re: Rank the Top 5 USMNT players for the 2018 WC

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That's fine that you feel that way, I feel differently and have him rated 10th right now –

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Who do you have ahead of him?

Bradley
Howard
Cameron
Besler
Johnson
Bacon (for his club form)
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Guzan

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Who do you have ahead of him?

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See one page back:

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In terms of this world cup, I'd rate Bradley, Howard, Donovan, Dempsey, Fab, Cameron, Besler, Johannson and even Altidore ahead of Guzan in terms of what they've done for club and country in the past calendar year.

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Again, in the last calendar year.

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Cakes

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Scored 8 goals for the USMNT despite missing much of 2013, also had a shite ton of assists. Never mind the fact that he has the highest soccer IQ of anyone in our pool not named Michael Bradley.

If we want to do anything in Brazil i.e. win atleast 2 games, we NEED Donovan.

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Jozy

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I knew you'd love that pick.

He was arguably best player to play for the US in 2013 and led a Euro team in scoring. Yeah, he is in shite form right now, but I'm not discounting what he did not all that long.

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Deuce

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You can make an argument for Guzan over Dempsey because, after the transfer to Tottenham, he basically fell apart (outside of a 1 and a half month stretch for the US). That said, when his mind is right, he makes our attacking third that much more dynamic.

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Doesn't make any sense to say that and then to ignore Guzan's sparkling work for Villa.

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There's colossal a difference between "ignoring" a player and not rating him as top 5 in a pool. In fact, I've mentioned multiple times that Guzan is a very solid GK, I'll even go a step further and say that he would start for a few European countries that will be in Brazil.

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I don't see how we've had ten players who have played better than Guzan has for their clubs

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Which is why I'm talking about club and country. I've made that clear in multiple posts in this thread. Why you choose to ignore that, I don't know.

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Which is why I'm talking about club and country. I've made that clear in multiple posts in this thread. Why you choose to ignore that, I don't know.

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Which again is silly. Donovan only action for the US the past year was the GC, which isn't nearly on the level of the opponents that Guzan faces weekly. Even further, if Guzan had played the GC, he would suddenly shoot up your rankings because he happened to keep clean sheets again hapless opponents? What sort of sense does that make? I think the criteria you use to make those judgments is myopic, not that I care you don't think Guzan is top 5 or whatever. It lacks the required context, and for that reason annoys me. But carry on believing what you want.

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Donovan only action for the US the past year was the GC

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Ummm...

A miracle. We straight up are not good enough at multiple positions.

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A miracle. We straight up are not good enough at multiple positions.

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Way to balk at the question.

I feel better about Donovan's back up than Guzan's back up.

Fine. Let's look at teams that historically punched above their weight and made runs. Like '94 with Sweden and Bulgaria, who were led by Thomas Brolin and Hristo Stoichkov. So obviously we will need a CENTRAL (capitalized to highlight the fact that Donovan doesn't play that position for us, though he probably should) playmaker who can make the attack. So we will need Donovan. The likelihood of that happening is tiny. In reality if both play in the tournament Guzan will probably play better.