Deuel is still in consideration last I heard unless something changed. He took Hatch's spot when Hatch dropped out.
Here is an alternative way of looking at it, the way I think Johan is looking at it, that I don't think has occurred to most people and it is worth at least giving some consideration to it (and then we can decided if we agree or disagree with the strategy after at least considering it). Johan isn't just looking to pick the five best players, at least for the moment. That strategy hasn't worked for years and if we keep with that strategy the U.S. may never win again so he is trying to come up with a new strategy so that we may actually have a realistic chance to win again, even if it lowers our chances a bit in the first couple of years.
Our five best aren't good enough to win (unless it is a rare fluke) and haven't been for years and it isn't looking like they will be capable any time soon either. Since picking our five best is never going to make us equals to the European team, logic says to ask yourself if there is any other strategy that might work better. The answer is that there is only one thing. We have to get better. We have to improve our level of play. It is the only option when our five best just don't have a realistic chance.
So now the question becomes, as the coach of the team, how do you get the players to get better. Well there is really only three ways. One, you have to be active and playing a lot of events. Two, you have to be putting in a personal effort to improve. Three, you have a good chance of seeing improvement through good coaching.
Essentially Johan has required all three of these things through his policies in order to be able to make the team. Not because he wants to exclude any of our best players, but because he knows that improving is the only way we will ever have a chance, and so he has no choice but to set policies that force us to have to improve, or at least be trying.
Does this hurt us in the short term? Yeah, a little bit, but that is more the fault of the player/s that aren't willing to go along with the program, even when it is clearly in their best financial and playing interest to do so. Will Johan's plan end up working out in the long run? It remains to be seen, but there are some early indications that he may be having some effect on upping the level of play from several of our players, and several of them have given him credit. What we pretty much know for sure though is that picking our top five hadn't been working and wasn't likely to start working any time soon. IMO it isn't an awful idea to try something new when what you have been doing hasn't been working and doesn't look like it will start working any time soon, and there is definitely a lot of logic to his strategy of trying to actually raise our level of play. And really, even with this new strategy we could still be sending our very best five if they would just go along with it, and even though it is in their best interest in every way to go along with it a few have chosen not to which is really more their fault (and also their right) than Johan's fault.
