Well we've had a lot of bad news today, so this may bring a little joy to the US soccer world. We're absolutely lousy with freakin' midfielders. No Messic caliber talents unfortunately, but our depth has depth here. It's one thing to follow a player or two trying to work their way up from the youth team at a good pro club. That has minimal impact. When it's about 150 of them and counting, that's progress. Donovan and Dempsey will be 32 and 31 and that's not great news. I still expect both to be starters, but I don't expect them to be as effective anymore. Remember that there are age restrictions on this list, so don't bombard me with the list of 92s Rongen and DMN have unearthed, mostly from Mexico. I know all about them and I can only take so many. With Gil and Zahavi and Lletget and Hoyos and Diskerud all rightly on the list, I can't go nuts listing the rest of our current U-20 and U-23 pools. It's only 33 guys and we need to save room for some veterans. 1. Landon Donovan, 32, Los Angeles Galaxy 2. Michael Bradley, 27, Borussia Munchengladbach 3. Clint Dempsey, 31, Fulham 4. Jose Torres, 27, Pachuca 5. Maurice Edu, 28, Rangers 6. Stuart Holden, 29, Bolton Wanderers 7. Benny Feilhaber, 29, AGF Aarhus 8. Freddy Adu, 25, Benfica 9. Alejandro Bedoya, 27, Orebro SK 10. Geoff Cameron, 29, Houston Dynamo 11. Ricardo Clark, 31, Eintracht Frankfurt 12. Sebastian Lletget, 22, West Ham United 13. Luis Gil, 21, Real Salt Lake 14. Michael Stephens, 25, Los Angeles Galaxy 15. Sacha Kljestan, 29, Anderlecht 16. Jermaine Jones, 33, FC Schalke 17. Robbie Rogers, 27, Columbus Crew 18. Brad Evans, 29, Seattle Sounders 19. DaMarcus Beasley, 32, No Club 20. Michael Hoyos, 23, Estudiantes La Plata 21. Alex Zahavi, 23, Sporting Lisbon 22. Dax McCarty, 27, FC Dallas 23. Eddie Gaven, 28, Columbus Crew 24. Mikkel Diskerud, 24, Stabaek 25. Danny Cruz, 23, Houston Dynamo 26. Marco Vidal, 28, Pachuca 27. Blair Gavin, 25, Chivas USA 28. Lester Dewee, 22, Olympique de Marseilles 29. Brad Davis, 33, Houston Dynamo 30. Jared Jeffrey, 24, FSV Mainz 31. Baggio Husidic, 27, Chicago Fire 32. Sal Zizzo, 27, Hannover 96 33. Andrew Oliver, 20, Westside United I'm sure I'll get arguments about Oliver as the '94, but if any of the '94s I've actually seen, he's impressed me the most. He's fast and skilled, and maybe he can fill out the rest as he gets older. We've got enough d-mids and holding mids to last us for a while. A pacy winger might be a nice change of pace. Lletget and Gil are rated so high because I've seen them play and they've impressed the hell out of me. Freddy's apparently out at Aris and continues to be in free fall. With the amount of talent we're stockpiling in the midfield, the time to transfer to a heavily possession oriented team (and country) is right damn now. We've got some capable young pros with good skills and lots of experience like Gaven and McCarty and their pretty much buried toward the bottom of the list. June 26, 2010 needs to be the day the longball died in this country. When our fifth string is fully capable of playing a controlled possession game, the excuses are over as to why we don't do so.
Finally, the thread I was waiting for. We are STACKED at midfielder for 2014. I can't wait to see what these guys do over the next four years. I'm not sure how we'll use Donovan or Dempsey in 2014, but I'm genuinely excited to find out.
Yeah, I gotta say, good job building that list. Itll be exciting to see who ends up developing well enough to play in 4 years.
Again, to your credit, truer words were never spoken. I believe that only a new coach will help in this evolution, the necessary next step for the team to develop its game. This is not a BB bash, but I think coaches do need to change for every cycle.
Here's how I see the midfield - Bradley for sure. Edu will be in his prime. Torres will most likely have developed into a true national team player. Holden will continue to improve. Will Donovan and Dempsey still be able to put up the same workrate? And a young guy or two will definately burst onto the scene. I'm excited to see who it is and I will definately be looking off this list in the near future.
And I will concur with the last post. We have the midfield depth to get away from the long ball. Now if we can just find the manager to do it. Voros, great job. I am an optimist. I saw great things in our midfield but also some limitations in this World Cup. By the way, since you've been on BS longer than I have, do you know what happened to Nutmeg? He used to have some great statistical analysis.
I personally think that a three-man central midfield is the best way to go, unless you have two really top-notch strikers, and we don't. If June 26 was the day longball died I'm hoping it's the day 4-4-2 dies (at least for us) too. I'm rooting for Jermaine Jones to become a key player - he'll be 32 I believe when summer of 2014 rolls around, which is not too old. I'd like to see Jones as the anchor man, Torres as the Xavi-type, and Bradley given license to make runs forward and close down high, which he likes to do anyway.
I am really excited about our Mids we have a lot of good young talents playing in Europe and a couple good players here in MLS like Stephens
amen brother! to the death of 4-4-2 that is. how dense and tactically inept do you have to be to look at the US talent pool, currently or in the future and not see that we have ZERO strikers of international quality. that being the case, guess what? employing a line up that requires TWO is utterly absurd. i would like to see a 4-2-3-1. with Edu/Bradley ... Felhaiber creating in the middle and Donovan/Dempsey interchanging on the wings and getting forward into the box to pick up what Jozy could win and dish off. and i don't really see how this changes going forward. Davies won't fit this system but Davies might never be back so ... i have to wonder how close the really heralded kids are like renken and gyau? or if the guys who finally skipped the waste that is US college soccer and are now already in MLS at 17-18 like Agudelo and Navas Cobo and Hamid and Jac Mac (and maybe even Najar if we can steal him) can make good over the next few years in MLS and move quickly on to Europe to develop in to true top quality. but like you said, where once there was one Adu in the last generation who busted and produced no truly class players for us, the next generation has 20-30 potential Adus and while many or even most may bust too some of them are going to make it and be at the Bradley/Dempsey/Donovan level or better.
if we can't do better than these scrubs by 2014 than we are screwed. there is no point in having any of them on a list, no matter how deep, of potential players for 2014. they have all proven they aren't international quality and will older than players with twice their talent and potential by 2014. i would be willing to wager that no a single one of these scrubs plays any part in the qualifying much less the WC itself.
You really think that zero out of Gaven, Rogers, Clark or McCarty will play a part in qualifying? Rogers was in the 30 for the WC, Gaven seems likely to reenter the picture based on age and current form, Clark has a lot of competition and clear limits to his game but is still on a Bundesliga roster at age 27, McCarty is a solid MLS midfielder at 23. None are top prospects, but all could end up being useful at some point.
I'll second that OleGunnar 20. Like the 4-2-3-1 myself. Any line-up where healthy/in-form and experienced Donovan/Dempsey gets the most out of our talent.
Yeah I fully intended to have Renken on here, but the injuries have simply let others pass him by. There's a limited number of spots you could reasonably assign to guys born from 1990-1993, and it's difficult for me to see someone I listed who I'd remove to put Renken on there. I think Gil and Lletget are fantastic, and I've not seen Zahavi but the reports on him are also extremely strong. Danny Cruz or Dewee, maybe?
agreed, I think Gil and Lletget are going to bump some of our vets off the roster. ------------------Bradley------------------ Gil---------------Donovan-----------Lletget can you even imagine the offensive awesome....*splooge*
I'll be shocked if Danny Cruz is ever more than an occasional camp cupcake midfielder for the US. I love the kid for his energy and attitude, but he's just much much too raw. He's young and fairly new to the game, so he may have more potential for growth than some other guys, but really, he's MILES away from where he would need to be. To me, a dream scenario would be that he develops into a Brian Mullan type, with more athleticism. But Mully only got a couple of caps in an era when we weren't nearly as deep at midfield as we will be going forward. Now, if someone taught him how to cross and turned him into a right back.... Hmmmmm.
would like to see Ryan Smith in a US uniform, and maybe Bobby Convey will continue his recent hot form for the next few years
Torres seems like a great guy and all but at a generous 5-7 and 135# wet, we will continue to see what we saw this tournament - Torres getting physically outmatched. As good as his skills are supposed to be - they don't overcome his size and lack of physical play. For reference, see: Adu, Freddy.