Maurice Edu is the darling of Rangers these days, thanks to the fortuitous (for Maurice) actions of Barry Ferguson, and Edu's own brilliant play. All reports have Rangers' recent run of good form being partially chalked up to the American's good play in the middle of the Glasgow club's formation.
This leads me to a fairly obvious question, one that will certainly present itself sooner rather than later for Bob Bradley: where does Edu fit in the U.S. National Team setup?
Edu has yet to appear in a National Team match this year, though he was an unused substitute in Nashville against Trinidad & Tobago. The National Team action thus far occurred before Edu's stunning rise to prominence at Rangers, something which makes his lack of time for the Nats understandable. When he was called up for Trinidad & Tobago, Maurice was still languishing on the bench for his club. We've see that Bradley won't hesitate to call up players he believes can contribute even though they aren't seeing first team action (see Altidore, Jozy), and Edu fit that bill back on April 1st. Now that he's in top form as the team head rapidly towards the next two qualifiers (June 3rd away against Costa Rica, and June 6th in Chicago against Honduras), how could Bradley possibly leave him out?
Bradley won't, of course. Edu would certainly jump to the front of the line on recent form alone, it's almost a certainty he'll be in camp ahead of those two matches at the end of this month. The tougher question perhaps, is whether Edu should be starting.
Unfortunately, I'm not quite smart enough to figure that one out. It's not clear to me how Bradley will set up his squad heading to Costa Rica, a notoriously tough place to play (and on turf no less). The strong showing against T&T (admittedly lesser competition) by the midfield combo of Michael Bradley and Pablo Mastroeni might have Bob's mind made up already, or he could be swayed by Edu's good play, and stick him in the lineup.
I suppose the smart money is on Mastroeni's experience to be paired with Bradley's youth. While I wonder if Bradley gives the side enough in the attack with Mastro cleaning up behind him, I can't see him losing his starting spot. So if a switch is made, it'll be Bradley who is the constant.
Edu will be on the bench, at the very least. His presence there could also be viewed as insurance; Mastroeni's history of bookings might dictate his removal, a problem that is made less critical with Edu's availability.
All of this is conjecture, of course. There's no way to tell how Bradley will use Edu, who might be the midfield with the best current form, so we'll just have to wait and see. But when the roster is littered with cold, out-of-form, or lesser-challenged (meaning they play in lesser leagues) players, it would be frustrating not to see Edu get a shot to shine in June.
By the way, I almost wrote this post using this article as the centerpiece. I chose a different direction, but the post is an interesting read. Take note of the ex-pat Scot who recruits players from Scotland to come to the U.S. saying "The top college sides in American would beat most First Division clubs over here and some clubs in the lower reaches of the SPL".
