He still shouldn’t be a starter until he has proven himself against tougher opposition. The March friendly against Holland ought to be a tough enough test. If Beasley is still performing well in Scotland or for any other club he moves to in the January transfer window, then he should get a chance against Holland. If he performs ok against Holland and doesn’t make any major mistakes like in the Confederations Cup, then I would pen him in as a starter. I thought it was a little ridiculous that on soccerbyives.net they were claiming that Beasley was back and should be back in the US National Team as a starter. I want Beasley to succeed, and I think he has the tools to be a star caliber player, however, he needs to consistently live up to expectations before he should have a shot on the US National Team.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Welcome back, DaMarcus Beasley.

After months of languishing on Rangers’ bench in the Scottish Premier League (and a brutal Confederations Cup), Beasley has drawn everyone’s eyes with his last week of play. On Tuesday, he scored a sweet goal in a 3-0 win over Dundee United that was his first league goal in a year and a half. That followed two other matches in which he had two assists and set up a third.

Andrew mentioned Beasley’s form in his look at the U.S. youth national teams, but after Tuesday’s beautiful goal, Beasley deserves some more props. Is he back? Did the U.S. national team just pick up another (forgotten/lost/broken/unexpected) weapon who could indirectly replace the injured Charlie Davies at the World Cup?

OK, let’s not get too excited. It’s only three games. Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.

Never mind, let’s do exactly that.

If Beasley can continue this return to form, his presence on one wing could allow Clint Dempsey to slide up to forward to replace Davies. Dempsey isn’t the same type of player as Davies, lacking the latter’s speed, but he has a nose for the ball that produces goals in creative, unexpected ways. Meanwhile, Beasley can bring the speed – if, in fact, his speed is what it once was. Naturally, those are big fat IFs.

The irony of Beasley’s recent stretch is that it appeared Rangers were simply showcasing him in an effort to drum up interest before the January transfer window. (Beasley made it very clear last week that he wants out, with Holland or Spain as potential landing spots.) If so, that plan may end up working, but you’d have to wonder whether Rangers might choose instead to keep him. Only one point separates them in the standings from long-time rivals, Celtic, and is that the time to sell a guy who might be hitting peak form? Maybe not.

Of course, some will say that’s exactly the right time to sell him: Sell high, buy low. (More on that in some future post, when I babble on about Soccernomics, a very good soccer book I just read.)

Either way, DaMarcus Beasley has once again become a very, very interesting player.