Not in the squad after heavy minutes over the international break: 🔢 HERE WE GO. TEAM NEWS IS IN 👇 #FULMCI #COYW pic.twitter.com/HtBHNiHaGx— Fulham Football Club (@FulhamFC) March 30, 2019
Starts: 📋 Mitrović & Ream return to the #FFC side for tonight's encounter 👊#WATFUL pic.twitter.com/GA90DnDhYe— Fulham Football Club (@FulhamFC) April 2, 2019
Ream interviewed after the match on the loss, relegation, what does the team do going forward, etc. Emotional, kind of painful interview. But, this day has been coming for awhile.
Just amazing how an ordinary MLS defender gets to play a full year as a starter in the EPL, gets to play as a starter for the national team, and yet so many other us players, who are equal or better than him, are lucky if they make the bench in a european 2nd division.
Come on. Your club is RB. You must recall how cool and professional he looked as a rookie. Good on the ball, great at playing it out, generally smart beyond his (MLS) years. Not surprising that some English club said "if we can iron out those problems, he'll be pretty handy." The English clubs didn't, but he still proved himself adequate in the UK.
No way. I was shocked that a Euro club bought him because his actual defending was, and continues to be, straight ass. I thought he'd be converted to a midfielder. Can't speak for the guy you're responding to, but feel free to check my post history on this one.
To be fair, he was a better than average MLS defender. Like now, he would occasionally screw up late in the game. Certainly an excellent 2nd round draft pick and 3rd in rookie of the year. My main memory is from that draft. He was our 3rd pick, as we had 2 in the first round. When his name was called (I think Richie Williams was the acting coach at the time), everyone was bewildered. No one had heard of him. He was not on any draft lists. Someone said "Let's (get out of here and) go to the bar". Our whole section emptied out. Who knew?
He started every game for the Red Bulls when not on national team duty, won a Defender of the Year award, and was an official candidate for Rookie of the Year (out of 3). Criticism is fair, but to assert that he was an average MLS defender is demonstrably wrong. Also, pissing all over him the day they get relegated is a little pointless. If he was good enough to single-handedly keep Fulham up ... he wouldn't be playing for Fulham. Is this the right moment to mention that a Red Bull manager at the time compared him to Rio Ferdinand? That didn't age well.
He won the team's defender of the year award in 2010. The other options were Carlos Mendes, Chris Albright, and Roy Miller. The MLS Rookie of the Year is irrelevant. Austin Berry won it in 2012, in an improved league, and was out of the game entirely by 2017. People were blinded by the fact that he was a centerback who could play a pretty long pass and ignored the fact that he was a mediocre defender on his best day.
In a league with a lot of stout defenders who thudded the ball out regularly, Ream seemed wonderfully poised. And playing a pretty ball - or even trying to play a pretty ball - was somewhat novel for rookie Americans in MLS. I was impressed by his defending his rookie year (was a RB STH at the time). One data point, of course. ROY is not irrelevant. It may not be a good indicator of future success, but it's a real time assessment of who's come into the league and played well at that time. The fact that Austin Berry won it might just be a testament to the fact that Ream has spun himself a perfectly decent career, even if he's consistently disappointed on the USMNT.
Boy, if only Fulham coaches were as smart as some people here they would have saved a whole lot of money. BTW, no end in sight for Tims dream. How's yours?
My mistake leaving out the word team from "team defender of the year" - brain was thinking it, fingers didn't type it. But best defender on the team still implies better than average MLS defender. As do his national team caps, being an every-game starter, and his lengthy European career. I probably watched a similar number of Ream MLS games as you, as I probably saw most of the Red Bulls games those seasons; I'm not even a big proponent of his, but I guess he did much worse on your eye test than he did on mine.
And we won’t have to hear anyone call him a “premier league defender”. So I’m all in on Championship Fulham. Too soon. In the end, it’s impressive that he played at all these last few years after what the Underwoods’ put him through.
Check out one of Tim Ream's most memorable plays for the USMNT, way back in 2011 Gold Cup against Panama at 0:51 of the video.
I didn't intend that to mock him. Being one of the best defenders in the Championship is no shame IMO. It's his level and he's done well there.