US Soccer Player Power Rankings

Welcome to the first of hopefully many US Soccer Player Power Rankings. Sorry we don’t have a fruit basket to give you for your attendance; I’ll try and work on that for next time.

To state once again, the point of this is to somewhat chart the progress of US players throughout the cycle. See who’s hot and who’s not.

We’ll go up to ten, because if you’re not top ten in my book you’re nobody.

Honorable mentions…Landon, Gooch, Jay Demerit…

10. Carlos Bocanegra – The captain. Despite having a penalty called on him against Liverpool, he is the captain, and has had a great season so far on both he club and international level.

9. Benny Feilhaber – For his lack of playing time at Derby, as well as having to take a perpetual beating from every premiership team, his form in the last friendly was pretty good.

8. Maurice Edu – Gets his second call-up in a row from Bob. He earned it. MLS Rookie of the Year winner. Kid is ridin’ high.

7. Jonathan Spector – Had a rebirth of sorts at West Ham over the weekend. Slotted in the D-mid role, Spector played good and should have had his first goal if it wasn’t for fellow American Eddie Lewis claiming it for his greedy self. (It was an own goal for Derby). Some guys will do anything to get their name on the score sheet. When you’re playing for Derby, an OG is probably the only way possible.

6. DaMarcus Beasley – Been on the mend for a while and is now starting to get his legs back after a slight knock picked up in the US vs. Sweden friendly. Look for him to make up missed time when the US squad takes on South Africa.

5. Jozy Altidore – MLS season ended disappointingly for his club side Red Bull New York, but that didn’t take away anything from the kid’s season. He battled through mssing some time due to U-20’s and injuries to put up 9 goals and 4 assists in 22 games. 18th B-day was a few days ago and now gets his first nat team call up. Welcome to the good life.

4. Tim Howard – Kept it close at the Stamford Bridge against Chelsea and his Aussie teammate Tim Cahill rewarded him with an extra time bike to give Everton the away point. Confidence is high on the blue side of town, and Tim Howard’s play in net for Everton this year is a big reason why.

3. Freddy Adu – Quite the return to the semi-spotlight. His minutes haven’t been there the last couple fixtures, but Camacho knows what he has. You can just see the improvement this kid has made and his confidence could be at an all-time high. More importantly he is working hard every day in training, and that is what truly makes the difference. Let’s see if Bob rewards him with the start in South Africa…

2. Michael Bradley – If he keeps scoring like this we don’t even need Jozy…
It was a joke, relax.

1. Clint Dempsey – Been quite the premiership revelation this year. Answered all questions asked of him if he could make it over in England after a less than spectacular start to his stay at the Craven Cottage. If he keeps this up he’ll be Brian McBride status over there. As Deuce spits it in his own rap track, “Don’t tread on this”.

The format is still a work in progress for who gets put where. As of now it’s a kind of combination of club and country form mixed in with my thoughts.

Got a bone to pick? Hit up the comments…