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Balboa: More experience needed for US Soccer players
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Recently, National Soccer Hall of Fame member Marcelo Balboa took the time to sit down and provide his thoughts on U.S. Soccer while he was in New York promoting his prostate cancer awareness campaign, "Team Up Against Prostate Cancer."
Between 1988 and 2000, Babloa appeared in 128 games for the United States Men's National Team, scoring 13 goals. Most fans remember his club career best for his days with the Colorad Rapids. He appeared in 151 games and scored 24 goals for the Rapids between 1996 and 2001. For his efforts, he was named to the MLS All-Time Best XI Team.
Below is a segment of an interview conducted with Balboa on Friday, June 19 in between the United States' games against Brazil and Egypt. At the time the U.S. looked like it was done for in the Confederations Cup, but everyone knows how that turned out.
The beginning portion of the interview has been excluded since it is no longer relevant to Confederations Cup play. He does make some interesting points about the U.S., players needing to be in Europe and getting play time, and Jonathan Bornstein deserving more time. Do you agree with him? Sound off below.
On U.S. Players Needing More Experience…
I think this is a team that needs to find itself right now, especially going into Mexico on a Wednesday night. The only thing I’ll say is, if you look at our team – and Bruce Arena said this a while ago – our players need to get to Europe. Our players need to get more experience and the problem we are having is that you look at Jozy Altidore, you look at Freddy Adu and they are not playing much in Europe. And, if you are not in form I think it shows in the Confederations Cup. They are good players but when you are not playing it is hard to find your form.
Will the U.S. see competition as good as it has in the Confederations Cup again before next year’s World Cup?
There’s not going to be competition like this, no doubt about it. Playing in CONCACAF you are not going to get that level of competition of Italy. You have Mexico and Costa Rica and Honduras. But you know what? I’ll tell you this: A game is a game and you have to go out and play. And, right now maybe you are looking at a team that needs an injection of a few new players. It almost looks like a few players are at that point where they feel entitlement already and that they are already there and they belong there. I think that there are a lot of different things you can look at. The important thing for the United States is that they have to qualify for the World Cup. Bottom line. They can be playing awful soccer but the most important time is to play your best soccer and to get results during World Cup qualifying. And, then hopefully you can regroup and play your best soccer come World Cup 2010. That’s when you need to do well. You can’t play well all the time. Eventually Spain is going to drop and what are people going to say about Spain? The same thing they are saying about Argentina.
Are there any young players that you have been impressed with that you think deserve more time?
I think we have always struggled for a left back and I think Jonathan Bornstein has done a pretty good job playing back there. Besides that, there are plenty of players in the MLS. The problem is, can you give them the experience before the World Cup to develop into the player that you need? You’ve got to have veterans that can step on the field and get the job done and that is the bottom line. This is a great experience. T he Gold Cup will be a great experience for everybody. You know, I would hate to be in Bob Bradley’s shoes right now. Qualifying is around the corner, the World Cup is around the corner and the pressure always falls on the coach. It doesn’t fall on the players when you don’t win. It always falls on the coach. Look at [Diego] Maradona. Look at Sven [Goran Eriksson]. The pressure will always fall on the coach.
The U.S. takes on Honduras in Gold Cup action Wednesday night at 9 p.m. from RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. The game will be aired live on Fox Soccer Channel.
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