Underrated? Nah. He's an ordinary player and most people don't know who he is. That sounds about right to me. If anything, he's overrated by overanxious DC fans. He will probably never play for the US. Why does every fan think their team's d-mid is some underapreciated diamond in the rough?
Twenty...FYI...i'm not trying to be a douche...but Gaven typically doesn't play left wing for the Metros. He does find himself out there a lot though. Bradley plays a box midfield with Eddie and Guevara attacking, allowing them to roam. However, Guevara plays with two right feet so he tends to go out right while Gaven will go left. Towards the end of the season he brought Magee back into the midfield...allowing him, Eddie and Amado to roam while Ricardo Clark sat in front of the backs and distributed the ball. I played with Eddie in HS and his vision is unreal. I was captain while he was the can't-miss freshman phenom. I really hope he gets bigger so he will be a fixture in the middle of the field for Arena. Anyway...just didn't want you to think that he could only play out wide.
Fair enough. You're cerntainly not a douche for correcting me. But my main point was that Martino is much better prepared to play AM in these upcoming friendlies. Martino was pretty much the main creative force for a really good team last year. Gaven was playing alongside the MLS MVP (I know, I know)). Martino has much more playmaking responsibility for Columbus than Gaven has for NY. Couple that with the fact that Martino has more senior international experience. I'm the last one who would deny that Gaven is an amazing talent. He certainly has much more potential than Martino. He's on a totally different level talent-wise and probably has more potential than any other American player. Eddie will probably surpass Martino sooner rather than later (could be just a matter of months) and Eddie certainly deserves playing time NOW. I realize that Gaven's first postion is in the middle, but playing him at the top of a diamond in his first start would be really harsh given that he's never really done that in MLS. It's better to work him in on the wing.
I agree that Martino is better right now but I think it'd be a good opportunity for Gaven to get some PT. I was thinking that with a box midfield Martino and Gaven could both play the attacking role with Dempsey and another D-mid back. Gaven and Martino would be allowed to roam wide with our wing backs jumping more into the attack.
Reading played Convey just this week in the center, just behind the forwards, for a half of a reserve team game before going back to a 4-4-2 for the second half. Bobby IS versatile, and was effective in the center on the national youth teams. If anyone doubts his quality at the MNT level, watch the Mexico game again.
I get sick of hearing this. He was not knocked out of the game by physical play. He was knocked out of the game by a brutal foul from behind. I do agree, however, that he is too easily put off his game by legal physical challenges.
The South Koreans have indicated that they will be bringing an all-domestic team, and Sweden will probably not call in more than a few foreign-based players. Both countries' domestic leagues play summer schedules, so their training camps are going to be for exactly the same purpose as ours: offseason training and player evaluation. I don't think Donovan or Beasley are going to have to come back. Neither is Mathis, who in all likelihood will be trying to settle in with a new club in Germany. So who in MLS is there that we can look at? I suspect that we go with a box again. Dempsey gets another look at d-mid, probably paired with Zavagnin or possibly Mastroeni... Gaven and Martino sound good as attacking mids, but if Gaven isn't available then why not Steve Ralston? Sure, we're not developing Ralston for anything, but there is no more graphic illustration of the Ralston Line than the man himself, seeing as we're playing against South Korean and Swedish B-teams. You always want to have some veterans in the mix in friendlies, not for "veteran leadership" but for more pragmatic reasons - those who play themselves onto the team will probably be playing alongside the veterans again, and they also serve as a basis for comparison.
martino should play a-mid if both mathis and donovan are not called in. he is easily the third best creative player we have. Gaven on the otherhand is not as good as martino and i really do not see the great creativness and vision that others see in him. i basically see a white version of beasley. kick and run and then dive if you are touched and because they are both basically a bags of bones they get the foul it is infuriating. he is a good talent but i do not belive he will ever be a better a-mid then either martino or donovan. remember everyone was on martinos nuts when he won ROY and know that a younger guy has showed up everyone jumps ship. kind of like the rico clark and dempsey issue. martino can take people on and play better balls than gaven. heck i even think magee is a much better a-mid than gaven because he has much better vision.