I was at the stadium yesterday, so i can give you some toughts: At the first game (with Copenhagen), Adu seemed a scared boy without any idea of what to do (the previous manager is a bit responsible for this also, of course), and yesterday we saw an improvement. Adu moved well with and without ball and never appeared to be scared to play. In fact, he was the one who picked the ball and made the team go forward... He did some nice skills too , althought not very produtive... I was amazed how he was the one to score the penalty, but he had a great attitude and scored the penalty with style. He also scored the second penalty very well, and he applaused the Benfica fans, as we shouted his name . For Adu interests, it's very good that Benfica goes further in this League Cup (and also in the Portuguese Cup), because it's in this competitions that Adu will have a chance to play with regularity, in this first year. Ps: The biggest and most important sport journal here in Portugal ("A Bola"), named Adu ans Man of the Match! And they say the same i wrote: Adu showed signals of improvement, had a good attitude during the game and a cool head to score the penaltys...
First off, Bolo I love your post, but what I wanted to say is that I think Adu should try to take the positives and the negatives out of the game, obviously what did he do well, what did he not do well, how could he improve on it, what was the cause of it, something that he could easily rectify or something that will take some time, I'm getting that he still needs to work on his positioning and not giving the ball away so easily, and I believe he's working on those problems, I think that he will definitely need some more training, but I give it about a month or two and he should pass assis on the depth chart, if Adu was more committed to defending he might see the field sooner, I don't know, just speculating... I would however like to see him getting in for Rui or playing in the supporting striker position...
Much appreciated Bakero, both positives and negatives. In case it wasn't obvious, I think "Q" was just spouting off again, repeating a variation of his previously posted Adu opinion with minor modification to reflect the fact a game was played. I think you touched on a point which has been overlooked. Staying in the cup guarantees the young players time, which is good. If they produce in cup games, win cup games the club is in more cup games, nice situation if you ask me. The young players control their time on the pitch using the Cup as their showcase. I almost wish Adu had not taken the PK, then more would focus on the actual game-play as you have, good or bad. Edit: Just curious, were you able to make it from final PK to your couch in 30 minutes?
Did you "see him" ? Thanks Novastar and agreed 100%, heck I will take it step further. I wish someone else had taken the PK then Adu could focus 100% on continued development. The reports are that the PK was undeserved so I like to pretend it didn't happen and look at the game as if were a 0-1 loss. With that in mind the feedback from Camacho has been clear, they need to create more chances on goal, pass better, be better positioned and I'm quite confident all those things apply to Adu. My only issue was "Q's" first person representation of a game that was not televised. If he attended the game, I will gladly eat crow, if not his post were at best misleading because they read like he saw the game. I would like to see Adu make the bench in a few weeks, get some clean up time in any 2 goal spread games and continue to get lots of time in Cup games. It's a long season, match frequency and injuries should allow for more time as the season progresses.
If it was broadcast live, and Q lives in Portugal, I owe "Q" an apology, I was under the impression it was broadcast on delay. Just so I don't come off as a complete jerk (which could be easy if it was broadcast live in Lisbon) POV is important, we have been down this road before. Bolo:
Re: Adu Scores For Benfica Good sign that the Benfica coach has enough confidence in Adu to take a PK while down a goal to salvage the match
It was broadcast to my local (well not so local, but within 1 hr drive) Casa Do Benfica...if I wasn't working I could have seen it there.
Re: Adu Scores For Benfica Freddy must be feeling pretty good after the game. Let's hope this carries him forward. Didn't think the coach would be giving him a legit shot. I guess I am wrong. Go Freddy!!!
Re: Adu Scores For Benfica Actually, Freddy said it wasn't Camacho's decison. https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showpost.php?p=12845841&postcount=172
Re: Adu Scores For Benfica I don't get it. Where's the meltdown? I just read this on Yanks-Abroad.com and come over here to see the carnage. What gives? Seven measly posts?
Ives ... http://njmg.typepad.com/sbi/2007/09/adu-scores-firs.html Freddy Adu showed the first real glimpses of being something special for Benfica by scoring a 90th minute penalty kick and converting a penalty shootout attempt to help Benfica defeat Estrela Amadora in the quarterfinals of the Carlsberg Cup. Adu came on as a second half substitute for Benfica and calmly placed a shot into the top right corner of net to tie the match in the 90th before placing Benfica's first shootout attempt into the low left corner of the net. Benfica won the shootout, 5-4. What does this mean for Adu? ... .... {A growing number of readers' comments follow.}
Well that makes things easy, all "Q" has to do is say he made the trip over from Vancover to watch the match.
What you didn't know, of course, is that Butt is one of the all-time leading PK scorers in the Bundesliga--with *26* goals in the BL with Leverkusen and Hamburg before he moved to Benifica this year. Thus, it is actually surprising that he (a) missed and (b) was not the first to take his kick. He is the leading scorer all-time as a goal-keeper, as far as I know.
Does this make me the butt of my own joke? Some keepers are well-known for taking (and making) PKs, obviously, but my question still stands. Would it be better to kick first and get it over with immediately, with the risk that a miss would affect the GK's mindset the rest of the way, or kick later on, with the ever-growing pressure of the kick yet to come? I assume at the pro level GKs are pretty good at focusing on the immediate matter at hand, so maybe it doesn't matter that much.
So should we take that to mean that you watched the game live, on tv real time or on tape delay like the rest of us. If you watched it live from Vancover, do tell how? I mean your commentary 30 minutes post match suggest that you had actually seen it by that time, right?
so i guess vancouver is a dreghole, with no satellite tv, and especially no portugeuse clubs....true enough though we might as well rename our city van kong PCOV, a club roughly 10 minutes drive from where i live shows every benfica game. if im too lazy to drive, which i usually am i just use my satellite.. I try not to advertise the fact its free illegal satellite though.. But I get alot of crap on it, especially request channels saying " PLease, it is wrong to use illegal satellite, just come to us and we will help fix you something more trustworthy and with better quality. So just let us know who you are, and we will establish proper service" Please dont tell me your a spy attempting to catch ppl like me
Re: Adu Scores For Benfica I think if anyone is questioning Adu's character, the comments about yesterday's game is a great sign. Despite the fact that he hasn't even been making the first team bench, his confidence is sky high. I think that shows he is happy with where he's at and believes he's making progress, even though it appears he's far down on the pecking order. More than anything, I think this indicates Benfica has been a great move.