Gibbs Out, Berhalter In

I happen to still like Berhalter and I think he got an inordinate amount of bad press after the German game. I don’t think you can discount the facts that he captains a German team. So he’s a locker room guy and Germany is his home turf. He’s got loads of experience. If he’s the 4th or 5th option at center back I don’t see what the problem is. A depth chart of Gooch, Pope, Berhalter, Conrad, and Bocanegra is nothing to sneeze at.

I think the Gibbs loss is only an issue if Arena was serious about a 3 man backline. However, I think Bocanegra would be a decent enough replacement on the left side of that backline.

Posted from  United States

Who else? He could have called Nick Garcia. But that was never going to happen, so I guess Berhalter is as good a choice as any. It is a shame about Cory, and I don’t think he was -pushing- Pope. I think the job was going to be his.

Posted from  United States

Seamus is right. Let’s face it: American fans will always have certain memories of Berhalter that we can’t (don’t want to) shake.

However, for a German squad that is being promoted to the Bundesliga to name an American as captain, and to keep his captaincy - that says a lot about Berhalter.

I don’t know much about Energie, but I’m sure that there was some German player whom the fans would have preferred to see with the armband. Berhalter’s teammates, however, trusted him.

I say, let’s give Berhalter a chance. He’s got the World Cup experience in him (it does count for something).

And, as Daryl points out, who else, realistically, could Bruce have called up?

Posted from  United States

Who else? How about Jay DeMerit. He didn’t come up through the U.S. National Team youth system, which might explain why he’s been overlooked, but he’s a great young player. He scored what was essentially the winner for Watford to get them into the Premiership.

I think the difficulty the U.S. team is going to have this World Cup (as in past World Cups) is putting the ball in the net. DeMerit can do this from set pieces, as he’s demonstrated. It would be nice to have another scoring threat. He can also shut down opposing stikers, as he showed with Crystal Places’s Andy Johnson (arguably a world-class striker).

I agree that Berhalter is an experienced, talented back, and he doesn’t deserve blame for the Germany game, but Demerit definitly deserves a chance to play for the National Team.

Posted from  United States

Jeremy,

I’m excited about the prospects of having DeMerit included in the Nats, too. Bobby Convey has said the guy deserves to be on the team.

Having said that, from Bruce’s standpoint, I don’t know how he could be called into the team at this point. Bruce has to make definite plans after having seen how specific players fit into both his system, and into the team atmosphere.

I know that people can take a look, for example, at Sven’s decision to call up Theo, and say, “If England can take a chance on a kid, why can’t Bruce take a chance on someone who’s proven himself on the field?”

My response would be, “Why, at this critical stage, take a chance on someone who never been called up before? Maybe Sven made a mistake.”

Let’s face it: granted the wonderful talent that Jay is, and the wonderful year that he had, it would have been more than a little unorthodox to select him - for the first time, in a critical area for the US - two weeks before the first US match.

Posted from  United States

Jeremy,

You don’t bring a back up defender to the World Cup because he can score, you bring them because they can play defense.

DeMerit has never played for the USMNT or in a World Cup, whereas Berhalter has. Berhalter is, in fact, probably a better player than DeMerit. DeMerit is only popular because his team Watford got into the Premiership and he’s never been in the USMNT, so we don’t know what he can do. Berhalter just had a bad day against Germany… oh no.

The Gibbs blow is bad because he was our best man-marker. So if Bruce was going to use him against the the Czechs or Italy in some compacity, that just went poof… and he would have had the speed to defend against the Ghanaians.

Posted from  United States

Love that Behrhalter air guitar picture.

DeMerit should have been given a shot at some point - probably against Scottland - but it’s too late now.

Posted from  United States

Actually Lyle, you’re right, you do chose a defender because he can defend (man-mark). But, one of the qualities you want in a “central defender” is that he’s great in the air, which often equates to goals on set pieces. My point was that DeMerit CAN defend and also get the odd goal (which the U.S. team sorely needs).

I do agree that you don’t call up an untested player at the 11th hour. DeMerit, however, should have been called-up/evaluated months ago, especially given that the Watford manager (Aidy Boothroyd) sent a personal message to Arena singing his praise and asking for a call up.

Berhalter is good, experienced player, and with Kasey Keller in the back organizing things we should be fine on defense. It would have been nice, however, to see a young , talented player (who’s not part of MLS or the USMNT youth system) coem in and shake things up.

Posted from  United States