Twellman Makes A Point

What is up with Wynalda. The McChing comment was unprofessional. Wynalda has a chip about McBride, and I’m surprised he being so openly critical of Arena. The fact is, as you allude, is that Ching is a tactical pick by Arena. Bruce clearly rates Johnson and Wolff ahead of Twellman. I don’t see how bringing him would make sense when Ching is better suited to cover for McBride.

Twellman would not have seen the field in Germany, and if McBride stays healthy, Ching won’t either. So why is this an issue?

Seamus, as usual, couldn’t agree more.

I’m sure that even il Bruce would agree that Twellman is the better all around striker. But that has nothing to do with his choice because he’s not choosing a starter, he’s choosing a backup for McBride. Bruce has chosen the 4-5-1 which is really a 4-2-3-1, the one being a target. Twellman just doesn’t fit for the US in that formation.

I highly doubt that Bruce plans to play McBride full games and I can see him subbing in Ching with a lead or tie he’d like to protect for obvious reasons.

If you consider Dempsey the frontrunner for the right wing spot, then the interesting positional questions will be how Arena uses Convey, Johnson and Wolf and specifically who backs up Dempsey who’s also likely to be subbed out. The resolution here may be similar Ching v. Twellman. Though goal shy and arguably the least solid on the ball of the three, Wolf may be the best choice of those three for the right wing in this formation. That may sound far fetched, but look at it this way: if Arena thinks Convey can play right wing then he probably starts in front of Dempsey who becomes the backup. Johnson is more the choice if there’s a shift to 3-5-2. This could be the most interesting thing to watch out for in the upcoming friendlies.

Look, the knock on Twellman is that he (1) had trouble against real quality Concacaf competition, and (2) that Concacaf competition is nothing compared to the World Cup opposition.

Twellman scores most of his goals by smart runs and positioning, but when he gets man marked by smart and positionally sound defensemen, he disappears. Ching, on the other hand can outjump and outmuscle because of his height and size.

Twellman had one good game vs. a subrate Nortway team, and only did well because of his linkup play with the three other Revolution players.

Eric Wynalda hates Brian McBride because he replaced him and is better than he was.

Seamus,

I missed the “McChing” comment — would you mind recapping that?

the goal was a garbage goal anyway. and then he disappeared the rest of the game. the worst part was when he ran over to the sign that said “why not taylor” and stood in front of it with his arms crossed and a “screw you bruce” look on his face. little whiny bastard.
nice dive by him to setup the pk too. bastard.

I guess you could call me a casual, yet loyal fan, but I was definitly disappointed when I read the world cup roster and saw that Twellman was excluded. I have watched parts of every friendly in the past months, and have really come to love the excitement, energy and action that Twellman brought to the team. Not to mention the scoring. Luckily I like McBride just as much for the same reasons. I hope McBride is 100% this summer or this is going to be a long three games and a short trip to Germany!

Thanks for the insight into the substitution and positioning issues. Being a ‘casual fan’ I hadn’t picked up on all those points on my own. With that said, I will still miss seeing Twellman out there this summer!

Wynalda called Ching ‘McChing’ at the beginning of last weeks LA/NE game. Half way through the second half he changed it to ‘McChingy’ and said he didn’t mean it as a knock, that he got it from the tv show “Grey’s Anatomy.” Wynalda is a big Twellman fan. About a month or so ago he wrote an article for espnsoccernet about Bruce continuing to play McBride and not giving Twellman a chance.

here’s the link to the wynalda article. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=357381&root=us&cc=5901