And the eyeball test also tells you that no one would ever call him pacey, which, though not a deal breaker, is going to be a liability on both sides of the ball. I am not saying he doesn't have the potential to be a starter in MLS, especially if he can play positionally smart. I am just taking a wait and see approach and hopefully he gets a decent chance.
I haven't heard anyone say that he lacked pace until you proposed it yesterday. To me he looks like he has average to pretty good pace. I didn't watch the nats game but if he looked slow next to Yedlin it is not a big surprise.
Brilliant! I'm thinking there is something like this that can be mined from "It's a Long Way to Tipperary"
Just saw this on MLS: News & Analysis thread.... The year Kip Colvey cracked America's big league, signing pro contract with San Jose Stuff.co.nz
Good article. Sounds like Colvey's journey to a pro contract has been a steady slog, with lots of hard work and dedication along the way, i.e. it has not at all been kipricious.
For the second consecutive season, @KipColvey finishes first place in the #Quakes74 Beep Test! 👏⏲ pic.twitter.com/4pwjJbksg2— San Jose Earthquakes (@SJEarthquakes) January 26, 2017 GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
Good thing Reno will have him ready. Wonder when we'll hear the announcement that Shaun Francis was called up?
Francis was called up Oct 11, 2016 by Jamaica in the 2017 Caribbean Cup qualification and scored a goal.
Kip played the whole game for NZ in their away 2-0 win at Fiji. I believe New Zealand just needs a win or tie on Monday at home to become one of the first teams to qualify for Russia.
So Kip Colvey is good enough to start for New Zealand against Russia in the Confederation Cup but he can't make the Quakes bench?
He was pretty invisible aside from that turnover. Lots of it was Russia's pressure, Kip and the All Whites were on their back foot all game. Maybe it's the stadium, but the opening game with the home team on the front foot, yet the crowd was pretty quiet.
Regardless, pretty impressive that he got the start with NZ in a major tournament like Confederations Cup. You know that the 1st game against the home team is going to be tough. Pretty impressive lineup of national teams there: Portugal, Germany, Mexico, Chile, etc.
While the sentiment makes sense, I don't think using the New Zealand national team as a metric is that good of an idea. New Zealand is a nation of only about 5 million people, and they don't have an especially highly developed soccer culture there. That's not a knock on New Zealand, just saying that a small population plus having two other sports that dwarf it in popularity (rugby and circket), means they aren't really producing a great number of high level players.
Interestingly, Simon Elliot was cut by our San Jose Earthquakes in February 2010 and ended up being voted man of the match when New Zealand tied Italy 2-2 in that years final tournament. NZ even eliminated the reigning World Cup champion in the first round and went undefeated. I'd say that is a pretty good metric for any national team.
I'll say two things about that. First is, 2010 was 7 years ago. I don't know what the New Zealand team was like in 2010, but that's quite a long time. It could have just been that 2010 was some kind of golden generation for New Zealand soccer. That kind of stuff happens. Second, I'm not trying to belittle New Zealand or Colvey's accomplishment of making that team. Obviously he should be happy about that. My point is that using a national team as evidence that a player should also be getting time with his club team is not a perfect argument. There is a lot of context that has to be considered first.