I love how scrappy the convo gets in BigSoccer. And of course I like to perseverate. I think most BigSoccer members perseverate. Although I was not perseverating in my previous post, as I have never mentioned Michael Bradley on Big Soccer. I was merely wondering if he is a true goalscorer as he has not shown that before. I think he will be great for USMNT. Strong on the ball, good passing, toughness. But apparently some people have thin skin about Master Bradley. Probably thinner than he does. So if there is even a hint of criticism, out come the knives. I find it an unfortunate trait of US soccer fans. So hopeful of success, that no one dare criticize anything. Hopefully US soccer will grow with a diverse fan base, not afraid to criticize. As for the yellow cards, Soccernet has him down for 21 since 2005. And that doesn't count the U-20 World Cup. So maybe 'walking yellow card' was a bit harsh, but I would say he has a proclivity for perseverating yellow cards. Highlights - Yes, Highlights. I had Setanta for a while and they showed 'highlights' of the Dutch Eredivisie on which they showed Michael Bradley score some scrappy...uh, 'aware' goals. Any other questions?
1. Your sample is pretty skewed if you think that Michael Bradley elicits only defensiveness among US fans. He has his fair share of detractors and the vibe you're attributing to "US Fans" is due more to the fact that you've stumbled onto this pre-existing rift than to any general trait. 2. I doubt if anybody is insisting that he's a true goal scorer. In fact, it's hard to swing a dead cat around YA these days without hitting a post saying that Bradley's goals come from good off the ball movement, combination play, a soccer brain...in other words he typically doesn't make his own goals. The fact remains, however, that he's scoring a lot of goals right now when he wasn't before. That's worth a little commentary. And it's a bit perplexing, shall we say, when some jasper blows into town to explain the obvious: he's not a natural goal scorer and gee maybe he won't be scoring so many goals next year. 3. Scrappy is a compliment for a fox terrier.
Not really. For H'veen his role when in defense or transistion: --------------fwd------fwd--------------- ------------------------------------------ ------l-mid-------bradely------r-mid-------- -------------------d-mid-------------------- in attack it's often: ------fwd--------bradley--------fwd-------- or -----------fwd------------fwd--------------- ------------------bradley-------------------- for the NT the base formation thus far has been --------------fwd------fwd------------------- ---------------------------------------------- -------l-mid-------------------r-mid---------- ----------------mid---bradley------------------ in attack one of the central mids will move up somewhat centrally as in the first first H'veen diagram. Of course, it's possible Bob Bradley may change MB's role somewhat. We'll see.
gotta say I'd hate to be a defense going against Herenveen right now...not only do you have to account for the wingers and forwards but then you REALLY have to look out for the runners trailing the play because Herenveen's attackers are now looking back for Bradley as a scorer. That's a lot of people and space to account for.
What is so interesting is the shift in 'veen's season. They started off awful in the back. They were getting scored on at random. Their keeper was shaky at best. Zuiveroon was a joke. I think Neilsen went back from midfield? and then Alves came back and that seemed to stop the bleeding. Then 'veen scores a wack of goals with Alves, then he leaves and they keeping scoring. It's pretty nutty. And Mikey is older than Beerens.
The Chicago Sockers mix their kids up for indoor leagues and give the teams big-club names, like Sockers U13 Barcelona or Sockers U16 Bayern. This year, I noticed ... Sockers U14 Herenveen. A 20 year old tearing up Eredivisie, wow. This is what we thought Freddy would be doing, not to say that he won't in a couple of years, but man this is happening now. It's just really great to see a young American playing like this.
I only saw bits and pieces of the U20 Worlds, and couldn't tell you a thing about MB from what I saw, but he did make the all-tournament team. Over Altidore, even. Maybe that was just another stupid all-tournament selection, wouldn't be the first time. Or maybe the voters saw something.
Agreed. He was by far the best defensive midfielder I saw in the tournament, and I watched most of the matches. He got stuck in, won the ball and the made great decisions in moving it forward to the attackers. With Adu and Altidore doing so well, his performance didn't gain the notice it deserved in the media, which still really only recognizes goals, but all the teams we played against knew who he was. On top of that, while Freddy may wear the armband, Mike is the real captain of that team if you ask me, and I could see him wearing the armband for the senior side in the future.
Guys, you should really know how fantastic it is to me, and a lot of other sc Heerenveen fans, to know that people in America are talking about our club, and about our players. I'm really really really proud of me being a 'feanfan'* now, and that our club is doing so well lately Just because the expectations of this seasons were that we would end in 5/6th place, but surprisingly enough we're doing great now! It's just a great feeling that a little club like Heerenveen, with a stadium of just 26.000 capacity (There are about 4 bigger stadiums in Holland), is well known in other country's oversea now, just because a American player is our topclub scorer (And yeah, he IS really great!). By the way: Ajax is 2-0 ahead of Feyenoord, which would mean that we're virtually 3th, which is great! Next week against PSV Eindhoven. I hope we cann surprise everybody! Sorry for my english, but I'm just a 14 year old Dutch boy (*that's how we call us, because Heerenveen is in Frisian (language of our area in Holland) Hearrenfean, so we call us: Feanfan) Some sites about sc Heerenveen for who's interested: www.sc-heerenveen.nl (official site, if you want to see our games PM me and I'll give you a link to all the games (highlights + goals)) www.feanonline.nl (all news about the club + all games (highlights)) www.feanfans.nl (pictures from the fanside (every game)) www.forzaheerenveen.nl (movies from the fanside (every game)) WANNA SEE HIGHLIGHTS + THE GOALS OF A HEERENVEEN MATCH: PM ME AND I'LL GIVE YOU THE LINK!!!
Don't worry. The scouts I spoke to, who didn't know him, clearly saw it. The tourney evaluators saw it and put him on th eall tourney team. The Bradley case really makes me sad for US Soccer. Maybe it's just these boards, which is why I can't come here often. The guy has been pointed out as a real prospect/quality youngster, by quite a few different evaluators (on different levels), where one would personnally have more real pro/playing experience/evaluating ability than quite possible 95% of the people on these boards combined, and some of the stuff I read is mind numbing. Little Mikey really would be appreciated, respected and understood in a sophisticated soccer country for his play now, and his potential. Yet people nit pick, blast dad, look for anything, etc, etc... ...and he is only 20. It is frustrating and sad. It's why it's taking us so long ot take the next step forward. On a whole, coaches/USSF fans, we just don't get it. Said it a million times. Still holds true. A foreigner comes over here, first critique is "we are tactically naive." Out best players go over to Europe and first critique, "our guy is tactcially naive." The message never changes. Always told that we don't know enough about the intracies of the game...across the board. In MLS we cleary play a physical game where young skilled Yanks don't have much of an environment to thrive. Fact for anyone watching who isn't biased. Not a bash, just our style and what MLS has done over the years, yet we sit here arrogantly, even though it is obvious to all others, with tons more experience, where our current issues are... ...the brains. We lack the brains. It's a shame really. We are Cuba mentally when it comes to the game. Stuck in a time warp, and only making strides painfully slowly, and it seem sonly when we are forced - such as pathetic U17 display pathetic WWC display poor WC2006 with a coach who had one plan only and zero abilty to do anything else -looks like we only will make small strides each time we fall on our face because we have so much experience/knowldege here that we know better of course. Sigh. Mentally, most of our teachers, USSF heads, and many fans are still Dark Age material. I see a move forward thand goodness. I could come so much more quickly, but it won't.
I'm not sure I get the overarching point of your post. On the one hand it sounds like you're complaining that we're criticized for tactical naivete; on the other it sounds like you're criticizing us for tactical naivete. I'm pretty sure you're making a very incisive point -- I just want to make sure I'm properly understanding it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P2PTV When using Sopcast the more people there are the better the stream. That is why everyone on Yanks Abroad should have Sopcast and click on the stream, and leave it on even if you aren't watching it. The fact that the Herenveen games are choppy means nobody is watching them except us and a handful of people.
I'd like to defend my nerdy computer knowledge. I don't know a lot but I think I know this much. I understand how P2P works, generally. The reason I said this was that this was a direct windows media stream, which has shown signs before of collapsing whenever too many people watch it. It has a limited amount of bandwidth that slows it down when too many people are using it. I'll stop now while I still know what I'm talking about it. The Sopcast wasn't working (for me at least).
In Holland, everybody goes to the stadium or watches it on TV, but there are also people who see it with P2P. Lately there are more and more, because I explain them that they can see it for free!
Yeah, I'm sorry but I really don't believe you! I've only got English for 2 and a half year, so it's almost impossible that kids, who have been talking english for 14/15 years get beaten in their own language by youngsters from Europe I'm not even the best one in my class, I got a 6 so far (which is on a scale from 1 to 10), but I don't think you'll understand that, 'cause you got something with A to E isn't it? I think that I'll have a C/B then.
Your english is excellent, especially for a recent learner. Keep up the good work. And thanks for all your links and information. It's very much appreciated around here.