Very underwhelming group. Player Name Pos. Ht. Wt. Birthdate Caps/G Hometown Club Beasley, DaMarcus M 5'8 145 5/24/1982 78/15 Ft. Wayne, Ind. Glasgow Rangers (Scotland) Bocanegra, Carlos D 6'0 170 5/25/1979 59/10 Alta Loma, Calif. Rennes (France) Bradley, Michael M 6’2” 175 7/31/1987 22/2 Cedar Grove, N.J. SC Heerenveen (Holland) Califf, Danny D 6'1 175 3/17/1980 20/1 Orange, Calif. FC Midtjylland (Denmark) Cherundolo, Steve D 5'6 145 2/19/1979 49/2 San Diego, Calif. Hannover 96 (Germany) Ching, Brian F 6’1” 195 5/24/1978 28/7 Haleiwa, Hawaii Houston Dynamo (MLS) Clark, Ricardo M 5’10” 150 5/10/1983 14/1 Jonesboro, Ga. Houston Dynamo (MLS) Dempsey, Clint F 6’1” 170 3/9/1983 43/11 Nacogdoches, Texas Fulham FC (England) Donovan, Landon F 5'8 148 3/4/1982 102/36 Redlands, Calif. Los Angeles Galaxy (MLS) Edu, Maurice M 6’0” 170 4/18/1986 8/0 Fontana, Calif. Glasgow Rangers (Scotland) Guzan, Brad GK 6’4” 210 9/9/1984 9/0 Homer Glen, Ill. Aston Villa (England) Hejduk, Frankie D 5'8 155 8/5/1974 79/6 Cardiff, Calif. Columbus Crew (MLS) Howard, Tim GK 6’3” 210 3/6/1979 32/0 North Brunswick, N.J. Everton FC (England) Johnson, Eddie F 6’0” 180 3/31/1984 36/12 Palm Coast, Fla. Cardiff City (Wales) Kljestan, Sacha M 6’1” 150 9/9/1985 Jul-00 Huntington Beach, Calif. Chivas USA (MLS) Lewis, Eddie M 5'10 155 5/17/1974 81/10 Cerritos, Calif. Los Angeles Galaxy (MLS) Onyewu, Oguchi D 6’4” 210 5/13/1982 35/4 Olney, Md. Standard de Liege (Belgium) Orozco, Michael D 5’11” 160 2/7/1986 0/0 Orange, Calif. San Luis (Mexico) Pearce, Heath D 5’10” 175 8/13/1984 17/0 Modesto, Calif. Hansa Rostock (Germany) Wynne, Marvell D 5’9” 171 5/8/1986 1/0 Poway, Calif. Toronto FC (MLS) No Altidore, no Adu, not even Kenny Cooper? We just get more of the same with Eddie Johnson who Fulham doesn't even want and a struggling Clint Dempsey. I understand the concept of loyalty, but World Cup qualifiers should feature guys who might be playing in the next World Cup. Eddie Lewis and Frankie Hejduk won't be there. Brian Ching won't be there. The time is now for Adu and Altidore. At the very least, lets give Kenny Cooper a shot as he has been the best forward in MLS all season long. The matches are 9/6 in Havana and 9/10 in Bridgeview, IL. Both should be easy victories, but watching 90 minutes of Eddie Johnson forgetting that he's bigger, stronger, and faster than every defender on the pitch not named Oguchi Onyewu (who plays on the same team) is going to frustrate me to no end.
That's a crap team IMO, no doubt about it. They blab about youth, but for the most part they never give anyone a chance to perform at a higher level more consistently.
I don't agree with Cooper being the best MLS striker, Angel and Emilio (currenly Donovan) have always been up there on the Golden Boot. Cooper will be the best in a few years.
He really doesn't have a clue. But I think that this team however weakened from the usually stability, it has enough to easily win both games.
US always has it easy for the qualifiers IMO, because I don't think any of the teams (except Mexico) are that good anyway.
Beating cup cakes isn't the goal for the US National Team anymore. Check out this article about the status of the National Team. I agree with the main point that just competing against big teams isn't enough anymore. Yes, a draw against Argentina is the best we could hope for, but a 2-0 loss to England where we did nothing to maintain possession or attack is unacceptable. The MNT program needs something and I think its going to be a foreign coach from Portugal, Spain, Holland or South America at the top and the infusion of foreign involvement needs to go down from there.
