The game, I don’t think was anywhere near the catastrophe it was published to be and yet, overall, most of the players looked outpaced and unwise in their decisions.

I also disagree with the protest of 3 in the back. With the right people, none of whom participated in the Germany game in the right places, our back 3 can be and would be VERY strong! Pope anchors, Gibbs on the right and perhaps Cherundolo (or Hejduk) on the left… see, if you play 3 in the back, you need 3 things, SPEED, INTELLIGENCE, and COHESIVENESS… the speed wouldnt be an issue with those 3 in the back, Pope, Cherundolo and Gibbs especially are all streaming fast… intelligence (which Berhalter lacked) will be fine, ie- no more pissing the ball away in the back… cohesiveness, the group has to stay tight and move together, this takes a bit of time, speed and intelligence all combined…

I believe that 3 in the back gives us our best opportunity due to our potential strength right up the center midfield… you would have Matroeni and Reyna as holding mids right behind Donovan as our offensive mid… this would put them all in a very suitable role for each person…

the other thing about 3 in the back is that the wings are opened up and we are able to exploit their wings with our speed outside (Beasley and Convey are both very fast and with the 3-5-2, their space WILL not be crowded by someone like O’Brien, which happened MANY times against Poland)….

I think that the 3-5-2 (or 3-5-1-1) gives us our best chance to win and also gives us the opportunity to PLAY THE BEST PLAYERS in spots they are more than comfortable playing… we shouldnt be concerned with playing such people as Lewis and O’Brien (who i admit are very good) if they simply arent the best and as of now, they arent… dont simply play a 4-4-2 just because that gives O’Brien a spot in the left back, we dont need him and he wasnt effective during the Poland game, in fact, he hurt us by taking space away from Beasley with those constant overlapping runs that take away from Beasley’s gift of running right at people…

D. The starting midfield discussion is a good one and I completely agree that discussion threads based on topic would be a big improvement for those of us junkies…

Also agree that Seamus had the most reasonable lineup/formation thoughts. Without looking back I think he was promoting a 4-4-1-1 with Donovan playing behind McBride in attack and Convey and Beasley alternating on the wings. Then your midfielders choice is in the center between. Reyna, O’Brien, Mastroeni. Dempsey should be a great sub for us but only a starter in emergency.

4-3-3 with Beasley and Donovan flaking O’Brien in attack could work as well. The Germany game proved a couple things though: first, Arena is not afraid to experiment on the big stage, and second, the 3 at the back experiment is a failure that shouldn’t be tried again.

I’m looking into getting something sorted. Not sure what format it will take, but over the next couple of months there should be plenty of roster/first eleven discussion.

But how about a permanent open discussion space on the blog?

GO NATS!!

Potential line-ups were discussed a couple of weeks ago. You may want to check out the ideas posted. Seamus posted some interesting thoughts about the formation and the starting 11.

Convey Reyna O’Brien Beasley (maybe if Donovan is played up top)

Beasley Reyna O’Brien Donovan?

Convey Reyna Donovan Beasley (who plays defensive mid?? Do we need to find a place for Mastroeni?)

It’s amazing that we’re now in a spot to be faced with some difficult choices. 12 years ago the starting lineups were easy to make.

Which 4 midfielders would you pick out of this group: Reyna, Convey, Donovan, Beasley, O’Brien, Mastroeni, Dempsey, Lewis? Am I forgetting anyone? Dempsey surely comes out the loser of this group and Lewis can be slotted in at left back. But who should play?

Thanks for the great blog! I put this comment here because I didn’t know where else to put it. It’d be great if we could have a permanent open thread on the blog where we could discuss ongoing issues like squad and starting 11 spots.

Agree that Mastoreni totally outclassed Olsen and Zavagnon. Thrived in a very physical game and could hang with the faster pace. Even admirable taking it forward, when he should have better guys to do that for him in our real lineup.

Convey and Beasley might be in a real fight for PT and starts.

Back to the old Berhalter, which is to say a card waiting to happen

Despite mistakes, Cherundolo is another who looks comfortable when the game speeds up like this.

God I hope we have enough forwards that we don’t have to see Ching again. Twellman also looked overmatched. Up front, only Wolff could handle the pace, but injured again?!? Johnson has tools, but didn’t deliver except one lone header.