Galarcep: Johnson Still Needs To Mature

[cpwilson80]

An interesting read over at ESPN:


http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=358977&root=mls&cc=5901


This, however, I disagree with completely:

What's next for Johnson now that he's found a new home? It might sound a little crazy, but missing out on the World Cup team might help his career more than making the team. Why? If he makes the team and plays some part in a good World Cup run, Johnson just might rest on his laurels and, if the stories about his inflated ego are true, he might just spiral out of control upon his return to MLS. He might decide he's too good for the league and he could rebel and morph into a problem child. Sound farfetched? The story should sound familiar, since Clint Mathis lived it just four years ago.

Now, imagine if Johnson didn't make the World Cup team. Could there be a better motivation? Johnson would see Bruce Arena's face on every defender and he would almost certainly have the hunger to match his success of 2004.

1) If even remotely healthy, there's no way in hell that Johnson's left off the team
2) His definition of a "good" World Cup is different than mine...I remember Mathis scoring a great goal and not much else
3) I'd actually see a player like Johnson being hungrier after a great World Cup than sticking around in MLS during June.

[mrliioadin]

Thats some of the most retarded writing i've ever seen. When johnson scored 8 goals in 8 games his teammates we're commenting on his impressive modesty as I remember it. I have never thought of EJ as having an inflated ego... in fact it seems to be quite the opposite. If im in some way mistaken and he is a prick please someone let me know.

[sidefootsitter]

.... If im in some way mistaken and he is a prick please someone let me know. That has been an allegation from more than one person.

[kurgen99]

LALALALALALALA I'm not listening. There are no problems. EJ MUST perform to his potential.

[swilso01]

Thats some of the most retarded writing i've ever seen. When johnson scored 8 goals in 8 games his teammates we're commenting on his impressive modesty as I remember it. I have never thought of EJ as having an inflated ego... in fact it seems to be quite the opposite. If im in some way mistaken and he is a prick please someone let me know.

I think someone just did, or tried to at least.

So is the argument that he should be left off the world cup team to teach him a lesson in humility? Now THAT is retarded. I could care less if he comes out in public saying he feels Brian McBride should shine EJ's shoes before each game. If he is going to produce a goal per game at the World Cup...who cares if he is a brat.

I know Bruce cares, and team chemistry is important, but I can't see an in form EJ off the sqaud solely because he is a punk.

[sidefootsitter]

... I could care less if he comes out in public saying he feels Brian McBride should shine EJ's shoes before each game... In order to get away with something like that, he'd have to score a hat-trick somewhere along the line or he's staying home.

[JohnR]

If im in some way mistaken and he is a prick please someone let me know.

Never met the man, but the Dallas boards were all over Eddie even when he was riding high. Several accounts of high-handed behavior toward the fans, public sulking, and the like.

[BelhavenKeeper]

He doesn't need to mature...he's a grown ass man. Don't these idots know that?

[rhiggz]

Oh no! Eddie Johnson isn't perfect? Wow, I am totally shocked. I didn't think that was possible. Come on people, take a second and think there might be something to this. He had a great 8 games last year, but if he reverts back to the form he has showed for the most part at Dallas, he won't be starting and might not even be in Germany. If Reyna and JOB are healthy, I'd much rather see Donovan up top with McBride if Johnson isn't playing at his best.
Maturity is huge on any team. If he isn't fitting in then the team is better off without him. Look at TO and the Eagles. I doubt he's that bad, if he actually does have an attitude problem, but I'm just saying it's possible. I know he's a demi-god to many US fans, but you can't just turn the other way to all of this.

[BED-STYPUNDIT]

Never met the man, but the Dallas boards were all over Eddie even when he was riding high. Several accounts of high-handed behavior toward the fans, public sulking, and the like.

If thats the case, then what is Samuel Eto, El Hadif Diouf, or Antonioe Cassano. I like Galacrep as a writer, but he gave no specific source about Johnson being coinsistenly canterkerous since at least 2004.

He had his run ins with Jeffrieswhen Jefferies was the coach of the Burn because that fool of a coach decided to play Tony Kecko of all forwards instead of giving Johnson a consistent chance. And where is this public sulking, I have yet to see someone on Big soccer that is a Dallas fan come and say Eddie is two-faced or Eddie is like a Terrell Owens type plague of a dude. This is a guy who returned to early for his team last year and got injuried more instead of just sitting out the rest of the season and saving his career. He could have damaged his health even more severely.

Galacrep wrote to me a very negative peace instead of the definitive truth, and that is unlike ESPN soccer writers.

[BED-STYPUNDIT]

Oh no! Eddie Johnson isn't perfect? Wow, I am totally shocked. I didn't think that was possible. Come on people, take a second and think there might be something to this. He had a great 8 games last year, but if he reverts back to the form he has showed for the most part at Dallas, he won't be starting and might not even be in Germany. If Reyna and JOB are healthy, I'd much rather see Donovan up top with McBride if Johnson isn't playing at his best.
Maturity is huge on any team. If he isn't fitting in then the team is better off without him. Look at TO and the Eagles. I doubt he's that bad, if he actually does have an attitude problem, but I'm just saying it's possible. I know he's a demi-god to many US fans, but you can't just turn the other way to all of this.

i must ask, where has Johnson talked about teeammates and alienated the locker room as Owens has done repeatedly?

[rhiggz]

i must ask, where has Johnson talked about teeammates and alienated the locker room as Owens has done repeatedly?

I never said he was like Owens. I just said attitude problems can be important and cause teams to be worse off. If you look at what I said, I never said I thought he was like TO or that I thought he had attitude problems. I just said it was a possibility and if this is true, the team could be better off without him. I never accused him of anything.

[BED-STYPUNDIT]

I never said he was like Owens. I just said attitude problems can be important and cause teams to be worse off. If you look at what I said, I never said I thought he was like TO or that I thought he had attitude problems. I just said it was a possibility and if this is true, the team could be better off without him. I never accused him of anything.

well, if the attitude problem is a distraction, why has everyone in camp or in the past with the national team has praised him, and not because of the performance?

[Cavalier]

"We also learned that Johnson has recovered from his toe injury well enough to run away from the goal."

This much at least was true from the article. I think he's a great player and realize he is just coming back from injury, but like Quaranta heading straight across the field constantly, it seems like if he doesn't get the ball in space facing the goal, Eddie becomes very one dimensional in his thinking. He needs to mix it up more and try turning on defenders instead of always pushing it back out.

[seeds]

I can see how Eddie's start with the national team could have the same effect it had on LD and Mathis after the last WC. with those two you could could see it on the field at times during the rest of that MLS season. Mathis certainly carried that attitude to Germany with him. It took a while for some of the guys to get their heads screwed back on straight and start to think about what kind of club pros they wanted to be.

EJ's start with that game against Panama and some good follow up performances could easily have the same effect...making think he had ARRIVED. it doesn't take much to see how a kid in MLS could get a little ahead of himself.

I don't think Bruce will let a problem like that fester until the World Cup team is to be selected. Bruce will make it clear to Eddie NOW "you haven't proven you should be on this team until we see the productivity we saw last year again, and that includes here and with your club team."

if Edddie starts this sunday, he'll have a talk like that from Bruce fresh in his mind.

[kurgen99]

All I can think about is the stupid video of Dempsey freewheeling rapping and EJ sitting next to him having a good time and laughing, and him on the sidelines making fun of Clint's goal dance and laughing his grown ass man's butt off.
Maybe he is different with the club guys.

[TxFan]

that's a ridiculous article. ives is a terrible writer. he is always getting "than" and "then" confused. shoddy work.

so eddie isn't a perfect man? big deal.

[TxFan]

Galacrep wrote to me a very negative peace instead of the definitive truth, and that is unlike ESPN soccer writers.


great points. how can espn print an article without a single source?? even trecker occasionally cites unnamed sources...

total hit piece.

[soccertom]

He doesn't need to mature...he's a grown ass man. Don't these idots know that?

Hee hee. Good one! :D

[JohnR]

You might be right. But you might not. I remember the uproar when the first articles came out whispering about Clint Mathis's work ethic. Outrage on these boards about skanky journalists who would print any sort of lies.