|
|
I usually don't like to boast, but I successfully picked 21 out of the 23 players that were selected for the U.S. World Cup roster last night. What do you folks think about it and the World Cup this summer?
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/feature?id=366677&cc=5901
Whats soccer?.......Just playing. I do like the World Cup pretty much...Well it is the only time I pay any attention to Soccer. Do we have a chance at all this year? Made a nice run in the last world cup....IS this team stronger?Originally Posted by soccer_dawg9
ralston didn't make the team?
honestly, i'm still completely shocked taylor twellman didn't make the roster. i like brian ching and josh wolff. both are solid players. but twellman is the second-best finisher in the country, behind brian mcbride.
i don't question bruce bruce much, but i did on this one. twellman would have been on my roster.
theprofessor
that was a bit surprising to me as well as ralston's absence. both of those guys did well in the qualifiers. it is still a good team, though.
Twellman, other than very recently, has not proved he can score on the international level, which is 50 times less pressurized than the month of the world cup. Bruce and many other have expressed a desire to see him score on a more consistent basis at that level. He disappears many times.
That being said I am not a fan of Ching's performances as a whole at the international level. I do have him as a forward on my fantasy team, but thats domestic.
We are thin on the front line period. If the midfield listed stays healthy then Landon could be used as a striker without a lot of thought.
Ralston was probably simply a prefernce call. When you put the line up together you pick people that complement others sometimes over straight performance.
If we get out of our group to the next round, then that will be an accomplishment in itself. We have to play the Czech Republic (#2 in the world), Italy (always a favorite to win it all), and Ghana (an up and coming team which has a handful of players playing club ball in Europe). We got an unlucky draw with our group, but it's not impossible. I think a run to the quarterfinals like we did in 2002 would be very good.
If coach Bruce Arena stays on til the 2010 World Cup, then I think we have a good chance to win that one. I look for Clint Dempsey to have a breakout World Cup debut because he is not afraid to take anybody one-on-one(I just bought his jersey). As long as he can be a two-way player (offense & defense) in the midfield, he will get his share of playing time and he should be playing somewhere in Europe by the end of the summer.
Last edited by soccer_dawg9; 05-03-2006 at 12:22 PM.
Player snubs:
Ralston- The injury bug hit Ralston and did not go away in time. He would've made the team if he was healthy and may have even started at right midfield.
Twellman- I'm real confused about this one because I picked him over Ching on my mock roster. I know Twellman didn't finish as well as he should've, but neither did Ching. I think Johnson's performance last year before he got injured secured him a spot on the team, even though he's done nothing since he came back from his injury. Ching scored 5 goals in his first 3 MLS games this year, and he scored the game winner this past weekend for Houston. That and his ability to win 50/50 balls out of the air put him past Twellman. McBride is the only other player with that type of size up top and he will turn 34 during the World Cup. Wolff has World Cup experience and has always been a favorite of Arena's.
Albright- This is the other selection I picked on my mock roster. I chose him over Berhalter and Conrad, but Conrad got the nod out of the three. Conrad is a young defender who probably won't see any playing time unless we are clear to the next round when facing Ghana. Conrad also is a center back and there are two centerback positions on the field at one time. We already have Gooch, Pope, Gibbs, and Bocanegra who can all play centerback, and all four of those guys are better than him. Now, Albright can play on the left or right side of defense, he is great on set pieces (free kicks and corners), and he came up through the national team as a forward before moving to the back line so he is very versatile. Conrad will be one of the leaders on the backline for the 2010 World Cup, but he is too green for this one.
Last edited by soccer_dawg9; 05-03-2006 at 12:34 PM.
The only thing I hear about soccer, is what is said on SportsCenter. How screwed are we in the "pool" (possibly wrong terminology) with the Czech team?
JFord
one team doesn't screw you because the top 2 teams in each pool advance to the round of 16. however, like binni said, we also have to contend with italy and ghana -- two tough teams. to counter that argument, we are ranked 4th by fifa in the world rankings, so we should be able to handle italy and ghana. unless we are (like in my opinion and many others) we have been overrated by fifa. in my opinion, we shouldn't be ranked higher than 7th or 8th -- and that's being generous.
another thing to take into account is the world cup will take place on european soil -- where the u.s. has historically performed very poorly. can we get over the mental hump of having to play in europe? that will be seen soon.
overall, i like this roster. we are particularly strong in the defense and midfield. if we are going to compete against brazil and the czechs, we aren't going to beat them 4-3. we are going to have to beat them defensively. bruce bruce knows this and has set up his roster accordingly.
with that said, i still think we are weak up front. brian mcbride is the only established scorer at the national level. i like eddie johnson's potential, but he will have to become more consistent during the cup. i still would have liked to have seen twellman, but wolff's experience and ching's size won out. we have to get scoring opportunities out of landon donovan and damarcus beasley on the wings to have any chance in the cup, but i definitely see that happening without much of a problem.
i believe anything other than getting to the round of 16 will be a disappointment. however, i don't know if we can win this group, which would mean we could face one of the cup's best teams in the round of 16. a run to the quarterfinals again would be great. i don't expect us to make it past that.
theprofessor
The Czech team is very talented, but we are in the same spot as we were in for the 2002 World Cup. Facing potentially the "best" team in the pool first like we did back in 2002 with Portugal that we beat 3-2. But this time we won't suprise anyone. Teams in Europe are starting to notice us.
Coach Bruce Arena is the best coach at preparing a team for one match. That's all they are looking forward to is the Czech Republic match. We have to either win or tie that match to gain confidence for the other two matches in order to advance. Like the professor said, the top two teams will advance so if we happen to lose that first match, it's not over, but we'll be climbing up a hill the rest of the way.
One advantage we should have is on set pieces (free kicks and corners). We have several players that are big and very good out of the air so when we do get chances through set pieces we have to capitalize on them. Also, we have to control the midfield and play solid defense. The counter-attack will be crucial to us as we will try to use our speed with Johnson and Beasley.
Worst case to make it through the pool I think is:
1: beat Ghana soundly
2: no worse than tie Italy
3: lose close to Czech
Czech will probably sweep 3-0; that will leave us battling Italy; if we tie Italy beat Ghana by more goals than Italy, then we advance.
Hey we are U.S.A. we should be better than everyone in everything.
The biggest winner of the World Cup roster for the U.S. is the New Englad Revelution. The MLS team from Boston had a potential of 5 players being named to the World Cup team, which would mean that they would miss a month and a half of playing time from the season. Instead, only one player from the Revelution was selected (Dempsey) and the other four (Reis, Ralston, Noonan, and Twellman) are all alternates.
We play czech, italy , then ghana. We will no going into the easiest match of our group exactly where we stand. If it comes down to goal diff, then we know what we need.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
