This is a little bit of a different question about who our next on the cusp guy will be to break into the national team. Its not about who was the biggest omission at the time. We've had that debate. What I wonder is who will we look back on after lets say a great club season and solid Gold Cup and think back... if we only could have had him in Brazil, even if he hadn't been ready in 2014. I'm not really sure who that guy will be, myself. Any thoughts? And let's keep dual nationals who haven't decided to play for the US out of it. It could be Terrance Boyd, although he also certainly was seen by many including myself as someone we should have taken as cover if though he very well may not have been ready. Is it someone in MLS/Europe/Mexico?
Still wish we had Eddie Johnson and Donovan. Probably even Danny Williams would have been nice. Injuries forced us to play people out of position and it really ruined or chances of advancing because Jurgen didn't have a direct replacement for altidore.
In retrospect, I don't think any of these players we're talking about would have significantly changed our fortunes. If we had Eddie Johnson, do people honestly think we beat Germany or Belgium? Hardly....................
Sorry. I wasn't clear in what I was getting at with this original post. What meant was. What young player will we look back in a year and say. Man, if this guy on his current 2105 form had been in Brazil, we would have done better. I'm not talking about established players that we could argue about for a long time and have argued about. I'm thinking about a Luis Gil or Wil Trapp or someone like that who is young and could improve a lot in the next year and be a regular national team starter. We'll look back and mistakenly say "if we had only had him". Hopefully that makes more sense. Positionally, this could easily be an outside mid. We sorely lacked creativity and attack from those positions (although I know Zusi got 2 assists).
You're probably right. A winger/forward with pace. Maybe a Paul Arriola type............................
My hindsight 23: GK: Howard, Guzan, Rimando FB: Chandler, Johnson, Yedlin*, Beasley CB: Brooks, Gonzalez*, Besler, Cameron MF: Beckerman, Diskerud, Bradley, Jones AM: Bedoya, Zusi, Green, Donovan* FW: Dempsey, Wondo (because Johannsson was hurt), Boyd*, Altidore I was wrong about Yedlin and Gonzalez. mainly, Gonzalez as I wasn't too upset that Yedlin was taken over Parkhurst,... But I'm still eating crow over Gonzalez, who I advocated for Goodson in his place. That said, I believe what hurt us the most was not having Donovan and no answer to who backs up Jozy. Boyd has been playing lights out and would have been able to hopefully keep the ball in the final third longer. Donovan would have hopefully been an improvement over at least Davis who looked lost, and given us what Bedoya and Zusi couldn't.... Someone who can retain possession and look for the killer pass to the forward. Ultimately, when Jozy went down. We were all heart and no skill.
A pacey winger or speed striker would have helped. Someone to draw coverage away from Dempsey and also be a target for Bradley's and Jones' nice long passing skills. So, in terms of: "We'll look back and mistakenly say "if we had only had him"." Shea. Amarikwa. Zardes. Neagle. Mapp (a bit older). Alternatively, maybe an offensive play-maker who would have allowed Bradley and Jones to stay a bit deeper, suiting their skills better. In that case: Powers. Shipp. Gil. Silva. Nguyen (a bit older). But JK had that, more or less, in Diskerud and wasn't interested.
I also hated the Fabian injury because I think if we had beaten Belgium than this would have been a much improved XI... Had Jozy returned ----------Jozy---Deuce-------- Jones--------Mike------Johnson ------------Beckerman------- Beasley--------------------Yedlin ---------Besler---Gonzalez---- ---------------Howard---------- Subs: Mix (Jozy) 65 Green (Johnson) 75 Cameron (Beckerman) 85
Actually, we were a Wondo away from victory As to the question, our weakness was clearly the outside mids; just no dynamism. But Davis and Zusi (and probably Bedoya if he were in MLS) are in fact the class of the league. Hoping Shea gets his shit together, but not holding my breath. Harry Shipp is having himself a year at 22 years old. Perhaps Green takes over (but he was on the roster). There's always that guy...oh what's his name...used to play with the Quakes way back when.
We would have beaten Belgium if someone else had that gift right to them instead of Wondolowski! Would Landon have whiffed like that? Or Eddie? Those 2 have had a knack for scoring goals for the USA, even in this WC qualifying run. Eddie came off the bench in one game, and scored a header on a cross within seconds. He has had a knack for finding he net. Wondo whiffed. And in a 90-minute scoreless game, all it would have taken was one play. I believe Donovan and Eddie would have either scored there, or had the vision to pass it to the wide open Dempsey right to the left of them. Hell, even if Jurgen had subbed in Julian Green first instead of Wondo, I think he'd have scored there> Watch that at the 41-second mark. That's a piss-poor, pathetic, low-class, atrocious effort. If that guy is playing at crunch time for your squad at that level, you do NOT deserve to advance to the quarterfinals.
This is the type of thing people always forget to consider. Wondo was in the position he was in because of the player he is. I'm not arguing one way or the other than another player would have been there too, but it's something to think about.
Yes. And Dempsey was right there too, would have gotten there.... actually I wish Wondo would have just tapped it to him on the left for the open-net WINNER! Oh can you imagine.... Captain America!
Deuce missed a sitter to tie in ET with a heavy touch. 9 times out of 10 we score both those goals. It was just not to be.
No, we were not forced play people out of position. Jürgen did not trust the backups he brought, even while claiming there was no room for Donovan. Surely, one of these essential 23 could have been a decent striker. You have to wonder why he brought an injured AJ. That's a self-inflicted injury problem! Actually, Wondo starting would have been a better option than moving several players and reducing the effectiveness of the entire team rather than what should have been just the one impacted position.
Who were the several players that we moved because of Injury. As to AJ's injury : "He's had this injury for a longer while than at the U.S. national team," Stewart said in an telephone interview. "It was something that you could play with; it wasn't a problem to. I've played with the same problem myself. Once it's time to rest, it's something that can aggravate you every time you step out on the field." http://www.espnfc.com/united-states...n-aron-johannssonjozy-altidore-and-freddy-adu
In retrospect, Agudelo probably should've been integrated earlier as a replacement for Altidore. Can't blame Jurgen for that one, since I too felt Boyd was a head of him (though I definitely would have had one of them over either one of Wondo and Johannsson). Otherwise, maybe a composed ball-handler that can fill it at multiple midfield positions, like Feilhaber or Corona.
Starting Wondo may have kept the team in the system they had practiced. If he wasn't good enough to start , be shouldn't have been called. When picking an all star team they is no reason to be shorthanded.
The Russian announcer from Monday's Stoke-'Gladbach friendly was very impressed with Shea and wondered why Klinsmann didn't take him. I might have but this is MMQB. There's really no overwhelming reason to take anyone who wasn't already taken.