Answer: In 09, the USSF chose the correct tournament to take seriously.
With the Confederations Cup behind us, it is now the Gold Cup that comes to Bob Bradley's attention. A less-than B strength roster has been called up, leading many to believe that the US will not retain the title this time around. The official roster includes:
GOALKEEPERS- Jon Busch (Chicago Fire), Troy Perkins (IK Start), Luis Robles (FC Kaiserslautern)
DEFENDERS- Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96), Jimmy Conrad (Kansas City Wizards), Clarence Goodson (IK Start), Jay Heaps (New England Revolution), Chad Marshall (Columbus Crew), Michael Parkhurst (FC Nordsjaellands), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock)
MIDFIELDERS- Davy Arnaud (Kansas City Wizards), Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Colin Clark (Colorado Rapids), Sam Cronin (Toronto FC), Brad Evans (Seattle Sounders), Stuart Holden (Houston Dynamo), Logan Pause (Chicago Fire), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew)
FORWARDS- Freddy Adu (AS Monaco), Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo), Kenny Cooper (FC Dallas), Charlie Davies (Hammarby IF), Santino Quaranta (D.C. United)
Obviously this roster is missing a lot of talent. Mostly this is because players are not typically expected to be available for two tournaments over the course of a single off-season, and given that the US made the Confed. Cup its primary tournament this year, that's where all of the talent went. So now we are left with the upper-tier of MLS and our contingent of Denmark players who are (hopefully) all vying to make a name for themselves in the USMNT picture. Given my somewhat limited knowledge of our roster, here is my starting XI:
Busch
Cherundolo Conrad Parkhurst Marshall
Holden
Rogers Clark
Adu
Davies Cooper
Busch in goal for me is a no-brainer. MLS Goalkeeper of the Year is not an award to scoff at, given the quality of keepers in America's top flight.
Cherundolo and Conrad- pencil them in. These are experienced guys who are still in the conversation for spots on our A-team, much less this C+ roster.
Parkhurst and Marshall are the two latest winners of MLS Defender of the Year, and it is for this reason that I put them in the team. I know next to nothing about the rest of our defenders (except for Heath Pierce, but I think I've seen enough out of him for a while...).
Holden I remember as being the BOSS back when I first started to watch MLS (summer of 2007). He was part of a Dynamo midfield that included Ricardo Clark and Dwayne de Rosario, a combination that yeilded back-to-back MLS cups.
Robbie Rogers is an obvious choice for RM, he's been a key to Colombus' recent success and at 22 is looking to trade in MLS for Europe very soon.
Colin Clark I am not so sure of. I know for a fact that he plays the LW for Colorado, though honestly I am not sure of his skill level. I know he has had a break-out year in 2009, but is that really saying something? For what it's worth, Colorado have been a great turnaround story this season.
Adu is another obvious choice, he's probably got the most talent of anyone on the roster. He has ALWAYS played well in a US jersey, I can't wait to see him in that attacking midfielder/playmaker role once again. Maybe he can use this tournament to convince a club to buy him (preferably a club that will PLAY HIM).
Davies and Cooper up top is not exactly a given, but I think it will work very well. Honestly I think a Ching-Cooper pairing would be more effective, but there is no way Charlie Davies is going to ride the bench in this tournament, given that everyone is all about him after the Confed Cup. Davies is another player I would love to see move to a better league (Sweden? Come on, man, you're better than that...).
Let me be honest in saying that I do not know if Chad Marshall has ever played left back, I just desperately wanted to keep Heath Pierce out of my starting XI. Also I am not totally sure of whether or not Stuart Holden is a holding midfielder by trade at the Dynamo, I am reasonably confident that he is but I could be wrong. Really I put him in because he is just a much better player than the other of the midfielders on the roster that could potentially fill that DM position (maybe Kyle Beckerman could play there instead? Those dreads would be enough to break up any kind of offense that Mexico throws at us...).
Some notable absentees that I wanted to see in this squad are:
Chris Seitz- I was under the impression that he was the next Marcus Hanneman (always overshadowed by his contemporary keepers, but still a quality shot-stopper), so I figured that this would be a great tournament for him to showcase himself in.
Eddie Johnson- I know that Eddie has improved during his time in England. Now I want to see him show his improvement for the Nats... Unfortunately he won't be getting that chance in the Gold Cup. I just have to wonder why.
Jose Francisco Torres- The lone standout of the USA-Costa Rica match, I have been dying to see him get some more games for the US. He didn't get any time at the Confed Cup, which I was ok with, assuming that he would play a big role in the Gold Cup. I guess I was wrong. I assume that his club team (Mexico's Pachuca) didn't want to lose him for a further three weeks, given that they are preparing for the start of La Apertura.
Michael Orozco- Michael is a great defender, but he has not been called up since the Olympics. The Gold Cup seemed like the perfect venue for him to throw himself into the mix for the future of the US defense.
Sal Zizzo and Danny Szetela- I will group these guys together because they are basically the exact same story- midfielders who excelled at the U-20 WC a few years back, made moves to European clubs (Hannover 96 and Racing de Santander, respectively) but have seen little to no playing time. Szetela was loaned out to Serie-B side Brescia, where according to wikipedia he made 26 appearances. In any case, Serie-B is not much (if any) better than MLS so a season there is not much to speak of. These two haven't been getting any time on the International stage mainly because they have not showed development (through a lack of playing time), which is a perfectly good reason to not call someone up to an important match... but for this Gold Cup, which we are clearly not valuing as a major tournament, you would think that Bradley would give these two VERY promising players a chance.
Ok, so now on to my predictions: We will come out of group B on top (honestly I could see us faltering vs Honduras and coming in second, but let's be optimistic for a moment here). Winning group B will put us against a third-place team from group A or C, which could concievably be any of Panama, Jamaica, Canada, or El Salvador. None of those teams scares me, though with this roster, Canada could probably manage to beat us.
However, I am going to go with my head and say that we get past the 1/4 finals. In the next round we will most likely play Cosa Rica, and it is here in the Semis that I see our squad failing. Sadly, the USA will not retain the Gold Cup title.
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2 comments:
I gotta say, I completely agree with the people who should be there. Really, for these "not full strength" rosters, I think we should go AWAY from MLS. I don't have anything against the league, it's just that these guys are getting constant playing time (they're MLS All-Stars, so clearly they play) and also this is the middle of their season. By contrast, we have many players around Europe with (on average) more potential, but less practice. This is also their offseason, so they can shine for a possible transfer. I know the counterargument is we get to see these MLS players against stiff competition...but, do we? The only other team here that is truly respected is Mexico, and this is the worst Mexico has been in a long time (still a quality side though). Costa Rica and Honduras have some quality, but lets be honest here, on a neutral site those sides should be in no way intimidating. So, I feel like the players who really NEED a place to showcase their talents, the European players, are the ones who aren't getting called up.
And to be fair, I love the kid, but lets not sweat Davies' meat too soon, he has a lot to work on.
Ok so yesterday on WSD they read off another roster which apparently is the "official" roster? I am unsure which is correct because I thought that this one was the official one. In any case, the roster that they read off included Altidore, Torres and Feilhaber... If these guys are in the team, I change my prediction... I'd say we make the final with these guys, losing to Mexico.
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