US Defense

An interesting point that Steven Goff raises in his typically excellent Washington Post chat: there is one starting central defense place pretty much up for grabs in the US team. If healthy, Oguchi Oneywu is almost certainly going to start--his development in 2005 has been remarkable--but who will his partner be? A year ago, I'd have suggested it would be Cory Gibbs, but his recent dismissal from Feyenoord after a long injury layoff leaves his place on the squad in doubt, much less the starting team. So will it be Carlos Bocanegra, Eddie Pope or Gregg Berhalter?

One point of disagreement with Goff: I'm not convinced that Eddie Pope is past it. True, he's had an awful 2004 and 05, but then, he's played with some pretty awful teams. The big impediment for Pope will be his fitness; part of his problem over the last two years is that he has always been recovering from some injury or another. If he has a good camp and gets off to a nice start with the 2006 version Real Salt Lake, then he has a great chance of starting alongside Oneywu; I like the idea of having one center back with the experience of Pope.