United States national team strikers who don't strike
by Steve Davis on Oct 15, 2010 10:19 AM EDT
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I’m going to call this the Jason Kreis Syndrome.
You may choose to call it the Taylor Twellman Syndrome. But since this is my blog, I get to name the syndromes around here.
Kreis was King Kong in 1999. He scored 18 goals and had 15 assists and beat out the heralded likes of Marco Etcheverry and Jaime Moreno for the league’s Most Valuable Player award. That wasn’t long after Steve Sampson had called in the young attacker to a national team camp. But Sampson asked Kreis to be a right midfielder. Kreis looked unsure and wasn’t fast enough on the flanks for the international game and his national team career became a tiny footmark on an otherwise fine Wiki page.
Kreis was a striker (well, a midfielder first, then a striker … but let’s not bog down) whose abilities seemed to be capped at domestic league level. It’s nothing extraordinary, honestly. Happens all over the world.
But it does seem to happen a lot with MLS strikers.
Twellman’s strike rate (101 goals in 174 appearances) is nothing short of fierce. Show me the man who can hit for better than a goal every other match and I’ll show you a man who will make a damn good living for a long time.
But like Kreis before him and a growing list since, Twellman’s ability to ring the goal bell in the U.S. shirt seemed far less assured.
Lately, the list is long and …uh … distinguished. Or notorious. Depending on how you want to see it. Edson Buddle, Herculez Gomez and Robbie Findley spring to mind.
I thought about this as I wrote an SI.com piece on the U.S. depth chart at the moment. (I'll link to it when it goes up later today.) The situation at forward remains stubbornly unyielding. I actually have 11 names in the SI.com piece listed at forward. Eleven! Two of them (Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan) are only there because the “real” strikers just don’t. Strike, that is. Not at the international level.
But we’ve seen that before, haven’t we? It’s the Jason Kreis Syndrome.
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Being a Houston fan...
…I was still a little surprised when in ’06 we took Ching to the World Cup over Twellman. I thought Twellman would have been more helpful in Germany. Maybe not though.
Can we count Buddle really?
Has he gotten enough a shot to fit this bill? (This is a real question, btw. There is sure to be a reason he hasn’t gotten the shot, but it seems tough to fit him in here if he hasn’t really been given the shot to succeed.)
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Thinking the same thing
Buddle was called in for the World Cup. Scored two goals against Australia, then… 13 minutes against England. 26’ against Algeria. Findley and Altidore got a lot more of the time than he did.
But now that I look at it, it wasn’t like he got nothing. He got some time. Was it enough? I didn’t think so… but I also didn’t remember him getting any time at all, so maybe that says something.
I think it could be really premature to write him off. He only has 6 caps (played 5 games according to the USSF stats page http://www.ussoccer.com/Teams/US-Men/Statistics/2010-Statistics.aspx — not sure how that can happen) and scored two goals. That seems like a pretty reasonable production rate for a forward.
Biggest problem, though, is that he’s 29. Pretty much heading over that hill for forwards, and not likely to be helpful in ’14.
That's what I was thinking
2 goals in 6 total appearances isn’t bad. Yeah the two came in a friendly, but it’s still impressive for so few caps and minutes.
by chrisperry1983 on Oct 15, 2010 12:14 PM EDT up reply actions
hmmm
ok … fair point. i guess I was considering his larger body of work. but if you’d like me to officially subtract him from the JKS watch list, consider it done. for now.
by Steve Davis on Oct 15, 2010 12:35 PM EDT up reply actions
he's an honorable mention.
Others that come to mind are Jeff Cunningham, Ante Razov, Eddie Johnson, Ching (once you get past his first couple years with NT)
Kenny Cooper’s an interesting case. 4 goals in 10 caps isn’t bad, particularly considering that he rarely got more than 25 minutes in those games, but he never played the style Bradley wanted. His club career is falling apart, so it may all be academic, but what are people’s thought on his prospects, at this point?
Buddle Stays On the List
And here’s why….
-you’ve got players who never did enough (or showed the “right stuff”) to earn caps and PT. Buddle clearly falls into that category (as does Kreis). It’s not that Buddle scored twice for the NT and Kreis never did. It’s that both have had a lot of good moments in MLS (though Kreis was far more consistent, Buddle was definitely streaky with a lot of down or bad moments) that had NT coaches concluding they didn’t have what it took to help a team crying out for strikers. And that’s the point of Steve’s column…there are guys who have had lots of outstanding MLS years and they did squat Nationally. Cunningham (who will likely be the MLS alltime top scorer very soon) is another great example.-not so much.
—I’m not so sure EJ, Ching and Razov fit the list. Razov did score some for the NT, he just demonstrated that he was never the kind of guy you wanted to start. Ching wasn’t much of a scorer and didn’t make the NT because of that, he made it b/c of his target work. And EJ has frustrated b/c he’s had moments (like the Concacaf string) where he looked like a young god and then most of the time he hasn’t. To put it another way, I think Steve’s column is arguing about guys who dominate in league soccer and then flop in international play. Kreis clearly fits that case. Cunningham clearly fits that standard. Ching
Cooper should be in the mix at only 25
It might depend on what Munich 1860 does with him after his loan stumble in Plymouth Argyle. I fell he still has some tread on the tire (turns 26 next week). However his timing with injuries 2007 tibia fx and 2009 knee cruciate ligament tear have been the reason for infrequent caps with the NT.
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11 Names
…and Conor Casey wasn’t on the list. I think he still has some good days left with the USA. At age 29 he’s still got some fight left in him, and I would consider him the best target forward in the pool. Definitely deserved to be above the likes of Burnbury, Wondolowski and Braun.
by Craig_de_Aragon on Oct 15, 2010 2:30 PM EDT reply actions
i checked this specifically
US Soccer told me he was eligible. i was a little surprised, too, in all honesty
definitely think Bunbury deserves to
be in the list of potential strikers. I’m biased as a Wizards fan but the kid definitely has skills. He is by no means there yet but I think he has the potential.
by I need more Esteban on Oct 16, 2010 10:43 AM EDT up reply actions
Teal Bunbury was born in the United States, holds dual citizenship, and is one hundred percent eligible for the Americans.
He’s appeared three times for the Canadian youth program, but that was before he was drafted into MLS and started to get famous. Most of us expect he’ll go over to the Americans, because he’s good.
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by Benjamin Massey on Oct 16, 2010 6:27 PM EDT up reply actions
Buddle hasnt recieved enough INtl time to be put here
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Altidore
I just wish Altidore could find a good situation for him to play his club ball. He had great moments in South Africa (pass to Dempsey leading to Donovans winner against Algeria, headed pass to Bradley to tie match vs Slovania) but I can’t understand why he doesn’t score more.
yeah he needs more
PT, loan spell pleeeease
by I need more Esteban on Oct 16, 2010 10:44 AM EDT up reply actions
Or possibly convince Usain Bolt to switch alleigances?
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by Henrik_Larsson69 on Oct 16, 2010 2:40 PM EDT up reply actions
Are ya all people aware that....?
Or coach in orchestration with the federation have SET UP PLAYERS TO FAIL ON OUR NATIONAL TEAM….?
Have Edson Buddle have been set up to fail….? Have we ever have this lineup in the field…?
……………………………..Buddle……………………….Altidore……………………………….
Rogers……………Donovan………………………Michael Bradley……………………..Dempsey……
In this lineup are two players to be try…Buddle and Rogers on a attempt to integrate them with the ALFA PACK…. But it never have been this honest attemp to bring them to shine, they have been set up to fail with a WEAK MIDFIELDERS to undermine their performance …..Is this fair….?
What do you think, DSF followers?
Should I delete this one (above) for outright nincompoopery? Accusing U.S. Soccer of arranging failure intentionally … is that grounds for outright “Delete?” Or drug testing? Or am I being harsh? Seriously, where to draw the line between letting folks have their say and not wanting to validate silliness …? Thoughts?
by Steve Davis on Oct 18, 2010 12:02 PM EDT up reply actions
IMHO
SB Nation is designed to let people voice their opinion. As long as it’s not an attack on others or inappropriate in manner then I don’t see anything wrong. People say crazy things all over, it’s up to the masses to set them straight or simply ignore them. Again, your blog so your rules, but that is how it is at all of the SB Nation blogs I frequent. Check out one of the highest visited blogs across SB Nation, the extent of some people’s craziness is unbearable sometimes. Luckily, I don’t think this site will reach that level.
by I need more Esteban on Oct 18, 2010 12:14 PM EDT up reply actions
Nah
this isn’t too bad. Maybe poor choice of words.
I’m more upset by the incoherence than the accusations.
Captain, there are doubt's...
Sorta has a point?
These “fringe” JKS strikers often find themselves on the pitch in combination with other “fringe” players during matches. This definitely impacts the equation as to quality of players to interact with, level of service provided, amount of attention defenses can afford to show/not show them, how much chemistry they have (due to turnover on call-ups toward the bottom of the pool). Do I think it’s fair? Probably not but also not intentional. We really are just that bad at the striker position. It’s going to a be a long time before we are successful in international soccer (e.g. better than CONCACAF champs) without improvement in this area.
Buddle is out now...
because of age. I don’t think he’s the kind of player who’s going to make an impact at age 32. I personally don’t find this as big an issue as others, because when Donovan and Dempsey score, it’s usually from “forward” positions. This is really more an issue of tactics than inability of a forward to score. I think it’s disingenuous when the 4 letter network talks about our “strikers not scoring” and don’t include Dempsey and Donovan in the list when they’ve played forward because they play MF too.
Twellmen’s issue was injuries more than anything else. As I recall, he was passed over in 06 because Arena wasn’t convinced he was 100% fit for the World Cup. We’ll never know what he could’ve been.
Kries, well yeah, chalk that up to Steve Sampson being a doofus. :P
