Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. Of course, reserve football combined with allergies to grass is fascinating. :--) How does Chad Marshall compare with our overseas defensive youngsters? I'm a big Stanford fan, which makes me a bit biased.
IMHO he's already our best center back. that includes Gooch, Pope, and Gibbs. then again I've been wowed by this kid since the U20 tournament, where he made Fernando Cavenaghi his personal bitch
Including Boca too? Chad is definitely a pimp at CD and I can't mount a strong arguement agaist your comment other than Defenders take time to mature and he is quite young and inexperienced. Having said this, he has show remarkable skill, composure and consistency and I think he could mature into our best defender before very long. This of course depends on the growth and development of some of the others like Spector, Zak, Gibbs and Gooch, all of whom probably will see better competition over the next few years than Chad (unless he moves to a tougher league). What about Demerit???? He deserves at least a mention.
I haven't seen Demerit play before so I can't comment on him. and your right, Marshall does lack experience against high quality competition. Let's put it this way. If your looking for an imposing beast who's going to dominate and intimidate the crap out of an opposing striker Chad's your man. He'll be our Eddie Pope soon - but with better skill. If your looking for the skillful defender who just oozes class, confidence, compusure, and intelligence and woulnd't have a problem joining the midfield in distribution - Spector is your guy. From what I've seen - both of those guys are on different levels talent-wise than Gooch and Boca and are approaching Jeff Agoos and Eddie Pope in their primes.