A New Way of Looking at the USMNT Roster

Over the last month the USMNT Roster for the 2014 World Cup has been analyzed, re-analyzed, and then re-re-analyzed.  All of the ‘experts’ have weighed in with their opinion and many of those ‘experts’ saw no way that we would emerge from the “Group of Death” into the Round of 16.  I think I have a unique analysis that demonstrates how amazingly deep the US Talent Pool is … I am using an alphabetic lens for my ‘expert’ review.

When the coaches got together to pick the final roster they probably started with the players whose last name began with “A” and then “B” … and so on until they got to Zusi (which in just about every group will bring up the end of the alphabet).  I base this methodology on the one that was traditionally used in my schools for handing out report cards --- with the last name “Wondolowski” only Zimmerman was behind me.  It worked well for report cards so it would certainly work well for picking a World Cup team.

Well – by the time the coaches got past ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, and ‘D’ – they had already selected over half of the team (12 players).  That means after getting only 15% of the way through the alphabet 52% of the team had already been selected.  That shows tremendous depth in the Player Pool.  In fact – by the time the coaches got half-way through the alphabet they had already selected 19 of the 23 players – or 83% of the team.  Realizing that they needed to have some representation from the second half of the alphabet they quickly added Rimando, Wondolowski, Yedlin, and Zusi.

This type of analytical review is something that comes free with your subscription to this blog … you just can’t get this anywhere else people.