Comments on: Reyna Retires

By: Jake

Jake — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 12:34:52 +0000

You idiots don’t know a good player when you see one. Best American ever. Great Ranger (Glasgow)where people know what they’re talking about. Save your energy for losing your next games without a legend….

By: ETucker

ETucker — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 03:00:54 +0000

Marc-

I agree with your criticism that Reyna has lost a step. However, in his defense: a) the backpass from Dempsey was poor and b) Cherundolo and Conrad were both out of position. Plus, Bruce was asking Reyna to play out of position as defensive mid.

He played right back that game but was an offensive menace. Did you see that assist to Beasley? Do you think Donovan would have thought of that pass in a million years?

I do agree that the 4-5-1 system was confusing, because it was ambiguous who our creative midfielder was. A 4-4-2 with Donovan as attacking mid would be fine, untl it was time to play defense.

Until Donovan becomes a two way player (he has one performance against Italy where he played some D) the US can’t risk having three offense only players on the field.

I would like to point out that your criticism of Reyan being both a slow runner and a slow decisionmaker has been leveled against another creative midfielder: Juan Roman Riquelme. How is his team doing? How did Villareal do in Europe?

Donovan certainly has teh potential to be better than Reyna, but its not gonna happen if he stays in Los Angeles with his wannabe actress wife. Until the Bradenton brats realize what it takes to succeed in Europe, no one will be comparable to Reyna.

By: landycakes

landycakes — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 02:40:20 +0000

He never was our best player ever? You are comparing a player who has been a regular in the Bundesliga, Scottish Premiership, and English Premiership for over 10 years ( a first team regular whenever healthy) with MLS players. Who was better? Which American is more accomplished at the world’s top level? Reyna was named to the starting 11 of the ‘02 All World Cup team and you are saying MLS players are better than he was in his prime? I guess Stuart Pierce let him wear the captains band at Man City because he’s an over-hyped American. Not because he’s a seasoned professional with over 10 years of top flight European experience. Last time I checked Claudio Reyna will be playing in the Premiership next season, while Vagenas and Donovan will be in the world class MLS. I’m not saying Reyna is still at his peak, but he is absolutely our best player ever. Instead of just looking at the 3 or 4 games of the world cup finals, why don’t you go back and watch the films of all the qualify matches. I have seen every single televised qualifying match in 18 years and over the last 8 years the U.S. rarely won qualifiers when Reyna wasn’t in the lineup.

By: Marc Howard

Marc Howard — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 01:58:02 +0000

Please, no more defending Reyna. He never was our best player ever. Reyna was always billed and almost always used as our creative midfielder. In doing this job he was one of the worst I have ever seen and I get to see Pete Vagenas week in and week out. Reyna played one game for the USA in the WC ever where we won. The 2-0 win over Mexico and in that game he played right back. Yes please go back and look at the tapes of ALL our games for proof. Reyna is SLOW. He is slow thinking which leads to a very slow game where our attack is ineffective. He takes forever to make a decision and by the time he does the defense is ready for it. He is not creative and very often gives up the ball. We all know the most recent give away. Come on, how many 7 year olds know not to try and dribble out of the back especially when you are right on the 18? How about all the give aways Reyna committed in the offensive third? Look at the Italy game again. Reyna blew more than a few scoring chances by either passing the ball to the other team or hitting it out of bounds. I say good ridence. It was Arena’s mistake for buying into the Reyna hype and playing him at all in this cup.

Now on the other hand our attacking mid should be Donovan. Stop playing this 4-5-1 crap and play a real 4-4-2 with Donovan as the attacking mid and just let him go at the other team. Now this is just speculation but I believe that it is because Reyna was our “attacking” mid Donovan backed off from that duty and that is why our attack sucked. If you do not believe me look at how the Ghana game changed after Reyna went out even though Arena made the terrible decision to bring in Olsen instead of Johnson.

By: landycakes

landycakes — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 01:12:12 +0000

I think Dallas traded EJ because they know that his time in MLS will be ending soon. I expect to see him heading to Europe this year. Hopefully Dempsey will go overseas also.

By: ETucker

ETucker — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 00:40:25 +0000

Gooch would love the Premiership. His tackles would be celebrated by the fans rather than chastised with yellow cards.

Good call on the Dutch league and Donovan: however, he’d have to put his failed actress fiancee in her place.

DMB is just out of form. He’s a good player and he’s young, so I’m sure he can find it. He either needs to work on his crossing or perhaps eye a position switch.

EJ is the real deal. He also needs to find his form, but should probably move to Europe within a year’s time.

By: landycakes

landycakes — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 23:12:46 +0000

I should have also mentioned that Eddie Johnson showed promise. I would love to see Donovan give Europe another try. I think he is a talented player but just needs a little toughening up if he is going to be our captain. DMB has been out of form with PSV and the USMNT, hopefully he can push through and regain the form we saw in the champions league. I think Landon should look to the Dutch league. Germany and England are too physical, but he might develop nicely with a few seasons in the Dutch Eredevise. I would like to see Onyewu in England. He’s a beast at the back.

By: ETucker

ETucker — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 23:00:59 +0000

landycakes-

I couldn’t agree more!

However, as much as I’ve decried the “bradenton brats”, at least DMB has stayed in Europe and taken his licks and the criticism for being out of form.

I really think he can put it together.

I also have not given up on Donovan: he could still sign with some lower level Premiership team (or maybe an up and coming Coca cola championship squad). The question is: will he stick arond when the going gets tough?

As of right now, it looks like no. But people mature a lot from age 24-28….

By: landycakes

landycakes — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 22:49:09 +0000

I’ve been following the USMNT since qualifying for Italia ‘90 and I would have to agree with both sides of this argument. First and foremost, Reyna is absolutely the best American field player ever. He had an outstanding cup in ‘02 and was voted one of the tournaments top 11 players, gaining praise from foreign media and players for his world class performance. However, he was a step or two slow at this cup. He had just recently returned from a broken ankle at Man City and then pulled a hamstring in the first pre-Cup tune up match. Like most players over 30, he’s starting to show his age. But you have to go back to the argument of who else could have played that role? JOB was also injured and would be the only choice. Reyna did not have a great cup but he also did not embarass himself on the pitch. He is still the only American ever who could play at the world class level and seems to “get it” on the pitch (excluding goalkeepers and the ever injured JOB). He will be sorely missed and the team will take a huge step back because we don’t have any other players of his caliber. But it is time for him to hang up the boots. Reyna has given us all more than we could ask for and deserves to be praised by U.S. soccer fans. Onyewu and Dempsey were the only younger players to show promise for the future. Convey was decent. It is absolutely disgusting that U.S. Soccer insists on making Landon Donovan the poster boy for our team. I don’t think we will see much more improvement from DMB. Expectations were way to high for this cup. Over the last 18 years our team has gone from being terrible to being decent, almost pretty good. Nowhere near a 5 ranking in the world. Claudio Reyna played a huge part in the massive improvement of the team during Bruce’s 8 years. He was not the first American to play in Europe, just the first one to gain the respect of his peers as a quality player. He’s the only American to wear the captain’s band for a Euro club team and he did it at three different clubs (Wolfsburg,Rangers, and Man City). I have enjoyed watching Claudio play since his days at UVA, through his 13 years with the national team, and especially in the EPL. I bid a fond farewell to Reyna, McBride, Keller, and Pope, and look forward to U.S. soccer’s continued improvement.
USMNT and NUFC until I die.

By: ETucker

ETucker — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 20:02:09 +0000

Jo Jo-

did you see the US vs Mexico game in September? Reyna was sorta the man of the match…

also, who do we replace him with? Ben Olsen? Eddie Johnson? An injured JOB who hasnt played a full 90 minutes in several months?

Note: EJ is a great forward, but probably not the best option at midfield.

Its always easy to find problems, but ten times harder to find solutions….