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

By: Chuck

Chuck — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 20:44:33 +0000

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.

By: Seamus

Seamus — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 21:25:14 +0000

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?

By: Mick

Mick — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 20:54:20 +0000

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.