German Defeat Sorted Men From Bubble Boys

March 24th, 2006 | By: Daryl | 9 Comments »

Bruce Arena says that taking on a full strength German side with MLS also-rans was a mistake, but I beg to differ.

If you’re wondering what Sam Jackson’s doing here, then read on…

Though the defeat will have damaged morale, and hasn’t done the team any favors with a fickle US press (who looked up from March Madness and Bracketology just long enough to shake their heads) I think the game served a purpose.

Arena got to see his MLS bubble boys go up against some proper opposition, and this will have answered any lingering questions he may have had. For example if Bruce was wondering…

Can Chris Klein repeat his Guatemala performance against quality opposition?
Will Brian Ching will come good?
So many central defenders, who can I leave out?

…then now he knows the answers. For the record it’s no, no and Jimmy Conrad.

The Germany game was a bit like that M. Night Shyamalan movie “Unbreakable“, where it turns out !spoiler alert! (though it’s been six years folks) Sam Jackson was deliberately causing train wrecks just to see if anyone could survive.

In the Shyamalan movie it’s Bruce Willis, but in Bruce Arena’s version it’s Cory Gibbs, Pablo Mastroeni, Bobby Convey and Eddie Johnson.

Tags: Bruce Arena, Jimmy Conrad, USA

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Comments

By Seamus | March 24th, 2006 at 8:39 am

Eddie Johnson–but only because he’s the best of a bad bunch, excluding McBride (a known quantity)

Posted from United States

By D | March 24th, 2006 at 1:16 pm

Cherundulo survived. I think he’s clearly the best option at right back.

Posted from United States

By daryl | March 24th, 2006 at 4:40 pm

Absolutely. Didn’t mean to imply Cherundolo looked bad, it’s more that he was already a definite for the 23. And the 11.

Posted from United States

By bossimo | March 24th, 2006 at 7:06 pm

Couldn’t agree more after watching the tape, this game was worthwhile. Any doubt on bubble players — up or down — was erased for several players. Gibbs up. Conrad, Ching, Klein, Zavagnin all down.

I could be wrong, but it feels like Arena is angling either toward the striker quartet of McBride, Johnson, Twellman, Wolf, or he’ll replace Wolf with Donovan upfront. Again, I agree with Donovan starting but would rather have Wolf on the bench than Twellman. Twellman looks like he needs to establish a rythm and he won’t get that chance coming off the bench, whereas Wolf can come in and provide goal scoring spark even if he falls way short in the actual goal scoring department.

Posted from United States

By Aaron | March 25th, 2006 at 6:38 pm

Agree with the above, but Wolff to me hasn’t looked that convincing; and what was he doing exactly blocking Gibbs’s shot? I’d say he can stay if I knew who to bring up front in his place.

Posted from United States

By justin | March 26th, 2006 at 6:42 pm

“Get these Mutherfuckin snakes, off my Mutherfuckin Plane!”

Posted from Italy