Countdown to World Cup 2006

[Marco4]

Several players will sign fat contracts in Europe when its all over.

 

Why would he honestly say this? Doesn't he want to further the MLS and have it become a more world renowned league? I don't want all of our good players leaving to play in Europe. I want them to stay in the US and play. I know people have differing opinions on this matter but you would think that a former US National Team player and former MLS player wouldn't want all of the good American players to leave the US.

 

Is the money on offer in Europe not far, far more than the money on offer in MLS? That's surely going to go through these players' minds.

[sethuel1]

Several players will sign fat contracts in Europe when its all over.

 

Why would he honestly say this? Doesn't he want to further the MLS and have it become a more world renowned league? I don't want all of our good players leaving to play in Europe. I want them to stay in the US and play. I know people have differing opinions on this matter but you would think that a former US National Team player and former MLS player wouldn't want all of the good American players to leave the US.

 

Is the money on offer in Europe not far, far more than the money on offer in MLS? That's surely going to go through these players' minds.

Yes, it is. Unless you're Freddy Adu.

 

Also, I completely agree with USSoccer regarding players moving to Europe. The MLS is simply not good enough for our top-end talent right now. Therefore, these players must play abroad in order to play world-class.

[USSoccer]

Several players will sign fat contracts in Europe when its all over.

 

Why would he honestly say this? Doesn't he want to further the MLS and have it become a more world renowned league? I don't want all of our good players leaving to play in Europe. I want them to stay in the US and play. I know people have differing opinions on this matter but you would think that a former US National Team player and former MLS player wouldn't want all of the good American players to leave the US.

 

Is the money on offer in Europe not far, far more than the money on offer in MLS? That's surely going to go through these players' minds.

Yes, it is. Unless you're Freddy Adu.

 

Also, I completely agree with USSoccer regarding players moving to Europe. The MLS is simply not good enough for our top-end talent right now. Therefore, these players must play abroad in order to play world-class.

 

To put a coda on that point, the reason Landon Donovan will always be a very good but not great player is that he's unwilling to make another move to Europe. In his case, you have to weigh the ceiling on his development by staying in MLS vs the psychological wreck he became during both stints in Europe.

[soccer10k]

I agree that the better talent is in Europe, but I would like to see our players give the MLS more respect. Is the MLS ever going to be as highly regarded as the top European divisions? Not in the short term. But we need to have a solid American league to develop players and hopefully in the long run we can build the MLS up to be competative.

[Marco4]

I agree that the better talent is in Europe, but I would like to see our players give the MLS more respect. Is the MLS ever going to be as highly regarded as the top European divisions? Not in the short term. But we need to have a solid American league to develop players and hopefully in the long run we can build the MLS up to be competative.

 

Is there the interest there, though? The big European leagues have been established for about 100 years, and there's teams regularly pulling in 50,000 fans every week as well as being known the world over.

 

For MLS to get that, it will be a slow, long and painful process. The easiest way I can see it happening is that the US national team starts performing better in major tournaments and global interest in them, and knowledge of the players increases.

 

That would inspire a few more fans - in Europe - to look at the MLS clubs more seriously.

 

There's also the disadvantage that Europe is, really, the hub of the game and the best players are on display in the European Champions League - MLS can't compete with that, period. The best it can do for the forseeable future is to be seen as a base for a lot of very good players, like the leagues of Argentina and Brazil.

[USSoccer]

I agree that the better talent is in Europe, but I would like to see our players give the MLS more respect. Is the MLS ever going to be as highly regarded as the top European divisions? Not in the short term. But we need to have a solid American league to develop players and hopefully in the long run we can build the MLS up to be competative.

 

That's pretty much MLS's operating plan right now. Long term, it's best to have the top players in the national team pool-especially the younger ones-in Europe. MLS is doing the smart thing as far as building the league goes, in that they haven't tried to grow too fast, too quickly by overspending on players.

 

As far as MLS getting respect goes, I'd argue that the league does get some respect right now, at least regionally. MLS regulars basically carried us through 75% of the qualifiers, and MLS players will probably make up about a third of the WC roster when it's announced today. You see a lot more interest in guys from MLS now in Europe. As a league, it's about on par with the rest of the leagues in N. and S. America.

[sethuel1]

Is there anything crappier than the ussoccer.com website? They spend almost all of their time putting up headline articles that nobody cares about (U-17 WNT vs. Guatemala, etc.), plus the website goes down under the slightest amount of traffic. it's inaccessible right now. How do they expect to handle the actual World Cup traffic?

[USSoccer]

Is there anything crappier than the ussoccer.com website? They spend almost all of their time putting up headline articles that nobody cares about (U-17 WNT vs. Guatemala, etc.), plus the website goes down under the slightest amount of traffic. it's inaccessible right now. How do they expect to handle the actual World Cup traffic?

 

I hate it. It's too gimmick heavy and not nearly enough content or bandwidth to support any sort of traffic.

[sethuel1]

is anyone watching Sportscenter? I'm stuck at work still.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

is anyone watching Sportscenter? I'm stuck at work still.

 

They just rolled an announcement about the Roster decision on the bottom line, so they haven't done it yet.

[USSoccer]

is anyone watching Sportscenter? I'm stuck at work still.

 

I'm stuck at work, too.

 

I'll be seriously ill at my desk if Zavagnin is on the roster. And I won't be shocked if Eddie Johnson isn't.

[goonys evil twin]

I have it on.

[goonys evil twin]

they are listing the roster now

[shnsajax]

suprised on Ben Olsen making the team. Probably won't see a minute, but suprised. still havent seen entire roster yet.

[USSoccer]

suprised on Ben Olsen making the team. Probably won't see a minute, but suprised. still havent seen entire roster yet.

 

That is suprising.

[WindyCity]

From ussoccer.com:

 

Beasley, DaMarcus

Bocanegra, Carlos

Cherundolo, Steve

Ching, Brian

Conrad, Jimmy

Convey, Bobby

Dempsey, Clint

Donovan, Landon

Gibbs, Cory

Hahnemann, Marcus

Hejduk, Frankie

Howard, Tim

Johnson, Eddie

Keller, Kasey

Lewis, Eddie

Mastroeni, Pablo

McBride, Brian

O'Brien, John

Olsen, Ben

Onyewu, Oguchi

Pope, Eddie

Reyna, Claudio

Wolff, Josh

[shnsajax]

I wish Chris Armas could stay healthy, they were always a different team when he was in his prime.

 

Holland still getting little respect with Italy as 5/1 odds and Holland at 8/1.

[WindyCity]

Here's the list of alternates:

 

U.S. Men’s National Team Alternates List – 2006 FIFA World Cup

Goalkeepers (2): Tony Meola (New York Red Bulls), Matt Reis (New England Revolution)

Defenders (3): Chris Albright (Los Angeles Galaxy), Gregg Berhalter (Energie Cottbus), Todd Dunivant (Los Angeles Galaxy)

Midfielders (5): Chris Armas (Chicago Fire), Chris Klein (Real Salt Lake), Pat Noonan (New England Revolution), Steve Ralston (New England Revolution), Kerry Zavagnin (Kansas City Wizards)

Forwards (3): Conor Casey (FSV Mainz), Chris Rolfe (Chicago Fire), Taylor Twellman (New England Revolution)

[USSoccer]

From ussoccer.com:

 

Beasley, DaMarcus

Bocanegra, Carlos

Cherundolo, Steve

Ching, Brian

Conrad, Jimmy

Convey, Bobby

Dempsey, Clint

Donovan, Landon

Gibbs, Cory

Hahnemann, Marcus

Hejduk, Frankie

Howard, Tim

Johnson, Eddie

Keller, Kasey

Lewis, Eddie

Mastroeni, Pablo

McBride, Brian

O'Brien, John

Olsen, Ben

Onyewu, Oguchi

Pope, Eddie

Reyna, Claudio

Wolff, Josh

 

Taking a quick look I'm surpised at Ching over Twellman....

[shnsajax]

From ussoccer.com:

 

Beasley, DaMarcus

Bocanegra, Carlos

Cherundolo, Steve

Ching, Brian

Conrad, Jimmy

Convey, Bobby

Dempsey, Clint

Donovan, Landon

Gibbs, Cory

Hahnemann, Marcus

Hejduk, Frankie

Howard, Tim

Johnson, Eddie

Keller, Kasey

Lewis, Eddie

Mastroeni, Pablo

McBride, Brian

O'Brien, John

Olsen, Ben

Onyewu, Oguchi

Pope, Eddie

Reyna, Claudio

Wolff, Josh

 

Taking a quick look I'm surpised at Ching over Twellman....

 

Thats who I was missing. I was trying to figure out how the hell Ching made the team.

 

I think the success of this team comes down to Onyewu, Dempsey, and Johnson.

[sethuel1]

From ussoccer.com:

 

Beasley, DaMarcus

Bocanegra, Carlos

Cherundolo, Steve

Ching, Brian

Conrad, Jimmy

Convey, Bobby

Dempsey, Clint

Donovan, Landon

Gibbs, Cory

Hahnemann, Marcus

Hejduk, Frankie

Howard, Tim

Johnson, Eddie

Keller, Kasey

Lewis, Eddie

Mastroeni, Pablo

McBride, Brian

O'Brien, John

Olsen, Ben

Onyewu, Oguchi

Pope, Eddie

Reyna, Claudio

Wolff, Josh

 

Taking a quick look I'm surpised at Ching over Twellman....

 

Thats who I was missing. I was trying to figure out how the hell Ching made the team.

 

I think the success of this team comes down to Onyewu, Dempsey, and Johnson.

 

Wow. Ching over Twellman is definitely the shocker.

 

Hooray for Berhalter and Zavagnin not making it.

[sethuel1]

I wish Chris Armas could stay healthy, they were always a different team when he was in his prime.

 

Holland still getting little respect with Italy as 5/1 odds and Holland at 8/1.

 

I chalk Italy's low odds up to the Francesco Totti comeback bump. No way they should go into the tournament at 5/1

[CuseCubFan69]

So when do these 2-0 we don't know how much longer the games are going to end because of some things that went on during the game thingy going to start?

you're drunk, aren't you?

 

Is he talking about injury time?

 

As an aside, I wish they'd bring back the Golden Goal...

 

Injury time...that's it! I don't understand that deal at all.

[sethuel1]

So when do these 2-0 we don't know how much longer the games are going to end because of some things that went on during the game thingy going to start?

you're drunk, aren't you?

 

Is he talking about injury time?

 

As an aside, I wish they'd bring back the Golden Goal...

 

Injury time...that's it! I don't understand that deal at all.

 

They take the time where the game was not played during that 45 minute period due to injuries and substitutions and add it onto the end, making the half 45 minutes of actual playing time.

[soccer10k]

From ussoccer.com:

 

Beasley, DaMarcus

Bocanegra, Carlos

Cherundolo, Steve

Ching, Brian

Conrad, Jimmy

Convey, Bobby

Dempsey, Clint

Donovan, Landon

Gibbs, Cory

Hahnemann, Marcus

Hejduk, Frankie

Howard, Tim

Johnson, Eddie

Keller, Kasey

Lewis, Eddie

Mastroeni, Pablo

McBride, Brian

O'Brien, John

Olsen, Ben

Onyewu, Oguchi

Pope, Eddie

Reyna, Claudio

Wolff, Josh

 

Taking a quick look I'm surpised at Ching over Twellman....

 

Thats who I was missing. I was trying to figure out how the hell Ching made the team.

 

I think the success of this team comes down to Onyewu, Dempsey, and Johnson.

 

We have to finish first in our group. If we don't we're looking at a second round elimination at best because we'll surely have to play Brazil in the second round. The other key is not having a letdown against Ghana like we did against Poland in 2002. I'm not worried about us playing Italy and Czech Republic.