Revs in camp Could be Ralston, I picked Peirce since Bruce hasn't seen him in a camp yet and might want to get a look just to have something to measure progress against. Ralston would be more of a fill out the roster for the game (or as a reward for long time high level play in MLS) since I expect Ben Olsen will be getting a chance to see how far back he is.
Re: Re: GrillMaster History will also record that the US was the second team to qualify for WC02 and Mexico was the third. And since the goal was to qualify for the World Cup (not to "win the hex"), I'd think you'd place more value on which team was able to accomplish that goal in nine games vs. the one that was able to accomplish it in ten. Sure, Mexico's reasons for being in trouble are legit, as are arguments about the relative quality of their national team program, but saying "they finished ahead of us in the hex" is your reason for saying they are still better is just strange when that wasn't our goal or theirs.
Re: Revs invited to camp... According to SA MLS Confidential: "...An unofficial, preliminary list of U.S. players for the Nov. 17 friendly against El Salvador includes six from New England. The obvious choice of forward Taylor Twellman is supplemented by Steve Ralston, Adin Brown, Joey Franchino, Leo Cullen and Daniel Hernandez. Ralston has earned seven caps (1997-2000). Franchino played 13 minutes in a friendly against Mexico in October, 2000. Cullen played against Chile and Jamaica in 1999. Players will begin training for the match Nov. 11" Although I haven't seen NE play much this year, I have seen enough of Joey and Leo to think that Bruce took a couple of bong hits before deciding to bring them into camp...
Two things re: Cullen and Franchino: 1) Bruce likes Leo Cullen. 2) Suddenly D mid is looking pretty lean. The anklebiter's time has past. The '06 master plan may have Mastro playing there but Bruce may feature him on the back line. My guess is that alot of potential D-mids will get called into camp between now and the start of qualifying.
my submission for a matchday squad of 18 (starters first) GK: Brown, Rimando (will HOward be ready to play by then?) D: Pope, Bocanegra, Suarez, Barrett - Llamosa, outside back, maybe Heaps M: Mastroeni, Maisonneuve, Donovan, Beasley - Ralston, Hernandez F: Twellman, McBride - Razov, Buddle this assumes 4-4-2 - if it's 3-5-2 probably one less defender and one more midfielder in which case Convey, Henderson, Olsen or Martino might be included. I presume he will not call in any Euro-based players. At least I hope he doesn't.
Hey thanks Sachin. you are right, we are th one's those shirts. hopefully we can catch up at the US and El Salvador or maybe DCU v. Antigua. thanks for the support.
Thought so. If you guys want to, get tickets through us. Same seats, lower price. Let me know. You can E-mail me be clicking on the E-mail link at the bottom of this message. Sachin
With El Salvador at RFK, I'd call it a pretty hostile field. Maybe not the same as going down to Azteca but it's not going to be nice.
No Mathis? Is he injured? Olsen looked pretty good vs Spurs IX last week so I expect him to be in the matchday 18.
buddle - his right foot is in a cast right now with a healing broken bone suffered in the new england playoff series , he wont be there...
It is not that difficult to find out what 30 US players. First, let's check the starting lineup. LA--hartman; Lalas, Marshall, Califf; Cienfugegs, Elliott, Herdrickson, Jones, Victorine, Marino, Ruiz. Lalas and Jones are gone. So in Califf, Victorine. Possible with major sub--Vagenas. 2.5. SJ--Cannon; Agoos, Robinson, Conrad, Barrett; Euklund, Mulrooney, Lagos, Russell; Donovan, Graziani. Agoos is gone, Mulrooney is hurt. So Cannon, Barrett and Donovan. 3. KC--Meola, Garcia, Vermes, Talley; Klein, Zavagnin, Preki, Quill, Gutierrez; Brown, Simutenkov. Meola and Preki are gone. Brown, Quill, Garcia, Talley and Zavagnin may not good enough. So only one here is Klein. 1. CO--Dramer; Kotschau, Fraser, Herdsman; Hart, Mastroeni, Henderson, Chung, Valderrama; Chris Carrieri, Spencer. Fraser is gone. Chung should be gone. Henderson is half/half. Carrieri may not good enough, but may get a 30 roster spot. So only one here is Mastronei. DA--Jordan; Suarez, Broome, Bonseu, Morrow; Deering, O'Brien, Pareja, Martinez; Kreis, Rhine. Deering is too old. Martinez isn't US eligible. So Suarez is must and Rhine may get in for 30. So it is one. CH--Thornton; Brown, Curtin, Bocanegra, Perez; Vaudreuil, Beasley, Marsch, Nowak, Kovalenko, Razov. Wolff and Armas are hurt. Razov is gone and hurt too. Thornton and Brown are no good this year. So Bocanegra and Beasley. Marsch, Curtin and Gray may get a look. So is 2 here. DC--Rimando; Reyes, Pope, Namoff; Olsen, Alegria, Etcheverry, Convey, Villegas; Quaranta, Mareno. Convey, Mapp and Quaranta will be in U-20. Rimando, Pope and Olsen will be in. 3. NE--Brown; Llamosa, Franchino, Kante, Heaps; Cullen, Hernandez, Ralston, Kamler; Twellman, Harris. As we already know 6 of them are called up. NE does have a LOT of US players in the field comparing with other teams. So here is 6. Brown, Franchino, Cullen, Hernandez, Ralston, Twellman. CL--Busch; Dunseth, Torres, McCarty, Denton; Maisonneuve, Oughton, Garcia, Perez; McBride, Cunningham. Too bad Buddle is hurt. If Bruce still want some of old guys around McBride and Maisonneuve will be in. Otherwise will be Cnningham and super sub--West and Martino. NY/NJ--Howard; Ziadie, Jolley, Petke, Akwari; Paule, Ramos, Mathis, Davis; Faria, Diallo. I can see Howard and Mathis a must. Jolley, Petke and Davis a probable. So I get my 30 players list: Goalkeepers--4--Cannon, Howard, Rimando, Brown. Defenders--8--Califf, Barrett, Suarez, Bocanegra, Pope, Franchino, Jolley, Petke. Midfielers--11--Victorine, Klein, Mastronei, Beasley, Olsen, Cullen, Hernandez, Ralston, Martino, West, Davis. I based on no Maisonnuve. Some of the players there are changable such as West and Davis can be easily replaced by Vagenas, Marsch, Gray, Paule and Deering. But my rational is that all of those guys are center mids who are behind of Cullen and Hernandez who are behind Mastronei, Reyna and O'Brien. In other way, if Bruce will let Henderson and Chung go, he may look on new and young wingers such as Davis and West. Forwards--7--Donovan, McBride, Mathis, Twellman, Cunnigham, Rhine, Carrieri. It is very easy to reduce to 23.
Re: Preston North End VS, The reason Mexico qualified with all messup works FMF did, because Mexico still have the DEEPEST talent pool in the region. US was badly hurt during the qualifying when McBride, Reyna and Pope are hurt with the new emgenent stars--Wolff and Mathis who carried the team alone also down. Donovan and Beasley were not matured yet, and Lewis, Koroviski, Hedjuk, etc. were rotten at the European bench. US got lucky when the WC started with all old veterans are able to contribute and Donovan/Beasley are step up. In the middle group--Mastronei and O'Brien in full health. Even though Mathis and Wolff only contribute partly. Comparison on Mexico, there are not enough middle group standup--Marquez and Torrodo are little younger than Mathis/O'Brien/Wolff/Mastronei group.