CNNSI: At 16, Adu already looking for sparkle of yesteryear

[Hunter R]

If Freddy Adu is lucky, nobody will remember his appearance at the World Youth Championship. If not, it will be for two missed penalties. Nothing less, and nothing more.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/soccer/06/22/adu.worlds.ap/index.html

[NBlue]

What an odd article.

He was supposed to be a leader? I supposed I missed that one. Certainly, he was supposed to play better than he did but I was not aware there were leadership expectations.

Also, it appeared to me that Freddy himself requested Hunter to take the second pk, not Sigi. However, the article states as fact that Sigi "made" Freddy step back so Freeman could take the kick -- is this correct?


Look, I think expecting the kid to be the next Pele is way too much and, it would seem, he has gotten somewhat of a big head on occasion as a result of a combination of factors. However, his response after the US's early ouster at the YWC could not have been more appropriate.

[voyager]

What an odd article.

He was supposed to be a leader? I supposed I missed that one. Certainly, he was supposed to play better than he did but I was not aware there were leadership expectations.

Also, it appeared to me that Freddy himself requested Hunter to take the second pk, not Sigi. However, the article states as fact that Sigi "made" Freddy step back so Freeman could take the kick -- is this correct?


Look, I think expecting the kid to be the next Pele is way too much and, it would seem, he has gotten somewhat of a big head on occasion as a result of a combination of factors. However, his response after the US's early ouster at the YWC could not have been more appropriate.

Agreed. His reaction to his play and overall effort was what I was hoping to hear from him. He is professional enough to realize that he did not live up to his own standards and still needs some work. Very mature. And if he truly was the one who requested that Freeman take the second penalty attempt, good for him. Some may say that he needed to take it again for confidence sake, and I can see the point, but you want to win the game first and foremost. An elimination game at the world youth cup is not when you work on your confidence level. Save that for friendlies, reserve games, and even MLS regular season games.

[Wallydrag]

It needs to be said that Hunter Freeman also barely squeaked his PK in. The Italian GK was just very good at what he did.

[Tweaked]

Adu admitted he fooled himself into thinking the Italians weren't that good after they qualified only as the lucky third-finishers in their four-team group.

"The guys, including myself, we relaxed a little bit," he said.

"We figured Italy was not going to be as good as they really were. But they were much, much better than that, and they took it to us. That was a bummer on our part," he said.



No one should walk into a game against Italy thinking they can't play.

[drew_VT_6]

Don't you think it's funny that in all the Pre-Tournament articles this was going to be a time for Freddy to build up his confidence from the issues he was dealing with at DC and now going back to DC is going to build his confidence?!?!

Maybe there's more issues than just a lack of confidence here.

[vivzig]

Don't you think it's funny that in all the Pre-Tournament articles this was going to be a time for Freddy to build up his confidence from the issues he was dealing with at DC and now going back to DC is going to build his confidence?!?!

Maybe there's more issues than just a lack of confidence here.
Or maybe we should recall what being 16 is really all about.

[pokemoncards]

Sigi should have never called out Freddy in public. He should take the responsibility himself.

[Gmore]

It looks like even the press is starting to turn on Freddy Adu, like many BS posters have.

THE BOY IS 16!

[uniteo]

If anyone wanted Freddy to be the leader they shouldn't push him out wide in favor of Gaven (and how about Gaven's disappearing act?)

[MattMathai]

Sigi should have never called out Freddy in public. He should take the responsibility himself.

Different players need to be challenged differently. Some would curl up and die at such a public dressing down. Others (and I think Freddy is tough enough for it) will get mad and step up.

Bruce Arena told Marco Etcheverry that he was too good a player to play as badly (for 45 min.) as he was during DCU's first handful of games. Then he (Bruce) told that to the press. It was a public kick in the tail, and the results are in the history books.

I really appreciate Sigi's candor (and Nowak's too.) They could have mumbled excuses about how he's just a stripling of 16 playing against men of 20, etc., etc, but they didn't. Freddy didn't play well. Sigi said so, in effect, saying that all the hype didn't matter.

I thought Freddy's response was perfect. He took responsibility. Very mature for a kid.

[Bootsy Collins]

It looks like even the press is starting to turn on Freddy Adu, like many BS posters have.

Which are those?

[John_Harkes_6]

Sigi should have never called out Freddy in public. He should take the responsibility himself.

Sorry - Freddie sucked - and Sigi had every right to call him out. Freddie needs to drop this prima donna crap and prove he can be a professional soccer player. Part of that is a coach calling you out after a poor tournament. Freddie even admitted he sucked so I am wondering how exactly was Sigi wrong in calling him out? The coudling needs to stop and the performances had better start.

One nifty backheel a game ain't gonna cut it!

[vivzig]

This sort of reminds me of the Amanda Beard situation--phenom at 14 (Olympic silver medal, 1996), and then she couldn't crack the top 10 until the last Olympics. Noody shouted "overrated" then.

Here's the difference: Amanda actually did suck for 10 years and had an actual comeback. Freddy is actually improving year to year, playing professionally on a team in which he leads in the assists column despite 4 starts and 9 total appearances. He is a successful athlete in his own right already.

The label "phenom" is objective for his combination of age, skill, and star quality.

Let's take what we can get for now, while building up his skill set and soccer intelligence, so that when he is ready, he will dominate, as opposed to simply compete successfully.

[AndyMead]

Sorry - Freddie sucked - and Sigi had every right to call him out. Freddie needs

Freddy

[Th4119]

Maybe Freddy and Eddie would have both looked better if they weren't left with virtually nothing up front to set up.

The US team's problem was scoring goals, and it wasn't just the fault of their creative players in the midfield. They only scored three times in four games and Adu set up one of those goals. He also drew two penalties. Yes he missed two but one was scored off of regardless. So out of the three goals the US scored, Freddy was the reason behind two of them.

I'd say he had a lot better tournament than Eddie Gaven who had one decent moment on a shot he placed far too close to the goalie than he had to and one other where he might have been pulled down in the box after missing a shooting opportunity.

The Americans played a very defensive formation with a very weak option at forward, and that hurt both Adu and Gaven greatly. Freddy wasn't the phenom many expected here, but he wasn't a failure, either. Keep in mind, he can still play in two more of these competitions depending when the dates are.

[fatbastard]

Maybe Freddy and Eddie would have both looked better if they weren't left with virtually nothing up front to set up. Bah, the kid's washed up, a has-been, a foot-note to soccer history. [/sarcasm]

[Sempuukyaku]

Sorry - Freddie sucked - and Sigi had every right to call him out. Freddie needs to drop this prima donna crap and prove he can be a professional soccer player.

Dude will you can it? Seriously. I've yet to see ONE positive post from you regarding Freddy even when he plays well.

You're becoming even more of a troll than Flannigan. :rolleyes:

[JoeW]

I'm one of the folks who has consistently responded to the "start Adu" crowd with the argument that he's not a complete player: while he might be our most instinctive finisher and one of our most gifted dribblers, in other parts of his game (moving off the ball, tackling, work-rate, tracking back), he's not one of our top 5 or in some cases top 11 or top 15 players. He's an immense talent who also has huge holes in his game which get exposed at higher levels.

That said, he's only 16. It's a sad state if our U20 team is counting on a kid who just turned 16 to be a team leader and pivotal player. It's one thing to say "he has unique skills, we expect him to contribute a great play or two per game" and it's another thing all together to say "he's a key part of our offense" or "as Freddy goes, so goes our attack."

It's natural to expect articles to focus on the Sigi comment on Adu b/c Freddy is the guy who gets more of the press and who the general public knows about so that is the coverage angle. Nothing Sigi said was untrue. I also wonder if, in the press conference, he singled Adu out or it was more of a commentary about the team (which had a huge defensive letdown in the second half), he criticized the team play and addressed Freddy only in response to a specific question like "what happened to Freddy this match?" In any case, the general press is more likely to read like "USA lost b/c Adu didn't show up mentally" while the reality is that Freddy was a nonfactor but we had a team-wide collapse the second half.

[Hunter R]

First, my apologies about posting the entire article! And thanks to Knave for correcting me.

Second, I think that Thamlin is right on the money here. Freddy didn't have a scorching tourney but I think that some of this stuff is the hype machine. There is no middleground when it seems as that if Freddy doesn't play like a God than he is a failure. I'm going to pull a Nowak but... there are other players on the pitch. Victory and Defeat is on all of them. And I'm not saying that one player cannot make a difference... they can. But when you are supposed to be the best your country has to offer... there should be someone willing to step up if another slips.

I think Freddy actually sounded more like an adult with his quotes after the Italy match than he has ever sounded like in a DC United uniform. He is still 16 and he is still growing no matter how much amazing talent spills out in brilliant but brief occassions-- so the apparently growing "Freddy is Overrated" contingent should chillout. Does Freddy make Freddy overrated or do a bunch of writers and execs and hypehounds do that?