Zizzo and Altidore, thank your friend Freddy.
Yeah, that's right. It's time for soccer bloggers, writers, soccer moms, and ESPN to eat crow. In the past two U-20 games, Freddy Adu has illustrated to us what the hype 4 years ago was about. This is going to be a big statement, but I believe it to be true. NEVER have we had an American prospect with the creativity and flare that Freddy Adu has provided for us, especially at 18.
Two plays that illustrate this.
His first goal against Poland. Do you see Eddie Johnson trying a move like that?
vs. Brazil (see 3:00, 4:35, 5:00, 5:21, 6:52 -setting up the winning goal)
Now the question is, do most of our U-20 players play like this until they get to the Senior team and then they become timid, sad shells of the players they used to be? Or is this the rebirth of American soccer? What do you guys think? How many of you think he could have contributed to the Copa America?
I think he definitely could have contribute to Copa if it was just for his free kicks. He is by far better than anyone on our Senior team at free kicks. Landon Donovan sure isn't the answer. How sick was that move to set up the gamewinner? He set those two Brazilian players up by juggling it up and then beat the both of them to gift Altidore with the winner. The question is... why did ESPN not show him beating the Brazilians and instead praised Altidore? I thought that was odd.
Any ideas on who will sign him? I can't imagine he doesn't have Europe's attention at this point.
COPA AMERICA
Exactly how I felt Sacha.
How bad was this showing? I'm not even going to go into all the terrible misses and lackluster gameplay, but really, as an American soccer fan, how ashamed are you? Most of the blogs have already delved into most of this, but I thought it shouldn't get by ours without at least being mentioned.
I posted on Ives's blog the other day about the possibility of an online petition that can be signed by the soccer fan community and sent to Gulati to let him and the USSF know that we won't stand for a second-rate team being sent to a quality tournament. I understand the hiccups in selecting the team, but if the USSF had any kind of power/negotiation skills, we would have been able to get at least 2 or 3 of our star players to Copa. At some point the (supposed) limited amount of soccer fans in the country need to unite and let the USSF know that we're here and we want a good showing from our country. We don't want to be getting issued statements by the governing bodies of tournaments about a crappy team that we brought (ha hmmm, CONMEBOL). That's damn near embarassing.
Is it just me or does the senior National team have a lot of distractions? Feilhaber and Kljestan have a podcast in which they joke around and talk about how privileged they are to be at Copa. There's a USSoccer blog that they're writing in 3 times a day. I appreciate the fact that it makes them seem like they're giving back to the fans, but as a fan, I'd personally rather see you get focused for the game and play with some intensity than tell me about where you went for dinner. Just seems like the USSF's priorities are way off. Could just be me.
As a Fan
It's funny. I grew up playing soccer and watched it casually when the World Cup came around. Took more of an interest than most of my friends in Friendlys, MLS, etc., but I think in the last 6 months, I have become as rabid a fan as any European. At work, I find myself surfing blogs, soccernet, and fox soccer channel about 2 hours a day. At home, I tape any soccer game that comes on (sans USL) and sit around sweating it out until I have time to watch it. For a long time, I was Rob Gordon in High Fidelity focusing on music, now I'm Nick Hornby in Fever Pitch. I guess my whole life comes in phases of Nick Hornby books. Odd, isn't it?
3 comments:
i wnat freddy to live up to the hype as much as anyone, but keep in mind in this tournament he's playing against guys much closer to his own age. When he's playing consistently like this for his club, then we can start hyping him up again.
I started thinking about his performance in the MLS and I really feel like he's on some sort of a leash. He doesn't want to get benched for trying to impress I don't believe. Also, here in the US, our MLS soccer is a bit of a dumbed down, oafish sort of soccer. I think Freddy would benefit from a move to Spain or to the Dutch league. Also, I think that the U-20 team could probably beat at least 50% of the MLS teams, so just b/c they're his age, that doesn't mean they don't have a lot of talent. I'm just excited to see someone that plays for the United States that has some flair. I can't deal with the long ball up front to McBride/Ching, who tried to head it back to a midfielder. THAT IS BORING, NEANDERTHAL SOCCER.
Adu would do well to move overseas. I'd have to agree with mr brad in that the dutch or spanish league. I wouldn't be all for the EPL because of the physical style of play I think would hamper his game some. But a move definitely needs to happen for his own sake.
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