Why are all Central America Players Such Fakers and Who Should Start Against Honduras

This was written before the game but I was out of town all weekend and didn't check my e-mail to post it sorry.--Jenni

Blake here.

A couple of things happened in the game against Costa Rica that I just couldn’t leave unmentioned. I have seen a lot of comments on Charlie Davies kicking the Costa Rica player in the groin but when I saw that play happen it sure didn’t look like he was anywhere near the groin area. Replays were pretty inconclusive. Later there was a foul against a U.S. player (I don’t remember who) and the Costa Rican player went down clutching his face. Replays in this case clearly showed that the foul was a kick to the shin in an attempt to get the ball and no where near the player’s face. Not only that, but he doesn’t start clutching his face until the center ref looks in his direction. In both incidents the Costa Rican player either embellished or outright faked an injury. Amado Guevara got suspended a couple of games in the MLS for that kind of antic, but you can be sure FIFA and CONCACAF will do nothing. And it is wrong. Until such stuff gets punished with suspensions, players will continue to do it and soccer will never challenge the big 3 in the U.S. And Costa Rica? You’re up 3-0 at that point. You don’t need to pull such antics and it makes you look bad.

So who should start against Honduras? At this point, our midfield is depleted and our back line looks shaky, old and inexperienced quite a combo and it takes real talent (or lack thereof) to pull that off. All that said, here is who I would start:

Howard

Spector – Onyewu – DeMerit – Bocanegra

Dempsey – Clark – Donovan – Torres

Casey – Davies

I could go with Kljestan in place of Clark, but then who is your midfield destroyer. And I just don’t see how you can play Mastreoni, but I am sure Bradley will. As for the forwards, Altidore just isn’t going to be able to go full speed just 3 days after playing 90 minutes as he hasn’t played a match with his club team all year. Potentially you could put Adu in place of Davies, but again, he hasn’t played a match with his club team all year. Casey and Davies have both been scoring often for their respective club teams.

I went back and forth on the back line and could just has easily gone with Spector – Onyewu – Bocanegra – Bornstein (or Pearce) but that would mean throwing a newbie into a World Cup qualifier cauldron or rolling the dice on Pearce. Neither seems palatable, but then neither does having Bocanegra there either. Whoever Bradley puts there, if the defense plays as poorly as it did against Costa Rica, then we lose and are now sitting in fourth place with the hardest part of our qualifying to come (at Mexico, at Honduras, home to Costa Rica). At any rate, I will be perched on my coach with my jersey, hat and scarf and hopefully will be a happy fan come the end of the game.