By IVES GALARCEP
It is that time again. Time to discuss all things soccer in the latest SBI Live Q&A.
Join us as we spend the next few hours talking about all aspects of the beautiful game in the final Live Q&A of 2012. Want to talk USMNT, MLS, the MLS Draft, or anything else soccer related? Then get your questions and jump on in.
Let’s get started (SBI Live Q&A is after the jump):
In response the comments below: I think Friedel is in an especially favorable position in that Tottenham are still playing European football this season — something he has not done and has wanted to do for a long time ….according to him, and they have the pontential to qualify for next season as well. You mght think…”AVB would never consider keeping him for NEXT season…??”. AVB has shown that he likes the insurance of having 2 top GK’s and also that he values Friedel’s contributions. The fact is…if this were not true, AVB would not have signed him to a new contract, they would have simply cut him. They had 4 GK’s on the roster when they re-signed him.
“Prior Comment From Hugo Lloris
Why did Brad Friedel sign an extension with Tottenham? Is he going on loan, or is he just happy to get paid to ride out the remainder of his career?
Answer-
Being a highly-paid back-up goalkeeper on a London-based team in your 40s isn’t exactly a bad situation for anybody.
Friedel is an incredible luxury for AVB.
Spurs are in the running for honors and having a proven, club house friendly, reliable insurance policy of Friedel’s quality is vital.
It’s not as if the quality at keeper drops much, if at all, when Brad comes in.
Yeah, I doubt AVB thinks Friedel’s quality is a whole lot less than that of Lloris. The reason Lloris is preferred is that with AVB’s high line and with Friedel not really coming off his line so much these days, there’s much more of a possibility of danger with Friedel than with someone like Lloris who is quick to come out and close the gap behind the defense if something drops in behind. It’s mainly a difference in style. Friedel has shown this season that he can still make big saves.
I just want to say thank you to Ives and the rest of the staff for all the hard work you guys put in. This website is really fantastic. I tend not to comment too often on the message boards (unless someone says something that really annoys me) but I read the articles daily and you guys truly do a great job.
Keep up the excellent work and Happy New to all!
Andy
It seems a bit harsh to say that we won’t “ever” see a qualifier or major friendly in Earthquakes territory… The bay area (San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland) is the 6th most populous metropolitan area in the country with around 7.5 million people.
The current options are not great, but soon there will be a new Earthquakes stadium and a new 49ers stadium, and this season’s Quakes-Galaxy game at Stanford (sellout crowd of over 50k) showed that is an option as well.