The United States 23 Man World Cup Roster

Here is a player breakdown of the United States World Cup roster, chosen by head coach Bob Bradley:

Goalkeepers:

-Tim Howard-One of the top 5 goalkeepers in the world. A sure starter. USA will need him to come up big.
-Marcus Hanhemann-The backup goalie. Had an outstanding season with Wolverhampton in the Premier League.
-Brad Guzan-3rd string goalie because, while a good keeper, he rarely gets playing time with his club team, Aston Villa.

Defenders:

-Oguchi Onyewu-Just returned from a big time inury. Needs matches to shake off the rust of not playing for several months. He is the biggest question mark of the defenders.
-Carlos Bocanegra-The USA captain. Can play either at centerback or leftback. I would personally play him at leftback because that's where he has played for the last two seasons with Rennes in the French Ligue 1. He also has a bad habit of making one HUGE mistake per game at centerback. Good in the air on offensive set pieces.
-Jay DeMerit-Good, solid player who has had a few injury problems in the past year but it appears he has shaken them off. Should be a starter.
-Jonathan Spector-While he started consistently for West Ham at leftback, he was often criticized for his poor play. He could play either right or leftback for the USA. Susceptible to getting beat one-on-one but has pretty good recovery speed.
-Steve Cherundolo-The only defender left over from the '02 squad. TONS of experience at rightback. Good organizer and crosser of the ball. It appears he is the vice-captain of the USA. Struggles at times with speedy players. My projected starter at right back.
-Clarence Goodson-Solid backup central defender. Might even see a start or two in South Africa, depending on Onyewu's health. Tough tackler and ball winner.
-Jonathan Bornstein-the worst player on the team. Slow, poor decision-making, poor crosser of the ball, constantly getting caught out of position, and very poor at winning headers. USA will be in trouble if he gets on the field and we aren't winning 6-0.

Midfielders:

-Michael Bradley-Workhorse. Does nothing but hustle and give 100%. A defense first type of midfielder. Tough tackler, not afraid to get stuck in, and has a cannon of a long range shot. Needs to learn to smile.
-Maurice Edu-came back from a knee inury that kept him out of action from May-December '09. Had a good 2nd half of the 09/10 season with Glasgow Rangers. Good possibility of being the starter in central midfield with Michael Bradley.
-Stuart Holden-young right winger. Decent speed, good crossing ability. Lack of big game experience might be a question mark. Look for him to be subbed on if the USA needs better play from wide positions.
-Ricardo Clark-tough central midfielder, has a bit of a temper, decision-making is suspect. Offers very little going forward.
-Benny Feilhaber-looks good when playing centrally, doesn't do too much in wide areas. A very "hit or miss" type of player, but when he is on his game he brings good, creative passes to the midfield. His goal against Mexico in '07 is still one of my favorites.
-Jose Francisco Torres-good with possession and hold up play. He looks to get the important players the ball at the right times. Hopefully he can build on his 2nd half performance against Turkey. Starting central spot is between him and Edu.
-DaMarcus Beasley-had a bad run of games for the USA from mostly all of '08-June '09. Has had a few inury problems in the past year. Bob Bradley ignored him for several months because he was either injured or was not playing for Glasgow Rangers. But after watching him for the past few games he looks to have his head on right. Can be dangerous from wide left positions due to his speed. Look for him as a change of pace substitute or, depending on the tactics and line-up, a possible starter. This will be his 3rd World Cup.
-Clint Dempsey-A key player for the USA. Has grown by leaps and bounds since '06. Moved from a fringe player to a definite starter. Very creative in the "midfield-forward" role he likes to play in. Has a knack for scoring big goals in big games.
-Landon Donovan-where do we begin? The most important player on the roster. All time leader in goals and assists for the USA. Had an extremely disappointing '06 World Cup. Hopefully he can be the leader and offensive threat we need him to be. His ability to get others involved is a must. He can be dangerous at forward or anywhere in the midfield. This will be his 3rd World Cup.

Forwards:

-Jozy Altidore-the only sure starter at forward. He can be a little inconsistent at times. Can score but needs to prove it on the big stage. He needs to be involved early and often or there is a chance he might "phase out". Youngest player on the team at 20.
-Edson Buddle-has the best chance at starting alongside Altidore. Was the MLS goals leader at the time of roster selection. Has had good link-up play with Donovan at club level with the LA Galaxy.
-Herculez Gomez-the 1st USA player to lead a foreign league in goals (the co-leader in Mexico's Clausura with 10, but did it in less minutes played). Since most of his goals came off the bench, look for Bob Bradley to use him in the same manner if we are behind.
-Robbie Finley-fastest player on the USA team. Some consider him a suprise inclusion. Had a great '09 MLS season with Real Salt Lake. Did well against Turkey as a halftime substitute. Has a bad habit of dribbling into defenders rather than using his speed to get around them or exploit space. I believe he will be used as a change of pace substitute when a defense is looking tired. I would be very suprised if he started a World Cup game.

Crosby vs. Ovechkin

Following Canada's 7-3 embarrassment of Russia in the Olympic qualifiers, I think it may be time that the NHL hype machine moves on from this Crosby-Ovechkin rivalry that they're trying so hard to push down everybody's throats. They won't of course, but that won't stop me from articulating why I think they probably should.

For one thing, they really aren't terribly similar players. Crosby is a center, Ovechkin a left wing. Ovechkin plays the game with all the subtlety of a bull in a China shop; he skates hard, hits hard, and shoots hard. He's pretty much the definition of a "power forward", which suits him well in situations like entering the zone on an odd-man rush or playing the point on a power play. On the other hand, Crosby plays in pretty much any situation you can name, and usually excels at it. He's equally adept at drawing defenders away from teammates and hitting them with precision passes as he is at screening goaltenders and knocking in garbage goals. His assist numbers are almost double his goal totals, and have followed this pattern his entire career (except for this season, where he actually has 6 more goals than assists). Also, unlike Ovechkin, he plays defense. It's not empirically proven that you'll never see Ovechkin hassling a puck carrier anywhere between the net and the circles, but you're far more likely to see him floating around the blue line, waiting for one of his teammates to knock a puck in his direction for a breakaway.

When the two first entered the NHL in 2005, I wanted to hate the cerebral pretty-boy Crosby and like the entertaining loudmouth Ovechkin. Since then, and I don't know if this has to do with my own maturation as a human being or watching their maturation as players (or both, or neither), I've really grown to like Crosby more and more while my admiration for Ovechkin has diminished. I liked Ovechkin because he was more entertaining to watch, and while I still think that that's true, it doesn't make him better than Crosby. It's an age-old schism between the sports fan who wants to be entertained and the sports fan who wants to really admire the players he's watching. Greater than that in this case, it's a question of values. Who would I rather see succeed: a hardworking, team-first player who is respectful to fans, media and the game or a cocky, sports car-driving supermodel-banging puckhog who has a clothing line and disses reporters and fans after a loss?

Though I think Mike Milbury is kind of a douche, his little argument with Jeremy Roenick (one of the original entertaining loudmouths) pretty well sums up the whole thing:


But anyway, stylistic contrasts aside, Ovechkin has put up better personal stats during his tenure in Washington than Crosby has while in Pittsburgh. But when all is said and done, I think these will be the facts that people remember: When the Penguins met the Capitals in the playoffs last year, it was Crosby's team that advanced, and Ovechkin was sent home. When their teams met in the Olympics, it was Ovechkin dodging reporters and Crosby celebrating when the game was over. Barring some unfortunate career-ending injury to either player, their hockey days are far from over and there are chapters yet to be written. But so far, when it counts, it's Crosby 2, Ovechkin nothing.

Are you kidding me?

As I type this, the Carolina Hurricanes are sitting at 14th in the Eastern Conference, with 55 points to their collective names. Those points were collected by going 24-30-7 so far on the year; not exactly the hottest start in NHL history.

But...

Da dum.

Over their last eleven games (really ever since Eric Staal was named captain, but let's focus on this sample size) the Hurricanes have outscored their opponents 41-23 and won nine times. The power play, long the bane of Carolina fans, has converted at a 23% clip (10 for 44) in those games while the penalty kill has allowed only three power play goals against in that span. Of their opponents, six of those eleven teams would be playoff-bound if the season were to end today, most notably the Central Division leading (and second in the Western Conference) Chicago Blackhawks. Also of note are two victories against the Buffalo Sabres (who led their division for most of the year until that second defeat which allowed the surging Ottawa Senators to take control) and a five-goal shelling of the New Jersey Devils that prompted Martin Brodeur to leave the game early in disgust. (To be fair, one of those was on the empty net, but that still left Brodeur with 4 goals on 22 shots, or a .818 save percentage.)

Has any one team chased Brodeur as many times as Carolina?

Nobody wants to be 'that guy' who is seen as jinxing a team, except for me I guess, because I'm going to come out and say it: It is not mathematically impossible for this Carolina team, the same one that's spent the majority of the season in the basement, to make the playoffs. The lowest point total to make the postseason in the East since the lockout was 92 (the Lightning in '06 and the Islanders in '07); the 'Canes currently have 55 with 21 games remaining. If they win all of those games, which is of course highly unlikely, they'd accumulate a total of 97 points.

Da dum da dum.

The margin for error here is, of course, very low, but bear with me. Of the games left to play, about half are against teams that are in playoff contention. If Carolina can keep up their pace, it's not inconceivable to suggest that they might win 15 or so of these games. Even so, that would put them at 85 points, which historical evidence shows probably would not be enough. Before damning them too quickly, consider this: there is no team in the NHL with an active winning streak longer than that of the Carolina Hurricanes. The Flyers, Bruins, and Canadiens, 6th through 8th place in the East respectively, are sitting at 67, 65, and 64 points at the Olympic break. Over an 82-game season, those teams are on pace for respective 92, 88, and 83 point campaigns. In fact, using all four teams' (Carolina, Philadelphia, Boston, and Montreal) last eleven games as a sample, we see that they are picking up points at a very similar percentage. Montreal has gone 5-5-1, picking up 50% of the possible points in that span. Boston's 4-4-3 record is also good for 50%, while Philadpelphia's 7-4-0 leads those three at 64%. Meanwhile, back in Raleigh, the Hurricanes have put together nine regulation wins and two regulation losses (9-2-0), acquiring 82% of that span's possible points.

Da dum da dum da dum

Now let's apply that total to the remaining games this season. Carolina has 21, Montreal has 19, and Boston and Philadelphia each have 22. If these streaks hold (all big "if"s, of course) the Canadiens and Bruins would earn 19 and 22 points respectively; that's easy math. Philadelphia would take home 28, while Carolina, if they keep pace, would net 34. Again, we're operating in the realm of the hypothetical here, but if these all hold true, the point totals for the current contending teams would shake out like this: Montreal- 83, Boston- 87, Philadelphia- 95. If you want your mind blown, scroll up a little and see what the season-long pace for these teams was. Talk about consistency. On the other hand, if Carolina continues picking up 82% of their available points for the rest of the year, those 34 points would have them looking at 89 points- not exactly a lock for postseason berth, but still more than two of the three teams they're chasing. A 15-2-4 record would get that done, not an impossible feat. Similar to this time last year, when fan and pundit alike had them written off, the Hurricanes are getting red hot at the right time.

Da dum da dum da dum da dum

This of course is not mathematical proof of Carolina's eventual redemption; anything could happen when NHL play resumes after the Olympics. It also doesn't really take into account the seemingly inevitable departure of free-agent-to-be Ray Whitney or what in the world might be going on with Cam Ward's ailing back. I do know one thing: Carolina plays Boston and Montreal two more times each this season. Those games seem a lot more interesting to me now than they did this morning.

Playoffs? You kidding me?

Cam and Eric, Awesome Show, Great Job

Where the hell have these Hurricanes been all season?


In the four games since he was named Captain, Eric Staal has seven goals and is a +2. True, he has no assists in that span, but the most important number is that the 'Canes are 3-1-0 in that span. Tonight at Madison Square Garden, Staal and co. trounced the Rangers 5-1, two of those goals coming from Staal himself. Cam Ward too was pretty stellar, stopping 37 of 38 shots just a few days after breaking Arturs Irbe's franchise win record of 130. Even the oft-maligned Sergei Samsonov popped two goals tonight in the Big Apple. So again I'll ask: What the hell?

I'm pleased as a fan that the 'Canes are winning games. It's fun to watch your team win. But after such a horrendous start to the '09-10 season, it had seemed that GM Jim Rutherford had declared it a lost cause and that a rebuild was beginning. Having gone on record saying that "you don't want to win too many games" at a certain point in order to ensure a high draft pick, this sudden burst of 5-goal games has got to have him scratching his head. Was Brind'Amour's captaincy really such an elephant in the room that as soon as it was removed the team that we all expected at the start of the year suddenly showed up? Staal now has 40 points in 39 games. I feel that I must eat crow on my post a few days ago about his production. This may be an aberration, but I'm reminded of two years ago when Brind'Amour hurt his knee at around the midway point of the season. Whitney, Williams and Cole were also out for big stretches of time with injuries that year, and Staal put the mostly AHL journeyman team on his back and almost willed them into the playoffs. The win tonight puts the 'Canes 14 points out of 8th in the East, with 30 games left to play. However, to even sniff 90 points on the year, a generous cutoff, they'd have to go something like 23-4-3 (for 49 points). That seems pretty unlikely. So the question is: play for the eighth seed, or play for the high draft pick? It would seem that shoring up the future would be the most prudent, but when the team is capable of dominating games as this (admittedly short) stretch has shown they are... where do we go from here?

Mindless Rambling

Am I the only one who thinks that those Brinks/Broadview security ads are kind of sexist? Watch out, upwardly mobile young women! Psycho ex-boyfriends and/or potential thieves are around every corner; your weak feminine frame will be unable to stop the inevitable onslaught of deranged males. Buy our security system to protect your ridiculously ornate, heavily candle-decorated house... because all the unmarried women I know have tons of money and need to protect it.

O Captain, My Captain

It was announced yesterday that, effective immediately, the captaincy of the Carolina Hurricanes would transfer from Rod Brind'Amour, he of the insane workout regimen, meandering nasal bone and owner of the NHL's worst +/- for two years running, to Thunder Bay wunderkind and multimillionaire Eric Staal. It's been a roller coaster of highs and lows for Brind'Amour over the last few years; he won his (and Carolina's) first Stanley Cup in 2006 and two consecutive Selke awards the following seasons before going on to tear his ACL and slip slowly into punchline territory as his production and icetime began to shrivel and diminish like George Costanza in a cold pool.


















Staal, too, has seen ups and downs since his 100-point, Cup-winning sophomore campaign in '06. He's never again reached triple digit points (the closest he came was in '07-'08 with 82, averaging exactly one point per game as the Hurricanes were knocked from a playoff spot by Washington on the very last day of the regular season) and in '08-'09 was actually second in team scoring to Ray Whitney. On the other side of that coin, he did pop 15 points in 18 playoff games that season as the Hurricanes rocketed from bubble team to Eastern Conference finalists. His franchise-record consecutive start streak came to an end this year after starting in every game but one of his first five NHL years, and goes into tonight's game second in team scoring, again to Ray Whitney, with 33 points in 36 games (though to be fair, Whitney only has one more point in ten more games played). Staal's tendency to be dominant against crappy teams only to disappear against powerhouse teams has been well documented and discussed all over the internet; here is a good example, and here is a rebuttal to it. Scroll down this very blog, and you'll see an example of an angry 'Canes fan bitching about Staal's performance this season and its inconsistency with the amount of money he's getting paid.

Right this second though, that's neither here nor there. The Hurricanes organization has made the decision that, moving forward, the basement-dwelling team they ice is Staal's to command, and his game tonight showed that they might just be on to something. Staal had his best goal output of the season with a hat trick, and the 'Canes were 3 for 3 on the power play (something that just a day ago would have seemed impossible for a team that's been dismal on the man advantage this year). For the moment at least, it seems Carolina is in good hands.

Facts

This is a blog, and as such I am under no obligation to hide my opinion. But in this particular piece, a reality check is getting deposited into your brain banks. If you'd prefer to think of it as the cold hard cash of truth, that's your prerogative. Let's look at four NHL players, shall we?

Alex Ovechkin, LW Washington Capitals

GP	G	AST	PTS	SOG	+/-
28	23	18	41	150	17

Sidney Crosby, C Pittsburgh Penguins

GP	G	AST	PTS	SOG	+/-
35	22	21	43	132	14

Evgeni Malkin, C Pittsburgh Penguins

GP	G	AST	PTS	SOG	+/-
29	10	24	34	120	13

Eric Staal, C Carolina Hurricanes

GP	G	AST	PTS	SOG	+/-
25	6	13	19	108	-6

Just from looking at these stats, the casual observer could tell you that one of these things is not like the others. What the casual observer may not be able to tell you is that these four men have, as of the '09-'10 NHL season, the highest salary cap hits in the league. That number is not exactly indicative of actual salary for a particular year, but it is the average salary that the player will earn over the course of their contract. Respectively, Ovechkin's hit is $9.5 million, Crosby and Malkin both are at $8.7 mil, and Staal brings up the rear at $8.25 million. For comparison, the next highest cap hit is Brad Richards of the Stars at $7.8 million.

What the hell is wrong with this picture? Not only is Staal the only player of the 4 highest paid NHL'ers with a negative +/- rating, he has significantly less points than all three of his cash-earning peers. This may stem from the fact that he has played less games than the others, but again, who is paying him an average of $8.25 million to not play hockey games?

Points per game as of today, '09-'10:
Ovechkin: 41 pts in 28 games = 1.464 (holy toledo)
Crosby: 43 in 35 = 1.229
Malkin: 34 in 29 = 1.172
Staal: 19 in 25 = 0.76

Again: THESE ARE FACTS.






































Another fact: He loves Nintendo. Okay, I don't know if that's a fact or not.