ursula
01 Dec 2005, 06:18 PM
While reading the other day about Brad Guzan possibly beating out Tim Howard for Germany, I thought it would be a fun idea to take a lighthearted trip back through 2005 and note who were the various Flavors of the month at any given time.
I mean this to be lighthearted too. We all say silly things if we post enough here. (After Arena sets the Germany roster next spring I plan to bring back a predictions thread from two years ago. I'm tellin' ya: it's a riot!) I'm gonna go through month by month, noting the boomlets, the major meltdowns and also who was getting cases of haterade thrown at them. I'm not gonna say much about some of the steady players (like Beasley say), instead I'll note the big ups and downs of the players.
January
Actually January was a quiet month for flavors because of the players strike/lockout. That's almost all we talked about here and it wasn't pretty. But here it is the end of the year and we have a new agreement! Whoo-hoo!
Probably the only flavor to note this month was one Danny Karbassiyoon. several posters really thought he had a chance for Germany. People liked Eddie Gaven too. Eddie Pope was still the rock in the defense. No one was really hated except for the labor negotiators.
February
Flavor of the month: Clint Dempsey
I don't have many quotes for my flavors, but here's a couple said about Clint in February:
-The closest thing the USA has to Patrick Vierra.
-Similar to Gerrard and Lampard and younger too!
Realize that these comparisons we fully meant to say that Clint is on their level.
Also getting a lick: Jemal Johnson, Clyde Simms, Brian West, Freddy Adu, and JOB for LB.
Haterade: Brian McBride and Carlos Bocanegra. This was after the WCQ @ T&T with Boca at LB looking like not such a hot idea afterall.
March
Flavor of the month: Jay DeMerit
-"Why Convey and not DeMerit?"
Note: DeMerit's boom was well short of Dempsey's the month previously. In fact Clint's boom lasted until after the Gold Cup in August.
licks: Eskandarian ("The next big feature after Johnson!"), Dempsey, Adu, Marshall, Noonan, Mathis (!)
Haterade: Landon Donovan
I won't normally boldface those getting the hate thrown at them but this month was the month when LD decided that LA was a better place than Germany. You remember, I'm sure. One poster even wrote, "He's officially replaced Convey!" on the hate list and that was true for a good month and a half at least. Reyna was sliced open after the Mexico game but that just paled in comparison to what we did with Donovan.
April
Flavor of the month: Ronnie O'Brien
Remember the whole, "Can Arena cap him and why doesn't he?", ruckus? It started this month and lasted with some fits and starts until August.
other licks: Buddle, Gros, Spector (his time will come), Johnson, Adu, and Dempsey of course.
Haterade: Berhalter ("No place on the team for this geezer")
May
Flavor of the month: Jose Burciaga, Jr.
Great year he had. (That's scarcasm.) It's interesting. some of the hype on this board for4 a player is just that. Hype, as in, "I really like this guy!" Other hype though is almost as much a swipe at Arena as a thumbs up to a particular player. the Burciaga , Jr. hype was the later.
Honorable mention must go to the oddest boomlet for a player: Marshall Leonard had a 134 post thread dedicated to him.
licks: Dunivant, Vaengas, Simms, DeMerit, Tim Ward, Gros, Buddle, Adu, and Dempsey.
Haterade: Convey. Because we can.
June
Flavor of the month: Jonathan Spector
Maybe the only flavor that hasn't really waned.
Special mention: Freddy Adu. As you can probably guess, Fred has been a flavor every month. This month witnessed a spike in his hype-ness as it was the month when folks were concerned that his DCU teammates, Christian Gomez and Jaime Moreno were 1) jealous and 2) wouldn't pass him the ball. Bummer.
licks: Gaven, Jaqua, Dempsey, and from out of nowhere, Quaranta. (A certain unnamed Portland poster hyped Tino and Clint and his dreamboat eyes then.)
Haterade: Wolff and Mathis. Wow. Just think back almost exactly four years ago what we though of them. Also Olsen and Armas in the run up to the Gold Cup.
July
Flavor of the month: Clint Dempsey
This whole year we've been obsessed over Clint.
licks: Dema! (Well if ROB was gonna get hyped it only stands that Dema would also... and it wasn't started by a DCU fan BTW. Or a Dallas fan either.)
Also: Benny Feilhaber, John Wilson (this was a DCU boomlet.) Freddy for LB (!), and- take a bow jri- Chris Rolfe months before that train left the station.
haterade: Frankie Hedjuk. Gold Cup just didn't agree with him. Armas of course too. And Olsen.
August
Flavor of the month: Jeff Cunningham and Taylor Twellman
These guys were touted big-time around the MLS all-star game. T&T's boom lasted longer than Cunny's.
licks: ROB again, Razov, Quaranta, Wade Barrett, Spector, Mapp, Adu, Michael Parkhurst, and Ricardo Clark.
haterade: No one really. I know I know- I don't know what happened with us that month! But it must be mentioned that the Clint Dempsey bandwagon officially stopped this month. Much less talk, some tepid criticism.
September
Flavor of the month: Justin "The Cartographer" Mapp
licks: Jemal Johnson for a return engagement, Clark, Spector, Noonan, Daniel Hernandez, Marshall, Freddy, and for our honorary foreigner award: Dewayne DeRosario! At least people realized that he was a foreigner.
haterade: What goes around comes around: Clint Dempsey. The Dempsey Exporess started to turn around after the England game and slowly gained passengers... It will be interesting to see the comments about him at the January camp.
October
Flavor of the month: Ricardo Clark
licks: Cobi!, Freddy!, Spector, Mapp, Gomez, Hernandez, Conrad, Twellman, and Noonan.
Haterade: Are you kidding me??? Brian Carroll of course!
November
Flavor of the month: Herculez Gomez
What??? Just an alternate???!!!^&$^&%^%$
Honorable mention should go to Chris Rolfe too. He actually played in a nats game.
licks: Feilhaber, Dunivant, Spector, Heath Pierce, Olsen, Freddy and Cobi. Maybe Cobi and Freddy could be twin a-mids in germany. Opposing players would note their names and think, "How cute!" and fail to mark them.
Haterade: Eddie Gaven. Thud.
There you go. Add your own rememberances if you like. Just remember that this is all in fun.
I mean this to be lighthearted too. We all say silly things if we post enough here. (After Arena sets the Germany roster next spring I plan to bring back a predictions thread from two years ago. I'm tellin' ya: it's a riot!) I'm gonna go through month by month, noting the boomlets, the major meltdowns and also who was getting cases of haterade thrown at them. I'm not gonna say much about some of the steady players (like Beasley say), instead I'll note the big ups and downs of the players.
January
Actually January was a quiet month for flavors because of the players strike/lockout. That's almost all we talked about here and it wasn't pretty. But here it is the end of the year and we have a new agreement! Whoo-hoo!
Probably the only flavor to note this month was one Danny Karbassiyoon. several posters really thought he had a chance for Germany. People liked Eddie Gaven too. Eddie Pope was still the rock in the defense. No one was really hated except for the labor negotiators.
February
Flavor of the month: Clint Dempsey
I don't have many quotes for my flavors, but here's a couple said about Clint in February:
-The closest thing the USA has to Patrick Vierra.
-Similar to Gerrard and Lampard and younger too!
Realize that these comparisons we fully meant to say that Clint is on their level.
Also getting a lick: Jemal Johnson, Clyde Simms, Brian West, Freddy Adu, and JOB for LB.
Haterade: Brian McBride and Carlos Bocanegra. This was after the WCQ @ T&T with Boca at LB looking like not such a hot idea afterall.
March
Flavor of the month: Jay DeMerit
-"Why Convey and not DeMerit?"
Note: DeMerit's boom was well short of Dempsey's the month previously. In fact Clint's boom lasted until after the Gold Cup in August.
licks: Eskandarian ("The next big feature after Johnson!"), Dempsey, Adu, Marshall, Noonan, Mathis (!)
Haterade: Landon Donovan
I won't normally boldface those getting the hate thrown at them but this month was the month when LD decided that LA was a better place than Germany. You remember, I'm sure. One poster even wrote, "He's officially replaced Convey!" on the hate list and that was true for a good month and a half at least. Reyna was sliced open after the Mexico game but that just paled in comparison to what we did with Donovan.
April
Flavor of the month: Ronnie O'Brien
Remember the whole, "Can Arena cap him and why doesn't he?", ruckus? It started this month and lasted with some fits and starts until August.
other licks: Buddle, Gros, Spector (his time will come), Johnson, Adu, and Dempsey of course.
Haterade: Berhalter ("No place on the team for this geezer")
May
Flavor of the month: Jose Burciaga, Jr.
Great year he had. (That's scarcasm.) It's interesting. some of the hype on this board for4 a player is just that. Hype, as in, "I really like this guy!" Other hype though is almost as much a swipe at Arena as a thumbs up to a particular player. the Burciaga , Jr. hype was the later.
Honorable mention must go to the oddest boomlet for a player: Marshall Leonard had a 134 post thread dedicated to him.
licks: Dunivant, Vaengas, Simms, DeMerit, Tim Ward, Gros, Buddle, Adu, and Dempsey.
Haterade: Convey. Because we can.
June
Flavor of the month: Jonathan Spector
Maybe the only flavor that hasn't really waned.
Special mention: Freddy Adu. As you can probably guess, Fred has been a flavor every month. This month witnessed a spike in his hype-ness as it was the month when folks were concerned that his DCU teammates, Christian Gomez and Jaime Moreno were 1) jealous and 2) wouldn't pass him the ball. Bummer.
licks: Gaven, Jaqua, Dempsey, and from out of nowhere, Quaranta. (A certain unnamed Portland poster hyped Tino and Clint and his dreamboat eyes then.)
Haterade: Wolff and Mathis. Wow. Just think back almost exactly four years ago what we though of them. Also Olsen and Armas in the run up to the Gold Cup.
July
Flavor of the month: Clint Dempsey
This whole year we've been obsessed over Clint.
licks: Dema! (Well if ROB was gonna get hyped it only stands that Dema would also... and it wasn't started by a DCU fan BTW. Or a Dallas fan either.)
Also: Benny Feilhaber, John Wilson (this was a DCU boomlet.) Freddy for LB (!), and- take a bow jri- Chris Rolfe months before that train left the station.
haterade: Frankie Hedjuk. Gold Cup just didn't agree with him. Armas of course too. And Olsen.
August
Flavor of the month: Jeff Cunningham and Taylor Twellman
These guys were touted big-time around the MLS all-star game. T&T's boom lasted longer than Cunny's.
licks: ROB again, Razov, Quaranta, Wade Barrett, Spector, Mapp, Adu, Michael Parkhurst, and Ricardo Clark.
haterade: No one really. I know I know- I don't know what happened with us that month! But it must be mentioned that the Clint Dempsey bandwagon officially stopped this month. Much less talk, some tepid criticism.
September
Flavor of the month: Justin "The Cartographer" Mapp
licks: Jemal Johnson for a return engagement, Clark, Spector, Noonan, Daniel Hernandez, Marshall, Freddy, and for our honorary foreigner award: Dewayne DeRosario! At least people realized that he was a foreigner.
haterade: What goes around comes around: Clint Dempsey. The Dempsey Exporess started to turn around after the England game and slowly gained passengers... It will be interesting to see the comments about him at the January camp.
October
Flavor of the month: Ricardo Clark
licks: Cobi!, Freddy!, Spector, Mapp, Gomez, Hernandez, Conrad, Twellman, and Noonan.
Haterade: Are you kidding me??? Brian Carroll of course!
November
Flavor of the month: Herculez Gomez
What??? Just an alternate???!!!^&$^&%^%$
Honorable mention should go to Chris Rolfe too. He actually played in a nats game.
licks: Feilhaber, Dunivant, Spector, Heath Pierce, Olsen, Freddy and Cobi. Maybe Cobi and Freddy could be twin a-mids in germany. Opposing players would note their names and think, "How cute!" and fail to mark them.
Haterade: Eddie Gaven. Thud.
There you go. Add your own rememberances if you like. Just remember that this is all in fun.