Colorado Rapids forward Conor Casey is coming off being named MLS Player of the Month of May and he his great form has resulted in a look from the U.S. men's national team.
Casey has been called up by U.S. national team coach Bob Bradley for Saturday's World Cup qualifier vs. Honduras. Casey will provide cover for the U.S. team if Houston striker Brian Ching is unable to overcome the hamstring injury that kept him out of Wednesday night's World Cup qualifying loss to Costa Rica.
What do you think of this news? Hoping he gets some playing time on Saturday? Did Wednesday night's result give you a new appreciation for Brian Ching? Worried about Honduras?
Share your thoughts below.
I just finished watching the USA luck out against Honduras yesterday. Conor Casey is way to slow of foot, to play forward on the international level. You can say you heard that first from me.
Papa Bear and Ching bashers,
In the US system Jozy plays best facing the goal and he needs a target man who can play with his back to the goal, hold up the ball and lay it off to people. It takes a lot of heart to do this and Ching, while lacking some skills, has guts.
Notice how gutless and spineless the USMNT chickenboys were against Costa Rica.
Kenny Cooper,Charlie Davies, Twellman; they don’t do this.
Ching, for all of his flaws, is willing to give his body and his scoring up for the team and people like Donovan and Jozy live off of him. If Casey can do this great, though I wonder about a USMNT setup where a guy like him may be thrown into an important game without any real practice or familiarity with his team mates.
Adu ? Bradley should take a page from Capello and start playing people who actually play regularly for their clubs (see Beasley, Adu, Jozy, Torres,Pearce) or who aren’t complacent about their playing time (Dempsey,Onyewu, Bocanegra, Mastroeni, Klejstan). Dempsey is pushed every minute of the day at Fulham so he produces but when he gets to the USMNT he knows he will always play no matter how crappy his performance and it really shows.
Capello doesn’t believe there are friendlies but Bradley isn’t serious about a WC qualifier. Otherwise why is he so unprepared for difficult times? Bradley continues to try to get blood out of a stone and, by playing the same guys all the time, does not develop any depth. Dempsey is coasting, Onyewu and Bocanegra are the same player (one of them need to be replaced by Demerit, Conrad, Parkhurst anyone but Califf). The Confederations Cup is upon us and there are two only starters who, in my mind, are unquestioned, Howard and Donovan. Scary. If this were any other team serious about the WC, they would have dropped Bradley and brought in Klinsmann or one of those Dutch guys by now.
Notice how bringing in a real coach made a difference to that bunch of prissy English phone-it-in underachievers?
I don’t understand the “Casey will be like Wynne” comments. It is not like he is inexperienced. He was on the U-23 Olympic team, he’s played in the Bundesliga, and he has 9 national team caps. He was being considered for the last World Cup team but got injured. And if you want to compare his MLS goal total to Ching’s, Casey had more goals per game last year and has more goals per game this year. Don’t get me wrong, I like Ching, I just don’t understand the lack of confidence in Casey.
Wow…Bob called up someone who is (a) getting playing time with his team and (b) playing well. Amazing!
Now, I would like to see Casey and Davies up front.
Summarizing my overall comments…
Some of you will obviously never understand what Ching (or someone who could play like him) brings to this team. Andrew makes me laugh (hard) – Adu and Torres as our central midfield?? Hilarious. Those of you defending Gooch for having to cover Wynne and then slamming Boca for being slow and out of position obviously weren’t watching Beasley. And you definitely weren’t watching Watford this year if you want Demerit to step into a must-win game and shake up the ONLY part of our team that has been steady for the last 3-4 years (Gooch’s brain farts in 06 aside).
We are a system, but so are most/all countries (including The Netherlands). What he should have said is we’re not creative. Which is true, with a few exceptions. In any case, it doesn’t make sense not to play the system that works if you don’t have the players. So, if Casey can play back-to-goal as well as has been stated on here, then …
———Altidore————————–
——————–Casey——————
–Donovan———–Torres———-Deuce–
————–Pablo————————
–Jesus (if He’s available)——-Spector–
———–Boca———-Gooch————-
—————–Howard——————–
“US vs Hond 4-4-2
————-Davies——-Altidore———–
Donovan———torres—-Adu———-Deuce
bornste———-boca–Gooch———spector
—————-howard—————–
no major weaknesses i dont think? enough with the ‘holding midfielder” crap. torres and adu will Create!”
That central midfield will get eaten alive by Palacios and Guevara. You can’t have two central mids that each weigh a buck 30…unless you’re Spain.
Start Davies and Altidore up top, sub in casey at half or shortly thereafter.
Mids should be Donovan, Torres, Adu, Dempsey
Defense should be Demerit, Boca, Gooch, Spector. Never going to know how well Jay and Johnny will be if you don’t give them some valuable game time. And anyone that starts or plays considerable minutes in Premiership/Championship in England should play over MLSers.
I would like to see:
——Jozy—–Casey——-
Clint–Torres-Adu/Clark–LD
Spector–Boca–Gooch–Heydude
Note to Bradley: Don’t play the guys who aren’t playing with their clubs teams – they are just not in game shape.
Starting Beasley was a disaster that basically cost us any chance in CR. IF healthy and fit, he can be a good option at left back – but he’s obviously NOT in shape.
Same deal with Altidore. He’s slow as it is, but when he’s not in game shape …
Maybe now RSL has a chance of winning on Saturday. MAYBE!
Why is Bob Bradley not calling up Kenny Cooper? I mean the guy can attack the box and can also score with his feet. Does Bob not like Kenny?
conor casey scoring open headers against the red bulls shouldn’t give you guys a hard on. come on. mike ruze said it best — he’ll be like wynne if he starts.
okay, his second goal was kind of tricky… but seriously, some of those goals were pretty much wide open.
and i don’t ever want to hear talk of goldthwaite coming up. i like my red bulls, and he’s had a fine, very fine season, but come on.
Cooper can’t play the target man b/c he’s got no clue how to use his size. He thinks that he’s George Best with the ball at his feet, even though he’s really slow and lumbering. Works okay for MLS and C-team friendly opponents, not so much against real competition. That’s why Bradley didn’t call him in.
Casey, on the other hand, has an aerial game and is willing to be physical, so he fits Bob’s system, and that’s why he’s getting the callup. I just hope the Honduran defenders are as bad as NYRB’s, in which case Casey’ll have a hat-trick by halftime.
Altidore was not good on Wednesday night. He rarely won any balls in the air and when he did and held the ball up, he gave possession away too early. He was never dangerous. He’s not a player like McBride who’s completely dependent on good service, he can create his own chances.
I agree that being started out as a LW was poor, but even when he switched to the middle he was bad.
The guy has barely played AT ALL this calender year, he shouldn’t be starting – sorry. I know since there are alot of USMNT supporters with man-crushes on Jozy, they tend to make excuses for him when things don’t go his way. But I’m calling it like I see it. He was poor against Costa Rica, like most of the starting XI was.
Shake it up? That’s what BB did last game.
Altidore and Davies will not work against Honduras. They will bunker with 9 and leave the 10th field player as an outlet. They do this everytime we play them and they are a dirty (grabby) team. You will need a Casey player in at least one of the spots to threaten as an immovable object and off the ground threat. Everyone else needs to be a one touch quick pass/tactical player almost like an indoor player to break through anything on the ground once Honduras has set up all 9 across the 18. That means Torres, Donovan etc… Dempsey, although crafty is too slow and now plays as if teams should respect him because of his club badge (no longer a workman). Casey also has slow feet but that’s not why he would be needed for this game.
There will be no counters to set up a tandem like Davies and Altidore as Honduras will not commit numbers forward for counters to be effective.
Shake It Up Bob! Start Casey!
“torres and adu will Create!
But will they defend?
US vs Hond 4-4-2
————-Davies——-Altidore———–
Donovan———torres—-Adu———-Deuce
bornste———-boca–Gooch———spector
—————-howard—————–
no major weaknesses i dont think? enough with the ‘holding midfielder” crap. torres and adu will Create!
Wow, Bob Bradley may actually have a brain after all.
Just means he will be called up to sit on the bench…
Funny how Ching and Twelleman are the same player but Ching still gets a run and only scores against the minnows of Concocaf. Maybe this is the start of something new. Doubt it will save BB’s job so I agree with Andrew on this one. We need a new coash, preferably one who knows tactics. Screw this silly notion that we need an American to coach the team. These idiots are talking as if we’ve won the world cup or something.
Good to see that someone who’s earned it is getting well-deserved recognition.
That being said, where’s Coop? He’s earned SOMETHING, no?
Adu and Torres need to start; Period.
Adu is our most creative and skilled player on this team. Adu when he came in vs CR helped Altidore,Davies, and Donovan out big time……….Wait, i almost forgot how Adu was the best player on the field (was our Mozart) vs a Full-squad Spain Team and was our Mozart vs England and Argentina…Its time we give him his dues already. Bradley needs to play our true #10(Adu), and as another poster said, Coach Braldey needs to stop forcing Michael Braldey into a #10.
Torres…..can hold the ball and is extremely technical…….
Adu and Torres need to start.
Steve, YOU ARE BEING JERKY. GO BACK TO SLEEP.
good for him, he’s worked hard and deserves a call-up
it’s funny reading this post + comments with the giant Barca ad on the left with none other than MESSI. what a player. reminds me of how i want our team to play. to excel. to be creative and a joy to watch.
that said, please remove anyone who would hinder such a mission. such a mandate.
people like ching. and even the coach. we need creativity and entertainment. c’mon people! let’s cut out the fat.
This other Andrew sucks.
go Casey…its your B-day..at least he called someone up with a pair of Brass ones.
Eddie Johnson’s in Camp? Good grief.
bit off topic:
DMB has no business being in the defense. You are born a defender…you just can’t force someone to be. Speed will not be enough. DMB will mess up and Bob’s world will come crashing down on him…My two cents.
Primoone 6-3-09
Soo is this experiment over yet BOB’O??
What a Dumb-A** that DMB move had FAIL written all over it…even in that T&T game. That fooker was all over the place. Dont know if you guys noticed this..but i started wondering why Torres was winded…well i replayed the game and saw that torres had to drop deep and cover quite a bit for DMB’s poor play. The only reason you saw torres gain more composure is because he said…To hell with it and worried about playing well as opposed to wiping DMB’s ass for him. Anyways, i hope Bob’O pulled torres so that he can go the full 90 on Sat.
Conspiracy theory of the day( Beaz tanked that game so that he will not be placed there ever again…eva, eva eva again…if hes gonna continue sucking, it could be at his natural position)
There…i feel better now..carry on
We’re missing three defenders right now. Onyewu is the only bright spot. I think Bocanegra is only on the field cause he’s pretty in a uniform. Let’s call up another real center back.
Posted by: Big Z
^^^^^^
SUBOTIC
Should have treaded him with Respect.
ALL, this call up has mostly to do with Ching be ruled injured. Nothing more. Check out the MNT blog. Straight from the source. Ching is out of Saturday’s match. Plain and simple, black and white. Now, the question is what formatin will Bob play and who will get the nod at forward. If a lone forward is deployed, my bet is Altidore gets the nod (condsidering who is in camp right now, today). If Bob deploys two forwards, then I still say Altidore and then anyone’s guess- Casey, Davies, Dempsey or Landycakes. Too tough to call right now, IMO. Looking forward to a strong showing and good rebound Saturday night though, regardless.
Anyone who played in the Bundesliga gets my vote…
Josh, I agree with a lot of what you say…but we like to attack up the wing with our backs…but our backs have veeery little skill to be dangerous on the ball, or dangerous with skilled/pentrating passes….it is frustrating watching players in OUR CAMP playing with less skill than players from COSTA RICA!!!!!!!!!!
ALL OF YOU WHO THINK THIS IS JOZY RELATED MOVE HAVE GOT TO WAKE UP!!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS A MOVE BECUASE HE NEEDS ANOTHER FORWARD UP TOP TO WORK HIM HIM… CASEY IS FINE, BUT WHY NOT COOPER?? WHAT DOES CHING BRING THAT COOPER DOES NOT? ORRRRRR, WHAT DOES COOPER BRING THAT CHING DOESN’T? UHHHH SKILL, THE ABILITY TO TAKE A PLAYER ON, MULTI-DIMENSIONAL PLAY… CHING SUCKS AND SO DOES BOB BRADLEY…