Sorry I’ve been alittle delayed on everything here but here’s the January roster for the Nats.More or less the camp cupcake we expected, with all Scandinavian and MLS plaers coming in. Brek Shea, Bill Hamid, Kyle Beckerman, Juan Agudelo, Teal Bunbury and Jeff Larentowicz have all been called into the senior camp under Jurgen, but here’ s a real chance for them and others to prove they belong. Past January camps have always been a key part of bringing MLS and other plaers into the fold.
A lot of these players are a little fresh for my taste, but expect at least one of those defenders to be on the senior team by the time qualifying starts. We’re pretty shallow there and calls for Oma, George and Geoff have been ringing for months(although I’d put my money on Parkhurst.)
Also some names might seem to be missing from this roster, but remember there’s a simultaneous U-23 camp going on where players like Mixx, Freddy Adu and Zac MacMath are more likely to get playing time and will surely get a good look there as well.
No real shocks, all things considered, a lot of MLS names people have been calling for and a few others who we’ve wanted to see Jurgen look at for a while. If they aren’t here they’re with Caleb Porter. The only disappointing spot for me is Rico Clark. He’s not as bad as I remember, I’m sure, but he really has no place on our senior national team and he’s proved it multiple times. Not that he can’t play at a CONCACAF level, he can, but we’re mighty deepwhere he could help us. I’d rather see Beckerman, Bradley, Williams, Jones, Edu, Johnson and even Larentowiczbefore I believe Rico deserves another shot at the national team.
USMNT JANUARY CAMP ROSTER
GOALKEEPERS: Bill Hamid (D.C. United), Sean Johnson (Chicago Fire), Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake)
DEFENDERS: Geoff Cameron (Houston Dynamo), A.J. DeLaGarza (LA Galaxy), Omar Gonzalez (LA Galaxy), George John (FC Dallas), Zach Loyd (FC Dallas), Michael Parkhurst (FC Nordsjaelland), Heath Pearce (Chivas USA)
MIDFIELDERS: Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Ricardo Clark (Eintracht Frankfurt), Benny Feilhaber (New England Revolution), Jeff Larentowicz (Colorado Rapids), Brek Shea (FC Dallas), Graham Zusi (Sporting Kansas City)
FORWARDS: Juan Agudelo (New York Red Bulls), Teal Bunbury (Sporting Kansas City), C.J. Sapong (Sporting Kansas City), Chris Wondolowski (San Jose Earthquakes)
So the Union were the best team in the league with a one or two man disadvantage. I know a lot of people I watch with noticed this and really almost saw the team become more comfortable when they went down a man. Not particularly surprised by this but its nice to see the stats back up what you see. Also the Union were 5th in the league with the man advantage.
| oal Differential – One or Two-Man Advantage | |||||
| Rank | Team | Minutes | GF | GA | GD |
| 1 | Columbus | 267 | 7 | 0 | +7 |
| 2 | Sporting KC | 135 | 6 | 0 | +6 |
| 3 | Real Salt Lake | 168 | 5 | 0 | +5 |
| 4 | Seattle | 232 | 6 | 1 | +5 |
| 5 | Philadelphia | 102 | 3 | 0 | +3 |
| Goal Differential – One or Two-Man Disadvantage | |||||
| Rank | Team | Minutes | GF | GA | GD |
| 1 | Philadelphia | 74 | 2 | 0 | +2 |
| 2 | New York | 118 | 3 | 2 | +1 |
| 3 | D.C. United | 110 | 4 | 3 | +1 |
| 4 | Seattle | 41 | 1 | 0 | +1 |
| 5 | Chicago | 92 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
Image via Wikipedia
If the USA is known for producing anything on the field it is top quality goalkeepers. We have a short history of skill, longevity and pure numbers that is far ahead of anything else we’ve been able to do on the soccer field. Obviously there is an entrenched #1 so I’m focusing a bit on the #2 or the #2#1. Whatever. The battle to backup/replace Tim Howard. Listed below in no particular order, but at the end that is a particular order.
Tim Howard-Everton 32
Obviously the USA number one for the forseeable future. He could easily start for the nats until 2018. Great everything. Again Tim Howard is the US goalkeeper of the future. There is no reason to question this, I could have easily skipped this position entirely and a few friends suggested I do, but I’d like to take a look at everyone. The number two spot is far from locked up.
Brad Guzan -Aston Villa 27
He was, up until recently pretty entrenched at the second spot, but he hasn’t been called up by Jurgen yet and he’s not starting for Aston Villa sitting on the bench behind the Irish Shay Given. Not sure what he’s got going on much anymore but he was expected to be Timmy’s replacement at one point. I’m not sure he’s quite there anymore.
Marcus Hahnemann -Everton 39
Looks a bit less likely to come back into the team with every passing day. He’s still playing at a high level but he’s a backup for club, and at 39 no more than a back-up for country any time soon.
Brad Friedel-Tottenham 40
Friedel is another player who would’ve been a hero for the USA if not for Timmy Howard and Kasey Keller holding out the spot for so long. He’s still holding is own, starting for Spurs. He’d be as good a back-up as we could ask for but he’s not much of a replacement for Timmy Howard because of his age.
Bill Hamid-D.C. United 20
Here’s where the players start being less ready to start now, but more prospective replacements. Bill Hamid is really the prime option Jurgen has given us so far as a possible replacement. He’s called a different set for the next few friendly’s so maybe he’ll be cycling people in, but Hamid also has Howard’s support behind him.
I’m not really seeing any wild changes, one of the biggest being the new BIMBO logos, but here is the full set of 2011 MLS Jersey’s as taken off of Fanhouse’s site. If you want to read someone else’s opinion of them check out the link. A few of the bigger changes around the league are obviously the expansion Timbers and Whitecaps jerseys, a Maple Leaf denoting Toronto FC as more Canadian than Vancouver, a mess under Seattle’s armpit, much plainer looking Real Salt Lake jerseys, a new edition of the navy blue jersey from New York, an empty looking pair of jerseys from Sporting KC and the Chicago Fire (they must be angling for a sponsor with that much empty space), an interesting pattern from the Dynamo, and the Rapids eliminating their baby blue kit in favor of another normal white.
http://soccer.fanhouse.com/2011/02/22/mls-2011-uniforms-unveiled-cleanliness-and-conformity-reign/
Chicago Fire
Chivas USA
Colorado Rapids
Columbus Crew
FC Dallas
DC United
Houston Dynamo
Sporting KC
LA Galaxy
New England Revolution
New York Red Bull
Philadelphia Union
Portland Timbers
Real Salt Lake
San Jose Earthquakes
Seattle Sounders
Toronto FC
Vancouver Whitecaps
…and to tie it all together, three confirmed Alternate jerseys. One each from DC United, Real Salt Lake, and the San Jose Earthquakes.
Image via Wikipedia
Although there was much fuss over the Union tying a very good USMNT U-17 team, they proved themselves a step better beating USF 2-1. Although thats not the most emphatic score-line, it’s good to see that the players we expected to score are scoring. Le Toux scored another goal in this game, adding to his goal against the U-17 team, and Danny Mwanga also put a ball in the net; both goals were in the first half. Despite that fact Mwanga told the Philadelphia Union Website that “We had a few more chances that we could have finished. That’s probably the one part we still need to work on a little bit. The game went well, but I think we could’ve scored three or four more goals pretty easily.” Of course as was expected no one other than Mwanga or Le Toux has scored so far. Obviously a two game sample is nothing to draw judgement from, but considering this was the biggest flaw we saw in the team already it is fair if it makes you a little uncomfortable. Surely Coach Nowak has a plan that gets other players involved.
Robbie Findley was hurt in training with his new club Nottingham. He injured his thigh and is expected to be out for up to 3 months. This also means that he will presumably be unavailable for both of the USMNT’s upcoming friendly’s against Argentina and Paraguay.
As there’s really not much hard news worth writing a full piece about coming out of camp, I’ll try to just put up a bunch of links to different articles around the net coming out of camp. Hopefully there will be enough to do this every day, if not then definitely every other day. Either way the season should come soon enough and we will have some original news for all of you reading.
Michael Farfan Interview,with American Soccer News.net
http://union.american-soccer-news.com/?p=3177
They seem to love Shea Salinas in Vancouver from what I’ve read, I wish him well, but also hope he doesn’t turn out to be quite the steal Le Toux was for us
http://www.whitecapsfc.com/news/2011/01/learning-more-about-midfielder-shea-salinas
A relatively simple explanation of the new MLS Roster Regulations for 2011
Zac MacMath having a good preseason in Wayne, can’t wait to see how the kid does
http://www.philadelphiaunion.com/news/2011/01/macmath-adjusting-quickly-first-preseason
bpmangan
mattsant16
Pat
