Starting XI

We have 8 untouchable players now: Howard, Cherundolo, DeMerit, Bocanegra, Donovan, Dempsey, Bradley, and Jozy. The other three spots are still up for grabs in my opinion.

I am honestly not sure what to do with the other three spots. I think we should keep Edu at DM for the Ghana game. I am totally undecided on what to do for the defense. Should we use Bornstein again and go with Bocanegra in the center, or should we do what we did in the first 2 games?

I have no idea. Our defense didn't look much better today, and any improvement can be attributed to playing a team that didn't score in the Cup. ON the other hand, Bornstein is quick and will prevent left wing players from attacking down the flank as easily. Of course, he usually commits 2-3 poor clearances and 2-3 card worthy fouls in a 90 minute period and I am not going to hold my breath that he can 180 minutes without either of those.

And for the final spot, I again don't know. We can use Benny in the midfield and do a 4-5-1/4-3-3 or we can use one of the forwards to partner with Jozy. I would go with Gomez and if we aren't dominating at halftime, sub Benny in for him.

Would Bob dare start Goodson vs. Ghana or was he impressed enough with Bornstein and Boca in the middle?

Goodson = Wildcard

I hate to say this, but I like starting Bornstein. Mainly because it moves Boca to the center. He is usually our best defender, but he's been lousy at left back. If we move him to center, we get our best defender playing his natural position. Boca had his first good game today. Even if Bornstein is below average at left back, that's what Boca was giving us, so its no downgrade. And Boca over Gooch is huge.

I doubt it. Benny did well in moments. I'd still like to see Stuhawk or José in a 3 man midfield. I think bob has done a good job though.

He won't start Spector, and if he used DMB over Stu today, I doubt he uses him Saturday.

He used DMB to play a leftwing back role. Stu doesn't defend as well as the bease

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I hate to say this, but I like starting Bornstein. Mainly because it moves Boca to the center. He is usually our best defender, but he's been lousy at left back. If we move him to center, we get our best defender playing his natural position. Boca had his first good game today. Even if Bornstein is below average at left back, that's what Boca was giving us, so its no downgrade. And Boca over Gooch is huge.

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Except Ghana is far too athletic to take advantage of Bornstein pushing up too much. He was caught a few times by Algeria. Didn't amount to anything, but you don't want to rely on that.

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So would you rather Bornstein or Gooch playing?

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Well, if Bob is playing to push the wing backs up, which is what he was going for today, I would rather Spector who has a step or two on Bornstein.

If we aren't playing to push them up far, then start Gooch. Bornstein was ok today because he added pressure, but as a strict defender, he's not all that good.

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I dont know WHY Stuhawk hasn't gotten any PT. Every time he's been on the field for the last year, he's been one of our best players.

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Agreed. Especially when we want to move Dempsey up. Stu is perfect on the outside.

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And I must be the only person who wasn't impressed with Feilhaber today. I need to rewatch the match.

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I was more impressed today than against Slovenia, but I think he was serviceable, not great. I think there are better options. Like I said before, he plops Torres in the start with no defensive help last time. Torres did horrible, but he was obviously the next go to guy for Bob. So instead of giving him the chance when you want to play with 3 CM's, you give it to Benny? Someone made a good point about his size not matching up today, but still....

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What we NEED in order to make a run is for Jozy to score goals.

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This x100000

Now how do we do that? No one has shown particular synergy up top with Jozy, not even Dempsey. Bob won't get really creative (like putting Torres or Stu up top playing behind Jozy), but we have to get him started somehow. He has been a good catalyst though.

We may be better off having Stu out wide and Dempsey up top. We need a scoring threat, and although Dempsey didn't score, he was hitting the target the whole time he was up top. Also, I don't know if we defend well enough to play with just Jozy up top.