{Sorry for the repetition - same link.} My good friend Andrea Canales explains the Kirk situation for your benefit (and 'explains' for my benefit). http://sidelineviews.blogspot.com/2007/06/injury-fallout.html My espn review of the US U20 team, which opened their training camp in New York today, mentioned that Quavas Kirk won't be at the U20 World Cup due to injury. To some, that might seem a strange statement, given that Kirk went 90 minutes for the Galaxy this weekend versus Real Salt Lake, playing, ironically, his U20 position, right back. Yet when Rongen called Kirk last week to let him know in advance of the roster release that Kirk hadn't made the squad, he specifically cited Kirk's long layoff due to injury as the reason why. At the time, Kirk still hadn't returned from the foot injury to play for the Galaxy. Unsure as to whether Kirk could recover his form in time and be fully healthy, Rongen left him off the roster. It just made for an awkward distraction in the article to explain all that. ********** This just tells me what I already knew, i.e. that when Rongen had to pull the trigger on Kirk, Rongen was unsure of Kirk's health and could guess that Kirk was not in game shape. Fine, and I love Andreas' use of the words strange statement, ironically and awkward distraction. Nevertheless - if I have the timeline down correctly - just a few days after Rongen gave Kirk the 'bad' news - can't risk calling you because your foot is too iffy - Kirk was playing a full 90 at right back for LA. Here's a question for our expert panel. If Rongen had included Kirk in his 21-man roster, then later realized (before our first game) that Kirk could not play due to his bona-fide injury - could Rongen have replaced Kirk?
I think it depends on the exact problem. If it could be confirmed that he was not fit to play at all, then I'd guess that a replacement could happen. However, I think a bigger concern was post-injury form, rather than physical inability, and in that case I doubt a replacement would have been allowed.
And we were. Sometimes you have to play hurt. No one at the Galaxy wanted this situation. I don't think Kirk has ever even played defense for us before. But the only other option was Roberts and he is just coming back from surgury. (Actually, there was one more adjustment we could have made, but that would require starting Quaranta. The fact that we didn't do that is a measure of how far he has fallen - but that's a topic for a different thread.)
Quavas is not good enough to risk taking a guy with a possible lingering injury. JOB was a former superstar for the US, Kirk was squad level at best. Kirk played in the u-17's coming off an injury and was nowhere near what people expected, why would this be any different?
.... Rongen said the tentative starting lineup for the Chile match is meant to track with the expected 1st team for the World Cup opener against South Korea. Using the 4-3-3 formation that served the team so well in CONCACAF Qualifying, goalkeeper Chris Seitz will be fronted by the defensive line of Anthony Beltran, Julian Valentin, Nathan Sturgis and Tim Ward, ... ....
parece que hablo mejor que tu, y se supone que tu eres un hablante nativo!! Así que vete a la verga. translation: gee whiz martin, would you mind brushing up on your grammar and spelling a bit? It's a little tricky deciphering your sentence fragments, run-ons and phonetically spelled grunts. all that mouth breathing fogging up your screen? just kidding, amigo. I think your insights are always interesting and always have a little bite.
Two suggestions: 1. Read slower, using the dictionary as possible. 2. Don't be afraid just to let things go that are beyond you.
try again: ...using the dictionary as MUCH as possible ¿ya entendiste lo de "vete a la verga?" my monolingual mouthbreathing amigo.
No, I meant to question if you had the capacity to use the dictionary [don't you have better things to do than dick around about typos?]. No entiendo "vete a lar verga?" pero creo que seria mejor si no lo comprenda. Ya basta por favor.
Martin & Socks - No one else cares about your little pissing match. Please take it to PM/e-mail - or stop altogether - or you'll both have to get a timeout!
The curiousness continues as Quavas Kirk is int he starting lineup for LA tonight. That's three straight weeks of making an appearance and two straight starts for a guy who is supposedly too hurt to play for the U20 team in Canada. BTW, Kirk looked pretty good in the first half going forward with some nice crosses but he made a crucial error, losing Chad Marshall on a set-piece and Marshall nodded it in to put the Crew up.
Kirk subbed out at halftime as LA, up a man and down a goal, goes to a 3-5-2 and adds a midfielder for a defender.
Up till last week, Kirk has not been playing any games of substance in 3 months. You want players in top form going into a tournament. I know when he was here in Frisco, he jast rehab during the entire camp. He has talent but he had to play some, especially at a position he just started to learn, RB.
Rongen had an opportunity to replace Johann Smith with Kirk and instead took what ... the 4th forward? Me no likie.
Zimmerman over Kirk? With Johann Smith injured why didn't we replace him with Quavas Kirk, Zimmerman is a strong player but will probably not see the field anyways, Kirk has been playing for the Galaxy and seems to be over his injury so why didn't we call him up when we had the chance instead of a 4th forward to make our back much more solid?
Re: Zimmerman over Kirk? i agree, especially when we are already pretty deep in the attacking area with guys like altidore, akpan, ferrari, zizzo, and rogers and are a little suspect at the back with beltran and valentin
I think it's fairly obvious that Rongen rates his defense higher than we do here. May end up being the weakness that exposes us, but I don't feel like he sees it the same way as BS.
Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I don't like loose ends ... http://sidelineviews.blogspot.com/2007/09/q-in-pain.html Q in pain "Quavas did a pretty good job," assessed Frank Yallop after the match. Quavas Kirk, or Q, as he's known, was a last-minute replacement after Kelly Gray went down with an injury in the warm-ups. Thing is, I thought Q started well, but got progressively worse as the game went on. ... I thought I'd ask Q how his foot was doing after the game. Q has struggled with plantar fascitis all year and his normally cheery face clouded when I brought up the issue. "Man, it started out feeling ok, and so I could really play, but after a while, it was hurting so bad. I tried to keep going for the team, but it was hard." He's hoping it heals up well in the offseason. Considering that, I wouldn't expect to see him play the next game at all, because it looks like the effort in this match flared the injury up again. ********** It seems pretty clear that Rongen knew that Kirk was injured - and did the right thing - and that LA knew Kirk was injured - and did the wrong thing (over and over this summer). Anyway, LA came under intense international criticism for playing Beckham hurt, but it's much worse - imo shameful - to force a young player who lacks leverage to play hurt (even assuming no lasting damage is done).
I go back and forth on this. I would like to see everyone be rested until they are fully healthy. However, given our roster situation, we've had to play a number of players who were hurt. And while we realistically have little chance for the playoffs, I think the team still has a responsibility to go out there and try to win. Q is a professional and makes a lot more money than some other Galaxy players who have been rushed back from injuries.