New Year, Old Problem

With the first game of the new year comes an old, old problem; the never ending search for a left back. Bruce Arena’s typically no-nonsense approach to the problem - “There aren’t that many, that’s the way it is.” - is either comforting or terrifying, I’m not sure yet. Though Arena’s been pretty creative back there (Lewis, Convey etc) I think we’ll need proper defenders for Group E.

Heath Pearce (pictured) is the only non-MLS player in the squad (Danish side Nordsjælland pay his wages). He got his first cap when he came on for about 15 minutes against Scotland last year and should play left back tonight. I can’t claim to be too familiar with him (I don’t watch a whole lot of Danish soccer), but he seems like a ‘natural’ left back, meaning he can defend but he’ll also get forward and put some decent crosses in.

The other option is LA Galaxy’s Todd Dunivant. He’s currently uncapped but that could change over the next week or so.

Central defender Carlos Bocanegra is still Arena’s first choice left back, more by default than anything else. Some fans would prefer a more orthodox player in there, and we know Arena likes full backs who can get forward, but with Group E looking so dangerous it might not be a bad thing to have an all out ‘defender’ like Bocanegra playing left back.