Juan Agudelo in "search" of a Club

In your attempt at sarcasm, your missing the bigger point. Do you honselty think eddie johnson or wondolowski can score a goal with world class out of nothing ability like agudelo can do?

 

No. If that were the case, people would have been noticing his talent since before he moved to Stoke/Utrecht.

As is, but for a couple of poster, Agudelo was far from being considered for automatic inclusion with the 23. Check that thread and see how many people were putting him there before the Stoke rumors started.

 

I've had him in the 23 for a few years. Even during his struggles, I believed in his skills. People are too quick to promote the flavor of the month. Agudelo's talent is not something that EJ, Wondo, Gomez, Magee or any of the other fringe strikers have.

 

Watched some of his game today. Kid brought down a 60-yard ball with this chest perfectly, then the moment the ball hit the ground he backheel nutmegged the defender that was on him. I'm sorry but that was fantastic. He's on my 23, if I were in Klinsmann position,

 

I need to see this. Johan Derksen to the rescue?

 

I'd take him over Wondo or EJ, but only if he proves himself with Utrecht.

Since he still has not done that, even though I think he will, at this point I wouldn't pencil him in yet.

 

"Juan Agudelo, F, Utrecht (Netherlands)
Why he's here: A week after his European debut, Agudelo made his first start for Utrecht and went the distance, recording an assist to help his team snap a four game skid in a 1-1, come-from-behind tie against Dutch champions Ajax.
What this means: We were remiss not to include the 21-year old alongside Wondolowski and the other forwards competing for the U.S. team's final forward spot for Brazil, but Agudelo's chances are as good as anyone's if he can build on his promising start in the Eredivisie."


http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/usnationalteam/id/1433?cc=5901

 

I don't think Agudelo can score a goal with world class out of nothing ability.

 

Maybe not with the same skill or flair, but I think each can do things Agudelo is less likely to do (for example, EJ score a header off a set piece or Wondo poach a goal out of nowhere just by being in the right place at the right time).

I agree that Agudelo is a (much) better player overall than either mentioned, but I don't think that necessarily means he should go to this World Cup over them. But if he turns it on bigtime the next few months I hope he does.

 

I think it comes down to potential. Is EJ and Wondo that much of a boost to our pool of strikers that bringing them now to the WC, that we should be taking away valuable experience from a guy that has a bigger chance of contributing in the future? I'm not sure about Wondo, if he's hot, he's hot. But EJ... we've been there and done that... we know what we have and anything outside MLS or Concacaf, he's not scoring.

 

For a 4th or 5th striker option who we need to throw on in the last 10 minutes of a game we desperately need a goal in... Id take wondo for sure. The guy is a proven finisher and IMO if were dumping balls in the box franticaly trying to score, I want a guy like wondo in there.

Say were down 1-0 to germany in the 80th minute and we need the 1-1 to go through and were throwing everything but the kitchen sink at ze germans... Wouldnt you want wondo in the german penalty area at that point?

 

How many actual strikers are we even gonna take to Brazil?

 

Probably depends on who you count as a striker. I'd expect 3 besides Dempsey and Donovan.

 

I'm talking about actual center forwards - guys who don't/can't play a midfield role. Am I crazy to think that Jurgen might only take 1 center forward?

 

Not sure we're going to be able to send cross after cross into the box vs. anyone at the WC. I agree, if you're able to do that then you'd want Wondo, but Germany/Port/Ghana aren't going to bunker vs us even if they're up. They'll just look to Spain us and maintain possession. Wondo has proven that he's not able to get it done vs. anyone outside CONCACAF or Korea's C team.

 

I hope you are, that would be silly.

 

Or Chelsea.

In my opinion this whole "such-and-such player has proven this" doesn't really hold up to scrutiny, you're talking about way too small a sample size of games to say they've "proven" anything. I'm not personally convinced on bringing Wondo myself, but I can't think of anybody else I'd rather have come in off the bench to poach a goal against a tired opponent. Except maybe Mike Magee....

My guess is Wondo will be the Ching/Twellman of this go-round, the kickass MLS'er who didn't quite make the cut.

 

Chelsea was in pre-season form...and that example is a bit odd since that in itself is a small sample size. Wondo had 208 mins in 2011/12 to capitalize on and he failed in all those to score from the likes of Spain and Chile to Guadeloupe and Canada.

Sending in cross after cross vs. the likes of Germany/Ghana/Port would mean we would be heavily favored in the possession %...I don't see that happening. I don't think we're going to bunker completely but we're not going to be able to hold on to the ball like we did vs. Cuba and Belize.

 

That's funny cause I recall him doing exactly that on more than one occasion over the course of the last two years in MLS.

Of course it's hard to get any more subjective than "world class out of nothing ability" but Juan has scored a few goals out of thin air using nothing else but remarkable innate skill and instinct in his short career.

 

3 strikers. Plus Dempsey/Donovan.

But not sure about EJ.

 

I agree. I guess it depends how you define "out of nothing". I'd say his goal vs. Chicago this past summer and his goal against DC in 2011 are examples of his innate skill and instincts.

 

We'll have to wait until MLS gets going and see which EJ shows up.

 

If it is 3 plus D & D then EJ is on the plane, at this point in time. D&D, JA , and EJ are the top 4 goal scorers in the JK era. EJ is also the best aerial threat by a large margin and can play either wing so could be brought on as a 3rd forward with say 15 min to go down by 1.