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Retired US Soccer / World Cup Thread (RIP)

If you're coach, what's your lineup for the upcoming match vs Jamaica?

I'd go with a 4-1-3-2

--------------------Howard------------------
Chandler---Cameron---Goodson---Johnson
-----------------------Edu--------------------
-----Bradley------Dempsey-----Donovan---
-------------Boyd---------JOZY!-----------

Few thoughts, obviously I'm trusting that Chandler would accept the call up, doubt it happens, but we will see I suppose. Went with Edu over Jones/Beckerman in the CDM spot. Trust me, I hate the hippy as much as you do, but I really wanted to put the hippy in the starting XI. He's proven he can play that position well. Ill go with Edu for now. Our 3 in that formation is obviously our fire power. I love Dempsey in the CAM position so went with him there over MB4. Bradley played well on the right last season for CV so I'd rather have him there than Deuce, though id be fine if they interchanged during the match. Our two big boys up top, I guess you could argue Gomez over Boyd but we need to see this combo ASAP
 
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Tuffalo's account will give you Super AIDS. Fact. Use my regularly tested, disease free account.
 
Sean Johnson and Bill Hamid are a very long ways away from seeing the National Team. I still contend neither will ever play a meaningful match for the full team.
 
@WakeWSoccerFor the late night crowd, don't forget that Katie Stengel and the US U-20 team will face China at 5:55 AM on ESPNU
 
siff said:
@WakeWSoccerFor the late night crowd, don't forget that Katie Stengel and the US U-20 team will face China at 5:55 AM on ESPNU
Click to expand...

i like that 6 AM is late night, not early morning
 
siff said:
Well, since we're talking about young American (or German-American) keepers of the future, I was curious to hear about his prospects.
Click to expand...

30 year old keeper (almost 31) who only ever plays when in the lower divisions, and is currently nailed to the bench at his club? Yeah, pass and never needs to ever be mentioned again.
 
fwiw, Megan Rapinoe was on the recent Men in Blazers podcast. I'm only halfway through right now and haven't gotten to her segment yet.
 
gsterp said:
30 year old keeper (almost 31) who only ever plays when in the lower divisions, and is currently nailed to the bench at his club? Yeah, pass and never needs to ever be mentioned again.
Click to expand...

Well okay then!
 
By any measure, 2012 has been tough on
Brek Shea
.

Heading into the year, the 22-year-old FC Dallas winger was supposed to be the face of the U.S. Olympic squad, cement his status as a starter for the senior national team and maybe even score a big-money transfer from MLS to a team in one of the world's top leagues.

Instead, Shea's been hampered by a season-long battle with turf toe. His U-23s failed to qualify for London. And after a pair of very public meltdowns, he lost his place with both the Yanks and FCD.

Shea wouldn't be the first overly hyped U.S. youngster to stumble under the weight of expectation, but there are signs that the rangy Texan is emerging from his funk and finding his game -- the match-winning assist he picked up in Mexico City last week following a surprise recall from coach Jurgen Klinsmann being the obvious example.

Like his slide from prodigy to problem child, redemption has actually been a few months in the making.

"That blowup in San Jose really didn't come as a surprise," Dallas coach Schellas Hyndman says of the sideline outburst Shea directed at him during a July loss to the Earthquakes. "It had been building." The signs included
kicking a ball
at an assistant referee in May, which earned him a three-game ban from the league and cost him his spot on the U.S. roster for June's World Cup qualifiers. There were also flare-ups with teammates in training -- on the rare occasions he attended them; Shea has missed more than 75 practice sessions this season due to injury, suspension and national team commitments.

So after several long conversations between Hyndman, Klinsmann, FCD assistants and team owner Clark Hunt (and after letting Shea stew for a few days -- "Sometimes the loudest noise in the world is silence" Hyndman, says) the decision was made to give a player "who lives and dies for soccer" some time away from the game.

To his credit, he used it wisely.

"I spoke to Jurgen a few times," Shea told the blog via phone on Wednesday afternoon. "He was a great player and he's been through a lot in his career, so he's been a good source to go to because he can relate to me a little bit. He's kinda helped me out with my problems this year."

If Klinsmann's man-management was pitch-perfect in this case, so was Hyndman's. Shea and his 60-year old club coach haven't always seen eye-to-eye during their five seasons together in Dallas, but they cleared the air with a heart-to-heart after the player returned from his two-game sabbatical.

"I talked to him personally about my disappointment," Hyndman says. "I felt insulted being talked to in that manner, on TV. I told him, if some meathead says something like that to me in a bar, there doesn't have to be anyone around -- those are fighting words. You don't tolerate that from another person, let alone someone you put so much time and care into."

Shea got the message, and not just because Hyndman is a
10th-degree black belt
.

"It's not that I lost my love for soccer," Shea says. "But I appreciate it more now after having sat out."

In his first game back, a 1-1 tie in Portland Aug. 5, Shea picked up
an assist
on his team's only goal. Last weekend, three days after helping the U.S. earn that memorable first win in Mexico, he set up David Ferreira's
stoppage-time winner
at Real Salt Lake.

After the miserable start to 2012, Shea's smile has retuned along with his game, and he's even rediscovered his
other passion
: painting.

"I started painting a lot more after the incident happened in San Jose," Shea says. "Painting relieves stress. I did it a lot last year, so maybe that another thing that's helped me get back to my old self."

"Brek is unique," says Hyndman, who fielded calls from a half-dozen MLS teams hoping to trade for Shea this summer. "We had to treat him a little bit differently and make some tough decisions, but he responded fantastically. It seems like all the pressure is off him. He's enjoying soccer again."

With four vital World Cup qualifiers scheduled over the next seven weeks, the timing couldn't be better.
 
gsterp said:
30 year old keeper (almost 31) who only ever plays when in the lower divisions, and is currently nailed to the bench at his club? Yeah, pass and never needs to ever be mentioned again.
Click to expand...

I had no idea he was that old. Of course, you could have said "he's 30 years old" and that would have answered the original question.
 
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