It's pretty obvious that one of Landon or Clint has to play up top because our striking options are pretty bad. That leaves one of the wing-spots available. Bedoya did well in the Gold Cup. I thought Sacha K was pretty crap. Brek (and DMB if he plays well in Mexico) deserves a shot at an outside mid position. We need width and we need to stop playing Central players wide (Holden, Feilhaber, etc.)
'Brek' as a name sounds like a guy who's totally gonna go roofie a sorority girl's drink, as long as his friends Chas, Knox, and Cole come with him to that rager at the Eta Epsilon house.
According to Wikipedia his name is Dane Brekken Shea. Brek for short. Does he have an international passport through Danish family connections?
Shea was interviewed on MLS Extratime Radio podcast a few weeks back. The conversation was primarily about his painting and interest in art in general. Its worth a listen. http://www.mlssoccer.com/extratime
Actually.................I believe he has the ability to get a Norwegian passport, not a Danish one. (despite his name.) One hopes that in the future we have Dane Brekken Shea and Mikkel Morgenstar Pålssønn Diskerud controlling the midfield for the USMNT. Who needs Germans when you can have some sturdy Norwegians out there? Norway isn't actually part of the European Union. I assume there are trade agreements between Norway and Europe, though. It's so long ago that people don't recall it...........but in the past Brek trained/trialed at Bolton (that was in the fall of 07), and ManU was even reportedly interested in his services. http://www.people.co.uk/sport/footb...objectid=20599744&siteid=93463-name_page.html
When FCD announced that they were making a "major player announcement" earlier this year, some people were disappointed when it turned out to be a shea extension. Seems like it was more of a major announcement than originally thought! Probably also dealt with release clause / transfer fee issues as well. For example: http://www.bigdsoccer.com/2011/5/11/2165915/fc-dallas-player-announcement-coming-thursday "So the big announcement is... Brek Shea’s contract extension? I like the kid but holding a press conference to announce it? C’mon, son."
i am following brek shea in the highlits of mls, every week. he is a very dangerous player, left and right footed, with great skill , great size and he scores a lot of goals in fact, the USMNT has to have a very , very strong team to drop him from the selection of players... it is incredible he has not been called for the roster of the gold cup team
Yes, that's correct. The explanations of these institutions will break your brain, but at the risk of oversimplifying, Norway is part of Europe's single market without being part of its single currency (this is because Norway has a lot of oil, which tends to pump up the value of your currency). I'm not saying that's false, but as the article also notes Shea originally had trouble keeping his touch at full speed, and the club has been doing intensive work on this for years. I think to say that he never had a 'touch issue' sells short all the work the team and the player have done.
It would be a shame if people saw the goal and went "wow" and didn't understand that there were probably 10 times in that game that Shea was a highlight waiting to happen. He pulled it off once, and you can't take that away from him, he was clearly MOTM. But I'm hoping that at some time in the near future he'll take those 10 opportunities and finish the play (shot or pass) twice. It would help if his teammates were as good as him. But the kid is right at the cusp of that "too good for MLS" level that Dempsey hit and Nelsen hit and Howard hit right before they left. I would also add that he seems to be a very smart attacking player for his age. He made great runs all night long. Yeah, that hair makes me take him less seriously. Now pull up your damn pants and get off my lawn. I've got Direct Kick and make it a point to watch Dallas just to see Shea, and he's been playing at this level practically every match for a couple of months now. You hit the perfect phrase...in MLS, it takes 2 players to have a chance of stopping him, and sometimes, 2 isn't enough.
Well excuse me then. "Dane Shea" doesn't exactly get away from the "loafers and no socks" connotation, unfortunately.
Yup he's been fantastic. At the beginning of the year I was an advocate for moving him into a defensive position.............but not anymore. I have no idea where Dallas would be without Brek this season. When Ferreira went down, we were all wondering how in the world FCD would score. And they still look sometimes like they need a moment of magic in order for it to happen. They really play without a forward at the moment.......since well, they don't have one. They have a winger in Marvin Chavez at forward, and he couldn't finish in a Thai whorehouse. Maybe when Castillo comes back from the U20 World Cup, he'll be able to step in. But at the moment it's set pieces or moments of magic from Shea or Jackson that are the only hope. Shea is just a mutant. He's 6'4", runs like a gazelle, his technical skills are vastly improved from when he entered the league.............and he's a fighter too. If FCD is in the Supporter's Shield hunt all season, you could make an extremely convincing case that Brek Shea is the MVP of the league. In hindsight the selection of Robbie Rogers over Shea for the Gold Cup squad is one of those unexplainable mysteries. In a way I'm glad Brek wasn't selected, because I wouldn't want him to sit on the USMNT bench for a month like Robbie did.
A mystery or further proof that BB is a poor judge of talent and/or plays pet favorites? Like you say, though, it was better for him and FCD that he stayed home.
I'm no great defender of Bob, but it's also possible that Bob saw in Brek a player vastly more important to his club than Robbie and didn't think that he'd be using him that much.
Well, Uncle, since your only tool is a hammer, that's the one and only way to look at it. The other way to look at it is that Shea isn't playing like a winger (seriously, Hyndman gives him free license to roam wherever the hell he wants, and that's a big part of why Dallas is so fun to watch) and Rogers is a winger and Bob wanted a true winger on his roster.
It should also be pointed out that there was quite an active thread before the Gold Cup, the 23 tickets thread, dedicated to discussion of who Bradley should call up. I believe I was the only advocate of a callup for Shea, which means I'm the only one entitled to criticize Bob on this score. (should I insert an emoticon here?) And I decline to do so because Bob made me happy enough by calling up Freddy. I would have been spooked if he had called up both Freddy and Brek.
Yet another thing to blame on Bob? Come on. Shea didn't really get hot until AFTER the GC squad had already been selected. Couple that with the fact that he looked horrible in his first two USA caps and there's no reason to think he should've been selected for the GC. As they say, hindsight is 20/20. You could actually argue that this player is further proof that Bob is a GOOD evaluator of talent since he had the gall to cap Shea before he really started to dominate. Obviously he saw the potential all along. Moving forward, I'm sure Shea will get another opportunity soon. He has earned it.