A few things to start your week.
This was posted on here on Friday, but we have our first ever player interview with Greg Garza courtesy of Jon Arnold. Jon is a new addition to the site and will be doing interviews with guys from time to time for us.
Howie posted his ode to the end of Brad Friedel’s start streak, but here are some quotes from Andre Villas-Boas about his decision to bench Friedel.
For those of you still holding out hope for Aron Johannsson (a.k.a. Gunnar Stahl), he pulled out of Iceland’s qualifiers this week with an injury. So you’re telling me there’s a chance?
I posted in The OT Report that Marc Heider scored a goal in German Regionalliga action, but here are highlights of Holstein Kiel’s 2-0 victory over Lübeck. You could say that Heider scored a bit of a lucky goal with some help from the goalie (it is the first goal in the highlights). I am still looking out for highlights of Andrew Wooten’s assist.
The USMNT roster should be announced later this afternoon. According to the twitter rumors over the weekend, Eddie Johnson and Kyle Beckerman are in. Landon Donovan, Brek Shea and Jermaine Jones all have injuries and there is a good chance they won’t be selected. I will post the roster once Klinsi announces it.
As Howie pointed out to me, Eddie Johnson’s last goal for the USMNT came four months after the movie Taken came out. Taken 2 just came out this week. Coincidence?
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It’s really time to stop calling Beckerman up.
Beckerman one of the MLS’s biggest marketing tools. The young kids think he’s cool. I was hoping his performance in Jamaica would lead to his banishment for the USMNT.
I called, or at least mocked the idea of Eddie Johnson getting the call-up. I wish someone playing in Mexico or Europe would get called up instead. Eddie Johnson does deserves to get the call more then Shea, Alan Gordon, Chris Pontius, ect. (Any MLSer other then Wondo or C.J. Sapong)
Is Sasha going to get passed over for some MLSer? It will be said, because anyone will look good on the field against A&B, and Guatemala at home. If Sasha plays he could look great out there, same with Zusi. Even Edgar Castillo at LM could look good.
Would love to see John Anthony Brooks capped just as an investment for the future.
Honestly the USMNT as an organization is embarrassing. I doubt they are begging Aron Johannsson to play for the USA. I do not know the details about Johannsson’s status but Iceland has never and will likely never qualify for the World Cup. That’s a pretty big selling point. The USMNT should be on their hands and knees begging for Aron; instead they are working on Break Shea’s next marketing campaign.
Probably a blessing that Jones is out. D Williams will be able to play his natural role of defensive mid with Bradley more forward. Just keep Edu and Beckerman off the pitch. As for E Johnson, I’m skeptical. Great that he has revived his career in MLS, but he was a failure in Europe, and he can’t be better than Jozy at this point. He did have a lovely volley for a goal for Seattle last night. I’m just not sure he is international quality. U.S. can’t afford to screw around with these last 2 games. We need to win convincingly against Antigua on the road, and Guatemala at home. A draw in any of these matches could spell disaster.
Johanson will have more time to mull it over and the US folks will have more time to take a look at him. This is good news.
Not that it matters–apparently JK doesn’t want to play European strikers.