Bo Jackson does run a youth soccer league thru his athletic academy by the way................... http://bojacksonselitesports.com/sports-programs/soccer/ I just remember that because their leagues for younger kids are called SMALL FRY leagues. For some reason that always stuck with me! Anyway, as far as this thread goes............ Freddy Adu ain't a flop. He's going to have a long career in this sport, even if it doesn't match the encredibly lofty expectations that some people actually believed. We've had many US youth stars that didn't even play professioanlly. U17/U20 Josh Lambo was the 8th overall pick in the MLS draft after being sought after by clubs like Everton. He never ended up playing an MLS game, and now is 2nd on the Texas A & M football depth chart at placekicker. How about Nik Besagno? U17/U20 that was the first overall pick in the draft. In 2012 he was playing semi-pro ball in the PDL with Washington Crossfire. He may have retired now at the age of 24. We can find hundreds of examples like this, and yet people still think Freddy Adu is a flop. Only because of their inflated expectations. Then you have a kid like Vincenzo Bernardo who generated much hype at Napoli, and played for our U20's. He's now playing for Deportivo Guastatoya in the 2nd division of Guatemala!!
See page one of this thread. The thing about injuries is that it's often very hard to say how much they limit a player's career. Also, some players' injuries are more visible than others.
Besagno was an MLS bust considering his draft position, but was he really being hyped to be a future national team stalwart? I had never heard of him until the days leading up to the draft. Also, I sort remember a ton of people criticizing Ellinger for the pick. So it's not like he was a can't miss selection.
I'd say Jovan Kirovski. Freddy might eventually beat him but I'm loathe to place him on the list because at his age there's always the chance of the miracle turnaround. He had a contract with Manu and led the reserve team in scoring but was never promoted because of work permit restrictions. Then played for Champion's League winner Borussia Dortmund but could never break into the first team. Same story with Sporting and Birmingham. Returned to MLS to become a solid player here. 64 caps for the USMNT yet was never selected for a World Cup squad. I would sum up his career by saying he looked like a Donovan but turned into a Ralston.
Ralston - you mean that bust who is all-time MLS assist leader? If Freddy Adu's career could reach the stability and heights of Steve Ralston, that would be a nice recovery at this point. I agree there is still time for Freddy. I hope can put it all together.
Freddy has gotten 17 total caps for the USMNT since 2006 (less than 2 a year) and has not played since June 25, 2011. He was called in once by Klinsmann for matches, early on, did not make the cut and has not been called in since then.
So, about 1/4th of Jovan Kirovski's USMNT career? Kirovski had 62 Caps and 9 goals. Adu has 17 Caps and 2 goals.
If you project Adu's 2 goals in 838 minutes out to Kirovski's 3702 national team minutes, you get 9.0 goals, a remarkably good match. But Adu's 3 assists project out to 13.5 vs Kirovski's 1, which is no comparison. If you project Adu's 2 goals and 3 assists out to Eddie Lewis' 5205 national team minutes, you get 12.6 goals and 18.9 assists, whereas Lewis had 10 goals and 16 assists. I think it's fair to say that Adu has been productive in a US uniform.
If you compare Freddy Adu to attacking option (failures) Taylor Twellman 6 goals in 30 matches or Ante Razov 6 goals in 26 matches, Freddy's numbers might suffer by comparison. Also, if you choose to compare Kirovski's 62 caps in 10 years and Eddie's 82 caps over 13 years with Adu's 13 caps in 6 years you might notice some differences. Again, certainly we hope Freddy might step foward and manage a club career, but unfortunately he has been called into one club camp (where he did not stick) since the Gold Cup in 2011. The bottom line is that Kirovski and Lewis were called in pretty regularly when they were available. A case could be made that Freddy has already washed out.
I find this unconvincing. For starters, Razov and Twellman were plenty productive in the time they were given. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, with Twellman, we waited 120 minutes per goal or assist, and with Razov, we waited 150 minutes. Those numbers are actually better than Brian McBride's, with whom we waited 170 minutes per, and longer if you take out his PKs. Adu comes out at 166 mins per goal or assist. Again, very solid production. More than anything else, Kirovski's cap total is an indictment of our coaches, who were blinded by the Euro pixie dust and failed to recognize that he simply wasn't that good. Until Kirovski came back to MLS, that is.
lol Eddie Lewis played defense a lot, how are you going to compare his goals and assists to an attacking player like Adu?
The OP did not say out and out flop. It was flop with respect to hype and no one's hype came close to Adu. Hopefully, we have learned not to put such lofty expectations on a 14 year old.
To put it bluntly, you don't seem to know what you're talking about. Apart from a brief experiment at left back, culminating in the 3-0 loss to the Czechs, Lewis was used exclusively as a left winger. The reason he got 82 caps is because he could send in wicked cross, and we relied on that as one of our main attacking weapons. The only US players who've registered more assists than him are Donovan, Cobi, and Reyna, and the latter two only managed it because they got a lot more minutes. Why are most posts that begin with "lol" so laughable?
I take it as a movie flop. If the thing costs $10 million to make and earns 15,000 bucks in theaters, then it's a flop. But if it costs $300 million to film, and ends up doing $15 million in theaters, then it's considered a massive flop. It's not how low you're in the end, but how big the fall. Freddy was put up there, close to the stars. Where he to have a mediocre MLS career until the end of his days, it'd still be a "massive flop." Considering that he was hailed as the "American Pele," heck, were he to be good in the MLS for a while like, say, Pontius has done, he'd still be a strong candidate for "greatest flop ever." A shame, really. He's fun to watch. You never know when he's going to do something awesome. And, when he does, you start wondering why he doesn't get more chances with his clubs.
Yeah, but people forget that Santino Quaranta was put up there pretty high too. He was supposed to be the next Donovan.
Conventional pick Tim Ream- I'm surprised more people aren't picking this one. Non conventional Charlie Davies- Depending on how you define flop, Davies is up there. There is no denying his talent. After all, after Bob accidentally discovered him in the confed cup, we practically became an elite counter attacking team over night. Remember when he scored that goal in Azteca? Remember the post confederations cup high we all felt? The world was our oyster and our prospects of making a deep run in the world cup couldn't have been brighter. Of course, we all know what happened next. In terms of expectations vs outcome, Davies trumps all (including Adu). Don't get me wrong. The hype was well deserved, but man was that an emotional roller coaster. Spector- The lack of quality service from the wings was a problem that plagued the Bradley era, and Spector's performance in the confederations cup made us all believe that we had finally discovered the answer to our prayers. I love the hell out of Cherundolo, but I think Spector delivered more quality crosses in that tournament than I've seen Cherundolo deliver in his entire nat career. Much like Davies, however, in was a tantalizing X factor that quickly vanished.
Look at where he is now vs. where he was projected to be. Sure it has everything to do with the accident and nothing to do with a lack of talent, but it's still a flop.
What's the point of restating your previous post without elaborating. How do you define a flop? I admit that I'm skewing the definition a tad, hence the "unconventional pick" label, but I don't think I'm that far off the mark. What is it that I'm missing? Is flop exclusively defined by misjudged talent? If so, then whose to say that a lack of talent is the reason that any of the previous picks fizzled? Sometimes careers are killed by being stuck at the wrong club, or a loss of confidence, or not being a good fit for the system. etc... Why is a car accident any different?
The BigSoccer Powers That Be are asking me to be nicer to people, so their feelings don't get hurt. (See dark knight Stan Collins Ismitje I'm being nicer ), but I really shouldn't have to elaborate on such a stretched definition. Fault, either by action or inaction or intentionally bad decisions on the part of the "flop". You're kind of a flop as a poster I guess some of those promising runners that had their legs amputated by an explosion last week in Boston