You know, if MLS recognized international breaks like all the other big time leagues and took the weekend off, we would not have this problem about players missing league games. This is a huge friendly. Brazil gets to bring all of their big guns because the European leagues aren't playing this weekend. Because MLS refuses to play soccer like everyone else, Bradley is somewhat limited about his player choices. What is the deal?
Bradley is going with his A-squad. There's no need for MLS'ers for a stand-alone game. Dunga can bring whomver he wants ... and he apparently wants more defensive midfielders. I guess it's a propos and an hommage to Dave Sarachan that the game is held in Chicago.
It's clear BB considers MB is DM of the future and will continue to play him to prepare for the future. Like it or not, he's the national team coach, so it's his prerogative.
Not yet. Thanks for BB and U20 WC we all have plenty of chances to see him plays. Right now MB works hard, has good size, decent speed and skills and sometime can make good passes but can't really shoot from outside. All in all, still a work in progress. If BB is right, he can be a solid, valuable DM for the future, but we shall see.
As usual, I like some, I dislike some. I'll get into more detail in the afternoon (I was out of town for the weekend, have class in the morning, and am quite tired).
Vanney and Corrales were also in the pool. I like Rico, but think Bob thinks that Mike and Benny are ahead of Rico and Mastro is the veteran fallback.
You don't think that just maybe playing both Copa and Gold Cup was enough games missed for Clark and Bradley is trying to equal out the time missed between him and Pablo?
Bornstein, Parkhurst, Twellman, Altidore all have matches that day. Donovan, Clark, Mastroeni have matches the day before.
Re: Roster: Announced Actually, I am extremely glad that Jonathan Bornstein is not called in!!! I was getting so tired of him starting repeatedly over the other Jonathan(Spector) who clearly performed better more consistently. Now, let's see what Heath Pearce can do for us against Brazil if he get on the pitch.I know he didn't exactly performed up to what we look for but has been barely given much minutes as compared to those two Jonathans. Now, the selection of forwards are quite horrid but since the dearth of top quality forwards, BB may not have much of a choice. Maybe Altidore is needed at his club. He will get his chance eventually.
MLS schedule or not, not overly impressed with some of these call-ups. Why are Wolff and Mastroeni still taking up valuable spots for these games? Considering they were marginal starters in their 20s, what kind of contribution can we possibly expect from them by the time WC 2010 rolls around when both will be well into their 30s. No Altidore or Adu? Can't understand how BB can cap three (Seitz, Zizzo, Bradley) other U-20 players instead these two. Perhaps my biggest complaint is that these friendlies are exactly what is needed to bring along promising young players. Just look at Argentina, who by all accounts is stacked at the attacking spots but still insists on calling up Arguero for these friendlies because they realize how important it is to have at least 1 or 2 promising U-20s integrate into the senior team. And unless your name is Bob Bradley, there is no denying Altidore and Adu are two of our most promising young players. Dumbfounded, frankly. No Clark, Parkhurst, Alvarez or even Conrad? In terms of MLS form, you'd be hard-pressed to find better, more promising younger players than the first 3 and a better central defender than Conrad. Clark, Parkhurst & Conrad have already shown they are capable of being starters on the NATS while Alvarez, for my money, has been the best American attacker in MLS this year. He is exactly the type of creative and skilled attacker the NATS have been sorely lacking. To call up Convey (terrible form) and Arnaud (who?) instead is troublesome. I have given Bradley the benefit of the doubt until now, ignored some of his questionable starting lineups and substitutions. But his continued insistence on ignoring our most promising young players and also MLS players in the best form is disconcerting.
But why should that enter into the discussion? MLS's play-off field is basically set. Let Bob call up whoever he wants without deferring to MLS.
Ives takes a look at the roster and throws out a lineup; a long, mixed bag of comments follows. http://njmg.typepad.com/sbi/2007/09/us-roster-vs-br.html#more .... What's the lineup going to be? Here's my {Ives'} early crack at it: ---------Donovan -----Dempsey------- Beasley-------------------------------Wolff ---------Bradley--------Mastroeni--------- Spector-------------------------Cherundolo ---------Bocanegra------Onyewu---------- -------------------Howard------------------- ....
I believe Bornstein, Mapp and Clark were the only MLS players called up to both the Gold Cup and Copa. So it is plausible that this is the reason they weren't called up for this match (plus Mapp is currently injured). Doesn't make it right but I'm hoping that this is the reason rather than Bradley thinking Mastroeni and Junior are better than Clark. Maybe he had some sort of understanding with the coaches of Bornstein and Clark when they agreed to release those guys for both summer tournaments. EDIT: Just realized that EJ also played in both tournaments. But KC has this weekend off.
Amidst all the gloom there is one silver lining: no Twellman!!! That pretty much makes up for everything else.
Luis Bueno also comments on the roster ... http://sidelineviews.blogspot.com/2007/09/us-roster-for-brazil.html Finally, the US released its roster for the upcoming Brazil match. It's an interesting roster, to say the least. Even though this weekend falls on an international calendar, Bob Bradley chose to leave some MLS players with their clubs. I must say, I'm disappointed that Jozy Altidore is not on the list. I was hoping Altidore would get the call for the first time against Brazil and that Bradley would use this game as preparation for the long haul and bring in youngsters that will help the US down the road. But Altidore was not called upon. Bradley only called in five MLS players which goes against what I had thought would happen. I figured Bradley would call in an MLS-heavy squad because the game is here in the States and rely on the European contingent again for October matches in Catalonia and Switzerland, but that's not the case. .... {LB then looks at the call-ups position-by-position.} .... Overall, it's a very solid group despite the lack of MLS players. Again, I'd have liked to have seen more youngsters on this team and maybe see what kinds of players Bradley has in mind for qualifying and the 2010 World Cup. But he seemed to have left MLS teams alone for the most part which doesn't allow for such call-ups. What do you think? Anyone's absence surprise you? How strong do you think this roster is? {Again, comments follow.}
Though we'll likely never know, I really hope this is the same team Bob would have picked even if MLS had the week off. If you're going to play world class opponents like we've been begging USSF to do, I would hope you would call in your best players now and again to benefit from said level of competition. I am hoping, save for the forwards and one or two others who are kinda past their prime, that these represent who Bob thinks are the best. This whole defense is going to get a test, so I like who he's brought in...the midfield will be critical too so I'm equally pleased there (though I do agree that Pablo is getting a little long in the tooth). The "test cases": I'm glad Heath Pearce is getting the opportunity, because even if we don't really know about him (which sure as heck isn't his fault), we do know that Bornstein isn't ready (and I have my doubts if he will every be). Wolff, why not, he isn't that old. The only head-scratcher really is Davy Arnaud...maybe four years ago that would have made some sense, but I'm really not sure where that one came from.
This is the roster I expected. Bob clearly did not see the Brazil match as a chance to bleed some youngsters. I believe this squad would be close to the squad he'd call in if we had a WCQ today. Obviously Seitz and Arnaud wouldn't be there. Replace them with Marcus Hahnemann and Ricardo Clark, and there you go. That's fine with me, as long as we have a chance to check out some newbies later this year, or the beginning of next year. No biggie.
As I wrote in the other thread, I think that that kind of conjecture is self-fulfilling and circuitous, at best. Why look for a complicated answer when there is a simple one? It seems clear to me that Bradley's preferred central midfield consists of Michael and Pablo. He has played those two together at every opportunity.
I just had a thought. Imagine if, after a bit of mis-communication, mis-translation, we had announced our roster first, a U-23/newbie collection, expecting Brasil to do the same. Then, Brasil named their actual high-powered roster. Would we have scrapped ours entirely or taken our medicine like (young) men? In any event, BB does not want to get blown out, and we shouldn't get blown out with the players he's bringing. Though maybe BB is hoping that HP will get torched enough times to silence JB's critics. {Note to BB: it won't.}