Monday, March 30, 2009

Jonny's back

Heath Pearce has been rather disappointing in two qualifiers, and DaMarcus Beasley was atrocious there on Saturday.

Good to see the best left back is finally with the team.

Jonathan Bornstein will join the US ahead of Wednesday's World Cup qualifier against Trinidad & Tobago in Tennessee. Bornstein's stock has risen after Pearce's poor showings against Mexico and El Salvador.

Now, I know I've taken a lot of flak for having heaped praise on Jonny B before, and there has been a lot of support in the Pearce camp. However, I stand by my initial belief that Bornstein should be the first-choice left back. Bornstein offers far more than Pearce does on the offensive side of the ball and he's not a terrible defender either. I can tell you that he would not have gotten undressed like Beasley did on El Salvador's second goal Saturday. That cross never would have gotten off.

Anyway, here's hoping Bornstein not only joins the team well but that he gets the start.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Luis,

Will this prevent him from playing for Chivas USA on Sunday?

ELAC

L.B. said...

No. The US game is on Wednesday. Both he and Sacha will be back on Sunday.

nothingtoseehere said...

I like Bornstein at left back, but he really needs to work on his positioning. With him and Beez on the left, there's a lot of attacking power but not lots of defensive discipline.

Anonymous said...

He had a great game against Dallas. johnny B deserves to be called up to the US team.

Anonymous said...

I really don't understand why BB stopped calling him in the first place. Johnny B performed well in the Gold Cup, in friendlies against Mexico, and in Copa America all in the same year. But once he got hurt with that knee injury BB seemed to lose interest in him and never really brought him back. Pearce and Beasley both need to be pushed as maybe they have gotten a bit too comfortable almost being locks at getting the starts and certainly being on the roster.

Ching needs to be pushed as well as he inability to score (my opinion here) allowed ELV to key in on Donovan. They pretty much dared Ching to score on them. Until the end when Ching almost made the pay for it. But the team needs a lot more offensive UMP thats why so many have been begging for BB to let they youngsters like Altidore play.