McBride did fare quite well when he returned, scoring 3 goals in 9 games after a significant layoff,a nd in all three of those games, Fulham won- so vital to their staying up. Add that to the little things we all know McBake does so well and there is no reason to say he wasn't that hot or important for Fulham.
For the most part, I have no objections with using a senior spot on McBride. My only quibble would be that the experience he gets won't benefit the US much down the line presuming he stays retired from the senior team. To that end, having Kenny Cooper go would have been great experience for him AND helped the US both in Beijing and down the line with the senior team. While McBride is certainly more accomplished than Cooper, I don't think the gap betwen them, right now, is so great that McBride is dramatically better than Cooper. Of course, the X-factor is the experience and leadership McBride brings and the things he can, presumably, teach the younger players that they'll - hopefully - be able to incorporate into their careers going foward.
Since this is the full national team forum, I'll note that we could field an entire lineup of players who have started for the men's team already. Of course, it would look like one giant, amorphous central midfield blob (something like a 2-1-1-1-1-1-1-2), but the point is that I'm not sure we've ever been able to do that in past Olympic competitions.
I agree, if you are going to use a senior spot on the roster, forward seems like an obvious area to me, and bringing in a consummate professional like McBride- well I think it provides a good example for the younger players. Who knows, maybe Cooper will get called in for the big boys now.
How good was McBride at 22 or 23? McBride was no big deal and never had "Wynalda" classy finishing touch. Now Wynalda was far better player. Adam Cristman never got any games with the under 23 team. Cristman seems like to be there. Preston Zimmerman also didn't get any games. Zimmerman seems more like natural replace for McBride. Chad Barrett does suck. Findley is more like Super Sub. Sammy Ochoa did OK in a couple of games. Jemal Johnson never got a call. Jeromo from under 17. Why not? Classy finisher and huge future ahead of him. Jorge Flores is another younger. Enzo Bernando from Napoli. Perovic or something like Serb, who scored against mexico.
Between him and the best center mid from our NT I would choose ... Wait it's the same player, so confusing.
McBride at 22 was considered the top forward in college soccer and one of the more promising young talents. He played domestically and performed incredibly, then went to Germany and struggled getting time. When he returned to MLS at age 23/24, he was the first pick. Sorry, but McBride in his professional career outperformed Wynalda. There is no comparison. Wynalda had one half of a good season in the Budesliga, and then sturggled in the 2nd Bundesliga. McBride was a fixture at Fulham. So yeah, at 22/23, McBride was considered good enough to be the first pick in the inaugural draft.
Cristman - muscles and not much else at this point. Zimmerman - hustle hustle hustle! Ochoa - What? Jemal Johnson - needed a whole season to score two more goals than McBride got in nine matches, and that in the fourth division. He didn't get a call because he isn't that good. Jerome - 17 years old. Don't have to say much more. Flores - Not an absolute world beater with the U-20s, so why should he play for the U-23s? Bernardo - a reserve team player from a team that just got back into Serie A a year ago. That'll guarantee success! This is entire list is crap, so I'm not even going to bother with the remaining names. McBride is a great inclusion. Besides, you used "Wynalda" and "classy" together in a sentence. How can we take you seriously after that?
I'll be watching Team USA more hopefully now. McBride is hopefully going to do with the young guns what he could not do in 2006. Great timing for him. Strong after recovery from a catastrophic patella injury he helped Fulham stay up as pointed out before. The key here will be to share the forward duties with another rather than play as a solo striker (what did Arena expect ?). Adu has got to be the distributor behind the two forwards. Bradley's going to have to stay back with most likely Szetela. Can we medal now that we're taking the Olympics more seriously? It'll be because of someone like McBride. We're weak at LB and RB, so I can understand Hejduk as alternate.
I am fine with McBride's inclusion. He brings a lot to the table besides the ability to score and win the air balls. But I have little hope of us making it out of this group. I have yet to see a performance from this team (minus the overage) that makes me think that we will win any games at all in China. So I'll take the ultra-low expectations approach and hope I am pleasantly surprised. Otherwise I'll likely be yelling profusely at my tv in the wee hours of the morning.
Freddy Adu, Michael Bradley, Sacha Kljestan, Stuart Holden, Danny Szetela, Benny Feilhaber, Maurice Edu Not sure where you got 5 from, Nutmeg. I count 3, one of whom will be likely used as a CB.
I like the team. I expect this to be the line-up come kickoff... GK-Brad Guzan RB-Marvell Wynne RCB-Michael Parkhurst LCB-Maurice Edu LB-Michael Orozco DM-Michael Bradley RM-Sacha Kljestan LM-Robbie Rogers CAM-Freddy Adu RF-Jozy Altidore LF-Brian McBride If we go with a flat four, then I'd expect Benny or Szetela to take the place of Kljestan or Rogers. What is the date and time of our first game by the way?
Agreed. Was at the match where McHead saved Fulham in their 2nd to last game. Looked great after being pretty mangled up for the majority of the year. They freaking love the guy over there, but the guy just took too much of a beating over his career... I'm excited about his leadership and charisma going to work with the kids over in China.
Every single line-up I have looked at have shown both McBride and Altidore in the starting XI. While I agree they are clearly our top 2 forwards I find it highly unlikely that both start in either of the first two matches. You have to figure McBride will not start both of the first two matches with all three so close to each other. Instead I feel it much more likely that one will start match 1 with the other starting match 2 and then playing it by the situation in match 3. I see it rather unlikely we play two target forwards especially with such a proficient midfield. Instead, I see a 4-5-1 as by far the most likely line-up. I'd expect the following in match 1 assuming the health of all players: --------------------------------------------Guzan--------------------------------------------- ---Wynne------------------Orozco-----------------------Parkhurst----------------Sturgis--- ----------------------------Bradley----------------------Edu--------------------------------- -------------Kljestan----------------------Adu--------------------------Rogers------------- -----------------------------------------McBride--------------------------------------------- Likely subs if losing: Altidore Holden Davies In match 2 I'd expect a similar lineup though with Altidore up top over McBride.
McBride works as a late game sub in any situation. He is a very good "defensive forward" - although not a speedy fast break type he will still pressure and require attention from CD's. And if you need a goal and are looking to hoof it to somebody, he's as good a as anyone we've got these days. Although our best international goal scorers are CD's. He's probably planned as a rotational starter and late game option.
Bingo. The thought of Bake spending 3+ weeks teaching a Benny Feilhaber how to be a professional athlete is well worth the fact that he's 12 years older than anyone else on the roster. Speaking of Benny, the mere fact that's he's well enough to even be on the roster speaks volumes to me. After all the work (I assume) he's done to get his knee back in shape, he may just be a bit more motivated than he was in the pre-Qualifying camp. I like this roster. I think we can medal, GoD or no GoD.
My choice for starting lineup would be this: -------Altidore------McBride------ -----Adu------------------Rogers-- ----------Szetela----Bradley------ --Edu----Parkhurst--Orozco--Wynne Adu and Rogers would be played asymmetrically, with Rogers wider and Adu pinched to the middle. I would also adjust which side they played on depending on where the opponents attack is stronger. I would put Rogers on the side where more tracking back on defense is needed.
This team has never played together so it's impossible to judge them It's a very different team from qualifying and an even more different team from Toulon From qualifying, this team is upgraded with Guzan, Bradley, Parkhurst, Szetela, McBride, Rogers, Feilhaber. Out of those I think only Benny doesn't start. That's a 6 player upgrade on the starting 11 from qualifying and that makes this an essentially completely different team. The only downgrade from this team from qualifying is Spector who is injured. I do like the selection and Nowak made the choices he had to make. The only thing I would have done differently is that I would have dropped Feilhaber and added another defender. But aside from that one change, I like the roster.
Some talent here, and anything can happen. But snark is much more fun for posts. Predictions: Novak misuses Adu (again) Novak regrets (or would if he were human) only having one fullback on the roster Novak regrets (or .. blah) giving a spot to Feilhaber Question: for whom is Frankie an alternate? If Wynne or Sturgis gets hurt, you can't add Frankie.
As I Fire fan can I have Thorrington and Rolfe back please? We have a match at LA the next night. Bob can keep Barrett. Actually, he really can keep Barrett.