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Rizespor’s promotion hopes end

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Photo by ISIphotos.com

If Freddy Adu is to receive another loan to Caykur Rizespor, he'll do it knowing that he won't be playing top-flight soccer.

Rizespor battled back to draw Orduspor, 3-3, in the second leg of their promotion playoff semifinal on Thursday, but Orduspor won the first leg, 4-0, and advanced to the promotion final via a 7-3 aggregate victory. As a result, Rizespor will remain in Turkey's second division.

Adu joined Rizespor in February on a loan from Benfica that lasts through the end of May. He's under contract with Benfica until next summer, and his club future remains uncertain. In the meantime, he'll have a chance to display his game on a bigger stage when he joins the United States for this summer's CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Adu finished his loan spell with four goals in 13 games.

How would you characterize Adu's latest loan stint? Disappointed Rizespor didn't get promoted? What do you think is next on the club level for Adu?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Everyone always talks about Freddy’s defensive skills being his biggest problem but from what I’ve seen I would say it’s his speed of play. For every time Messi or Iniesta make a fantastic run, there are 10 times where they one touch it off and keep the ball moving; freddy much more often holds on to the ball for too long.

    And I think that some of the age concerns are legitimate, i mean, imagine if all of a sudden it turned out that Jozy was 23, his soccer stock would fall tremendously! The fact that freddy hasn’t grown at all since he was 14 is a little strange; he skipped 2 grades of school and played varsity soccer on a state championship team at 12 and U-17 residency program the same year. The whole Freddy Adu story would actually make a lot more sense if it turned out he was 2 yrs older. The US wanted a soccer prodigy and 12 yr old freddy was too good to be true…

    I wanna see the long form freddy! Lol kidding but seriously I hope I’m wrong and I hope that his play really has improved and he becomes a valuable part of USMNT…can’t wait for the GC!

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  2. He’s (almost) exactly one year younger than Chicharito, who was playing in Mexican First Division this time last year before exploding onto the scene. Now, addmittedly Hernandez was scoring a lot of goals, but the mexican league is not exactly the top of the world. Just shows that there is still time for his career to develop. Plenty of quality players don’t make a move to a top team/league until their 20’s. Very few light the world on fire in their teens. He could move to holland, france, back to portugal, have a good year, move to a lower table premier league side the next year, and still be eligible for the YOUNG player of the year award. He’s younger than all but 5 or 6 guys in the U.S. player pool. Let’s look at it objectively, if he hadn’t had the hype, and was just some unknown 21 year old kid that that was racking up goals and assists in Europe (even if it is 2nd division turkey), we’d all be looking at him as someone with promise and potential, which he is. He’s a young guy, who is eligible for the U.S. national team, with a lot of talent and potential. We should be excited (and a bit pissed at Nike).

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  3. Johnny, you can’t recall specifics because you’re making this stuff up with ZERO basis in fact.

    Come back when you have one shred of evidence to back up what you’re saying.

    To use your kind of argument: I think you’re talking BS or at least something along those lines. I can’t recall specifics.

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  4. Well that must be true for the Dutch, Swiss, Austrian, and Portugese coaches that wouldnt have him. Not to mention the scores of other European managers that wouldnt even take a look. Creative, skill players need not appy in Europe.

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  5. I’d say Adu might be a nice spark off the bench to have a direct impact on the attack the way Feilhaber was good for helping us retain the ball better in the midfield. Possibly bringing him off the bench for one of our strikers so he can play left or right midfield would allow Dempsey to play underneath/off of Altidore like he did at the World Cup.

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  6. I’d actually have Freddy on the left and Dempsey in the middle, but we could definitely do worse than either of the two aforementioned formations.

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  7. Holland would be the best place for him… Defense is an afterthought there. The offense is fast paced and individual skill is encouraged.

    Wouldn’t be suprised if a Turkish 1st Division team took an interest in him… I’m betting some coaches got a firsthand look.

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  8. Not so sure he hasn’t He is not the kind of player bb likes and that may be his biggest problem.

    Creative, skill players need not apply

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  9. How would you like to be single, 21 ( or whatever), be on the 4th year of a 5 year contract where you were making at least 6 figures per year, have a shot at playing pro ball for a number of European leagues and be on the roster of the USMNT for the Gold Cup?

    Tell me you or most of the posters here wouldn’t kill to be in that situation?

    Life could be a whole lot worse for Mr. Freddy.

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  10. So let me get this straight. You are accusing his mother of commiting a felony, immigration fraud, which would lead to her expulsion and subsequent banning from the country, in order to make her son appear to be 8, not 10 or 12, in order to allow him to become a soccer prodigy sox years later, in the United States? Or was his mother just stupid and didn’t remember how old her son was?

    Why would she do this? It didn’t affect the green card lottery win, so she would have to have known that six years later, her 14 year old son would make a ton of money playing soccer. In the US. Does this really make sense to you? do you often accuse people of defrauding the federal government?

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  11. I hope Freddy has a great GC like he did the U-20 WC. One of my favorite moments in that tournament was when he juggled the ball out of the corner past the two Brazilian defenders. Then off the Belgium or Holland……

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  12. While he’d do worse to stay another year in Reize to see if his stock can’t rise a little higher, I’d actually like to see him try another team in France, a mid table joint like St. Etienne Toulouse or Rennes would serve him really well. Ligue 1 a fast team oriented game but individual vision and athleticism an get a person quite far and it has been a great stepping stone league for many to get into the EPL la Liga or Serie A. Talk about England, MLS Germany is rubbish. He needs to go someplace where his speed and space can really count where he can be a powerful personality that doesn’t clash with a coach’s team philosophy I think and that’s Mexico or France and I think France is a more realistic scenario.

    Either way I’m glad there’s still a pulse there. We need all talent we can get.

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  13. I can’t believe this guy is USMNT. The GC is not a tryout event Bradley. God more and more I can’t stand Robo-Bob!

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  14. I don’t know about Spain or Italy, but he seems too slow to play in the Premiere League or Bundesliga.

    But I could see him playing at a team in the Netherlands, Portugal, or Greece– still better than MLS.

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  15. I am interested to see how he fits in, if at all, for the gold cup. Maybe we could see the 4-2-3-1 formation again.

    Jozy could play up top. Landon on the right, clint on the left, and adu in the middle. Bradley and jones at the holding midfield positions. Then have lichaj at leftback, cherundolo at rightback, and boca and goodson in the middle.

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  16. I don’t play FIFA, but I’d love to see the diamond with Freddy at the apex.

    But I wouldn’t mind seeing a reunion of Freddy and Jozy up front.

    Other than that, sound post.

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  17. How do you say that freedom and creativity doesn’t fit in his system? There was plenty of freedom and creativity allowed during the WC, it is just instigated from the wings (LD and Demps) rather then the middle in Bradleys system. Agree or disagree on wether you like the system or not but the oppurtunity for creativity and freedom are there. Accept the fact that BB uses two holding mids to screen his less then stellar CB pairings and be done with it. Bradley isn’t scared of a player like Adu, but where exactly would he have played? Adu is fun to watch but he is/was not a player for the tactics they used during WC. Now bradley is tinkering with the tactics and bringing in a player (Adu) that MAY have something to offer for a new set of tactics. Bob Bradley’s job is to get the best out of the COLLECTION of players that are available to him in the pool, not to cater to fans that are tactical geniuses because their 4-1-2-1-2 works in FIFA every time….

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