Stuart Holden ... a big and brilliant spring could seriously elevate his United States national team standing

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I remember watching Cobi Jones dismantle MLS defenses early in the 1998 season. He was clearly a man on a mission, a fleet winger in the prime of his career (27 at the time) fully aware that a World Cup was just weeks away. He was determined to be in top form for France ’98.

(Of course, anyone who knows his U.S. Soccer history knows the American performance was flatter than a crepe sold near the Seine, but that’s another story.)

Although that mangled, poorly managed, 3-6-1-weighted wreck of a World Cup bid could hardly be called a shining moment for any U.S. performer, it certainly wasn’t Jones’ fault.

Jones and his fabulous hair started all three matches, and he probably did as well as anyone could when stuck on the wing in such a jumbled mash of tactical hash.

The point is that Jones sprang forth with a verve that spring, propelling himself into a place where he could be especially useful to the World Cup effort. His AAA-form in the spring elevated him to "indispensible" status to the U.S. effort.

So, along those lines …Who might channel their inner Cobi in the spring, raising their level of play in the important run-up to World Cup 2010 and elevating their place in the pecking order? Click forward for my list.

I have five candidates here (all attackers; I’ll concentrate on the attacking side since the most glaring U.S. shortcomings seem to be on offense.)

I’ll eliminate the difference makers we know about, the guys who will surely start if healthy: Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan. (And for today’s purposes, we won’t talk about the central midfielders, the Michael Bradleys, Benny Feilhabers, etc.)

The list here is about guys on the fringes of the starting rotation or, in some cases, guys on the bubble of the 23-man roster.  So, here are the attackers with the best chance to make a spring-loaded dash up the depth chart, lapping a couple of Yank teammates along the way:

Stuart Holden: His best chance at significant spring impact comes if manager Dominic Kinnear plays Holden out wide, where he seems to have the best chance of a big future. Of course, Kinnear’s job is to produce the best Houston Dynamo side, and Holden might fit best in the middle for the MLS side. So, there’s some element of fortune and fate involved here. Either way, I see Holden on the list when the final 23 is announced late next spring. Whether he can elevate his standing with stunning spring form is another matter.

Kenny Cooper: The 1860 Munich man seems destined to be healthy again soon, and a prosperous spring in the 2. Bundesliga could allow the big fellow to yank the rug from beneath a fellow competitor. Considering that so few forwards seem to have a spot sewn up at the moment (Conor Casey, Brian Ching, Robbie Findley, Jeff Cunningham, Chris Rolfe, etc., are all positioned tenuously somewhere along the bubble continuum), the opportunity really does exit snatch a spot that seems rather far-fetched at the moment. It really is an underwhelming list of competitors at the moment – which makes the big spring run all that much more valuable.

Chris Rolfe: The former Chicago Fire man has a history of driving his team with hot goal-scoring streaks. Unfortunately, he also has a history of short-changing these streaks by getting hurt – which is why we’re discussing Rolfe as a fringe fellow rather than a "gotta take him" guy for South Africa 2010. But he is about to move over to Aalborg in the Danish Superliga in the winter transfer window. So he’ll definitely be stoked and primed for a good launch, and he can perhaps ready to latch on to another of his prodigious runs. If so, he’ll be hard to ignore, as his versatility gives Bradley the option of deployment as a second striker or wide midfielder.

DaMarcus Beasley: You can file this under "blatantly obvious," but I’ll say it anyway: his only chance is a winter transfer that lands him at a place where he actually gets to dirty up the game jersey. He’s wasting away on Rangers bench in Scotland and simply must bust a move. I say: get back to MLS. Get match fit. Get confident. Get you career back on track before you become the biggest waste of talent this side of Eddie Johnson. That brings us to …

Eddie Johnson: I’ve known this guy since he was 16. I’ll tell you that Johnson, even more than most athletes, needs to feel comfortable and confident in order to approach his best. If he’s not feeling particularly good about things, well, forget about it. So Johnson’s ability to make hay in the spring is all about one thing: finding a place where he can feel good about himself again. Is that back on U.S. soil?  Could be. He knows he can be successful in MLS, and that knowledge alone may be the defibrillator he so desperately needs to resuscitate his flat-lining career.

So, why no Jeff Cunningham here? I still believe that his big finish to the 2009 MLS season, remarkable as it was, will be difficult to replicate in 2010. He’ll be dealing with extra attention from defenses and carrying the additional weight of expectations. I could be wrong, however. We’ll see. Robbie Findley? I see him as a good MLS sniper, but one who probably needs to move to Europe in order to climb the next rung on the performance ladder. That doesn’t mean that he won’t be on Bradley’s squad next summer; it just means I like his chances less than some others of putting together a spring stunner of a run. Freddy Adu? Well, I've beaten up on that kid pretty good lately, so let's just move along.