[HeMan]

Who has not lived up to the hype given to them the most?

The Top 10
1. Freddy Adu
-Going from Pele Junior to not even being able to land a loan deal to Odenske...now, he's looking at another season without playing time.
2. Eddie Johnson
-Scoring those goals against Panama and people thought he was our first world class forward...now, he looks like he doesn't belong on even a league one team.
3. John O’ Brien
-Probably our most talented player ever. But injuries ruined the once great Ajax project. His great showing at the WC02, knocks him off the #1 spot.
4. Clint Mathis
-Some may say O' Brien, but i say Clint Mathis was our most talented player that failed to pan out. He was great until after the 2002 World Cup, and his goal against South Korea should not be forgotten...but the fact, he fell off the face of the earth afterwards was a huge disappointment.
5. Jovan Kirovski
-our once great Man Yoo product, failed to even be a impact player for the USMNT.
6. Cory Gibbs
-The same deal as O' Brien except no where near as talented, but he did not have a great WC showing like O' Brien did either.
7. Bobby Convey
-Running up to the 2006 World Cup, he was a beast at LM for us and for Reading, but now he's a nobody at San Jose
8. Kyle Martino
-I thought he'd been a starter in 2006 and 2010 for us...now, he's failed out of MLS.
9. Justin Mapp
-He's probably the flashiest player we've ever had that has failed to make it big.
10. Eddie Gaven
-When he was a 17 yr old MLS all-star, he was the next superstar...now he's just a solid MLS'er



11. Santino Quaranta
12. Alecko Eskandarian
13. Taylor Twellman
14. Lee Nguyen
15. Heath Pearce
16. Chris Seitz
17. DaMarcus Beasley
18. Josh Wolff
19. Marvell Wynne
20. Nikolas Besagno
21. Memo Gonzalez
22. Quavas Kirk
23. Preston Zimmermann
24. Danny Szetela
25. DJ Countess
26. Chris Albright
27. Gabriel Ferrari
28. David Arvizu
29. Chance Myers
30. Sacha Kljestan
31. Pat Noonan
32. Ben Olsen
33. Adin Brown
34. Mike Magee
35. Ofori Sarkodie
36. Leo Cullen
37. Steve Cronin
38. Steve Shak
39. Jonathan Villanueva
40. Ugo Ihemelu
41. Tim Ward
42. Jamie Watson
43. Chris Carriere
44. Jason Kreis
45. Craig Capano
46. Nelson Akwari
47. Jason Moore
48. Jordan Stone
49. Roy Lassiter
50. Nick Rimando

Others-Kyle Nakazawa, Ryan Soroka, Gabriel Farfan, Michael Farfan, Julian Valentin, Greg Dalby, Edson Buddle, Alex Nimo, Ryan Cochrane, Jay Nolly, Zach Wells, Joshua Gros, Alex Yi, Tomiwa Ogunsola, Vincenzo Bernardo, Brandon Manzonelli, Felix Garcia, Jacob Peterson, Chad Barrett, Dax McCarty, Will John, Christian Jimenez, Matt Pickens, Jay Heaps, Tahj Jakins, Jeff Cunningham, Richard Mulrooney, Hercules Gomez, Mike Petke, Tony Beltran

[aarond23]

Wow you have a long list of dissapointments lol

Adu..too early to tell
EJ...still an outside chance to play again and even be good
O'Brien injured
Mathis basically retired after 02 or so
Kirovski...YES dissapointment
Gibbs...injuries but was he ever really THAT good we'll never know
Convey YES dissapointment
Martino...never was
Mapp..never was
Gavin...hmmm 50/50 here between 'never was' and dissapointment. Was brutally awful in the 07 Copa America if memory serves.

As for the rest of the list which is way too long, a player can only be a dissapointment if he actually had alot of talent to start with:

Twellman...never really international quality, got run out because we were extremely thin at forward pre Altidore/Davies. All hustle.

Nguyen? What exactly did you expect from him? Fringe player of fringe players.

Completely wrong on Beasley...the guy is a legend.

Wolff...slightly above Twellman in the 'lean forward' years.

Wynne? He's barely played way too early to tell.

Anyway way too many to go over and way too long of a list.

[Ganapper]

You seem to be implying that there was hype for the 50 some odd players you named after your top 10.

And a lot of the named guys are still pretty young to write off their career as a disappointment.

[Zoidberg]

US fans who still show incredible naiveness and simplicity with regards to the game and threads like this.

[ty webb]

There are some pretty interesting names on the list. However, I would not write off many of the young players on that list. Also, you can't fault players for injuries like O'Brien and Gibbs. I am still shaking my head regarding what Mathis could have achieved if he were focused on soccer.

Based on the thread title "Biggest disappointments in the modern era of USMNT history", I would add the amateurish hiring process conducted to secure a new manager following the firing of Bruce post the 2006 WC.

[hairynippleman]

i think the lesson that should be learned from this is...

you guys hype up guys way too quickly. everyone is the next big thing on this board...

it's sad. we need to be a little more realistic. these guys are what they are. some of them were and still are pretty successful professionals... what else do you want? did you really expect these guys to be world class players??? news flash... we don't produce world class players... at least not yet anyway. so stop all the talk about any and every kid playing on the youth national teams or little kj ahlo or even that ten year old who made the valencia youth team... the fact of the matter is that these guys who you fools hype up will NEVER live up to your expectations beacuse they are unrealistic.

all those guys in the top 10 were or are pretty good professional athletes. that's about where i expected them to be. i didn't think they'd be world class... they are very average professional soccer players... which is what we produce in this country at this time.

the other 70 or so listed include more solid professional american soccer players or some young guys who were hyped up that never made up. if you really expected ryan cochrane or lee nguyen to be world class that's due to your ineptitude... not their fault.

[whip]

Originally Posted by HeMan

Who has not lived up to the hype given to them the most?

The Top 10
1. Freddy Adu
-Going from Pele Junior to not even being able to land a loan deal to Odenske...now, he's looking at another season without playing time.
2. Eddie Johnson
-Scoring those goals against Panama and people thought he was our first world class forward...now, he looks like he doesn't belong on even a league one team.
3. John O’ Brien
-Probably our most talented player ever. But injuries ruined the once great Ajax project. His great showing at the WC02, knocks him off the #1 spot.
4. Clint Mathis
-Some may say O' Brien, but i say Clint Mathis was our most talented player that failed to pan out. He was great until after the 2002 World Cup, and his goal against South Korea should not be forgotten...but the fact, he fell off the face of the earth afterwards was a huge disappointment.
5. Jovan Kirovski
-our once great Man Yoo product, failed to even be a impact player for the USMNT.
6. Cory Gibbs
-The same deal as O' Brien except no where near as talented, but he did not have a great WC showing like O' Brien did either.
7. Bobby Convey
-Running up to the 2006 World Cup, he was a beast at LM for us and for Reading, but now he's a nobody at San Jose
8. Kyle Martino
-I thought he'd been a starter in 2006 and 2010 for us...now, he's failed out of MLS.
9. Justin Mapp
-He's probably the flashiest player we've ever had that has failed to make it big.
10. Eddie Gaven
-When he was a 17 yr old MLS all-star, he was the next superstar...now he's just a solid MLS'er



11. Santino Quaranta
12. Alecko Eskandarian
13. Taylor Twellman
14. Lee Nguyen
15. Heath Pearce
16. Chris Seitz
17. DaMarcus Beasley
18. Josh Wolff
19. Marvell Wynne
20. Nikolas Besagno
21. Memo Gonzalez
22. Quavas Kirk
23. Preston Zimmermann
24. Danny Szetela
25. DJ Countess
26. Chris Albright
27. Gabriel Ferrari
28. David Arvizu
29. Chance Myers
30. Sacha Kljestan
31. Pat Noonan
32. Ben Olsen
33. Adin Brown
34. Mike Magee
35. Ofori Sarkodie
36. Leo Cullen
37. Steve Cronin
38. Steve Shak
39. Jonathan Villanueva
40. Ugo Ihemelu
41. Tim Ward
42. Jamie Watson
43. Chris Carriere
44. Jason Kreis
45. Craig Capano
46. Nelson Akwari
47. Jason Moore
48. Jordan Stone
49. Roy Lassiter
50. Nick Rimando

Others-Kyle Nakazawa, Ryan Soroka, Gabriel Farfan, Michael Farfan, Julian Valentin, Greg Dalby, Edson Buddle, Alex Nimo, Ryan Cochrane, Jay Nolly, Zach Wells, Joshua Gros, Alex Yi, Tomiwa Ogunsola, Vincenzo Bernardo, Brandon Manzonelli, Felix Garcia, Jacob Peterson, Chad Barrett, Dax McCarty, Will John, Christian Jimenez, Matt Pickens, Jay Heaps, Tahj Jakins, Jeff Cunningham, Richard Mulrooney, Hercules Gomez, Mike Petke, Tony Beltran

Isn't this a sign that our COACHING SYSTEM IS MEDIOCRE ?? Guys, I can buy a 10 percent but this is almost 85 percent of our player production !!!

[bshredder]

This thread is insane..

Some of these guys are still in their early 20s and people are writing them off.. WTF?

But the biggest flaw of this list is that some of these players are only disappointing in that a whole bunch of USA fans had unrealistic expectations for them and were unable to properly evaluate their talent/ability in the first place.

[withoutthee88]

Freddy Adu is 19 years old.

...and some people wonder why Euros laugh at the lack of knowledge Americans possess of the game.

[BringSoccerToIndy]

This whole thing is ridiculous. How the hell is Beasley on there?