Freddy Adu's Greek adventure has gotten off to a positive start as he managed to set up Eddie Johnson's first goal in Greece with a stoppage time assist in Aris' 2-1 loss to FC Xanthi on Sunday.
Adu came on as a 64th minute sub in his Aris debut and helped give his club a consolation goal in the 90th minute when he floated a long pass to Johnson, who touched the ball past the Xanthi goalkeeper before finishing off his first goal since joining Aris earlier this month.
Here is the goal (at the 2:10 mark):
Aris returns to action on Saturday with a home match against Panthrakikos.
What did you think of the goal? Starting to feel better about Adu and Johnson's move to Greece? Reserving judgment until Adu can find consistent playing time?
Share your thoughts below.
right now…but if EJ can improve, EJ > Casey, Cooper, Findley, Cunningham.
EJ has a HUGE chance to go to SA. it’s obvious, to be honest.
what?! because one team has a crappy pitch? i cant believe we are even discussing MLS vs. Greek SuperLeague…
the pressure in Greece is still greater than in MLS.
Nice to see the grounds crew from the LSU – Penn State Capital One Bowl is still able to find work.
Did anyone actually see the entire game? I am more interested in how EJ and Adu played all of their minutes.
In the MLS? 🙂
Really Matt?? Decent? How about freaking insanely difficult, long, and accurate, right to feet. You couldn’t ask for a better pass in that scenario.
Yeah but you forget to mention that the imports that A-League has is due to money that MLS isn’t looking to spend yet. A-League is more loving of Soccer than America as a whole is. So the money is there for the A-League to excel. But taking the exports out, how good is the A-League average player?
Anything positive for these two guys is welcomed IMO. I was thinking the goalie was suspect myself. BUT I think that we are kinda critical of our guys sometimes. I’ve watched alot of games in the last 7 or 8 years from Europe/MLS/etc… and guys like Gerrard, Torres, Rooney, Ronald, Drogba, Kaka and Landon, Clint, Brian McBride, etc…. have goals that could have been saved by a better effort from a keeper or better marking from a defender. But that does not mean we down play them scoring. I AM NOT SAYING EDDIE OR FREDDY ARE THOSE GUYS!!!!! But it is the nature of the game. Eddie should probably have 2 goals for Aris but a goalie made a Super Man dive to stop him. Freddy also played a square ball that could have been a Goal with some luck. Landon almost had 2 versus Sunderland if not for a defender stopping one at the goal mouth and Clint hit two posts and one was a scissor that would have won goal of the year in the EPL in the game he got hurt in. All that is just part of the game. So again anything positive from these guys is good news – Keep it Up!
Sponsor money and tv attendance must be taken into account. Greece is still a footballing country. I can’t say that for MLS teams. Yeah, Seattle and Toronoto are exceptions, but I still don’t think many Americans really watch the local teams like many Greeks do these midtable and smaller European teams.
How are they Bums ? I agree with you on Casey. Sasha has lost passion because he didn’t go to Celtic. Findley and Cunningham were not looked at for a while. Cunningham should have got called up every game when he scored that hat trick on Fulham in the MLS allstars game ages ago. Robers does his job and that is to assist. He missed out doing it in the Honduras game, but you might want to add Wynn to that list of MLS bums. Hopefully Picult can get a look when he is a little older.
Are you really Bob Bradley ? Can I get an call up ? JK, lol
How many A-league players are in the USMNT player pool?
How many A-league players are in any national team’s player pool?
It’s an old adage. Don’t over-think it.
If we played this lineup at the World Cup, we would get laughed out of South Africa. Adu plays ONE good pass and now he’s the savior again. Get a grip people.
Nice pass, but the keeper was absolutely terrible on the first shot.
Good point, and I would rather watch a game on turf and football grid lines than a game on muck.
Great to see! Johnson was lucky on his touch, but great pass by Adu. I hope that continues. Maybe these too need to play together to get ahead.
once again, how do you know this? Have you seen alot of practices with Johnson and Adu? No, you are just spouting off fact-less conjecture. Thanks for adding nothing to the discussion.
how do you know he’s not a hard worker? I love how some people bring down others with no actual evidence in truth.
haha, adu and “working hard” in the same sentence. Right.
good to see the two laziest players in the USMNT pool do well.
This is great to see, hope it continues! Go Freddy and Eddie
Freddy still has more skill pound-for-pound than anyone else in the US player pool. I think that if you put our ideal starting XI up against a team with Freddy in the middle, he would embarrass them any of them save Torres.
Somebody send this video to Alexi.
Well Aris has players like Koke who made 40+ appearances for Marseille and had Players who had 33 appearances for Boca Juniors,etc. And these are players who are stll in their mid 20’s. Aris and the Greek League is a better League than most MLS exaggeraters will admit.
i cant tell the difference.
Chris, UEFA rankings take into account how teams from each country did in Champions league and Europa league (former UEFA cup) in the last five years or so. The further teams advance in these competitions, the more points they get. Last season, Ukrainian teams did very well. Shakhtar won the UEFA cup, Dynamo Kiev reached the semifinals (where it lost to Shakhtar), and Metalist reached quarter finals (where they lost to Dynamo).
TRIVIA TIME!!!!!!
Who were the last two Americans to collaberate on a goal on the club level?
I think everyone here wants to see Freddy back in form because the in-form Freddy was magical. He could work his way out of situations and create things in a way that looked amazing and actually turned in to dangerous offensive plays. I can’t remember the last American to juggle his way out of a back-to-goal situation with two Brazilian defenders on him(but then again, what non-American has?). Not just that, but imagine what it would be like to have another young player working hard for a position on the roster/18/11 every day.
Charlie, Jozy, Freddy, and Mo looking at facebook videos and tweets, seemed really close, and you can only wonder if news of Charlie working hard to get back from the horrific injury motivated not just Jozy, but Freddy as well. Imagine:
——————Davies—–Altidore—————
Adu——————–Dempsey—————Donovan
———————–Bradley———————-
Castillo——-Bocanegra—–Onyewu——-Cherundolo
———————–Howard———————–
mouthwatering….but I’m getting ahead of myself. This definitely gives us another reason to watch Aris matches, and gives Freddy and Eddie a confidence boost. This goal can only bring them closer and help the push eachother.
Aris has a small stadium, but loud!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMhs1Siqlfs&feature=related
Sounds like some of you haven’t seen what the Aris home support is capable of. Unfortunately their next home game has fans banned for a previous away pitch invasion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVL7ryEz1fA&feature=PlayList&p=BD805A945DE3362B&index=9
When comparing to the MLS, I think Greek Super League is more like The Portugese Liga. They have a few standout teams (Greece: Olympiakos, Panathinaikos, idk) and Portugal has FC Porto, Benfica, Sporting CP, well this year Braga too. But otherwise the leagues are so-so besides these select teams.
Only Freddy can turn a SBI thread into a Big Soccer thread for a day
….The Champion’s League? That’s a European competition dude…..
If you’re talking about the CONCACAF Champion’s league, there isn’t a way MLS teams can NOT get into that….
there are like 3-4 fields like this one in the Greek Superleague. it is frustrating to watch my team play in such bad conditions.
about the attendance, only season ticket holders were allowed in that game. didn’t really understand why though.
I didn’t realize that Hector Cuper was the Aris manager. He certainly has the pedigree to get something out of Johnson and Adu.
Wayne Ellington scores, lets get him a look
Nice pass from Adu. I’m not on the Adu bandwagon but I also don’t understand the grief he gets from US fans. He’s obviously got skills, even Sir Alex has praised him. Don’t blame Adu for the hype. He’s still a work in progress but in that clip he looked really good. Especially when his lack of playing time is factored in. I hope to see him aim for the ’14 World Cup.
Casey is going to SA. But Ching and Casey are the same, you don’t bring both of them. Cooper is in the exact same position as any of our fringe strikers, including EJ. Bradley will bring an in-form player above any of Cooper, Findley, Cunningham, Johnson, and also Davies is not a lock to go, if he is can’t contribute he can’t come. All of these players are getting looks, If Johnson is scoring goals you will see him on March 3. The same goes for Cooper. If he is scoring goals you will see him. Adu has got much less of a chance of going because of our depth at midfield.
A-League is MLS Jr.
I’m glad someone else said this so I didn’t have to be the only one every else thought was a jerk.
A decent keeper stops that easily
Any League that has Panathanaikos,Olympiacos, AEK Athens, as top dogs and than the ones underneath it like PAOK Larissa and Aris comapred to a young 14-year old League that has no power clubs. i think its safe to say MLS is just not near it. Sure some of the best MLS players like Donovan,Beckham,etc. can play on the top teams but 98% of MLS players are just hyped by MLS marketing and Exaggerated fans.
The middle to Botter-half of the Greek League is where MLS teams can play. with maybe 1 or 2 reaching a 4-6 spot.
Considering that MLS teams have lost to teams from Trinidad & Tobago, and Panama in the Concacaf Champions League, I wouldn’t be so quick to knock the quality of the Greek League
Do you watch the A-League?? I do… watch it and compare the players skills to those of an MLS game… Let’s just say this… KC vs FC dallas, I change the station w/in 15min… A-league on FSC at 4Am in the morning on sunday, I find myself watching… I’m not a big fan of australians or australian soccer for that matter, but I evaluate objectively, and they have mainly european/japanese and asian players who are much better on the ball than american let me two foot tackle or push you type play. Hands down, until MLS starts realizing that skill is prefferable to brute strenght, it will continue to be an unwatchable league. Forget talent, how about just being able to watch a game??
Last time Freddy was in MLS, he made 10k a week. Just sayin’.
Adu & Johnson had a great ball game.
I hope Adu is added to the W.C roster. I rather have a 50% Adu in the roster than a 110% Casey,Finley,Cunnin,Rogers,Sasha. Adu showed more in 20 minutes than the bums described on top have shown in 2 years. Funny how my boy Adu flashes everytime he hits the pitch unlike the 5 MLS bums I just named.
Those saying the MLS is up to par with the Greek league are insanely smoking some serious MLS crack!lol
When I see the Galaxy,Fire,Crew,etc.. playing in the Champions League, then I’ll start comparing our league to the Greek leaugue… for Gods sake, we are not even close to playing in Copa Libertadores!!
Its really a good start at least. Because early before Adu’s pass he was in the corner and he beat 2 defenders, Cut by one and than did this quick fient than nutmeg on the other which drew a foul as Adu was leaving the 2nd defender in the dust.
I hope Freddy is getting serious about keeping up with Jozy and Charlie. Adu is a big part of the future of the national team. I think he left too soon, thinking he could ride his performance in the U20 World Cup into a starting role in Europe. That hasn’t happened, but the kid can be a DYNAMITE player if he develops half the work ethic of guys like Dempsey and Davies.
johnathan, shut up with the a-league stuff. might as well just say ‘I have no clue what I’m talking about’ …. it’s shorter and gets your point cross just the same.
I’d consider it tier 3 or 3.5.
the comparisions between greece and MLS are pointless to me. First, this clip was the only greek league action most of us have EVER seen. not enough to judge.
and second, even if it is equal or slightly less than MLS (not saying it is) it keeps them in Europe. neither went there as a career-ending destination. they went there to earn their stripes and move on to a bigger league/team. I would imagine a Greece team is more likely to sell along young US players than MLS.
or I could be wrong. wouldn’t be the first time.