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Ching In, Twellman Out

May 2nd, 2006 | By: Daryl | 9 Comments »

Biggest shock on Bruce Arena’s World Cup roster is Brian Ching’s inclusion at the expense of Taylor Twellman. This can’t be based on recent inernational performances.

Seems Bruce has considered their respective form in MLS (Ching 6 in 5) Twellman (1 in 5) but also his World Cup strategy. With Arena set to play one up top, maybe he thinks Ching would offer more as a replacement target man should anything happen to McBride.

“He easily could’ve been on this roster,” Arena said of Twellman. “He was certainly among the group of players that were in and then out, in and then out along the way over the last couple months.

“We tried to find the right balance and find the right combination of players that would allow us to play a certain style against certain opponents and, in the end, the 23 we selected were the right ones.”

Ching may be more powerful than Twellman but no-one’s too fond of his first touch. On the other hand Twellman would have been devoured by the Italian defence. You could point out weaknesses for either guy, and for Wolff and Johnson too. The only conclusion is that we’re lacking the depth up front that we enjoy elsewhere.

Let’s just hope Mr. McBride stays healthy.

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Comments

By ashley | May 2nd, 2006 at 7:11 pm

Twellman looked fine in the matches before the German friendly, but he looked slower than a miffed Wynalda in Germany. Short, too.

Posted from United States

By Lish | May 2nd, 2006 at 7:11 pm

One up front is an… interesting (?!) choice for World Cup play. Letting our forward get winded in the first half is definately a strategy our opponents will appreciate.

By Bob | May 2nd, 2006 at 7:56 pm

McBride and Reyna pretty much have to play out of their minds for the US to do well. Johnson is always a wild card at forward. He could get hot…Ching on the other hand is a head scratcher but the exclusion of Twellman isn’t the end of the world.

By Trent | May 2nd, 2006 at 8:44 pm

Well, we all learned something today. For me it was what Jeff Agoos did with those compromising photos he had of Coach Arena. Clearly, he bequethed them to Brian Ching.

Again, Daryl, nice LiveBlog.

Posted from United States

By chuck | May 2nd, 2006 at 9:13 pm

Well, (I suppose) we ought to support Mr. Ching. It’s understandable if you don’t trust in Ching, but I think we all trust in the Bruce.

Personally, I would not have chosen Ching, but hey! Bruce didn’t call to ask my opinions this time around…

Posted from United States

By Seamus | May 3rd, 2006 at 7:52 am

I wouldn’t expect anything from Ching or Twellman or Wolff or Johnson regardless. I think the midfields offensive play is much more crucial. And we have the most offensively talented group of midfielders to ever play for the US on this squad. Granted, McBride is the lynchpin–so him staying healthy is really key. But I don’t see any problems with him “getting winded” because he’s “alone” up top. There is plenty of quality getting forward from the midfield and depth in speed on the bench in case someone like Beasely gets winded from going forward too much

Posted from United States

By bill | May 3rd, 2006 at 4:02 pm

Wolff!!!!!!!! c’mon. I hope bruce checks on Josh and finds he has the flu and needs to call up Twellman. Twellman can finish the ball but at times he appears to be his own worst enemy and gets himslef down. When he is loose, he’s one of the best!!

Posted from United States

By eric | May 3rd, 2006 at 4:57 pm

This makes me nervous! I agree with Seamus that most of our offense will come from the midfield and I think that is what happened in 2002. But It would be nice for Johnson and ching to find their scoring touch during the three warm-ups and carry it through to the second round or more.

Posted from United States

By Johnman | May 4th, 2006 at 5:28 pm

What a heartbreaker. Taylor would have made a great 70th minute sub. Hopefully CHingy can get on the field.

Posted from United States

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