Zeppo. . .

[Tilla]

What's up with your boy Onyewu? He seem to be a bit off his game of late. Notice you are not posting a lot about him now that New Castle have taken a look and said "naah, we'll pass".

He is a big physical specimen, but I hate how he plays and chose to grab players and pull them down with his hands. He needs to work on that part of his game.

So is he out of contract with his Belgian club? Since New Casastle is not interested, can he go back to that club in Belgium if nothing works out for him in England?

[Zeppo]

To tell you the truth I have never been a huge fan. When he first came onto the international scene at senior level a few years ago I adopted a "wait and see" attitude towards him - even when many U.S. fans were raving about him. He had some good games and some not so good games. Now he's 24 and should have worked out most of the kinks, but you can see that he's still way too inconsistent. At this point I really have my doubts whether he will turn out to be 'the man' for us in central defense. And so far I'm not too impressed.

I prefer Cory Gibbs over him any day. Unfortunately Gibbs has been out for over a year with a knee problem. Hopefully he'll be back soon.

I'm not sure when his contract is up in Belgium, but he will go back there and try to decide what his next move will be. The Newcastle loan didn't really work any wonders for his transfer value, so I'm not sure if he'll be able to get something equal or better next time. I imagine that he was hoping for a good Gold Cup to act as a shop window for any potential suitors, but he certainly didn't get off on the right foot on that either.

We should know sometime this summer what his fate will be.

[Tilla]

Gibbs is supposed to be in England I believe with Charlton. Hope he can get over his injuries soon and take back his place in the middle.

Yes, I think Onyewu has some chinks in his defensive armor which need to be addressed now before you can exect him to run with quality players at the international level. Maybe if he were to get on with a lower level EPL side(Wigan, Westham, or a newly promoted side) , they could straighten him out over time. I see him as a penalty just waiting to happen anytime the USA plays and he is on the field, especially if he has to try to contain skilful and trick forwards. He tends to be just all over them and I have seen instances where some referees turn a blind eye to him fouling these players, but not all will ignore this. For example, I have seen him pulling down the Mexican forward Jared Borgetti and kept getting away with it. It is not going to be like that all the time.

Yes, I would play Cory Gibbs over him any day.

[Mosiah]

I have long given my opinion that he was nothing more than brute force. He plays like someone who just started playing football about 5 years ago. Maybe he was converted from American football or something.

[Zeppo]

Yes, I think Onyewu has some chinks in his defensive armor which need to be addressed now before you can exect him to run with quality players at the international level. Maybe if he were to get on with a lower level EPL side(Wigan, Westham, or a newly promoted side) , they could straighten him out over time. I see him as a penalty just waiting to happen anytime the USA plays and he is on the field, especially if he has to try to contain skilful and trick forwards. He tends to be just all over them and I have seen instances where some referees turn a blind eye to him fouling these players, but not all will ignore this. For example, I have seen him pulling down the Mexican forward Jared Borgetti and kept getting away with it. It is not going to be like that all the time.

But at the same time he also has the disadvantage that refs will often blow the foul against him whether he commited it or not. They look at his size and see how big he is and then assume that he must have been the one pushing or fouling. I'm not saying this happens all the time because he does have a tendency to use his arms and foul. But that is what happened against Guatemala. Ruiz kept diving an selling the ref on it. It also happened last summer at the WC in the Ghana game when the ref awarded them the penalty. It was a fair shoulder-to-shoulder challenge for the ball, the Ghanaian falls over and it's a PK. A joke.

And you are right about smaller, skillful forwards giving him a hard time. He struggles with them because his positioning is poor and he isn't quick enough to handle them. We have defenders who are better on the ball that should be playing in those games. Gooch should only be matched up against bigger and slower target men.

[Tilla]

But that is what happened against Guatemala. Ruiz kept diving an selling the ref on it. It also happened last summer at the WC in the Ghana game when the ref awarded them the penalty. It was a fair shoulder-to-shoulder challenge for the ball, the Ghanaian falls over and it's a PK. A joke.

I saw the Guatemala game and at times he was all over Ruiz too. But Ruiz is known for going down if you as much as exhale too hard beside him. Onyweu should be aware of these things and be more cautious in his approach when playing against players like this.

Yes, the situation with referees giving Onyewu bad calls is because his reputation preceeds him. Many of these referees may watch him getting away with these fouls and come to a later game with preconcieved mindset. They are willing to jump the gun in making a call against him because of the fact that he is notorious for foulingplayers in the box.

The Ghana penalty was one that should not have been called. But when you think of it, referees are humans and most want to get it right. They will make the wrong call every now and then.

It should be interesting to see how Gooch handles himself when you meet Mexico with Jared Borgetti. By then he should be back from his one match suspension.