Evaluating the Gold Cup roster

Awhile back I began to write a post about Bob Bradley's Gold Cup roster using the formula that I had used for the 2010 World Cup roster, but I realized that this formula should be different, in that youth should be emphasized to a greater degree as we are about to begin a world cup cycle with some different and (hopefully) younger players.

With that in mind, the way to create a roster for a tournament such as the Gold Cup should then be obvious. First, pick the standouts, stalwarts, starters and general leaders of the current team, regardless of their age. And then fill the rest of your needs with the most outstanding players (and those players that show the most potential) that will be less than 30 when the next World Cup rolls around. Given yesterday's post on the ages of the current player pool, it should be easy to evaluate Bob Bradley's roster against this metric.


Players that belong on the team regardless of their age include, due to past contribution, current form and likely future contribution, include Tim Howard, Carlos Bocanegra, Oguchi Onyewu, Steve Cherundolo, Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, Maurice Edu and Jozy Altidore. Bradley included all of these players and it would be tough to argue, ex ante, against including any of those nine players in the 23 player camp.

That leaves 15 spots to be filled with players that are both plausibly able to contribute now and in the future, with some mix between greater experience and youth to be expected. We'll give Bradley a free pass with Jermaine Jones (29 years old), as his dual citizenship and relatively recent decision to play for the US have left him with less chance to carve out a spot than other guys his age. I'll also give him a free pass with the two back-up keepers he called into camp (Nick Rimando is 32 and Marcus Hahneman is 39). Brad Guzan wasn't available and goalkeepers tend to have longer careers. Let's see how he did with the remaining 12 roster spots.

Of those 12 spots, he filled 10 of them with guys on my list of "not old players". There were some pretty questionable selections among those 10, including Jonathans Bornstein and Spector over younger guys like Gale Agbossoumonde, Edgar Castillo and Omar Gonzalez (Timmy Chandler was reportedly injured). But he was, technically, going with younger players.

The two spots that didn't go to the young guys went to Clarence Goodson and Chris Wondolowski. The selection of Goodson is more understandable: he had 18 caps coming in and has shown himself to be somewhat dependable against easy opponents (although I still would have gone with someone younger who is likely to contribute in 2014, for example Omar Gonzalez) but Chris Wondolowski is the real head-scratcher. He had barely played and never scored for the team, and is 28 years old. Bradley could have done better. Yes, Charlie Davies was hurt for the beginning of training but he has since been scoring goals for DC United while Chris Wondolowski sits on the US bench. This would have been a nice chance to get Davies back into camp where he belongs, for the first time since his accident.

While I disagree with many of Bradley's selections (Robbie Rogers and Sacha Klejstan are not guys that are going to take us to the next level of international soccer) I can't give him an F. For the most part he went with younger players (albeit "his guys", not the ones I would have chosen) which is exactly what he needed to do in a tournament like this.

A post for the ages

In the wake of an unmitigated disaster of a Gold Cup final, fans and journalists have been heaping criticism on the coach Bob Bradley for everything from roster decisions (the selection of the original 22 left many scratching their heads, as did Bradley's decisions about who to start and who to substitute) to failing to properly motivate his group. The players, for their part, looked at no point as if they actually wanted to win the Gold Cup, and have received their share of blame as well. The criticism, while almost always deserved, has not always been constructive. What is obvious is that the US is still searching for the right mix of players, and needs to be getting younger and better at the same time.

While every fan or pundit has their favorites as well as their dogs, there are a couple of principles with which we should all be able to agree. The first is that we need to be giving meaningful experience to young talent, and the second is that players who will be at least 30 when the next world cup starts, who are not already in the national team picture, should not be given the time of day. With these axioms in mind, below is a list of (younger) USMNT pool players and their ages.

18
Juan Agudelo (F)
Bobby Wood (F)

19
Gale Agbossoumonde (D)
Conor Doyle (F)

20
Mikel Diskerud (M)
Alex Zahavi (M/F)

21
Jozy Altidore (F)
Teal Bunbury (F)
Timmy Chandler (D/M)
Brek Shea (M)
Tony Taylor (F)

22
Freddy Adu (M/F)
Diego Chavarri (D/M)
Omar Gonzalez (D)
Sean Johnson (G)
Eric Lichaj (D)
Eugene Starikov (M)


23
Michael Bradley (M)
Tim Ream (D)
Jose Torres (M)

24
Alejandro Bedoya (M)
Edgar Castillo (D)
Dominic Cervi (G)
Chris Pontius (M/F)
Robbie Rogers (M)

25
Geoff Cameron (D/M)
Charlie Davies (F)
Maurice Edu (M)
Robbie Findley (F)
Stuart Holden (M)
Sacha Klejstan (M)
Jonathan Spector (D)

26
Jonathan Bornstein (D)
Benny Feilhaber (M)
Brad Guzan (G)
Ryan Miller (D)

Let me know if I have left any important players off this list. I am trying to get the best possible picture of our player pool before taking a look at who should and should not have been on the Gold Cup roster, and who should and should not be on the roster for the WCQ campaign beginning next year.

Name that USMNT Player

I've been able to find one photo online of the training camp at Princeton that started today:
I spot Beasley and Rico in the back, next to I think Dempsey, and EJ (isn't he injured?) and Altidore jogging next to him. Not sure who the white dude next to Buddle is... Rogers? Looks like Steve Cherundolo leading the pack and wearing blue for some reason (I guess he could be a trainer or goalie), Stuart Holden's frosted tips are unmistakable. Looks like Feilhaber in the front pack as well, is that Edu on the left?

Donovan, Buddle and Torres were off getting physicals I guess, so that's why they're not in there. Injury bug bit a few other guys who may or may not be in that picture. You spot anyone else?

New Format for CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying?

The executive committee will propose one, according to the CONCACAF website. It is also being reported here, and a couple of other sites have mentioned it. There are no specifics, though it sounds like the US would have to play more games.

I like the idea of watching more games, but don't like the idea of a grueling schedule that could lead to injuries and wear players down. I guess we'll have to wait to hear the proposal before we start belly-aching about it.

Jozy's new SC spot

Jozy Altidore's new SportsCenter commercial is pretty funny (their commercials always are).




Given his suspension from the Premier League and the negative things his manager at Hull had to say about his training habits, it would be nice to see Jozy concentrate a little more on Soccer this close to the World Cup. I have maintained that Jozy is a young player that can disappear for entire games, but will show up big for the big ones (see his dominating performance against Costa Rica in the last WCQ game, which he played like it was his last after Davies' accident). The games this summer are going to be pretty big, and I feel pretty confident that Jozy will play like it.

And so it begins...

Less than 48 hours after the announcement of the preliminary 30-man roster, Charlie Davies has spoken out in the media against Souchax president Alexandre Lacombe, claiming that he was unaware that his club was not going to give him medical clearance to play in the World Cup, and that he feels "very hurt, very sad" that his club went behind is back in that manner.

Davies' unshakable belief in himself is to be admired, and it is part of what makes him such a great goal-scorer. But in the end, he is the only person on that planet that has been consistently positive about his fitness level and his chances to be match-ready in time for the World Cup. Hopefully he will use this experience to become a better player, rather than letting a critical juncture in his career be defined by fighting and bad feelings between himself and his club.

Bradley's 30: How did "the formula" do?

Well, a few minutes after I made public my preferred 30-man training camp roster, Bob Bradley did the same with his. Not surprisingly, there was a lot more interest in his list than there was in mine.

There are 3 differences in our lists. The first is at striker, as Bob Bradley called Robbie Findley into camp at the expense of an apparently still injured Charlie Davies. Bradley also did not call Conor Casey or Freddy Adu into camp, going instead with the two midfielders Robbie Rogers of the Columbus Crew and Sacha Klejstan of Chivas USA.



Those last two differences are minor. Conor Casey was only on my list because he fit into my "formula", and Rogers probably fit in just as well. I took Casey because he had seen more minutes during qualifying, Bob took Rogers because he is a better playing with a brighter future. I have no problem with that move. Freddy Adu and Sacha Klejstan are both midfielders who have seen limited time with the national team, but are very different players. Adu, somewhat of a fallen star, has the higher potential but has thus far failed to live up to it. He plays in a more competitive club environment, but was not likely to make the final 23 anyways. Klejstan is also not likely to make the final 23. He plays in the weaker MLS, but sees more consistent playing time.

The Charlie Davies decision is the big one. The reality is that none of us know how healthy he really was. He was reported to be in full training with Souchax for a couple of weeks, scoring goals and taking tackles. Then again, all those reports were coming from Davies himself. His fitness was surely not what it was last fall before his accident, but then again neither is Oguchi Onyewu's. In the end, Souchax did not grant medical clearance while AC Milan did. Right now we don't know exactly why, and maybe we never will. What is clear is that there might be some interesting club-national team politics at play. Souchax has to let Davies go if he is healthy, so the US has some recourse if they don't agree with the Souchax decision. Last week FIFA published an article about Davies in which a club doctor was quoted as saying Davies wouldn't be ready, but US Soccer denied the diagnosis and FIFA effectively printed a retraction of the previous article.

In the end all we know is that US Soccer did not think it was worth pressing Souchax to release Davies, and they are probably right. At best he would have been a super-sub, seeing action in one or two matches. At worst we would be bringing a guy into camp who is clearly not ready, risking injury, and then cutting him in two weeks anyways.

The South Africa campaign will be about 23 guys, not one. It would be nice if Davies were one of those 23, but it is not the end of the world that he isn't.