I miss Q, and I still remember the classless way in which he was told he was no longer with the team. I'm glad he got a nomination. http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/03/13/vote-att-goal-week-week-1
I was watching mLS 'The Daily' mar-15 segment, where Greg Lalas & Andrew Wiebe said Ryan Johnson was so good, they had added him to their fantasy teams. I was so glad when he left, but it's interesting how well he's doing now for both TFC & Jamaica.
I'm almost more than sure had RJ remained, he would have played the same way. Or rather a lot of flash and no finish....Maybe he just needed a change?
Ryan played well for us for long stretches too. He was by far our leading scorer in 09, our second leading scorer in 08, and almost had as many assists as Convey in 2010. 2010 was just a bad year for him scoring wise and that's what a lot of people remember.
Last year before he was traded, he didn't do anything either. He was just running straight ahead. I think the change of scenery did him wonders. Also because I think he needed a wake up call.....
But . . . But . . . So do you guys all think that RJ had no clue about how to play soccer when he played for us, but suddenly, late in his career, he's figured it out?! Or do you think that maybe he played the way he did because Frank told him to play that way? Think on it. When Busch first started playing for us, he always threw the ball out, or rolled it out, or made a short controlled pass to maintain possession, but now he boots it deep almost every time. Cronin when he first got here made a bunch of quality forward passes, but now he plays like Simon Elliott, who played completely differently after he left us to play for the Kiwis. But Frank's a great coach, yeah? Quincy sucked and needed to be dumped, but two other coaches have found him good enough to play? Sure, some players and coaches will just be a bad fit, but RJ looks like a completely different player. Fire Frank!! - Mark
Elliot was man of the match against Italy but I think the real reason they got rid of him was because they didn't need him in 2010 also because he would have been gone for 2 months during the World Cup and he was already 35 going on 36 years of age. They made the MLS semifinals without him and and he will have been 37 years old last year and 38 this year and he is currently without a club so why keep him around? Sooner or later he will have been gone. As for RJ, he either couldn't play for Frank or the players the Quakes had and he kept playing like a one way street. He didn't pass the ball and received no production from any of the players. He was gone from the team for 3-4 weeks during the Gold Cup and when he came back like Wondo , he didn't do much. At least Wondo recovered later on and started scoring goals but RJ didn't seem like he would. He also didn't seem like he wanted to remain with the club. I for one was happy to seem him go. I mean he was a nice guy and all as he lived near me but he just couldn't play here.
I agree with all of this. everyone seemed to think Frank deserved 3 seasons to get the team he wanted, but that timeline has come and gone and so have quality players (McDonald, Quincy, RJ, Davide Somma) and Yallop is still here making mistakes. The biggest of those is not giving people the proper chance to play in their best position. I was optimistic that we would have such good players this season that Frank couldn't screw it up but my hopes are dwindling.
I can't believe the last few posts, complaining about the fact that the team traded Ryan Johnson??? Come on, he was not a good player with the Quakes during 2010-2011. And don't blame Yallop for that, blame the player. He was turning into a decent midfielder, but the Quakes had plenty of midfield options. Would anyone want Ryan Johnson on the Quakes this year? I certainly wouldn't. He looked bad in the match against San Jose, as people posted in the match thread. The same player - times of good play but poor finishing. He does ok when the game gets stretched and he has open space to run at the goal, but when he's in the box he takes too many touches and loses the ball or gets his shot blocked. That happened a few times against the Quakes. For Jamaica, he's done ok, but he's not one of their top forwards. He did not get called into their most recent match where they called in their "A team". Johnson did look pretty good against LA in the CCL, but that's because LA's defense was such crap. Ryan does well when given space, but when defenders close him down he can't do much. I'll be very, very surprised if Johnson scores more than 4-5 goals this year for Toronto, even with them playing against the crappy East teams so much. Mark - you keep posting (in every thread you complain about Yallop in, which is pretty much every thread) about how Busch must be kicking it long because Yallop tells him to. I call BS on that. Did you ever watch Busch play before he played for the Quakes? Can you prove that he used to distribute the ball differently? If Yallop tells the keepers to boot the ball long, then how come when Bingham played last year he distributed the ball more by throwing it out or passing short balls to the defenders? Wouldn't Yallop be telling the rookie keeper how to play more than the veteran?
And now for your regularly scheduled programming.......where is Scott Sealy this week you ask? Well, big surprise, he's on the injury report! Yep, for the fourth week in a row, Sealy is not able to play for Dallas. We should have a pool for how long it will be until he's healthy enough to play
I'm thinking the release of Davide Somma was planned out. I mean Darren Huckerby saw that he was talented and he told him to try Europe even arranging tryout for him before the start of their season. Why else would he have been cut at the end of May especially when Yallop was so high on him? I'm sure the deal was rigged in some way...
Seals is gonna ride those two goals he scored against Houston Baptist in preseason all the way through the 2012 season. Such a dangerous forward, if he could just get healthy...
haha....interesting blurb on the FC Dallas blog on ESPN about Sealy: When I first read this I got confused about the "flight from San Jose" comment, then remembered that Dallas was in preseason training in Costa Rica. Maybe it's the San Jose jinx - San Jose California or San Jose Costa Rica, it doesn't matter. Even though the MLS injury report says that Sealy is out because of a knee problem, this article talks about hamstring. Maybe it's both, who knows. With the Quakes, I'm pretty sure it was a combination of hamstring and knee problems as well. While I'm amused that this is happening to Dallas, I do kind of feel sorry for Sealy. He seemed to be a nice enough guy when he was with the Quakes, it's got to be frustrating to not be able to get healthy.
At least as frustrating as it is for Dallas fans and FO. Oh well, they get to babysit our old problem.
Wonder if any medical personnel have actually been able to corroborate these injuries. Or does he really have MLSHasPassedMeByButImTryingToExtendMyCareerAFewYearsAnywayItis. Not a very nice thing to suggest but after watching him play a bit between his extended periods of nagging injury I start to wonder.
My weekly Scott Sealy watch continues, he's listed as "Out" again this week with a hamstring injury: Another ex-Quake, Brandon McDonald, has been suspended by the new MLS Disciplinary Committee. They have given him a one match suspension for a tackle that only earned him a yellow card in the match against Dallas
It's kind of like a car accident on the freeway for me, just waiting each week for the MLS injury report and having to check to see if Sealy is still on it I know it shouldn't be that interesting to me, but I just have to look. He's now been out longer to start the season for Dallas than he was for the Quakes either of the last two years. Not a good sign for them. And as I posted in the "Western Conf teams" thread, Dallas is actually hurting for backup forwards to play. At this point Sealy (if healthy) is probably their #2 forward. If Perez goes down with any kind of injury, they are really in trouble.
The funny thing is the timing of your statement. Yesterday (AM) you would have been wrong, but as of yesterday (PM) you are probably right. Luis Perea was FCD's #2 foward. As of last night his previously defunct club in Peru is no longer defunct and he is now headed back. So unlucky Sealy just got lucky......with the obvious caveat being his health.