I’ve been pretty busy lately, and soccer (for me anyway) takes such a long time to consume, process, and evaluate (sounds official right?) that I haven’t really been commenting much on the general goings on. Well, I’ll try to “hit the bullet points” as Lil Will from Attack of the Show might say…
- First of all congrats to the good ‘ol US of A on winning the Gold Cup. They beat a pretty darn good Mexico in a very, very, very good match. I won’t go into detail, but definitely look for highlights on YouTube or find the torrent of the match. It was a good back and forth, give and take kinda match. The goals (except the OK) were nice, there were many half-chances, near-misses, and great saves. Fun to watch even if you don’t like either team.
- Goff has a rumor that John Wilson will be dropped from the squad. Wilson is one of our few guys who can cover in the back as he plays left defense. In a 442 he would be great. In a 352… not so much. So what does this mean? Hmmm. Goff says Dominic Mediate could get Wilson’s spot on the senior roster (he’s too old to be a developmental roster player). Or it may be a move for a foreign signing. If true, then we are just that much thinner on defense unless the new signing is a defender. There was a rumor that Bolivian Juan Manuel Pena was interested in coming here, but he is fairly old (34), is currently playing in Spain (maybe expensive), and will be with the Bolivian national team during Copa America so he wouldn’t even be available till mid/late July anyway.
- Speaking of Copa America, DC United had two players selected in Bobby Boswell and Ben Olsen. The complete roster is: GKs: Brad Guzan (Chivas USA), Kasey Keller (Moenchengladbach). DFs: Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Bobby Boswell (D.C. United), Dan Califf (Aalborg), Jimmy Conrad (Kansas City), Jay DeMerit (Watford), Drew Moor (Dallas), Heath Pearce (Nordsjælland), Marvell Wynne (Toronto). MFs: Kyle Beckerman (Colorado), Ricardo Clark (Houston), Benny Feilhaber (Hamburg), Eddie Gaven (Columbus), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Justin Mapp (Chicago), Lee Nguyen (PSV Eindhoven), Ben Olsen (D.C. United). FWs: Charlie Davies (Hammarby), Herculez Gomez (Colorado), Eddie Johnson (Kansas City), Taylor Twellman (New England). This is a VERY raw, very untested group. The birthdays of most of these guys is in the 80s, so they are all in their early to mid 20s. Some of these guys may get “noticed” if they have a good performance in the tourney, especially as they are in the group with Argentina, Colombia, and Paraguay which will have many scouts watching them. Guys who I think might get noticed are Bornstein and Clark. These guys are ready to go overseas.
- Have you seen Argentina’s roster? Its scary. The USA should be afraid. Very afraid. But thats OK, the US generally does better as an underdog anyway…
- The FIFA U20 World Cup starts on June 30 in Canada. The roster is : GKs (3): Brian Perk (UCLA), Steve Sandbo (SMU), Chris Seitz (Real Salt Lake). DFs (6): Tony Beltran (UCLA), Amaechi Igwe (New England Revolution), Ofori Sarkodie (Indiana University), Nathan Sturgis (L.A. Galaxy), Julian Valentin (Wake Forest), Tim Ward (Columbus Crew). MFs (6): Freddy Adu (Real Salt Lake), Bryan Arguez (D.C. United), Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen), Dax McCarty (F.C. Dallas), Danny Szetela (Columbus Crew), Anthony Wallace (F.C. Dallas). FWs (6): Andre Akpan (Harvard), Josmer Altidore (N.Y. Red Bulls), Gabriel Ferrari (Sampdoria), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew), Johann Smith (Bolton F.C.), Sal Zizzo (UCLA). Guys that will likely be looked at really hard are of course Freddy Adu and Josie Altidore. Altidore is ready to go overseas… NOW. Freddy has seen a lot of hype, and he may well go over soon. Maybe just not to a club like Real Madrid or Chelsea as he hopes. He is captaining the side. The US plays first round games against Korea, Poland and Brasil. They *should* be able to get out of the group, but we’ll see.