Claudio Reyna set to make 100th International appearance

[wilheim]

CHICAGO (AP) U.S. captain Claudio Reyna was among 18 players picked Wednesday for the Americans' exhibition game against Honduras on June 2, when he could make his 100th international appearance.

The game at Foxboro, Mass., is the final preparation for the U.S. team before it starts World Cup qualifying on June 13 against Grenada at Columbus, Ohio. Players will start reporting to the U.S. team on May 28.

Reyna would be the seventh player to make 100 appearances for the U.S. team.

Goalkeepers Brad Friedel and Tim Howard were picked, as were forwards Brian McBride and Clint Mathis, and midfielders Landon Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley. Eleven of the 18 players are based in Europe.

The full roster:

Goalkeepers: Brad Friedel (Blackburn, England), Tim Howard (Manchester United, England)

Defenders: Carlos Bocanegra (Fulham, England), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96, Germany), Bobby Convey (D.C. United), Cory Gibbs (Dallas), Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado), Tony Sanneh (Nuremberg, Germany), Greg Vanney (Bastia, France)

Midfielders: Chris Armas (Chicago), DaMarcus Beasley (Chicago), Landon Donovan (San Jose), Eddie Lewis (Preston North End, England), Claudio Reyna (Manchester City, England), Earnie Stewart (D.C. United)

Forwards: Conor Casey (Karlsruhe, Germany), Clint Mathis (Hannover 96, Germany), Brian McBride (Fulham, England)


wil.

 

[JackDee]

the u.s. team remains remarkably unremarkable. Football is a game of fanaticism, talent, flair and intelligence, for the likes of latin americans and europeans, americans are all for their spectacle sports, and, i might make some of my american friends unhappy, but the truth of the matter is that football is THE king of sports, and the king is alive and well in europe and the south america, ONLY.

So, who the hell is "Claudio Reyna"?

 

[wilheim]

Jack Claudio Reyna is veteran American born International. I know American players are not well thought of world wide, but Reyna is one of the few that young American players can emulate.

Claudio Reyna is a two-time Olympian (1992 & 1996) and two-time World Cup (1994 & 1998) player for the U.S., and is still just 26-years-old ... Has scored at least one goal and one assist every year of his National Team career ... 1999: Played in four matches with the National Team in 1999, scoring one goal ... His goal was the capper in the USA's 3-0 win over Germany on Feb. 6 ... Continued in his role as the USA's midfield catalyst, he wore the captain's armband twice during the year ... 1998: Played one of the best games of his U.S. career, tallying a goal and two assists in the team's 3-0 win over Austria ... Finished the year with a goal and two assists in nine games ... One of only three U.S. players to play every minute in the 1998 World Cup ... 1997: Scored the game-winning goal in the first five minutes in the USA's 3-0 World Cup Qualifying win over Canada Nov. 9, 1997, the game that clinched the USA's World Cup berth ... Started 13 of the USA's 16 World Cup qualifiers, scoring a goal and two assists as the team's central playmaker ... Played in the FIFA All-Star Game in Hong Kong, scoring a goal ... 1996: Starred for the '96 Olympic Team as an "overage" player ... Scored less than one-minute into the opening game of the 1996 Olympics against Argentina, where his father was born ... 1995: Helped the USA capture the U.S. Cup '95 title and advance to the semifinals of '95 Copa America ... Experienced his most productive day for the USA in a 4-0 thrashing of Mexico in U.S. Cup '95, tallying one goal and two assists ... 1994: Youngest member of the 1994 World Cup Team, but did not play in the '94 World Cup due to a hamstring injury ...1992: The youngest member of the 1992 U.S. Olympic Team that finished with a 1-1-1 record in Barcelona ... Played every minute of the tournament and assisted on two goals ... 1988-1991: Scored three goals in Olympic qualifying play and scored two goals for the Under-23 1991 Pan-Am gold-medal winning team ... Member of the U.S. Under-16 National Team in 1988 and Under-20 National Team in 1989 ... First Appearance: Jan. 15, 1994, vs. Norway ... First Goal: April 20, 1994, vs. Moldova.


wil.

 

[Brazil4Worldcup2002]

Well-said Jack.

Although football has increasingly been commercialised, there is still so much passion as was best said by Jack. Hell, Leeds fans were helping the team out financially by buying them plane tickets etc, if it had been the Lakers, fans would just cheer for someone else if their team was in trouble.
Football in Latin America and Europe is much more than a sport, its a religion. Ironically, its in a time when, particularly in Europe, there has been a dramatic fall in the number of followers of Christianity. So its not that they stopped believing in Jesus, its that Pele is so much cooler. hehe.

I was optimistic after '94 that football would take off in the US but it didnt and its a shame.
Sports in the US will never ceize to be a homogenized business, equipt with the stupid little "charge" and "tum tum defence" cheers. Teams can easily move to a more profitable city if need be. Now just imagine Man Utd moving to London...the absurdity boggles the mind.