Having seen evey Nat game that Twellman has played against some pretty weak sides, he hasn't played very well. I can't even remember him getting a shot on frame or even showing well for the ball. He doesn't seem to have the knack that Mcbride has for finding space at the international level. i do agree that he needs more time to show his worth. Comparing him to Mcbride with his club performances is laughable, we're talking Nats here. And if Twellman is great in the air than Mcbride is friggin God, sorry Clint. I am sure we will get plenty of chances to see Twellman again, he just better start knocking them home or he'll be staying home 2006.
Cast my vote for Buddle. That guy has international written all over him. Unbelievably strong finisher with feet, head, whatever.
He had a shot saved in the New Zealand game where the rebound fell at Kirovski's feet. I don't remember what Kirovski did with it, but it wasn't tap the ball into the open net. Most of Twellman's chances at the international level have been against defenses not a lick better than MLS defenses: New Zealand, the El Salvador U23s. I don't know how they prove that Twellman can't score against international caliber defenses cause those really aren't.
Once again, my point remains that McBride is not the god that everyone believes him to be. Because he has been all we have had recently, the media in the US that actually COVERS soccer has put him in the best light possible, but his overall numbers are not that good. He doesn't NEARLY score as well as the top strikers on other teams .... even those on teams decidedly inferior to the US. I think that we are forgetting that when Twellman was in Germany, he was just 20, and at this time he is only 23. Where was McBride when he was the same age? You might be surprised to find out that he didn't score a goal with the US until he was 24. And who did he score against? you got it .............. lowly Guatemala!
twellman had his shot to do it in "big games" and he couldn't even get off the bench in germany. and i don't think buddle should be thrown in with twellman. buddle has been an "emerging player" since last year, and BA has been "watching him." He got his chance in his first senior national team camp this year. he was injured for a big part of the season and didn't have a chance to play many more US games (i'm not saying he would have made the con.cup or goldcup rosters, but he might have) his latest scoring tear and good form has bruce watching closely, i'm sure, but unfortunately we don't have any more matches this year. surely he'll be called up the first camp we have next year, and i'm not so sure twellman will be. if you want to, just ignore my post. this started as a McBride vs. Twellman debate, then has turned into a McBride/Donovan vs. Twellman/Buddle and i just made a Twellman vs. Buddle argument. woops
LOL i gotcha, but why do people keep saying that he had his chance to do it? (Twellman) He was playing in Germany when he was 19 and 20. He's been in MLS now for a couple of years and he is finally turning into a man, but people seem to ignore that. If not getting playing time in Germany as a kid is a signal that you aren't a good player, we had better throw Landon out to the dogs too, because the only reason he is in MLS is because he wasn't getting it done at Bayer Leverkusen. Oops, my bad, all of what people are saying about Twellman doesn't apply to LD, right? LOL c'mon, let's be real .....
I think Waldo is paid to write something, and to be controversial. That is, to spark interest. I think he, and his employers, are delighted by this thread. I do not believe he has a good point. Twellman emerged as MLS's most dangerous forward (arguably) after the JK'02 team was set. Since then, he has gotten a chance to be a part of every major competition the USMNT has been involved in. And some friendies. The kid has been around for a year and half. Give me a break. BA is giving him his shot. Twellman is not producing. Short of scheduling an additional friendly, say against Nepal, and inviting Taylor (and a few guys to support him), BA can do little to help Twellman along until Twellman helps himself. Personally, I want to see Buddle and Twellman get into the same camp and go head to head for a spot on the field. I figure they will get teamed with someone with experience, so they won't get to play at the same time. I expect they will get that opportunity to compete the very next time the USMNT mans up. My money is on Buddle. And lastly, I don't see the urgency. I see the forward spot as crowded. Sort of. McBride is playing well. Razov is playing well. Donovan can play up top. Mathis ain't dead yet. Wolff may someday come back. He should be healthy by qualifying at least. No reason to panic. No reason to start Twellman now, and when he gets a goal in about every 4th game, which would be a phenomenal strike rate for a USMNT forward, call him a failed experiment.
maybe it just comes down to Arena's evaluation. statistically, twellman and say, ralston, play better than donovan and BMB(in MLS). but arena has shown that to make the national team, you have to do more than just score goals in mls. you have to 1) have average or above average numbers, at the very least, and 2) show him "something." that is what twellman seems to still have to do. i don't know what that "something" is, but clearly bruce sees it in some and not in others. he seems to be a great evaluator of talent, and the things he sees could be beyond some of us. We have no reasons to not trust Bruces evaluation of talent in his 4+ years. This explains why Bruce was upbeat about selecting Buddle and said he's earned his shot, all before he called him up. And that's also why even as TT was tearing up the MLS Scoring leaders list, bruce says, well, he's a great player, but he's yet to prove it at a higher level. Bruce see's the potential in some and is leery of others. tt will get more shots, but unfair as it may be, i think he still has to prove himself to bruce. a guy like buddle will get more patience and more opportunity from coach a. because bruce already believe he can excel at the next level.
There's been two such competitions since then: Gold Cup and Confederations Cup. Twellman was only involved in one. His involvement in the CC consisted of him dragging himself onto the field late in two games in terrible physical condition and scoring as many goals as the rest of the forwards in those games scored. He was not at the Gold Cup. Twellman has 256 minutes with the USMNT. McBride scored his first Nats goal in his 103rd minute. McBride had two goals by his 256th minute. He had streak of over 400 minutes without scoring from his 2nd and 3rd goals. Just for information purposes. Twellman also had a good scoring record as a youth international. It takes a little time sometimes to get your goals. Twellman's play in MLS (38 goals including the playoffs the last two seasons) has earned him a little bit of a look I think. Buddle's play has earned a look as well, but Buddle hasn't played as well for as long as Twellman has.
Jeez, Voros, where do you come up with this stuff? Those are great stats man. Way to go. I thought Twellman got a call for the Gold Cup but was not physically up to it at the time the team was named. He was playing for the Revs during the Gold Cup, however. I'm sure he'll get another shot.
I'm agreeing with Voros here. We all want the USMNT to do it's best. All I'm saying is that we have not had a proven deadly scorer on this team since I can remember. Why not give a guy a shot who seems to be doing it on a lesser level. Let him step to the plate and do his thing. It's not like our strike rate is wonderful at the moment. As i said before, McBride scored his first goal for the USMNT at 24. Twellman is 23. Let's give this guy a fair shot. He might surprise all of the detractors and we might find ourselves a great striker for the next 2 WC's!
I didn't read this whole thread but when Wynalda says it's "joke" TT hasn't got a chance, it's Wynalds who proves himself a joke. TT would have had plenty of chances at the Confed Cup if he hadn't gotten sick, and if he hadn't gotten sick and had done alright at the Confed Cup, he would have been in the Gold Cup as well. It was bad circumstances that left TT from getting more action. Wynalda is an idiot. But then everybody should have known that already.
Stats courtesy of: www.sams-army.com It's really simple with me. When a guy scores as many goals as Twellman has for his club, then he has a pretty long look coming to him. Maybe I'm wrong on that score, but that's my opinion. Twellman can unload an excellent shot if nothing else. As far as the Gold Cup is concerned, Twellman was apparently upset at not getting called, so at least he felt he could play. When Wolff was scratched from the squad, everyone assumed Twellman would get the call, but Ralston did instead.
Once again, i'm with Voros on this one. Twellman deserves the look because he scores, and that's what you want a forward for ............ to score ......... PERIOD! Anyway, did Eric Wynalda do something that i'm not aware of to make everyone on here hate him so much. Most of these posts have expressed a major dislike for the guy and i don't understand why. Someone please fill me in!
casey is better than all of them - with the possible exception of mcbride. haven't seen him play recently, but that hasn't stopped any bs poster before. just my opinion. we'll see about all these guys when qualifying begins. injuries will make sure of that!
I think the Gold Cup would have been the sticking point with Wynalda. I think Arena probably made the right move in not adding Twellman to the Gold Cup squad intially, but after Wolff went down with an injury (surprise!) Twellman had already been playing for the Revs so I think a few people were surprised when Ralston got Wolff's spot instead. As it turns out, Ralston became very useful so... Are we 100% sure there will be no friendlies between now and qualifying? It seems to me we'd want at least a one game tune up before going in.
Don't get me wrong, I do believe TT should get more chances. But just because he's a great MLS scorer doesn't mean he should be given a Nats job on a silver platter. Everyone can see his good qualities but everyone can see his deficiencies too. When he gets his chance he has to produce. And he will get his chance. And the people who speak well of Twellman and feel like at the same time they have to rip McBride are seriously deranged. Brian has nothing left to prove. Ever.
I agree, but I also think that his scoring record should probably add a little bit extra time on his nats clock over other MLS forwards like say Jeff Cunningham. The 36 goals in 4,000 minutes is an impressive total, especially considering only three came from the spot. Under such a situation, I'd take a _long_ look. There may also be a question of Arena figuring out the best ways to get the most out of him. It may also turn out that Arena may need more from that forward spot than a player like Twellman can give him (in terms of various tasks besides scoring).
Is it just me, or are your strikers actually supposed to "strike". LOL We need to worry about getting a midfield that can work well together and hold the ball (which has been another major deficiency with the Nats). But as for my 2 guys up front, i wanna know that they can bang the ball into the back of the net ........... something that we have been serious lacking in for as long as i can remember. So forget about our strikers being able to track back. I want some guys who are gonna make the back of the net go BOOM! CAN YOU DIG IT??!!!
Buddle has also been injured most of this season. Just something to take into that consideration. For those who feel TT deserves a spot over McB, you seem to missing one key component to Bake's game. He is not just finishing, but also setting up his strike partners (i.e. Tomasz Radzinski), using himself to take defenders out of play, and he can play a good bit of defense as well. I really don't care if I see Twellman again anytime soon. He has done nothing to impress me. I am sick of hearing every announcer saying he is the greatest American striker ever to play the game in the history of the universe. C14
I'm not a huge McBride fan but the guy is not on a downside, downslide, or anything otherwise. And Age doesn't mean the same thing for everyone. Just look at what Sheringham did last year and is doing this year. He's 37!
Twellman's missed a fair amount of time as well. Just as a reference point and not really making an argument one way or another, but here are the goals per 90 minutes totals from 2001-2003 for several American forwards in MLS with penalties removed: Ante Razov - .444 Josh Wolff - .353 Brian McBride - .255 Edson Buddle - .644 Jeff Cunningham - .490 Jason Kreis - .389 Taylor Twellman - .736 Clint Mathis - .479 Landon Donovan - .357 McBride had a real tough goal scoring year in 2001 scoring only once in 1,326 minutes so this time frame is a little unfair to him. I don't think the question is whether Twellman's been the most productive American goal scorer in MLS over the last several years. He clearly has been. The question is: what exactly should that mean toward the Nats if anything? Obviously there's more to being a good forward than goal scoring and there is the question whether there's a relationship between MLS scoring ability and Nats scoring ability.
The voice of reason. Twellman probably shoulda grabbed his chance, however limited it was, while he had it. Because when Buddle is healthy and getting minutes I'm willing to be money that he makes the spot his own.
The thing with Taylor is that it's not just his failure to score goals. If he were getting into position and just shanking shots, or had a couple of great saves made on his shots, or something like that, I would be much more sympathetic. But he hasn't. Against pretty weak international opponents, he hasn't done it. At least not yet. His biggest problem, to my mind, has been his inability to get separation.When a defender marks him, it's like he's crazy-glued to Taylor. That's the bigger problem in my view. The strange thing about Taylor is that he's done worse than I expected. I figured he'd at least be the forward equivalent of Chris Klein --- effective against smaller nations but plateauing against better competition. So far, he hasn't even managed that. Again, I hope all this changes, but I'm not counting on it. For those arguing about whether Donovan is a forward or a midfielder --- He can play both effectively, but until another fast forward develops, or until Josh Wolff regains his best form, he's going to play up top. Without him, we end up with two plodding forwards, and the defense gets to cheat. It becomes McBride-Mathis, which has never worked.