Yep, That's Who We're Stuck With
The US is going on a European tour for the upcoming Interlull, and it’s pretty clear Bob Bradley has no intention of winning either the match against Slovakia, or against Denmark.
How do we know this?
Connor Casey.
Why Bob Bradley thinks Casey is capable of delivering on anything above an MLS level defies the collective UF understanding of the game.
But Casey is part of the US squad announced yesterday. It might seem like we’re a day behind on this, but really, we were waiting for a second press release from USSoccer that said, “Nah, just kidding. Casey won’t be going.”
Casey might be a nice guy (or he might masturbate onto kittens before drowning them in vats of boiling broccoli cheese soup for fun, we really have no idea), but we’re not ragging on him as a person. It’s just there has been nothing in that guy’s play that could possible make any American soccer fan think he gives the US shot to advance in South Africa. Yet, Bradley continues to put faith in him (we’ll take Kenny Cooper over Casey any day in case any one is asking us).
We simply recognize the fact that Connor Casey has two goals in 16 games for the USMNT.
Like it matters. Bradley’s strategy is probably to try to nick a goal in the 1st minute, then sit back and defend the box for the next 89. Additionally, he’ll fail to make any strategic substitutions that actually change the game until long after we’ve conceded an equalizer and a winner.
Also of no surprise is the inclusion of the increasingly mediocre Michael Bradley, whose greatest asset continues to be his last name.
Some key players have been conspicuously left off the squad. Landon Donovan has MLS playoff duties. And Tim Howard (Timmay!) is also absent. Not sure if that’s a favor to David Moyes to give him some rest, but we’re totally okay with Guzan getting more first team action.
Full squad is below. We’re predicting a loss and a draw. We don’t play well in Europe (I think we have all of one win ever (against Poland I believe)… we’re willing to be corrected on that) and after Jozy, we have no legitimate goal scoring threat.
Plus, these are two decent sides as both have qualified for next summer’s World Cup. Kudos to Bradley and the USSF for continuing to schedule above our weight, but having struggled in the last match at home against Costa Rica, and with a thinner squad on foreign soil, UF expectations are appropriately low.
GOALKEEPERS:Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Marcus Hahnemann (Wolverhampton), Troy Perkins (Valerenga)
DEFENDERS:Carlos Bocanegra (Rennes), Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover), Jimmy Conrad (Kansas City Wizards), Clarence Goodson (IK Start), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew), Chad Marshall (Columbus Crew), Heath Pearce (FC Dallas), Jonathan Spector (West Ham)
MIDFIELDERS:Michael Bradley (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Clint Dempsey (Fulham), Benny Feilhaber (AGF Aarhus), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Dax McCarty (FC Dallas), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew)
FORWARDS: Jozy Altidore (Hull City), Conor Casey (Colorado Rapids), Jeff Cunningham (FC Dallas), Eddie Johnson (Fulham)
Conor and EJ have a spot on the squad, but FrankenCooper does not? WTF, Bob?
I forgot Hahnemann was on Wolves. Who the hell is Dax McCarty? Why only 5 midfielders? I could go on and on and on.
I count six. Holden is out for the same reason as Donovan (and Ching and a couple of others I’m sure)… MLS playoffs.
Yep, 6. I was mesmerized by the word Mönchengladbach.
Dax was a part of the youth teams coming up and was on the last Olympic team. I like him as a player, but I do not think he is international quality. Of course the same could be said of Casey and Bob keeps selecting him so…
How about Torres or Castillo? Maybe Bob should see how the young guys perform a long way from home. Call me crazy.
The Mexican Apetura has matches this weekend. So Torres is probably still with his club.
Torres actually plays Castillo this weekend in a match with playoff implications, so both have been kept home. US Soccer has hinted that this squad could drastically change before Wednesday against the Danes, the two Mexicans called in, plus maybe Donovan or Holden depending on how the MLS game goes on Thursday night.
Too many members of the Crew for my taste. But that’s only because I think they should still be playing. As a Crew fan I’m hoping Rogers plays like s**t so no European teams will be interested in him.
Oops, I almost forgot–Conor Casey sucks ass.
Aaaarrgghh!! Jesus Christ, Ryan. Am I correct to assume that that’s the avatar that scared so many other folks a few days ago?
You can’t hide from Bob Bradley’s piercing eyes, goat. Unless of course your name is Jose Torres, then you hide from them pretty damn well apparently.
And as a Crew fan how do you feel about Robbie being included in the expansion draft?
What?!? I hadn’t heard that. F**kity f**k.
Glad Houston is still alive, and call me nuts, but that semi on Friday should actually be good soccer. Houston is probably the best coached team and has had the most consistent form in the league for the least 3-4 seasons and the Galaxy have the two best players.
Also the 2nd leg of the Bahrain v. New Zealand match for a spot in SA is on Friday. So, yeah, I’m actually pumped for two matches that 99.9% of the world couldn’t give a s**t about.
That’s a pretty tasty doubleheader PR, MLS game at 10pm, then the Kiwis at 1am. Not too bad.
As for the squad selection, I think I’m a bit more optimistic than you all are. I probably rate Cooper the lowest of anyone here, for me he and Casey are pretty well equal in internationals lately. Cunningham will never sniff a trip to South Africa next year, but as MLS top scorer he probably deserved a courtesy call up.
We’ll still be able to take a few things out of these friendlies, as we what looks to be our “A” backline until Gooch gets back.
Until the US hires a real coach, this kind of thing will continue to happen.
Don’t think Cooper has been given much of a chance to succeed on the USMNT. Most of his appearances for anything resembling a first team have come as a late sub (80th or later) in games that were more or less decided.
Would love to see him, partnered with Jozy, get a run out against Slovakia.
Can this be Exhibit 1 in why the MLS needs to change its schedule to recognize international dates? How can they honestly say they are for the development of US soccer when its schedule prevents several of the nation’s best soccer talents from playing in crucial World Cup tune-up matches against quality opponents. Pretty ridiculous.
Who’s this “Eddie Johnson” fellow?
Ryan: The first leg of the NZ v. Bahrain was almost unwatchable (I know, I watched all 90 minutes) but I’ve got really good reasons to pull for the Kiwis. I’d love to see them in South Africa (and I’d love to see them draw into our group even more… but that will never happen; it will be rigged so that they draw into the host’s group giving them a shot at advancing and annoying the rest of the world with those goddamn vuvuzelas for even longer).
Fair enough PR, we all have our biases for and against players, I guess mine is just against Cooper for some reason. I watched all his matches in the Gold Cup and he just didn’t impress me. I do think Jozy should play full 90s in both matches. What can it hurt?
TFA: Are these even FIFA mandated release dates for regions that don’t have qualifiers left?
I agree with your general point, but not sure it would matter in this case.
@TFA Imagine if things had gone poorly down in Honduras and we found ourselves in the playoff vs. Uruguay this weekend. How idiotic would MLS have looked then?
@Goat – I really don’t see how this “Eddie Johnson” person will help us on the pitch.
My bad… We still have qualifiers in our region. Oops.
How am I the 18th post and only the first person to bring up how terrible Klejstan is? I think we can assume that if Landon/Ching were not club tied and Davies was upright that Casey would come nowhere near this team. I’m not sure the same could be said for Sacha and that is much more troubling to me.
@Bergkamp: To be honest, I didn’t even notice. Kzljesztion sucks ass.
Cooper and Casey are pants. Give me Marcus Tracy.
@PR: The FIFA calendar appears to have matches only for official matches and not friendlies. Link (PDF warning). However, when I look at most of the European leagues they have the week off. Not too difficult to align the calendar is it?
Like I hinted at earlier, I think much of this squad is “bone-throwing” to MLS guys by Bob Bradley, an MLS guy. Klestjan gets thrown a bone because he was actually decent in Chivas’ last half of the season. Cunningham gets thrown a bone for being top scorer, Casey for beating Honduras.
Remember back in January when Celtic wanted Klestjan badly? Imagine how that would have worked out.
Eh… Of all my complaints, Klejstan is probably 5th or 6th on the list. He’s servicable when he’s on form.
That’s a great point, Bergkamp. Bradley’s devotion to s**te talent at the midfield is one of his most troubling tendencies.
Bob Bradley is just hoping to see a few pics of Sacha’s girlfriend.
@NYK: Hopefully she’ll see to it that our players will be fully insured. It’d be great if she could also extend coverage to injuries incurred in weekend pickup games.
Sacha Kljekshtnepian: Horrible footballer, world-class petulance.
I’m not sure the catering to the MLS is as much Bradley as it is Sunil pulling Bradley’s strings from behind the curtain. Sunil’s still trying to sell the idea that the MLS can produce world-class players, and IMO that’s a large part of why Bradley was hired, because Sunil knew Bradley wasn’t like to resist that sort of thing. I find it difficult to believe Klinsmann, or a coach with his international experience, would have so readily suited up players who clearly lack international quality.
@TFA – you mean JamieLee Darley, Victoria’s Secret supermodel hopeful?
dax mccarty had a great year this year and really came into his own at fc dallas. He is a holding mid/box to box mid that can deliver good connecting passes and is a pretty good ball winner.
I don’t know how good he will be internationally, but he was probably FCD’s most solid player and deserves a look after the way he played this year. He is still young, (23 or 24 i think) and won’t ever be a WC starter or even back up, but i feel that he could mature into a pretty decent fringe USMNT player.
I love going box-to-box.
@NYK: yeah, that would be the one. funny you remember her name so well.
Mulling this over for a little while, I guess my biggest issue with the squad is the lack of creativity involved with it. Factors outside Bob’s control led to a lot of MLS guys being out of commission, I get that. But why then do you call up second tier MLS guys to take their place? I’d rather have seen some of the fringier US European players, like Bedoya, White, or even Grella get a look.
@TFA – hey, it’s not my fault I’m getting bombarded with FB updates from Kljestan and Robbie Rogers urging me to vote for her
@highbury library
do you really want to see a guy who has gotten less than ten league starts (guessing) come into a set of friendlies that are to be preparing potential WC guys for the tourney that starts in less than a year?
what’s the basis? he won’t be on the team (unless he starts getting major minutes and scoring major goals) and i’m guessing but hasn’t even received his first cap yet.
I like to see new and fresh guys in the USMNT shirt, but this set of friendlies isn’t the right time. Bring him into the January camp and see how he does there.
I hate conor casey, and would rather see a piece of lint lose the ball and walk around like some ugly hulking ogre like he does, if that meant i never had to see his shiny head again, but he has much more of a chance to actually be on the team than marcus tracy.
this is the camp to bring in guys who are impressing right now and for guys to get some experience playing against teams they may play against at the WC, not for the young guys to get their first or second cap and determine that in two WC’s from now, they will be starting.
And while Sunil may not be a great head of USSF, he apparently is a kick-ass Economics professor. Ratemyprofs gives him very solid marks.
@Ryan – well, I got high marks on RateMyProfs too, but that was because I have a nice butt
@NYK: Did you get a chili pepper? I’ve been meaning to ask you–where and what do you teach or can’t you divulge such sensitive info?
it’s complicated, but I did all of my teaching (several different undergrad classes; grad stats) while still in graduate school
Don’t forget: Casey also never scored at the youth level. It’s not like he was a promising youngster or something; he’s literally only scored two goals, both in the SAME F**KING GAME.
That said, he’s scored two in his last two. So on current form he’s better than Altidore.
So I take it you’re no longer in academia? Wise move–the pay sucks but it does allow for one to spend a fair amount of time making fun of a soccer coach’s s**tty team selection for relatively meaningless friendlies.
Didn’t we win @ Switzerland around the same time as the Poland win?
Corrected we stand. We’ve actually won 3 times in Europe. Twice against Poland (once in Poland and once in Germany) and against Switzerland in Basel.
Poor facting (< - new word) on our part.
All results here.
If I went to Columbia, I’d totally take a class with Sunil, just so I could go to office hours and yell at him for an hour.
@Goat – I’m only involved in research now. I would actually go back to teaching if I could. After all, it afforded me the opportunity to watch all of France’s WC2006 matches while teaching class. I simply scheduled quizzes, exams, group projects on those days.
I think we also defeated Austria before the 2002 World Cup (and that turned ou well for us).
Anyway, I don’t get the Cooper love. He showed well in MLS, but he’s riding the pine now for 1860. 1 goal in 12 games, I believe. Of course, that’s better than Eddie Johnson, but Cooper isn’t a Davies replacement (hence the reason for Cunningham and Johnson).
And, on another note, I really rate Baby Bradley. I know UF (for the most part) really dislikes him, but he’s quality. I think he’s completely misused with the National Team. He needs to be paired with a D-mid — Rico Clark is serviceable, nothing more. Feilhaber and Torres aren’t ball-winners. Bradley will pair with Jones (please Lord, heal Jermaine!) at the WC and I think they’ll perform well.
I’m also glad to see Rogers in the squad. We have so few natural outside mids — I’d like to see him take it to next level.
Couldn’t find a win v. Austria in Europe on that list. And Cooper has two goals.
That’s right… a 100% increase over what you had. How can you possibly not love a striker who is 100% better than you thought?
@PR. For some reason, your link isn’t working for me.
http://www.ussoccer.com/Teams/US-Men/Schedule-Results/1998.aspx
We did beat Austria in Vienna on April 22, 1998 — I was off by 4 years.
Back to Cooper, I think he’s a strange case. He’s a big guy who doesn’t play big. He has great ball skills (especially compared to our forwards), but Bradley clearly wants him to play as a target guy. I don’t think he and Casey are interchangeable in that way.
Bradley clearly likes a target guy and a speed guy. Cooper doesn’t fit. Should Bradley change his set-up? Sure, but I don’t think Kenny is good enough to be the reason why. Jozy doesn’t fit either (not a great target guy), but his ceiling is way higher than Cooper. Clint (who will end up playing forward at WC) doesn’t fit as well, but, again, he’s a proven scorer at the highest club level.
That being said, Cooper deserves more chances. Just don’t expect much from him — he isn’t the answer either.
Plus, I feel like we’re discussing the height of the World’s Tallest Dwarf. After Davies and Altidore, our forwards suck.
I don’t think we could beat either team if we met them in the WC.
In brighter news Davies was released from the hospital today.