Just becaue you don't like a player doesn't mean he's crap. McBride is one of our NT's most important players. He wins balls in the air, I'm not just talking about the penalty area, I mean when a US player clears the ball and McBride wins it in the air, knocking it down straight to Donovan's feet. McBride also has a tremendous work ethic and helps out defensively. His stenght in the air is especially important when playing CONCACAF teams since he is able to dominate, and if he gets good service from the mids, you can bet he'll put that header away. While he possesses little skill on the ball and is not the fastest forward out there, he is very acrobatic. He has scored some outstanding goals for the Crew and US NT from bycicle kicks, volleys and diving headers (including the 1997 MLS Goal of the Year). So don't tell me he's not an entertaining player to watch. He's what you'd call a :drevil: target man :drevil: . Not all world class stirkers are supposed to be gifted with great dribbling skill.
As for Ben Olsen (who is a midfielder, not a striker), he was called up a few times since his injury, but he's playing for the doomed DC United, who can't produce any goals despite the fact they have Santino Quaranta, Earnie Stewart, Etcheverry, Olsen, Kovalenko in their starting line-up and Stoitchkov and #1 draft pick Eskandarian coming off the bench. So I think he needs to be one of the players who step up for DC, and when he does that, it would be hard for Bruce Arena to keep him out of the US squad.
).
