10 July 2006

W.W.P.D?

An interesting thought experiment. Now that Piotr Nowak is named coach of the MLS all-star team taking on Chelsea, how do you think he'd select his players, if given the choice? I mean, let's take a look at the fan balloting (even though it counts as only 25% of the vote, and I expect that Coach/GM/Player/Media votes will change things), and imagine one possible swap at each position between the fan's choice and Piotr's DC United talent pool.

Currently, this is your MLS All-Star Team from fan voting (selected trying to roughly fill out a 3-5-2 with something other than three CAMs):

F: Ching / Ruiz

M: O'Brien - Olsen - Donovan - ????? - Dempsey (only one CDM listed so far).

D: Erpen - Pope - Conrad

GK: Sala

Now, as I look at this team, it seems... well, I can imagine Piotr not being too thrilled with it. So where would he change it? I'm guessing he'd swap out Ruiz for Moreno if he could make one change up top. In the midfield, he's going to be able to name another CDM, so let's go with Shalrie Joseph for now. Clint Dempsey doesn't strike me as a Nowak type player, but neither did Freddy Adu. I am sure that Piotr would rather have Adu or Gros on the left wing, but I could be wrong there. Let's not talk about Donovan. The defense is decent, and I can imagine that Piotr would be happy with that, though perhaps worried a bit about Pope fitting into the 3-5-2. As his keeper, I'm sure Piotr will take Sala. Nothing wrong with that, despite FC Dallas's recent performance.

Now, even with some tweaking... who do you think Piotr would rather face Chelsea with: DC United, or the MLS All Stars?

Oh, and wouldn't it be great if Piotr named RSL's Atiba Harris as a special coach's selection to the team? And Ellinger a special assistant coach? Okay, maybe not.

3 Comments:

At 10 July, 2006 20:32, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yeah, I don't think the fan vote means much in the long run. I'd be surprised if we didn't see Gomez, Moreno, Perkins and either Boswell or Gros on the starters after it's all said in done.

Keep in mind, as well, that Nowak gets to pick at least some of the substitutes.. with a team that has dominated the League, don't you think he'll load up on some of his players (BC, Esky, Namoff?).

It will be interesting to see what happens..

 
At 10 July, 2006 20:34, Anonymous Anonymous said...

.. said AND done..

 
At 12 July, 2006 05:22, Anonymous Anonymous said...

nice to see that a guy starting at gk will soon be a backup on his own team....

 

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