Re: Juan Agudelo U20's and U23's first. He's a very talented-looking kid, and I really liked the confidence he showed in going straight at people last night in a big game. I can understand Backe wanting to leave Angel on at the end when NY had their backs to the wall, but I personally think he made a mistake and should've let Henry play with Agudelo to close the match. He's the guy who was really troubling the defense. No, I don't think he's ready to be a difference-maker with the senior nats at this time. By the end of the cycle... maybe. One to keep tabs on, certainly.
Re: Juan Agudelo [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMc_TMRvTNc"]YouTube - Juan Agudelo vs. San Jose (Game 2)[/ame]
Re: Juan Agudelo Repped for putting in the work to make the video, as well as for the excellent song choice.
Re: Juan Agudelo Yes, its 12 more than Agudelo and yes it is for Arsenal....and yes the Premier league is a very good league. That said, England has many very talented and experienced players in the premier league and at that position. And one would think that the rights of passage required for a potential England call up would be far more stringent and difficult given their history and their player pool and their expectations than for us. So in a Bizarro universe on England bigsoccer, I would fully expect their to be dozens of posters arguing that Wilshere did not have the requisite appearances to earn a cap and a potential cap at this stage might send him the wrong message and give rise to complacency on his part and that in general a wait a see approach should be taken....
Re: Juan Agudelo Look at it this way: it is easier to become one of England's top players than it is to become one of the EPL's top players. The EPL has almost all of the top English players plus a large number of talented foreign players. However, it is more difficult to become one of the USA's top players than it is to become one of the MLS's top players because most of the USA's top players do not play in the MLS. Therefore an MLS player will need to accomplish more to prove himself worthy of a spot on team USA than an EPL player would need to do to prove himself worthy of a spot on the English national team.
Re: Juan Agudelo Yes he has very good control and skill but his soccer brain isn't there yet. A lot of times he was making the wrong decisions and decided to make a worse angle for the shot or run it out of bounds when someone was crashing the top of the 18. I realize he is only 17 but let's not pretend he is Henry right now. He has great raw talent. We need him to get real games now so he can start making the right decisions. If we can get him to use those foot skills to get to the center of the box he might be devastating.
Re: Juan Agudelo Looking forward to seeing him excel with the U-20's and continue to grow into his role with RBNY next year. They obviously knew what they had with him when they let Kandji go despite knowing that Angel would leave.
Re: Juan Agudelo You are completely right that he's no where near a finished product yet (thankfully, as he'd be a bust if this was as good as he gets) . . . however, it's easy to see some special things in this kid that make one get excited about his development. Take a look again at his patience in the box- both on his assist and on his shot off the post. He gets the ball into the box, and then he looks up and takes time to make good decisions-- pulling the ball back both times and even giving a little pump fake on the assist. His assist- that little chip-- is a calm pass, not one you make all ampped up and revving 100 mph. If he's out of control, that ship winds up 10 yards behind JPA. So, this kid's got an amazing presence and calmness about him at such a young age. Looking back at that assist- look at the situation (second career start, playoff game, time running out, team needs to score) and 99+% of kids his age dribble towards goal (and loose possession) or take a shot (which was covered). He pulls the ball back and makes a calm chip to an open JPA. I'm sorry to say this, but you can't teach cool like that. This kid's got ice running through his veins- that's something that any coach will get excited about. Yes- he's got a lot of work to do, but that's just a question of work. The questions about intangibles- he's answering those already and those answers are good. (PS- I don't think he's ready for the senior team yet either, but I will say that we shouldn't be surprised to see him start getting looks in the next two or three years)
Re: Juan Agudelo Wrong.. Stefan Jerome is NO WHERE near this U20 national team The U20 striker pool right now is Ruelas Agudelo Wood Doyle Bowen McInerney Salgado The scary thing is that Agudelo may not even be the best one out of the bunch. Ruelas is wanted by Celtic's first team and I've heard extremely good things about Bobby Wood.
Re: Juan Agudelo Sebastian Lletget is the youth player am more looking at, as I hope Juan Agudelo becomes the forward we all want him to become but Sebastian Lletget to ME is the real deal!
Re: Juan Agudelo I'm way high on him too, but if we're having that who should get a speculative senior call-up I have to give the edge to Agudelo based solely on the fact that he has at least some minimal first team action on his resume. Maybe Lletget would already have some minutes in MLS but you should still have to have some first team experience for that call-up.
Re: Juan Agudelo Lletget is a CM if I'm not mistaken? Also, another player to watch is Tony Taylor. 4 goals in 5 games for G.D. Estoril Praia.
Agudelo called in Rumor has it that Agudelo has been called to go to Africa with Mens National team. Has anyone heard this to be true.
Re: Agudelo called in He was just called in for the U-20's Torneo de las Americas later this month. Are you sure that's not what you heard?
Re: Juan Agudelo Someone explain to me more about this kid Lletget? Whats his background? http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/soccer/news/story?id=4973291 Sounds pretty good.... and I dont know why I am just hearing about him now.... am I late or something? LOL
Re: Juan Agudelo Just found the main one on him, its been a hour and a half, lol but I finished it lol. This kid is interesting......
Re: Agudelo called in I hope so!!!!!! Call Altidore too... I would love to see how they work together...