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| Friday, September 14, 2001 24:16 EST |
Pros and cons of U.S. men's soccer roster
By Jeff Bradley
[ESPN The Magazine]
Disclaimer: This is nothing but a bar room argument. It is not second-guessing, nor is it meant to demean anyone. I repeat, this is nothing but a bar room argument.
As I flew from Seattle to Newark the other day, I got to thinking -- is there another team of under-23 players (plus three overage players) that could represent the United States in the Olympics? Is there another team out there of guys we've seen in MLS, which, on paper, stack up to the team Clive Charles will take to Sydney next month?
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The First XI
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BigSoccer.com writers worth reading:
11. Bigfoot
10. HalaMadrid
9. Babak
8. Mutinywxgirl
7. MetroFlip
6. ElJefe
5. Pmoliu
4. Milhouse
3. The Magpie
2. Backburner
1. Haig
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Probably not, but wouldn't it be fun to put one together? So here goes.
In goal, I'm going to use one of my overage slots on Tony Meola of the Kansas City Wizards. He has World Cup experience, and is a vocal guy who can organize a young defense.
On my three-man backline, I'm going to have the Wizards' Nick Garcia sweep behind man-markers Rusty Pierce of New England and Carlos Bocanegra of the Chicago Fire.
We'll go with two deep midfielders, Sasha Victorine (L.A.) and Lazo Alavanja (Dallas).
Then, from right to left in front of them, my next overage player, the Galaxy's Cobi Jones, along with United's Bobby Convey and Tampa Bay's Eric Quill.
Up front, my final overage player, Columbus' Brian McBride, who will be joined by Chicago's DaMarcus Beasley.
Can we win? Who knows? But this has got to be the first time anyone ever put together a second team of Olympians, with names of players you've actually seen before. Who says soccer isn't progressing in the United States?
Treble vision for three MLS teams
Last year, I was fortunate enough to be in England during Manchester United's run to their historic Treble. I saw the semifinals of both the Champions League and FA Cup live before returning home to watch the finals, and the conclusion to the Premiership season, on pay-per-view. I'm not a ManU fan, but the drama of the chase was unbelievable.
While it's a far cry from ManU's trifecta, let's take a moment to recognize three MLS teams that still have the American Treble of the MLS regular-season points title, the MLS Cup and the U.S. Open Cup in their sights: the MetroStars, the Galaxy and the Chicago Fire.
MetroStars general manager Nick Sakiewicz said a few weeks back he was "smelling hardware." The scent must have gotten stronger when his club edged past Columbus on penalties in the Open Cup, while Miami won in OT against D.C. United.
Obviously, the loss of Mike Ammann (injury) and Tim Howard (Olympics) is going to test the Metros resolve, but now they have something in common with Chicago and Los Angeles -- they are going to have to test their depth down the stretch and in the playoffs.
Probably the toughest of the three titles for the Metros to win will be the regular-season points title, and it may not be a priority since they've all but secured a top-three seed as the East champion.
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The real playoff picture
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In the playoffs
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Played
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Points
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1. Kansas City*
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27
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48
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2. Tampa Bay*
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27
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47
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3. MetroStars*
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25
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44
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4. Los Angeles
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26
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44
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5. Chicago
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26
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41
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6. Colorado
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27
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36
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7. Dallas
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28
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40
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8. Columbus
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27
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38
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Out of the playoffs
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Miami
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27
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35
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New England
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26
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33
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D.C. United
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27
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24
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San Jose
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27
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23
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*-Division leaders
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In Chicago, the news from Foxboro of Chris Armas' MCL injury hit hard as they were getting thumped 3-0 by rival Dallas. If coach Charles decides to hang on to Armas as an overage player, the Fire may not see him again until the second-round of the playoffs. That is, if they can make it that far.
Chicago, which also loses Josh Wolff and Evan Whitfield to the Olympic team, still has its fingers crossed that Lubos Kubik will be ready to return for the playoffs. After an unbeaten six-game stretch, they are in survival mode. On Wednesday night in Dallas, they started the game without seven starters, including, arguably, their best five players, Peter Nowak, Lubos Kubik, Ante Razov, Diego Gutierrez and C.J. Brown. It is now imperative that Hristo Stoitchkov stay healthy and contribute the rest of the way.
Chicago is alive in all three races, but a shaky pick in every one.
Los Angeles, which prepares to say goodbye to Peter Vagenas and Dan Califf come Olympic time, is hit harder than all other teams during CONCACAF qualifying when most of its team takes off to represent their countries. Coach Sigi Schmid's team steadily has gotten better as it adjusts to playing with Luis Hernandez. With home field for the Open Cup semis, L.A. should be able to push on through to the final.
The Galaxy's regular-season title hopes took a hit when they tied the Wizards at home last week, but K.C. is almost done with the home portion of its schedule, so the Galaxy are not dead yet. Really, a pretty solid pick in all three races.
And Mia didn't even score
Who would have thought the U.S. vs. Barbados game was going to turn into the Women's CONCACAF Gold Cup? Not me, that's for sure.
Of course, the only thing I knew about Barbados was they had beaten Costa Rica at home and played a respectable game in Guatemala. So, in effect, I knew nothing.
I still didn't think 7-0 result was possible in a qualifier, and seriously doubt the U.S. will play another game like this for a very long time. Eddie Pope's early goal and the two Barbados red cards set the stage for the rout. And if you're the U.S., you simply have to move on. There are no conclusions to be drawn from this game. I seriously doubt Bruce Arena will even be able to look at the tape and see anything.
The United States cannot forget the way it felt at the end of the Guatemala tie and the loss in Costa Rica. Those two results need to inspire them, not the latest one.
In Tight Space
A player agent told me this week that MLS turned down Rosenborg's $1 million bid on Colorado keeper Adin Brown because Phil Anschutz told them to turn it down.
San Jose expects to hold onto Giovanni Savarese beyond this season, but are anxious to see how Gio is "classified." That is, originally, Savarese was a Metros draft pick, taken from the Long Island Rough Riders. But when he left the Revolution for Italy, the Revs ultimately got an "allocation" named Jose Luis Morales in his place. So, the league will have to decide whether Savarese is an allocation for the Quakes, or something else.
After playing so hard for so long, San Jose players are now conceding they just aren't a very good team. If they continue to play the way they did in their last two games, coach Lothar Osiander's reprieve may come to an abrupt end. The one thing Osiander had going for him until recently is the team was showing up to play every night.
The buzz in New England is coach Fernando Clavijo is ready to clean house this offseason -- meaning the Revs may renew talks with Dallas about Leonel Alvarez, and send Morales back to Spain. The Revs have been encouraged of late with the play of William Sunsing, but it's not clear whether they're encouraged because they might be able to sell him, or because they want to hold on to him.
Dallas coach Dave Dir got into it with Hristo Stoitchkov at the end of the Fire's 5-1 Open Cup victory over the Burn a couple of weeks ago. He was mad Stoitchkov put the ball through the legs of Dallas' Bobby Rhine when the outcome of the game was no longer in doubt. After the Burn's 3-0 win over the Fire, Dir apologized and said he "didn't handle the situation in Chicago well."
For the record, this was not a phony grandstand play by Dir. He actually called the Fire the day after the Open Cup game and apologized to both coach Bob Bradley and Stoitchkov.
Pub Talk
Okay, if Chris Armas can't go to the Olympics, who should Clive Charles select as his next overage player? It should be Brian McBride, the one U.S. player who can win a ball in the air and change a game on one play. Plus, I've always wanted to see the tandem of McBride and Josh Wolff.
I've been reading a lot lately how the U.S. spends much more money on soccer than other countries and how that should add up to a better national team and I offer up the following analogy. My suburban high school spent a lot of money on basketball. We had a beautiful gym, the best uniforms and, typically, our players went to the most expensive summer camps. Could we compete with the city schools that had no money, a lousy gym and old uniforms? No, we couldn't stay on the same floor.
Of all the things I've been excited to hear and read in the past year, Peter Wilt's quote about how he wants a 20,000-seat stadium in Chicago rather than a 30K stadium tops the list: "I'd rather turn 10,000 people away then have 10,000 empty seats."
The day we can see Sold Out routinely stamped across the ticket windows at MLS games is the day I'm a very happy man. It doesn't matter if it's 15,000 or 30,000, in my mind. Fifteen years ago, I lived in Bochum, Germany, and the Bochum Stadion held 18,000 and you could not convince me it wasn't a big-time, major league atmosphere.
Thanks for all the feedback on the City vs. Suburbs thing. Again, I wasn't advocating anything. Just wondering where Position A is. My hometown Metros talk of a stadium in Newark, but I know back in the day (1996) about 90 percent of the Metros' 10,000 season tickets came from suburban counties like Bergen and Morris. Will those people make the trip into Newark on a Friday or Saturday night?
I want to believe Mamadou Diallo's collision with Mike Ammann was an accident, but really, even if it was, he should be suspended three to five games for not being under control. It's no different than a hockey player "accidentally" getting his stick in a player's face. The player, ultimately, is responsible for his stick.
OK, was it just me, or did my buddies on ExtraTime fudge the line on the controversial Eric Wynalda offside call? I think we've got a conspiracy on our hands.
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