Jozy Pk @ 5"+ [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnpjG_KSv8g"]YouTube- Hazirlik Maci Villarreal - Besiktas 2-2 [Penalti Atislari]‎[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi7pXYKnNo8"]YouTube- Hazirlik Maci Villarreal - Besiktas 2-2 [Besiktas Goller]‎[/ame]
Well, I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with most of you chaps. I didn't think Jozy fared overly well. And mind you I'm someone who the majority of the time defended his overall play at Hull City and the U.S. But thanks to the vast increase in talent of his teammates Jozy transitioned from the target man to receiver, and I don't think he did so overly effectively. In spite of the goal I thought he was mediocre, at best. He received so many opportunities during his 30-35 and on the whole acted to minimize them. I could get into the psychology of why I think it's occurring, but I don't think many here are interested in that aspect, and it's speculative, so I digress. I'll just focus on the facts. One instance where I took issue with his execution was on the floated ball to his chest. That was a beautiful ball to him, and I don't know why he just didn't play it onto his left to put him one on one with the keeper instead of chesting it away from goal and back in front of the defense. Another was his weak effort toward a rebound, late, with the score tied at 2. That's a ball that most strikers reach and have a decent chance at scoring from an angle into an open net. Yet another was a floated cross which ended about 3 feet away from him and he inexplicably didn't move one inch toward. That's a ball he could have potentially had a scoring chance with, or at least redirected across goal to a teammate. That's about a third of the chances he received all year with Hull, and now that he's gotten them, I don't think he was very efficient at finishing them. And there wasn't his typical Emile Heskey like target play where you could say, "yeah, but". Just one singular goal, and that doesn't erase all other memories for me like some people. I do hope the perception that it was a good performance is the majority opinion among potential clubs, though. And hopefully he drew some confidence from the sitter.
Since when is a full volley ever considered a sitter? I disagree wholeheartedly with your opinion of his performance, for whatever that's worth.
Duke, I don't know what to say, I disagree completely. He did very well for coming off the bench in his first action in a few weeks.
His first game action since the WC with less than a week's practice with new teammates (well new in that it's been well over a year) and he comes on and looks lively and scores a goal (and a well taken PK). Some of your 'facts' I just simply don't agree with your assesment (but whatever you are entitled to them) and others I have no problem saying it most likely is that he is a little rusty (aka preseason form). I thought he did very well but that's the fun of life, people can see the same things differently....
Someone's always gotta be the BS wet blanket... Jozy got a goal, played well, and things are actually looking bright for the upcoming season. I'm stoked for him!
Considering some of the chances that are referred to as "sitters" on BS, I have to assume the posters themselves are world-class strikers. Should Altidore be expected to bury that? Absolutely. But it was nowhere near a sitter. We see people like Torres, Rooney, Drogba, etc. miss similar chances all the time. For some reason we expect Jozy to put away every chance while players like Luca Toni are considered stars while being famous for needing a boatload of chances to put one in. Given the opportunity (say, first striker-off-the-bench level minutes) I fully expect Jozy to score 8-12 goals (in all competitions since the majority of his starts would likely be in cup matches) this season.
He was open at goal mouth on this cross. I've (almost?) never seen a WC striker blow an easy goal like that. It would have qualified for an "ugly misses" video on youtube. Yes, it was good that he found the spot where a striker had to be at that moment. He's shown some poacher instinct on that ball. But yes, it was a sitter once he got into that position.
WC strikers have defnitely missed easier chances than that. And no one is saying Jozy is WC. It's his first game back since the WC with less than a few days worth of practices. I'll forgive him.
I guess Altidore has to be perfect to get any respect from people. Goals don't exactly flow like water, so to get one in a game with basically brand new teammates is nothing to sneeze at, no matter how well someone who judges soccer players via a messageboard thinks he should play.
We clearly just have different definitions of what a "sitter" is so there really isn't much point in arguing about it. As for WC strikers blowing an easy goal like that, all you have to do is follow your own path to YouTube. You'll see the likes of Anelka, Henry, Drogba, Fabergas, Torres, etc. blowing much easier chances. Heck, as I mentioned earlier, Toni has been missing those chances regularly for roughly a decade.
He got my respect for getting into that position, I've rarely seen anything similar from him. But I'm really looking forward to a clip showing (close to) WC strikers blowing chances like that. The difficult job was to get into that position. Netting that ball was obligatory after his run. My point is - there's no reason to celebrate him for hitting this ball. But you can build some optimism on Altidore making this run; that was important, and nice.
Here's one of a pretty good soccer player missing an even easier chance: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXk-2LhAeVE"]YouTube- Lionel Messi INCREDIBLE Miss‎[/ame]
I think that was much more difficult, running at high speed with a defender at his shoulder, and the keeper sliding onto him. Altidore just had to put his foot there, after he anticipated the cross.
Here's another one that you might have an even harder time explaining: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5ZePItpHvs"]YouTube- Ronaldo - Worst Miss Of The Season‎[/ame]
I suggest you (re)watch some of Henry's games so far with NYRB. For example, 2 blown "sitters" v Dynamo: http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/6436405/ While not a sitter, here's another "easy" chance missed by Henry in the same game: http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/6436422/
This is a suckers bet. We've seen these before. Posters will post things, but it is never "exaclty the same" so it will be dismissed. Clearly, "easy" finishes are missed all the time - and ones that look "more difficult" are often because the player did not do as good a job anticipating the ball - which is a huge part of finishing. It was a nice goal, one many folks could have missed and good on JA for not flubbing it.
Can't wait to see the reason why this one was harder... "Clearly Ronaldo was so close to the goal that the only place for the ball to go was over the crossbar..." So let's review: Either he doesn't score enough or the goal was too easy... WTF does he have to do for people to be positive and/or hopeful about his play?
Lasch already got lashed for the comment. I get tired of those type of comments though. We heard the same thing after Donovan's miss against Tottenham. "Sitters" are missed all of the freakin' time by the best players in the world. What makes them the best in the world is that they come right back 2 minutes later and score a goal. The miss doesn't characterize the player, its what he does afterwards. Donovan came back the next week and drilled a bullet against Hull City.
These aren't mutually exclusive. Regardless, I thought duke's analysis was pretty off base. If I'm thinking of the right plays, then I don't believe Jozy had a chance of reaching the two balls duke said he should have made more of an effort towards. And regarding the shot that was saved, I thought Jozy did a pretty good job creating space to get a shot off, even if he didn't put enough power behind it. And while he's correct that Jozy wasn't doing the little things he had been doing at Hull, that was very clearly by design. He wasn't playing the role of a hold-up target and Villarreal were intentionally not playing the ball to him with his back to the goal. His job was to run at players in the open field, make good runs in behind the defense, and get at the end of crosses. In that regard, I thought he fared well - maybe not outstanding, but enough to put him in strong contention for a role off the bench at least.
This is what I was talking about. Again, even the turn of the body, foot placement, etc. all things that have to do with good anticipation, make a sitter a true sitter or one that looks "more difficult" or "off balance." Finding "the same" ball missed by a "WC quality" striker is a fools errand. But Lascho, you clearly know soccer enough to know that balls that easy are missed by top level strikers more often than one would think they should be. It was not a wonder goal, but it was not one that is never missed either. Top level strikers miss PKs, for heaven's sake. Ain't nothing simpler than those.