Photo by ISIphotos.com
Two games, two wins, two shutouts.
The start to the U.S. national team's Gold Cup has been far different from the team's Confederations Cup opening and the team's early success has fans excited about a new crop of American players.
For those of you who haven't seen it, here is my ESPN.com article on the developments from the U.S. team's first two matches of the Gold Cup.
Give the piece of read and feel free to share your thoughts on it, and on tonight's Gold Cup match vs. Haiti in the comments section below.
I Agree…………What people are forgetting is Adu is OUT OF FORM….at the moment………and yet he had some flashes of brilliance that i only seen Feilhaber/ or donovan attempt or complete and they are what 24 and 27. Case in point Freddy was a monster in his first two games with the USMNT in late 2007 vs Switzerland and South Africa…he was doing exactly what he was doing in the U-20’s(excluding scoring a goal) including nice off the ball runs as well to get open and he was actually petty fast and guess why; becuase He was IN-FORM and playing regualr sub-minutes with Benfica. When Freddy gets 90 minute games this season….Adu will back to what we saw of him vs Spaina and Argentina.
Most Men reach their physical peaks from age 25-30. Adu’s just 20 now. It would be amazing if he was America’s Lionel Messi, but he isn’t. He is talented, but he’s too raw to start for the senior level squad. That being said, he hasn’t played himself out of the pool yet. He just needs time on the ball.
@Tolik – I agree that more should be expected of better players, but I think there are two other things going on in the case of Adu: 1. some have unrealistic expectations which will never be met; 2. some see what they want to see–they think he’s overrated so they latch onto every little mistake the kid makes. Either way, it leads to hyperbolic statements and some undeserved, inflated criticism. (I’m not saying Ives did this–I just don’t think Adu was as bad as he made him sound.)
@champe – What has any 20-year-old not named Messi, Ronaldo, Pato, Aguero, etc. accomplished? Adu has played several seasons in MLS, completely dominated the U-20 World Cup (2007), played a number of games with the USMNT, and trained two years with mid-level European clubs with some very respectable players. I’d argue that this is more than any other United States international has ever accomplished by age 20 (possible exceptions: Landon Donovan, John O’Brien, and Jozy Altidore–Adu’s in good company here).
As for Logan Pause, he’s almost 28 years old. A couple more years? I don’t know too many soccer players who peak at age 30. I think if he doesn’t have it now, he’s probably never going to be better than a fringe player for us.
Ives…
Im surprised you didnt mention Kyle Beckerman in the ESPN article..he has looked better in the last two games then anything ive seen out of Klestjen or Beasely…
what the freak? Every stinkin’ post I do over 2 sentences never “takes”. Has happened about 5 or 6 times all day long.
Posted by: BlueWhiteLion | July 11, 2009 at 05:13 PM
We got a newbie on our hands.
What exactly did Beckerman do again? Nearly lose possession and luckily stumble through with the ball before playing one nice pass to Ching? He is very slow, can’t use his left foot, is lousy in the air, can’t run with the ball, and doesn’t really tackle well. Oh, he also isn’t an attacking player and turns the ball over a lot, not to mention the immaturity the idiotic hair-do demonstrates. I don’t see how he gets any accolades and it irks me to keep seeing favorable references to his showing.
Adu as a dangerous player remains some mythical creature, like Bigfoot, that others speak of but of which there is no objective evidence. What’s he done in his career again?
And Pause needs a couple more years – before he coaches a youth team somewhere. He ain’t playing internationally.
Sorry to negative, but its hard to square some of the comments here and in columns with the games.
The expectations from Adu are higher, so the critique is harsher. It’s normal.
Looks like some players can step on the field after not playing much and immediately produce (Jozy) and some can’t (Freddy). It’s also normal.
As numerous commentators said the answer for Adu is simple – play lots of soccer. His last year was wasted, sadly. But he is still 20, and from all I’ve seen about him, he is in a proper set of mind. He is a smart kid. and I hope very much he will get to play somewhere, anywhere.
what the freak? Every stinkin’ post I do over 2 sentences never “takes”. Has happened about 5 or 6 times all day long.
We also learned that:
Pause is not ready and needs a couple of more years.
Beckerman is good but has a lot of players ahead of him.
Quaranta is not completely back still needs some work to do.
oh sure, that one did.
testing . . . testing . . . have tried 4 or 5 posts all day and none seem to stick . .
I think you’re a little hard on Adu. He wasn’t great, but I don’t think he was that bad, either. I feel like some players were given free passes by some writers (I read articles about how awesome Beckerman was…really?). In the end, though, I agree that getting playing time will be the key to making the 2010 roster–he can’t get there on talent alone.
I’m glad you point out that the kid is only 20. People lose sight of that. Yeah, in an ideal world, he’d have cracked the first team the second he stepped into Portugal. But most teenagers don’t do that. Oguchi Onyewu was playing college soccer at that age. At 20, he was struggling for minutes at Metz. I understand that college soccer has its place and I appreciate it, but I have to say, I’d take Adu training in Europe over starting for a college team. In the end, I think he’ll be a very good player…as you point out, it’s just going to take some time.
Folks,
Jozy’s transfer to the Greek League does not seem to be a sure thing according to his agent.
http://tinyurl.com/m8c58q
Ives, thanks for the site and the regular content.
It has been good to see our talent pool get deeper. There aren’t too many spots where I feel that the loss of a single player could cripple us. I’d love to see one of Edu, Beasley, or Eddie Johnson recover or round back into form. I don’t like the Greek league, but at least Jozy will get some time. All good things.
As for the “B” team – I love Holden and Marshall. Rogers is one-dimensional, but if he improves his crosses then he has a shot. Other than those guys and the ringers (davies, dolo, and feilhaber) its mostly just good caps for some guys who would have played 15 years ago but, thank God, no longer have to.
Thanks froboy.
this link works http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=660178&sec=us&root=us&cc=3888
Ives,
It appears that ESPN link to your article does not work.
Hey, Ives wanted to say what a delightful summer this has been soccerwise. This site has been great for us US MNT fans and vice versa. I just went back and looked at the first 25 minutes of the Confed cup final against brazil. With the performance of some guys on the Gold cup squad it made me think of the kind of subs BB should have had available on his bench for that match. I can only hope that given all the options, the WC 2010 squad won’t have the deficiencies that the 2009 squad had. Picking the final 23 is gonna to a tough job. Lots of fans are going to be unhappy with who gets left out.
unrelated note, but tickets go on sale this week for Aug 12, still can’t figure out how to get tickets in the US section so I don’t die, anyone know anything about that?
http://www.ticketmaster.com.mx/event/140042E8C78293F1?artistid=856033&majorcatid=10004&minorcatid=11