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Future fodder Peering into the crystal ball for 2006 talentPosted: Thursday November 21, 2002 6:48 PM
Four years ago, I surveyed every MLS coach, asking each the following question: Who will be the 11 American starters in the first game of World Cup 2002? The results were intriguing, i.e., a prospective lineup that included three 21-year-olds with almost no national team experience: Clint Mathis, John O'Brien and Ben Olsen. This week I sent out the same poll for World Cup 2006, and the 12 respondents included every MLS head coach along with U.S. under-17 coach John Ellinger and under-20 coach Thomas Rongen. Voters were asked to choose a 4-4-2 formation (the most likely setup under U.S. coach Bruce Arena). The envelopes, please:
A few impressions from this end:
F Landon Donovan ... 12
Keller still wants future with National teamRemember the Sopranos episode when Dr. Melfi desperately wanted to tell Tony Soprano the identity of her rapist -- just so she could get the justice she felt robbed of by authorities -- and how finally, exerting every last bit of her will, she keept her mouth shut? Like Melfi, goalkeeper Kasey Keller has agonizingly decided to stay mum about the U.S. National team, coach Bruce Arena and other details of his World Cup '02 experience, during which he never left the American bench. "This summer was difficult for different reasons that at this point I don't care to make public," Keller told me recently. "My future for the national team is up in the air for several reasons, but I'll never turn down my country when they need me to play. I'm just not sure what the future's going to hold for me in the next couple of years. It will take more from Bruce to get me to play than just calling up and asking for my release." Keller is having a fantastic year with Tottenham Hotspur in the English Premiership, where he has been at or near the top of the OPTA stats for goalkeepers all season. But he has no desire to burn any bridges with Arena, who had this to say when I asked him about it: "I would love to have Kasey with the team, and I would tell you this: Anyone can be critical of my goalkeeper's decision [in South Korea] because Kasey could easily have played in the World Cup and been the equal that Brad was or better. That's how much I think of him as a goalkeeper." Is Arena OK with the way he handled the decision? "I am," he told me. "The only thing I regret is, I had a chance in the third game [against Poland] to make a change in the goal, and I didn't. But that's my responsibility, not his. He did everything possible to get on the field and help make his team successful -- which was a very hard thing for Kasey to do. It wasn't an easy decision, and it's something that I still question myself about. Was that the right move? I don't think it impacted us either way, but who the hell knows? Does Kasey stop the penalty kick like Brad did? Does Kasey get the crosses that Brad didn't get? Who the hell knows?" Sounds like Il Bruce might need a session with Dr. Melfi, but the lesson is this: Kasey Keller (who will be 35 at WC06) is still very much a part of the national team picture.
Opening the mailbag
Please explain to me how Zinedine Zidane can play one game in the World Cup, barely contribute and have his team outed in the first round -- and still be one of three nominees for World Player of the Year! What about the Brad Friedel, Claudio Reyna or maybe even one of the South Korean players who just happened to get further than France ever did? I'm sick of hearing about the same players always receiving the attention, ESPECIALLY when they are undeserving. Soccer is a lot more diverse than just three players!
Good points, Susan. I have no problem with the other men's nominees -- Ronaldo and Oliver Kahn -- but Zidane is a pretty dubious choice. Yes, he had a magnificent goal in the Champions League final. But the World Cup is such a singular event that I would have preferred to see one of the Turks (Yildiray Basturk? Rustu Recber?) or South Koreans (Yoo Sang Chul? Hong Myung Bo?) rewarded for their semifinal run. All the same, the Zidane nomination doesn't nearly match the nonsense perpetrated yet again in the finalists for FIFA women's Player of the Year. A year after Mia Hamm won the honor (despite having the worst year of her career), the nominees are Sun Wen, Hamm and Birgit Prinz. Hamm and Prinz deserve the nods -- and Prinz deserves the award -- but Sun Wen had just four goals in 18 games this season for the Atlanta Beat. The obvious third nominee is France's Marinette Pichon, the Philadelphia Charge forward whose 14 goals earned her WUSA MVP honors. The problem is this: women's national team coaches around the world (all of whom vote for the FIFA award) don't bother to find out who's had a great year -- particularly in WUSA, the world's premier women's league. If FIFA isn't going to inform them, then it's up to the PR department at WUSA to provide that information in the ballots FIFA sends out. (The WUSA PR department -- run by the widely respected Dan Courtemanche -- confirmed to me that it didn't know in advance that the FIFA nominees were being released last week.) On the one hand, it's a great advancement for women's soccer that FIFA now has a distaff award. On the other hand, the nominee list has become an annual reminder that the world doesn't care about women's soccer -- not yet, at least. Let's hope that changes.
I'm curious about your thoughts on the U.S. defense. There seems to be a large gap between the experienced guys and the rookies without much in between. Do you see guys like Sanneh and Pope in the mix for 2006? Or do you think Arena is looking to rebuild our back four (or three)? If you think the latter is the case, whom would you groom for defense? And what do you think of trying to convert midfielders like Victorine into defenders a la Sanneh?
Good questions, Chris. After years in which the U.S. was flush with international-level defenders but few attackers, the tide has definitely turned. If I had to guess, the four starting defenders in WC 2006 would be Cherundolo, Pope, Bocanegra and Barrett. But if Arena goes with five defenders (including two wingbacks, as he did at the end of the World Cup) you could add Sanneh as a third central defender. The wild card may be Victorine, who performed well on the right side last week. If Arena decides Cherundolo is just too short (a problem last year), Victorine might be the guy.
Everything I've been reading about Clint Mathis' game has highlighted his poacher's instinct near the goalmouth. But what really impressed me with his performance in the World Cup was his prowess distributing on the run in the middle. Do you think Mathis' ability as a distributor is overlooked? And do you think he would pair well up top with someone like Donovan, who is good running through the opponent's central defense (witness U.S. vs. Germany)?
As we saw last week, Mathis is still able to do things on a soccer field that no other American can do -- or, in many cases, even try to do. If you run his assist on Victorine's goal in slow-motion, frame-by-frame (as I did), it's a marvelous piece of skill. In one fluid motion, Mathis settles a hard pass and (with a defender right in his grill) raises his right leg like a dog at a fire hydrant as if he's going to pass to his left. That move alone causes the defender to shift just enough of his weight on his right leg so that Mathis can suddenly change direction, whizzing a perfectly weighted ball just outside the defender's left leg, right onto the streaking Victorine's foot for a one-touch nutmeg finish past the keeper. Mathis may lose the ball a lot trying to distribute, but it's plays like that which have made him a folk hero among U.S. fans. As for Mathis' ideal partner up front, I've always thought Donovan would be the guy. If you combine Mathis's creativity with Donovan's speed and killer finishes, you'd have a winner. Arena, though, appears to favor using Donovan as an attacking mid and keeping a target guy like McBride up front.
Ten random things
See you next ... month. (We've gone to once-a-month soccer columns during college hoops season.) Sports Illustrated senior writer Grant Wahl keeps you up to date with the world of U.S. soccer each month at CNNSI.com. To send Wahl a comment, question or story idea, click here.
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