So i'm playing Fight Night Round 4, and anyone who plays games by EA knows that they have the ESPN bottom line thing. I happened to look down and I see it says Adu is done with the Gold Cup. I havent been able to find any links yet though.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=659845&sec=us&cc=5901 I think this is the right move for both Adu and the USMNT.
Kicker is reporting that Cherundolo may return to Hannover as well: Defender Steven Cherundolo should be finished this week as well. He is expected in training camp with Hannover, according to the team they are discussing it with Bob Bradley. http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/intligen/startseite/artikel/511190/
I hope Freddy's takeaway from these two games is, OK, here's what I need to do to get back to being me. I fear his takeaway might be, man, have I lost it.
Freddy just needs to play. Period. So, he needs to put himself in the best position to get playing time with his club. If that means leaving the GC and going to camp w/ Benfica, so be it. Here's hoping he goes back there and gets a fair shake and gets a spot in their rotation OR gets loaned ASAP to a team where he CAN play regularly. The kid still has talent, but he HAS to play regularly for a club.
Totally agree. The dude needs playing time. I think everybody is rooting for him to gain that super-sub role for WC 2010, but he won't get there without a year of club ball.
He's not a 1/3rd of the player we saw in the U20s, Olympic Qualifying, or even the Olympics. The fact that as badly out of form he was, he still can be average is pretty telling of his talent. But in this state, he is useless to us as a world cup player.
Agreed. He should not be on the Mexico roster or any other USMNT roster until further notice. He's just not playing well enough. IMO, he won't go to SA because he won't play. I hope I'm wrong.
I am a HUGE adu fan, but I agree. He is terribly out of form right now. Worst of all, he just looks slow and lazy. How has he not learned by now that Bob Bradley is looking for effort as much as anything else? He desperately needs to get regular playing time for his club (or any club). Hell, I would be happy to see him in Greece at this point, so long as he can start getting some regular playing time! I still think he can be useful as a super sub for 2010, but this tournament has nearly closed the door for him. His time is simply running out for this one. That is okay though. He is still only 20. Hopefully he will get some drive, passion, and playing time. If that happens, he will definitely be on the team in 2014.
I agree with the last three posts. Not only is he out of form, but he's not trying very hard out there, that much is very clear. I thought he would have learned that from our effort in South Africa. His "all talent, little heart and out of form" style where he his thinking that he can still coast by on his talent alone is not a good fit with the team. Unless he can change that drastically soon, he will not be going to the World Cup.
Bingo!! Lazy is the word. Alot of slow jogging in the first few minutes is not what a coach looks for. You see Davies coming in and I understand Honduras was tired, but he was flying going everywhere. That should have been Adu from the get go. I believe he was pacing himself. Adu get you some regular playing time. You definitely have something not many other players have, but only playing time can help you figure what works and what doesn't. Good Luck!!!
I admit that I haven't been following Freddy very closely lately, but it sure seemed to me like he was, if anything, trying TOO hard against Honduras. He seemed intent on dribbling too much, generally unsuccessfully against the Honduran defenders. That could not have been good for his confidence, or the confidence of his employers. It's obvious that he has all the talent in the world, but it's also apparent to me that he needs some new direction. He can't dominate games the way he did at the youth levels, since the defenders are so much more polished and sophisticated. I really, really hope that he can find out how best to utilize his skills at the highest level, and not keep trying, in my humble and possibly ignorant opinion, to beat grownups with the same moves that beat 17-year-olds.
Plain and simple: He wasn't good last night, and that's the last impression he'll leave on Bob Bradley. IMO only way he makes the 2010 roster is if he starts for his club this season.
To me, in addition to the workrate freddy seems to be uncertain how he should play; what role. That is to say, he seems unsure of whether he is a central attacking midfielder or a support striker. Last night, and Saturday, he kept showing for the ball like a central midfielder, making himself available for square passes and then backpassing or getting knocked off the ball. He wasn't playing like a forward, making diagonal and aggressive runs. It was weird.
I agree he wasn't great last night-- playing striker in the box when we are pumping in crosses from the wings will never make Freddy look good- he's too short. That said, man his little chip over to Chinger (off Heath's pass) was just sweet butter. No one else on our side, except possibly Dempsey on a good day, can one-time a ball like that.
I seriously hope young Mr. Adu does not read the posts here, because they do him more harm if he believes them. Harm because they are at worst delusional, at best enabling. Some of us sound like bitter pageant mothers of the 5th runner up. "You're better then all those no talents, baby. They just don't understand you" (dabs tear). Even those who critique, qualify it, like the ocassional cheeky chip absolves him from knowing how or caring to run off the ball. If he truely believes like many here do that it's because he's not been given a chance and not how he plays, then he will be, as he is now, mediocre.
Now that he is 20, a 5 year pro veteran right and promptly reporting back to Benfica for pre-season training the big question now is, where on the field does the Benfica staff see him in their plans. This will be crucial for his amount of clock and his chances to fill one of Bob's needs off the bench up top our in the mid somewhere. Get 'er done Freddy.
2 games, one goal, a couple of near misses and he set up his teammates for really good chances a few times. Why would he in any way fear having lost it? I saw a player who (like most everyobody out there last night) looked really unsure of how to work with teammates he hadn't really played with against an extremely quick opponent, but who still created the best chances of the game until he left. And a player who is struggling a bit to fit into a system of play that doesn't cater to his strengths. He looked a lot better than Logan Pause.
What the hell? The posts on here after the last two games have been overwhelmingly negative. 1. Adu is obviously out of form. 2. He mostly played like crap. 3. 1 and 2 does not make Adu a bad player or lacking of talent. 4. He still would have been a better option than Sacha. (This would be true of any game, played at any location, at any time, for all of eternity.)
What the hell? I guess you missed the near hundreds of posts qualifying his play with tales of "if he was just given more playing time" and "coaches who are idiots", "he's played out of position", "he's the only one who could make that play", "_____ should have_______ and Freddy would have scored"....and that from the barely enabling ones, not the delusional. Oh and by the way, thanks for adding to that with your number 4. A bitter pageant mom couldn't have done it better.
I can live with the rustiness. It seemed to me from about halfway through the first half, Adu was content to pass it back to the wing. Sort a mini-me version of Eddie Johnson. I wonder how he would have played had the ref called fouls.
Adu can become a good player. He will never be a great one. If he (a) stops trying trick dribbling moves and keeps things simple out there, (b) picks up his head to see the other passing options open to him, (c) gets in game shape, and most importantly (d) stops reading his own press from 2006 he will do fine.
Here's the challenge with Adu... Bradley has played him in his best position - the support-striker role. However, if we projected this to the full team, much would have to change to make the same accommodation: break up the Altidore/Davies partnership; ask the two central mids to play a little deeper; impact Donovan and Dempsey's ability to drift inside. When he's on, Adu has equal or greater ability than anybody in the pool in certain aspects of the game, including 1 v. 1, one-touch passing, creativity, riskiness in attack. However, to ensure the balance of the team, we have to weigh that against his deficiencies, like his defense and aerial ability. Within the US side, it's not enough for Adu to possess those skills mentioned above, he must display them on a consistent basis. Unfortunately, his play revealed the effect of not playing regularly. He was a little slow in the decision-making last night, and he tried to beat guys multiple times instead of playing simpler. Who knows - maybe some "impress the hometown crowd" thrown in there as well. It all felt like the performance of a guy who felt he had to prove it all with every touch.