Hudson: “No one was asked questions” in recent friendlies

February 23rd, 2006 | By: Daryl | 3 Comments »

Watching GolTV’s excellent “Soccer America” show last night I heard Ray Hudson’s opinion on the recent friendlies. He complained that the teams we played weren’t good enough and that “no one was asked any questions.”

In one sense he’s right. There are players who excelled in those games who will get found out against better opposition.

But that was the idea wasn’t it? The easy games against a laughable Norway and a semi-retired Guatemala were like the early rounds of “American Idol”, where Bruce handpicks those who stand out (Twellman, Dempsey, Dunivant, Noonan, Zavagnin) to go through to the next round (game against Poland) where we’ll see who can make the step up.

Tags: Bruce Arena, USA

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Comments

By Mick | February 23rd, 2006 at 3:54 pm

I love Ray Hudson and only wish he called the games on ESPN, but he is wrong about this one. I’m not sure what kind of competition he expects to be able to line up when most of the good teams (Europe and L. America) aren’t playing friendlies in January and February. To play the schedule the US did has been great for the MLS guys and has taught Bruce a lot about the players.

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By Seamus | February 23rd, 2006 at 4:25 pm

I’ll take the middle road here: it was nice to get certain plays into the mix and get Adu’s first cap out of the way, etc. But I can’t say Arena found out anything significant. As was the case in the later, tenser qualifiers play erslike Dempsey, Zavagnin, and Noonan will get exposed against stronger European teams. And Dunivant is getting a look solely because of his position.

I would rather see some of the Europe based youngins given the chase that the MLS guys were given. How about bringing Spector, Whitbread, et al into the fold now for their tests?

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By Chuck | February 24th, 2006 at 3:44 pm

I don’t really know Ray Hudson, but I would disagree.

To some degree he has a point, in that the competition was not great. Even 2002 Round-of-16 opponent Japan only brought over their domestics.

Well, first, we only used domestics as well.

Second, Bruce Arena is asking the questions, not Canada/Norway/Japan/Guatemuala/etc, and not (no disrespect) Ray Hudson.

These games go hand-in-hand with the Cary, NC training camp, and are designed to serve as warm-ups, confidence builders, and guages to measure both individual effort and team chemistry.

So we won’t necessarily see all the questions. Or the answers, for that matter.

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