Glenn Myernick called in 18 players today for a game Wednesday between the US U23s and their Mexican counterparts to be played in Guadalajara (won't do now). http://www.ussoccerplayers.com/latest_soccer_news/359322.html Four United players - Stokes, Esky, Warren and Carroll - are among the 18 but Bobby Convey isn't. Now, given Convey's role with the full team and the fact that he played for them last night, that would appear to be why he wasn't called in. However, that argument is somewhat negated by the fact that Landon Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley, both of whom went 90 Thursday against Mexico's full team, are among the 18 Mooch called in. Which leads me to my question: is Bobby OK? Did he suffer some injury last night we don't know about or is there some other reason Convey wasn't called in? Also not called in was Santino Quaranta, though that's not that newsworthy as Mooch has yet to call Tino in to any of his camps. BTW, this call-up won't get in the way of this weekend's MLS games. The players aren't supposed to report till Sunday. Finally, check out Mooch's assistants - both have ties to the area. Rongen we know about but for those of us old enough to have gone to NASL games, Bill Irwin was a GK for the Washington Diplomats in the late 70's-early 80's.
Could be as simple as Mooch not wanting to gut United, yet wanting to see Landon and DMB with this crew. Also, the first U-23 qualifying matches will now run up against the U-20 WC. Maybe he's reassessing who will play. I think with Arena in charge of the whole program, reading the tea leaves of callups is hopeless.
Could also be that Ray didn't want to release him because he wants Convey to start against Spurs - possibly because Spurs have expressed a heretofore unreported interest in him. The others guys called up aren't starters.
I think the match with Spurs is probably the reason why both Santino and Bobby weren't called in.. I really couldn't fathom any other reason as both of them are not playing badly at the moment...
Well Monster and Lanky beat me to it, but I agree. United's two starters remain to play in the Spurs game while the sub/bench players get playing time. It sure seems like the logical choice to me. On a related note, I think the US National Teams--under the direct or indirect guidance of Arena--have done an excellent job of balencing club vs. country. MLS has done a grand job of making its players willingly available for selection, and the coaches have done a commendable job of stating that selection for the US Teams goes through performance on the MLS club teams. With Arena coaching, appointing, or endorsing almost every coach on all of these teams, I give him the lion's share of credit. But, everyone at each of the related entities deserves a LOT of credit. IMHO, this is the smoothest working symbiotic relationship of club + country in the world. We are certainly making the most of what we have. Kudos to the USSF and everyone involved in these decisions. -Digital