by GIANFRANCO PANIZO
When Monaco faced off against Juventus in a friendly on Tuesday, many American fans were pleasantly surprised to see Freddy Adu's name in the starting line-up.
In the 36th minute the teenage midfielder, who has struggled to find playing time for his French club this season, dribbled past a pair of defenders before being tripped up by a third. The ensuing penalty kick was converted by teammate Jerko Leko to give Monaco a 1-0 lead (You can see Adu's moves at the 53-second mark of this video clip):
Adu's performance against Juventus lasted only 68 minutes but as he stepped off the pitch the former D.C. United player finally had a reason to smile in a Monaco jersey knowing that his splendid run had attributed to Monaco's advantage.
What do you think of Adu getting the start against a team like Juventus? Think he will get sent back to the bench once the Ligue 1 campaign continues? Or was yesterday's start a promising sign for Adu's Monaco future?
Share your thoughts below.
That’s not self-hatred. That’s short sightedness and spontaneous contempt. Let all the haters choke on it-all that bile is theirs to keep. I just hope Adu keeps working at it like a pro, gets a little sturdier physically and continues to be a deadly asset to American football.
I think it’s great to see Freddy excel. What i can’t get used to though is the self hatred that is so endemic in the US soccer community. Guys lighten up. It’s one good game. Enjoy it. Criticism is fine, but nothing detracts from this site and the US soccer experience like the self hatred which gets redirected on to players like Adu.
yes its a friendly, but beating 3 defenders in a couple touches is beating 3 defenders with a a couple touches. I watched the 7 min review of the game, he was dangerous in other situaitons as well. Haters (the French and you wanna be Euro-Snobs) will always hate.
The question isn’t what was on the line, why he played, it’s how a player plays when they play. Regarding 7 good seconds, that’s an example of the risk of living by highlight films. He had 67 good minutes minus his last touch (which sucked). One could argue that he created the only (limited) offensive chances Monaco had. If you actually watched the game, the PK creation was only a small part of the positive.
I’m sure I’ll get schooled by people who know way more about Adu than me for asking this, but why on earth isn’t he played as a recessed forward or “hole player”? It seems to be his best skill mix: the chance to beat players on the run and set up other forwards, without as stringent a requirement to track back and defend.
Freddy obviously did well in that instance. This should not be surprising, since his game is predicated on individual moments of quality such as that. That’s nice, he’s been at Monaco for four months and his most noteworthy contribution is seven seconds of positive football. I guess you have to start somewhere.
As much as it pains me to say, I have to side with the “glass half empty” lot of you in this section. If something was on the line in this match I find it difficult to believe Freddy would have featured at all.
Congratulations to Fabian Hürzeler -Houston/USA born Bayern player for being invited to the German u16 team
very inspiring to see, keep it up Freddy!
You choose Japan, I choose Poland and Brazil.
If you want to go back and pick players best/worst how do you have a conversation about the game in question?
I saw him get shut down by Japan, I saw him score a hat against Poland and lead the US vs. Brazil.
Freddy already has natural skill. This is really nothing special in my opinion. Well done of course. However he needs to do more than dribble around everyone. Did you see how badly he got shut down by Japan? That was a team without a single person over 23. He also didn’t defend very well during that game. The United States was left to defend on its own while Freddy struggled to work his so called and overhyped ‘magic’. It never happened and when it didnt work, he whined to the ref. He needs to play with more heart than just his brain. Play for the team, Freddy.
You play, you do well or you don’t.
He played well in this game aside from the PK, he had some great passes, one through ball in particular that was wrongly called offsides.
For all those saying “it was just a friendly” I wonder if the tune would be the same had he played poorly in this friendly. Juve played almost all starters in the first half and made 9 subs in the second. It is what it is, good or bad, this was good, don’t hate.
Some of you guys seem to think “friendlies” mean that the teams don’t play with effort or desire to win.
If you’ve ever played competitive sports, you know there is no such thing as a “friendly”.
As for what this performance actually means… I’m not sure. But earning a spot in any kind of match is a huge step forward, and to actually play well can only help his prospects.
Can’t believe how much stock you guys put on a friendly game.
Let’s see if he can do it when the heat is on.
Great to see Freddy do well tonight…perhaps he just needs a good run out at Monaco (or any Euro club team for that matter)…hope it’s not just a one off, but the start of more playing time. Awesome.
Good. Even though a friendly, the whole reason for him going to Europe is so he can play against the best competition, and playing Juve certainly counts.
because it was a friendly i doubt Juve put together any match tape of Freddy together and showed how to shut him down.
Im not hating on him, as i echo the shouts that ASM is using him horribly wrong. I am just pointing out that Adu plays best when given a ton of space to work with (central midfield) and defending teams learn quickly how easily he can give up the ball when you crowd him in. As far as national team status, I still would not see him starting, but I would definetly bring him in as a late game sub most especially if the game is being played in a back and forth wide open fashion.
Also one must remember that Lique 1 is a better league than the portuguese one and a more defensive one. It probably is better for him to get regular playing time when he is ready.
Ricardo is taking his time with Adu he recently just said “Adu is evolving at Monaco.”
This, and his consistently positive USNT performances bring me to one conclusion.
Ricardo is a useless manager that has no ability to alter his gameplan, christ, he’s used Park as a lone forward in a long-ball system this year.
Everytime Freddy plays for ASM, he’s been used as a bit sub on the wing. He’s not a wing. He doesn’t have the straightline speed to play the position.
The fact that Ricardo has been unable to take advantage of Freddy’s talent is more a sign of mismanagement. At least at Benfica he had 19 appearances and scored 5 goals. He was PLAYING.
Ricardo has ASM in 14th, they barely beat a 5th division club (1-0 on an OG) in the cup. He’s been fired from his two previous jobs in France, and he’s failing again.
Freddy has more talent than most of his side, but he struggles to get bit minutes. If you’re in 14th place, what good does it do to keep playing with the same stragety, sitting a kid that has made defenders on the Spainish NT look silly.
Ricardo’s performance thus far has been laughable, until Freddy actually gets a decent shot to play, I don’t think you can put this on him. Ricardo, for whatever reason, refuses to give him a proper chance. In his two starts, he’s looked one of ASM’s best players.
Thats what I like to see. Good for him.
That’s vintage Freddy on the move, dancing into the box between defenders from the side. Good to see again.
Can’t believe how many chances Juventus missed.
I hope there are more clips like this one to come about Freddy Adu on the pitch. I hope this motivates him and the coaching staff around him that maybe he does deserve more playing time. Hope to see more of him against Nantes this weekend.
The first guy he went around was 22 year old midfielder Claudio Marchisio this season’s stats: 9 Serie A starts, 2 CL starts, subbed in 1 time in each
I can’t figure out the 2nd guy was. It was one of the following three: Grygera, Molinero (both normally starters) or Ariudo (hasn’t started a game this year in Serie A)
3rd guy was Legrattaglie: 11 Serie A starts, 5 CL starts, subbed into 2 Italy friendlies
well done, freddy!
Proud of Freddie! Keep at it KID!
in other words, it was a solid team from start to finish
Felix – it was pretty much a 1st string Juve team, with perhaps a couple of subs mixed in at the start…. dont get that wrong, it was still a VERY solid Juve team…. and as the game went on they subbed quite a number of the players and it turned into a bench game
i think he needs to play for a club where he actually starts..its a waste for him to be on a team an not start an jus play lke 15 min. he needs to start playin full 80 -90 min games.. till then 80 percent of people still gonna doubt him..
Posted by: BoRiUaNo616 | January 07, 2009 at 03:32 PM
I agree but it comes down to his training habits. His ability isn’t the issue at Monaco. He’s in the perfect place to start and he’s not doing it in training -hence the appearances in the waning moments of matches. Monaco is a young team – he’s not even their youngest player and for him to not capitalize on this opportunity is ashame. This team is really looking for someone to step up and lead. I actually expect him to start this week-end against Nantes.
It was a friendly match, thats probably the only reason he played at all.
sack is right.
It’s crazy still saying it because he’s been around so long it seems, but this kid is still only 19 – he can still really be a big player in the future, especially for the USMNT.
As for the quality of players in this game, Juve did play some of their first teamers for the first half (i.e. Del Piero) so it wasn’t a total joke game.
i think he needs to play for a club where he actually starts..its a waste for him to be on a team an not start an jus play lke 15 min. he needs to start playin full 80 -90 min games.. till then 80 percent of people still gonna doubt him..
Um, wow. Between his coach’s latest statement and this start against Juventus, things may be on an upswing for Adu at Monaco. The start was very very surprising.
He is still only 19 people. He will have a great career.
definitely a solid performance from the highlights for young adu…. hopefully this builds and he continues to get some PT little by little…
I’m guessing he was pulled with a 1-0 lead to try to preserve for the win.
It’s funny…Juventus’ website says: “A defensive error leads to Legrottaglie grounding Adu in the area”. Is that what you call 2 defenders getting completely schooled by an American?
I’m echoing Yossarian on how I wonder how he did in other aspects of the game, as well as the other 67 minutes. Also, I wonder who were these defenders he was burning, were they first teamers, or were these benchwarmers like him? But I rather see good highlights of Adu than bad ones. I hope it does translate into good minutes for him in the future, I know he can contribute, he’s only going to learn so much in training and watching from the boxes on gameday.
Well, certainly this outing can’t hurt him, but it is hard to read too much into a match where both teams subbed their keepers. It makes you think the coaches were just giving some of their less-used players some additional opportunities to impress. Let’s hope Freddy did. The move in the box was pretty good and certainly helped the team. Its hard to tell from the clip if he was a liability in any way or did anything else to help.
Sweet moves by Freddie, drawing a clear penalty going basically one-on-three. I’d imagine this can only help him get more pt, though I wonder how he did in the other aspects of the game.