Um... Palacios has actually been at Spurs for a while now. And he's a defensive midfielder. Do you mean Valencia?
Donovan is just protecting his own turf while he still can. In a few years, once Adu matured, LD will be forced to a sidekick role. This team will be Adu's team. I just don't see the passion, desire, grit, ego, ATTITUDE in LD to be a leader/captain of a team. You know, the FU attidude that Adu gave the Argentine winger in NY; the "You're my b*tch" attititude he gave the Brasil U20 team up in Cananda"). That's the kind of ATTITUDE we need to lead a team in international competition.
That's true. Donovan is threatened by Adu. It was out of line for Donovan to single out Adu when there are a myriad of players who would fall under the same category and when Donovan's orange slice team just put on the performance it did. Donovan can f-off.
Right, let's make this into an argument that forces us to choose whether we're Facebook friends with Donovan or Adu. Because this his high school and you can only like one. And you can only put one or the other on the field. And, FWIW, I don't think a guy whose handle is "DempC" needs to spend too much time complaining that Donovan is putting in lazy, lackluster performances.
Except when he first went over and was getting sub minutes for Benfica - and put in 5 goals in limited (~420) minutes. DC United certainly did well when he was there too, although any self-respecting Euro coach would dismiss MLS results out of hand. I don't disagree with that being the reasoning of his coaches, I just disagree that the perception is reality. He's produced everywhere he's gone when he's been allowed to play. And not just against Mickey Mouse defenses - he was the most dangerous player on the field against both Spain and Argentina last summer, beating guys like Puyol, Xabi Alonso, Mascherano and Gago. That's why he needs to stop listening to his heart (Benfica's calling! Monaco is a prestigious club!) and go somewhere he'll play consistently. If that ends up being Segunda Division, fantastic, if it's a loan to one of the non-big 3 in Portugal, great.
Well, Dempsey's not going around calling out players that didn't even play. And Dempsey's form has been poor for the nat's of late. Mind you, Dempsey literally went straight from an EPL season into nat's camp. Regardless, I'm a huge Dempsey fan, but if he has a poor performance, it is what it is. He's not playing well for the nat's...nobody is. I think there's a something wrong with morale as well. I was simply calling out Donovan's obvious influence against Adu's PT. It's a safe bet that Donovan, as a highly influential vet, makes those same feelings known about Adu to the coaches.
And in Dempsey's defense, I was unfair when I said he was playing lazy soccer. I just had a look at the ground he's covered this tournament. I think he's covered more than anybody on any team. So lackluster, maybe. And weird at the end of the Brazil game. But not lazy. But the whole team sucks right now.
Again with the conspiracy theories against Freddy. Adu is not a one-for-one sub for Donovan. In fact, has Adu ever subbed in for Donovan? If Adu was an asset to the team, Bradley would figure out a way to get him on the field. Bradley is no genius, but he has generally gotten the right people to start games. That is not his weakness. Players that don't perform are dropped. Watch what happens to Beasley next game. From many accounts, Adu seems to be the guy in the office who does great at meetings with upper management, plays the political game, but doesn't actually do any real work. To pre-empt those who are going to misinterpret the analogy, we fans are "upper management," and Freddy's time on the ball is "meetings," and off-the-ball runs and defense are "real work." I could definitely be wrong about this, but this is not something new; we've heard it from at least a few of his coaches. A truly useful all-around player will force himself into the starting lineup of a team, and Adu has not done that at any level above youth teams since leaving MLS.
From what I've seen it would be more accurate to say he's the guy that doesn't seem to be doing much real work but somehow the team and its members just work more effectively and efficiently when he's involved. He's a facilitator, not a grunt. Unfortunately those employees are difficult to recognize and even more difficult to rely upon. Not because they will let you down, but because if questioned about your choice you can't necessarily point to a log of billable hours to support yourself. By choosing them you're putting yourself on the line. Unfortunately job security is built on meeting expectations, not stepping outside the box in an attempt to exceed them.
Interesting analogy. For me, its more simple. The game of soccer is so often 1-0, 2-1, 1-1, 0-0. For the US team, they often get 0 goals or 1 goal against top competition. Adu has a good track record- some would say great- in being involved and creating goals. We have very few of those players, and we need more. Running around the field is great, but scoring is what wins games. We have a lot of 'runners'. On top of this, at 20, he should still get materially better. Play Adu.
I heard that Adu is being scouted by Al-Ahly. If he does well against Egypt on Sunday, they will buy him.
Watching Adu's role in the confed cup, i have to wonder why he's on this roster. It's not that he hasn't played, but we've been in about every game situation imaginable, and he has yet to even be up and getting ready, has he? I'd love to see Adu play for a four or five full matches, and see what he looks like after the initial adrenalin rush. Is he on the gold cup roster?
I wouldn't say we've been in every situation imaginable ... we've been in many unusual situations. Presumably, Adu would go in the game as an offensive sub in a situation where we were tied or trailing by a small margin (when the US has the full complement of 11 players on the field). We've yet to be in that situation late in a game. At 75 min or so, when you'd assume an offensive sub might be introduced: Italy - down a man and attempting to preserve a win or draw Brazil - down a man and down by 3 Egypt - preserving the 3 goal margin needed to advance Spain - preserving a narrow one goal lead against pressure. Which of these situations would you have introduced an offensive sub?
No. We need twelve. Then we can spend all our time in #12 posting questions about it can't make the starting eleven.