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Bruce Leaks a Lineup
Tuesday, April 25, 2006 U.S. coach Bruce Arena did an interview on the Argentinian TV show Los Tecnicos a few weeks back. Eventually every World Cup is supposed to appear on this show. The interview recently aired somewhere, and although I haven't seen it, several posters on the Big Soccer boards have, and I have no reason to doubt their accounts. Apparently the interviewer asked Bruce about his lineup, and Bruce said the following things. (Note: This applies only to the Czech Republic match, and possibly the Italy match. Bruce stressed that the tactics for the Ghana match would be dependent on our position in the group at that time.) 1) Keller in goal (duh). 2) Four backs, always. And then he named Cherundolo, Onyewu, Pope (though he stressed, if he's healthy), and Lewis. 3) (and now here's where it gets interesting...) There will be only ONE striker, Brian McBride. 4) There will be TWO defensive midfielders, Reyna, and either Mastroeni or John O'Brien. 5) There will be THREE attacking midfielders. Bruce said Beasley could play centrally or on the left, but he drew him on the left (yes, he drew a picture of our lineup for all the world to see, according to people who saw this show), and he drew Donovan up top behind McBride. He mentioned Dempsey as a maybe for the right midfield slot, but he didn't mention anyone else either. So there you have it. There are plenty of caveats to go around including that Bruce has been known to change his mind, anyone could get injured at any time, and that since I'm reporting this third-hand, some information could've been mangled along the way. But, if we put those caveats aside, here are some thoughts... It looks like Bruce is going with the 4-5-1 (or, if you prefer, 4-2-3-1) formation that's been suggested by many in various internet forums over the past few weeks. As my readers know, I like the idea of getting our best 11 on the field. My only concern is our ability to score goals from this formation. Donovan and Beasley will really have to push themselves forward to support McBride, or we're going to have trouble finding scoring chances. We're not good enough to bunker down and hold off the Czechs or the Italians for 90 minutes. A big part of our defense needs to be our offense. I'm surprised Bruce mentioned Dempsey, as I thought Clint was in Bruce's doghouse after the Joey Franchino incident. But apparently he's the favorite to start at right mid. I really like Dempsey, but I would prefer to see Convey in the lineup somehow. In my prediction, I moved Beasley over to the right side to get Convey in at left mid. Is that not possible? Is there no alternative? After watching Convey play for the Nats against Poland and Germany, and after all the success he's had at reading, it would seem to be a shame not to have him in the first 11. Bruce still likes Pope over Gibbs. Let's just hope Pope doesn't turn into this World Cup's Jeff Agoos. (For those who don't remember/didn't follow, Agoos was our veteran, aging defender four years ago, and he was so bad he nearly ruined our entire run before it started.) If Bruce is really going with just one striker in the lineup, I wonder if that's bad news for Brian Ching. Hard to imagine Bruce takes five strikers on the roster when he's only going to use one at a time. Sure, there will be situations where we need a goal and the lineup will switch to a 4-4-2. But how many late-game substitutes do we need? Still, I'll remain loyal to my roster predictions from last post. I've been wrong before, and I'll be wrong again, so I have no problem being wrong about this as well. Having said all this, I like this lineup--and I'd love to see what it can do in the sendoff friendlies. 45 days until kickoff. Post a Comment | View (5) Comments Roster Predictions, Lineup Predictions (and Jamaica Report) Wednesday, April 19, 2006 OK, the Jamaica game was gross, so I haven't been in a rush to recap it. Suffice to say, the only player whose performance exceeded expectations was Chris Albright. I know Ben Olsen had a goal, but any competent keeper would've stopped it and we all would've been talking about how Olsen messed up a golden chance to finish. Everyone else underachieved, although Eddie Johnson looked like our best striker, and John O'Brien (welcome back!) and Clint Dempsey our best outside midfielders. There are still two more weekends worth of club games before Bruce names the roster at 6 p.m. May 2 on SportsCenter, but I think we've all seen enough to make our roster predictions at this point. Keeper: Kasey Keller, Marcus Hahnemann, Tim Howard. There isn't much debate here, and besides, it won't really matter at all if Bruce picks someone other than Howard to make the trip as our third keeper. Defense: Steve Cherundolo, Oguchi Onyewu, Cory Gibbs, Eddie Lewis, Frankie Hejuk, Carlos Bocanegra, Eddie Pope, Chris Albright. I didn't even list Albright as one of my "battling" players in the last post, but I now include him on the projected roster. He's one of the few players who has recently looked good in a Nats uniform, and he is simply more skilled, in my opinion, than the other players fighting it out for the last couple of spots. But the biggest thing Albright has going for him is his versatility. We can bring him in as an outside defender, or a midfielder if needed be, and that will give Bruce some flexibility at the end of games. The other seven guys are locks. Midfield: Claudio Reyna, DaMarcus Beasley, Bobby Convey, Landon Donovan, Pablo Mastroeni, John O'Brien, Clint Dempsey. No midfielder among the bubble players has stood out enough to warrant a selection, in my opinion. Wait Matt, aren't you forgetting Ben Olsen? No, I'm not. I wasn't as impressed with him against Jamaica as everyone else was, and we already have a bunch of guys (Reyna, Mastro, JOB) who can play holding midfield. If JOB or Reyna goes down in the next month, it's a different story. But for now, only the seven midfield locks are making the roster, in my view. Striker: Brian McBride, Eddie Johnson, Taylor Twellman, Josh Wolff, Brian Ching. Since this roster I'm forming has two defenders who can play midfield (Lewis and Albright) and three midfielders who can play defense (Mastro, O'Brien, Convey), I think we can afford to take five strikers. In fact, I think we must. With his recent performance for the Houston Dynamo, and his flashes of goal-scoring prowess over the last few years with the Nats, I just don't see how Bruce leaves Brian Ching off the roster. As a U.S. fan, I know I'd like to see Ching coming in as a late-game substitute when we're in desperate need of a goal--more so than I'd like to see Twellman or Wolff in that role. I still think we need Twellman and Wolff as potential starters (in case of yellow card buildups, or if EJ is not performing, or if Bruce wants to try a funky formation, or whatever), but I also want Brian Ching on my squad. Alternates: Todd Dunivant, Jimmy Conrad, Greg Berhalter, Pat Noonan, Steve Ralston, Ben Olsen, Kerry Zavagnin, Chris Klein, Conor Casey, Brad Friedel. I'd throw Friedel on the list just in case Keller goes down in the next month. It will be interesting to see if Bruce includes young players like Freddy Adu, Chris Rolfe, Benny Feilhaber, and Ricardo Clark on his list of alternates. None of them have been given much chance with the Nats in the last few months, but they all have potentially more upside than any of the alternates I've listed above. If Bruce wants to gamble, he'll cut outright his veteran players who he's not picking for the squad, and include the untested youngsters on his alternates list. My guess, however, is that Bruce will remain loyal to the guys who have been in camp all year, and my selections reflect that. While it's a ton of fun to argue about who should get the last few spots on the roster, what will ultimately be far more important to our success in Germany is who gets the playing time. There have been a lot of funky formations floating around the message boards, and most of them have the same idea--to get our best 11 on the field. While I like the idea of tailoring our lineup to our opposition, I don't know anything about the tendencies of the Czech team, so I'm going to try to make a lineup that puts our best 11 out there. Keller Cherundolo Onyewu Gibbs Lewis Mastroeni Beasley Convey Reyna Donovan McBride Look at that, no funky formation required! The only weird things I had to do were move Beasley to right mid, and Reyna to attacking mid. Each can easily handle it. If Johnson again looks like a world class striker sometime in the next few months, I'd bump Mastro, move Reyna and Donovan back, and get the grown-ass-man in the lineup. I don't think O'Brien will be fit to start come June, but if he is, I think I'd like to see him at left back, where he played for years with Ajax. Lord knows we're not married to the Eddie Lewis At Left Back Experiment. 51 days to kickoff!!! Post a Comment | View (3) Comments One to Watch Monday, April 10, 2006 The Nats play a friendly against Jamaica in North Carolina tomorrow (Tuesday) night (7 p.m. eastern, ESPN2), in their final match before Bruce Arena picks his World Cup team on May 2. Our roster will be comprised entirely of MLS players. In fact, Bruce has decided to give 100-year-old Red Bulls goalkeeper Tony Meola (OK, he's really only 37, but he seems much older) his 100th cap. This decision almost certainly shows that Bruce has decided on his three goalkeepers for the World Cup, and they are all based on Europe. On the rest of the field, however, much remains to be decided. Let's go position-by-position. Striker Locks: Brian McBride, Eddie Johnson, Taylor Twellman I told soccer neophytes about McBride and Johnson in my earlier post about our starters, but in comments to some of my other posts we've had quite a few discussions about Twellman as well. Over the past few months, Taylor Twellman, a New England Revolution forward and reigning MLS MVP, has consistently showed an ability to score in our friendlies, albeit against fairly weak competition. Still, when looking at our other options at striker, it seems clear Twellman deserves a place on the roster. Battling: Josh Wolff, Brian Ching, Conor Casey Wolff is Eddie Johnson's new strike partner with the Kansas City Wizards (Johnson came over to KC in the offseason), and was one of the roleplayers on the 2002 World Cup squad that experienced such success in Korea. Ching, meanwhile, has been lighting it up for the Houston Dynamo (formerly known as the San Jose Earthquakes), scoring five goals in the Dynamo's first two matches. Casey plays in the German Bundesliga, and I'm not sure if that fact helps or hurts him. On the one hand, his performance (or lack of performance, as the case may be) for his club doesn't have to be as dominant as the MLS players, since the Bundesliga is a considerably stronger league--and by the way, Casey HAS been scoring goals in the Bundesliga. On the other hand, Casey won't be called into tomorrow's match, and we haven't seen him get a cap in quite some time. Bruce had a telling comment this weekend, when he said he wasn't sure yet how many forwards he would take. That means the door is still open for two of the above three players to make the roster. Wolff is still considered the favorite, but if the other two guys keep scoring goals while Wolff doesn't, it's going to put Bruce in a difficult position. One would expect Twellman and Johnson to start for the Nats tomorrow night, but if Bruce is more interested in getting a look at the bubble players, we might get Ching and Wolff up top at kickoff. Midfield Locks: Landon Donovan, Claudio Reyna, DaMarcus Beasley, Bobby Convey, Pablo Mastroeni, Clint Dempsey Rapids defender/midfielder Pablo Mastroeni was never really in doubt for this roster, so long as he got healthy. He is now healthy, and his recent strong form makes him a lock for the World Cup team. In fact, yanksabroad.com thinks he's going to start every match, although I see him more as a late substitute for Reyna. Reading (an English first division, but soon-to-be-Premiership, side) midfielder Bobby Convey has earned a spot with this spectacular play for club and country over the past two months. Clint "Deuce" Dempsey (Deuce is his stage name when he raps, and I wish I were kidding) has also looked great for the Nats, and he's been one of the best midfielders in MLS, and a huge part of the Revolution's success, for the last two seasons. Beasley and Reyna have both returned from their injuries. In fact, Beasley earned back his starting job with Eindhoven and had an assist this weekend. Big sigh of relief there. Battling: John O'Brien, Steve Ralston, Pat Noonan, Kerry Zavagnin, Chris Klein, Ben Olsen Bruce said he'd try to get O'Brien 15-20 minutes tomorrow night, which will be the first competitive soccer John has played since the fall. I'm still pretty certain O'Brien will be named to the roster on May 2 (the date by which Bruce said he'd pick the team), but that Bruce won't hesitate to declare him injured and call up one of the alternates come June if O'Brien is not fit. The other five guys are likely competing for one spot, at most. Expect to see all of them in action tomorrow night at some point. (My money is on Noonan to make the roster.) Defense Locks: Steve Cherundolo, Oguchi Onyewu, Eddie Pope, Eddie Lewis Dolo is back from his injury as well, thankfully. Anyone who doesn't think Eddie Pope is a lock hasn't listened to Bruce discuss this team. He never fails to mention Pope as one of our veteran players, which means he's going to Germany for sure, and possibly (gulp) starting. For those who haven't seen our bruising center back Oguchi "Gooch" Onyewu, you're in for a treat in two months time. He's one of the best defenders in the Belgian league, and you can bet his services will be in demand elsewhere after the World Cup. Near-Locks: Cory Gibbs, Frankie Hejduk, Carlos Bocanegra All of these guys have played, or do play, in Europe, and all of them can expect to be on the squad this time because of their skill (Gibbs) or Bruce's loyalty (Hejduk and Boca). Personally, I'd pass on Hejduk in favor of the more youthful Jonathan Spector, but it's not my call. Battling: Greg Berhalter, Todd Dunivant, Jonathan Spector, Jimmy Conrad Again, these guys are competing for at most one spot. Dunivant and Conrad are the two MLS players among them, so expect to see them in action tomorrow night. I think Dunivant has the best shot at a roster spot, as he is a capable backup at left back, our weakest position. This game should be a lot of fun to watch. We're expected to trounce our opposition, and our guys will be tackling, making runs, and taking free kicks as if their lives depended on it--because in some ways, they do. Be sure to tune in. Next Post: Jamaica recap, and final World Cup roster predictions Post a Comment | View (0) Comments  December 2005 | January 2006 | February 2006 | March 2006 | April 2006 | |
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