We won’t go so far as to call it an embarrassment of riches, but the United States does suddenly have a little buffet of delicious choices in the center of the park.
Big buffet of center mid choices for Bob Bradley’s national team.
The list just keeps growing.
In the fall, you would have called Michael Bradley and Jermaine Jones the top central midfielders available to Bob Bradley’s national team. And those were two pretty reasonable choices, although Jones’ relationship with his Bundesliga club was turning sour, and that’s never a good thing. The depth soon fell off after that.
But the calendar turned, there was a little development here, a little switcheroo there and … voila! You can’t swing a corner flag around a U.S. national team practice now without hitting an in-form center mid.
Jones has just moved to Blackburn, where his weekend debut at Ewood Park had his manager singing effusive praise. So it looks like a match made in soccer heaven. Jones is at a place where his career can trend upward again, a place where he’s wanted. That’s bound to boost his confidence, and that can only assist the national team.
Michael Bradley will, apparently, remain in Germany at Borussia Mönchengladbach rather than move to Sunderland. That’s fine. A few of us would have been able to watch him more often in an EPL shirt, but remaining in the Bundesliga won’t hurt Bradley a bit.
Back over in England, Stuart Holden remains a lineup fixture at Bolton. Just a year ago Holden was only getting his feet wet in England, still seen as a man who may play on the outside and hardly a main part of the plan at the Reebok Stadium. Now he’s a valued figure for Bolton, which has fallen a bit in the table lately but remains a solid 9th among 18. (By the way, you can see Holden in action live later today against Chelsea on FSC.)
Maurice Edu is back in action for Rangers, having recently returned from injury but already in great form at Ibrox Stadium.
Out of nowhere, Jonathan Spector has gone from little-used fullback to effective midfielder at West Ham. I wouldn’t honestly expect him to begin challenging for a spot in the center of the park for Bob Bradley anytime soon … but who knows? The situation is intriguing.
I had hoped to see a little more out of Mikkel Diskerud the other night for the United States. Then again, he was playing out of position as a second forward / attacking midfielder. So, perhaps we need to see a little more of him in a more of a two-way role.
On the other hand, what a night for central man Dax McCarty, who may have been the best player on the field for Bradley, always involved, always busy and always linking the play against Chile. (Not to mention that his first half drive from long range was as close as the United States came to scoring before the break.)
Ricardo Clark, Benny Feilhaber and even Kyle Beckerman are back there somewhere in the order. Perhaps Jose Torres, too, although the skillful man’s all-around game needs improvement. Clark is playing center back currently in Germany, so perhaps he’ll even challenge there. And Feilhaber needs to get into a better club situation, or his career will languish.
All things considered, you’d have to say the choices give Bradley plenty to work with in the middle of the park.
Now, about those forwards ….
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