's a hard call. I could see him being tested at left back internationally at least. 2. (More importantly): Guys like him never seem to pan out in terms of getting citizenship nearly in time. Not with Nunez not with Movsysian and probably not with Rodney either. Even if he can do it, it likely won't be in time for 2014. For this purpose, he's Costa Rican. So I think those are both decent reasons not to list him here.
Orozco has been less than overwhelming for the Union this year. I'm disappointed in him. He has made a lot of mental mistakes that have either led to goals or cards.
Shea's a forward for now. Besides we need those as much if not more than we need fullbacks. As for Franklin, I just forgot him. This can be hard sometimes, and it's even harder now that MLS has messed their site up so badly. I used to be able to have everybody at a few clicks. Now it's a full on mess. Those responsible should all be shot. The in and out of the lineup trick he's been pulling because of injuries can make you forget about him if you don't see him play for a while. So go ahead and throw him in where appropriate, but for a young player he's kind of old. Like I said, Jeremy Hall's a nice player too and he's down the list a ways. I kind of threw Moor in there at the last second to cover that age group, so you can swap Moor our for Franklin if you like. Though to be fair, Moor actually does have a handful of games with the Nats while Franklin's only had a couple of camps and is only a year younger.
That's not the way I'm doing it. I'm going strictly by birth year just like the youth teams, so if he was born on December 31, 1988, he'd still be down as 26. I'm doing it that way, because the first couple of World Cups I only had the year info and not the month or day so in terms of determining the age distributions, this works better for me. So if you want to make a mental adjustment, just read those ages as if they were birth years. IE, 27 = 2014-27 = 1987.
Flores should be on there. Valentin isn't. Judgment call. I added Walsh, Watts and Okugo instead. He was considered but wasn't picked. Again, you can swap out who you like, the purpose is to provide a list of players who span the standard spread of ages. At the youth levels we still don't know very much about these guys yet.
Its to early to too tell on the young guys. I've seen Watts and he will struggle on the WC level because his lack of speed. Garza is really small and not very athletic.
Cameron: He'll be in with the midfielders. De La Garza: Didn't pick him. The Galaxy obviously are doing extremely well, but I'm not sure De La Garza has necessarily been the biggest reason. Stephens is definitely going to be there. Omar is already there. And then of course Donovan, Buddle and their internationals. Not saying he's played poorly, or even denying that he's done a nice job for them. Hall is the guy he'd have to knock out, and I prefer Hall for now.
I think Cameron projects as a ball playing CB at the next level. He can play midfield yeah but I'd rather have him in the back. I think that if he gets to Europe that's where his future lies.
Agreed about De La Garza. He's streaky. Same with Marco Vidal and Edgar Castillo, who looked great for a few months then played very poorly. We can keep an eye on all three players.
Basically won't work here. He's a 2018 prospect at best, as he's definitely a German National Teamer until he gets word they're no longer interested. Seems unlikely that happens in time for 2014, particularly since the best of my knowledge he's never hinted even in the slightest that he has any interest in playing for us. Daniel Williams is a little different in that regard. Just for completeness sake, if you think I've left off some guy whose been itching to play for someone else his whole life, while it's possible I may have just forgot him, more than likely I wrote him off as "not going to play for us." So a Hoyos will definitely make an appearance, but a kid whose lived in a country his whole life, plays professionally there and has a bunch of caps for their youth teams I'd just as soon assume he's a no go until we hear otherwise. As soon as he shows up on a YNT roster, he then becomes fair game to me.