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Jimenez latest to benefit from leaving Red Bulls/MetroStars

Diego Jimenez (ISIPhotos.com) 

                                                      Photo by isiphotos.com

New York Red Bulls fans are all too familiar with the tradition.

Players (and coaches) have a habit of seeing their careers take off once they have played (and many cases played poorly) for the Red Bulls/MetroStars. Ricardo Clark, Brad Davis, Ezra Hendrickson, Kerry Zavagnin, Ramiro Corrales, Ante Razov and Jaime Moreno are just some of the players who have seen their careers receive a boost upon leaving the long-suffering club.

It's very early on, but you might be adding Diego Jimenez to that group shortly. The Mexican defender (and MLS Cup goat) returned to Mexican club Tecos this winter after his loan with the Red Bulls ended and the option to buy his rights wasn't exercised. He made a rousing return on Monday, scoring the lone goal in Tecos' 1-0 win vs. Morelia in Interliga action in Houston.

And if you're wondering, no, Jimenez never scored for the Red Bulls. In fact, Jimenez managed just one shot on goal in nine total matches for the Red Bulls (including playoffs). He had three good shots on goal, including the goal, on Monday. It was a bit interesting to see him score at Robertson Stadium, the same venue where he had such a good game in the Red Bulls' upset of Houston in the MLS playoffs.

Given the Red Bulls' track record, don't be surprised if Sven-Goran Erikkson calls up Jimenez and he becomes a star. Okay, I'm joking. A little.

Comments

  1. Anybody who thinks Jiminez didn’t have the potential to be a great MLS player is bad at evaluating talent. I don’t remember him being slow. Maybe he wasn’t fast, but he still managed shut down a lot of attacking players as a left back.

    The only problems I remember are poor clearances and decision-making. But he’s 22, so that’s expected to some extent. Shame RBNY couldn’t hold on to him.

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  2. Jimmy,

    He may have been slow, but he was a clean tackler, even in the 18yd box. That distinguished him from other young defenders in MLS who often hack down their opponent in tackles, rather than cleanly just take the ball. In fact, because Jimenez was a clean tackler he was capable of making tackles in the 18yd box that other young MLS defenders don’t try for fear of giving up a penalty kick.

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  3. Yeah, I don’t understand the comments here… but best of luck to Jimenez!

    The guy was on a loan to NY as a developmental player making like $13k. I don’t know why NY didn’t exercise his option, but maybe they couldn’t come to an agreement on salary and he could make more in the Mexican league than NY wanted to pay. I think NY fans for the most part liked him and appreciated him, and I suspect the team liked him to, so letting him goes seems like it could have been more of a contractual issue. Or perhaps something else in the terms of his loan deal.

    I’m not crying about letting him go. In fact, I think he improved considerably while at NY and his solid play for Tecos may encourage other teams with young talented players to loan them to NY, which would be very helpful considering the MLS salary cap restrictions.

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  4. i wish Diego all the best. he was one of the nicest guys on the redbull. and make no mistake, he was a good-enough player to be a star in the mls. but the redbull paying him $12,900 was ridiculous

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  5. “The most recent example was Santino Quaranta, though we now know why he was so terrible with New York.”

    Hilariously, DC fans think he’s a great player. And they would also mistakenly put Francis Doe in the same category.

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  6. Wow, it almost seemed like he was playing forward in that game with all the chances he had. Horrid defending on his goal though. Kind of looked like MLS…

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  7. Barry, the point was that players who leave Red Bulls/MetroStars seem to wind up doing better quite a bit. Yes, Razov was a star early on in his career but when he came to New York he had just finished a short and unsuccessful run in Columbus. He finished poorly with New York due to injury then goes to Chivas USA and regains his scoring touch.

    As for Clark, his last year in New York was a step down from his previous year, then he gets traded and regains his confidence and blossoms into one of the league’s top midfielders.

    Same with Moreno, who looked like his career might be over when he left the MetroStars with a back injury. A year later he leads DC to the MLS Cup title.

    The most recent example was Santino Quaranta, though we now know why he was so terrible with New York.

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  8. HE”S TOO SLOW
    WAY TOO SLOW

    That is Jimnez’s problem he was never able to recover once someone got a step on him.

    The guy looked good sometimes the way any pick-up game player might in the park on any given weekend.

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  9. The inclusion of Razov and Clark in your list of players seems like padding. Razov was excellent with the Fire and was only with the MetroStars for a short time and still scored 6 goals in 18 games. Clark was very young when he was with the MetroStars but made 56 appearances in 2 seasons for the club and scored a handful of goals.

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