20 Questions

The title refers to the Red Bulls' roster. On one hand, the team is absolutely loaded. I'm not sure any MLS team has ever had this much potential (note that I started writing this before the Wynne trade-- more on that later). But along with potential comes uncertainty-- no MLS team has ever faced so many questions at nearly every position on the field.

You can start with the Headline News questions that almost everyone is asking:

1. Will Reyna stay healthy?

2. Will Juan Pablo Angel fit in MLS? Ironically, since he got bad service in Villa during at least part of his time in the prem, you wonder if getting balls from Schopp, Mathis, Reyna and van den Bergh is actually going to be an improvement.

3. Is Altidore the next Eddie Johnson (circa 2005) or is he the next Eddie Johnson (circa 2006)? Apart from Johnson, I can't remember any US player being built up so much so quickly. Scoring against Dallas is the first step toward proving the naysayers wrong-- and Josy will definitely benefit when Angel takes away the glare of the spotlight. But expectations for the kid are still probably higher than he can realistically fulfill right now.

4. Cleetus. Pretty much everyone agrees-- Mathis still has it. But he hasn't been able to show it consistently since he mentally checked out of MLS months before he left for Hamburg. His devastating showing against Dallas might be his only dominating performance of the year.

But the questions don't end there-- who are the known quantities on the roster? You won't find them among the European imports:

5. It says a lot when the most can't-miss player on the roster was a late season addition to another team: the only real question about Dave van den Bergh is whether he's going to be an MLS star along the lines of Christian Gomez. The guy's got one of the best shots in the league and seems to put the ball in good spots for others.

6. Who is Markus Schopp? We didn't see much of him at all. He's been pencilled in as a starter when he returns from injury, but the fact is that the guy's MLS career is less than 200 minutes old.

7. I am the Walrus? Jamie Trecker wondered if Waterreus is an improvement over Tony Meola. I have a tough time with that one: Waterreus had one bobble in game 1 and left early in game 2 due to feeling a little chilly, but the guy looks great to me. But he is old...

And what about the Bulls' defense?
8. Question 8 would have been what Arena was going to do with Captain Marvell-- last year's attacking back of the future. The thing about the Bulls' backline is that, while they're considered pretty thin, they've actually got a ton of decent players-- any of which could do well on any MLS team. But they don't seem to have that one steadying force-- Wynne might really excel at a team like that where his technical limitations won't be as important. Unfortunately for him, Toronto is not that place. Incidentally, some people feel like getting a second-rounder and a partial allocation isn't enough value for a former #1 pick. Taj Jakins was a #1 pick. Leo Cullen was a #1 pick. Jason Moore was a #1 pick. Steve Shak was a #1 pick. Chris Carrieri was a #1 pick. Nik Basagno was a #1 pick. Wynne is probably better than each of those guys-- but getting a little bit of allocation play money, cap space and a near first round pick sounds like a good deal to me. I get why Metro fans are upset: Wynne is an exciting player with real potential, but the Bulls will be fine without him.

9. Can Dunivant stay injury-free and be the force he could be?

10. Is Jeff Parke's Cinderella run coming to an end? The guy went from being Mister Irrelevant (the last player picked in the draft) to being a solid starter. Some fans were envisioning a national team career. While Parke hasn't been consistently bad, no one's looking at him as anything more than a useful player with a little bit of size. Arena doesn't seem real high on him either.

11. Can Carlos Mendes put together another great season?

12. Is Hunter Freeman all that?

And what about some of the forgotten men on the roster?

13. Can Woly ever put together another 2004? The guy looks funny, has limited skill and has more white hair than the abominable snowman. I love him-- his work ethic is second to none and he consistently scores goals. He just doesn't score many of them.

14. Whenever fanboys on BigSoccer start talking about how certain players absolutely NEED to get capped NOW, I always think about Mike Magee. He's never matched his rookie season when he had everyone thinking that the US national team's scoring woes were done (see also Kyle Martino, Eddie Gaven and, oh yeah, even Josh Wolff, who's obviously done fine but could never live up to his early hype).

15. Can Dema stay on the field? I always think Kovalenko's grossly underrated-- here's a guy that played in the Bundesliga (granted, only briefly and for a very bad team) but who consistently plays on good teams-- there's a reason for that. He doesn't score like he used to in Chicago, but the Bulls have real depth with him.

And what about the kids?
16. Dane Richards--damn. He's pretty fast. Can he do it again?

17. Sinisa Notgonnaplaymuch. I'm excited to see- he sounds like a great talent, but he's probably not going to get on the field much given the talent ahead of him.