This is ARIS! The Continuing Quest of Freddy Adu.

wow, Freddy long passing was really subpar for him...like he was wearing dead man's legs. However, runs were still there, defending was still ther.

One thing that jumps out at me...in the last 2 years I've noticed a greater willingness on his part to defend, but now he seems to be in the right spots ahead of time, where before he was constantly in recovery mode.

 

This skill we fantasize about only very few players actually possess, of course the Brits never have players like this and so have to adjust their game accordingly. Back in the day ( us South Americans)we used to mock the "British" style as boorish and un-cultured. They just kicked the ball and ran hard with barely any "Real" skill on the ball.

Of course now the Europe style, although not the beautiful game, has bled back through to S.A. now and not even the SA teams play the beautiful game anymore.

You want to talk about arrogance, in the 70's, 80's,SA snobs were out in full force, where we saw the European teams as inferior in skill and the soul of soccer. (although I do remember admiring the Germans for their technical skills)

I think actually that the games developed differently in that the climate made the game a lot slower and calm in SA ( the high altitude) Mexico ( the heat). you still see a lot of walking around to this day in the Mexican league! it's damn hot to run for 90 minutes.

Adu really is a throw back, he plays with a touch that's magical and impressive but that style also died out a long time ago. I watched that "style" of soccer during my entire youth and watching Adu really brings back a lot of memories. I hope he succeeds so a little bit of the past, when soccer was played with style and beauty, lives on in the present.

Adu needs to adjust his game and become more physical, which he's doing, and now needs to grow up tactically. I'm sure playing for Aris will help him immeasurably. I think Adu will be fine but it's interesting to see what the future holds for such an enigmatic player.

 

Good post..

 

This 'Freddy should have listened to Nowak' is a bit of historical revisionism. It's a bit much asking a 15 year old to play out wide in a 3-5-2. Even now his game would be wasted in a such a formation. He's in a good place right now. He's starting for a team in the 12th ranked first division team in Europe which is a significantly better place to be than DCU and MLS.

 

Its a bgetter fit for his style of play. MLS isnt good for a player with his skills starting out, because he is techincal skill first, and defense second especially at the position he plays.

If you want to do what he does, and be allowed to, you have to have experience, a good resume, and age. He didnt have any of the 3. Look at the guys that came in and played similar positions in MLS.

 

are you saying ronaldinho doesn't play with style and flair? no others?

 

Huh?

 

This romanticizing about Latin American soccer is a bit head-in-the-clouds. First of all, the only South American countries to consistently make the Quarter-finals and beyond of the WC are Brazil and Argentina. Second, only a handful of S.A players make it at the top clubs in Europe. There are too many cases of prized Brazilian players arriving in Europe and just fading away, when they were stars in their homeland.

Europeans don't go to South America because of the money. S. Americans who did succeed in Europe and finally go back (Ronaldo, Adriano, Veron) usually dominate. They are the very best players in their respective countries, and while overseas they learn how to create in a much faster, high-pressure environment.

The mix of footballing cultures and styles in the top 3 European leagues makes it the ultimate test of a player.

 

There are some left and Ronaldinho is definitely one of them, I'm glad he's getting close to his old form, that game against MU was amazing. Don't you think he gets a lot of comments like is all that really necessary?



I think a good corollary would be Robinho, an enigma of a player. Exquisite control of the ball but somehow doesn't seem to fit in. He's a classic example of a player who wants to play free and not fit into a system.

 

More proof that Freddy was just dead tired on Sunday.

" I couldnt be happier we have a whole week to rest and prepare for the next game. These wed/sunday games are no joke!"

-Freddy Adu

 

Remember Denilson in the late '90s? Unbelievably skilful player. Was like a one man highlight reel. Played at WC '98 as a 19-year old, drew a world record transfer fee to join Sevilla that year. Toast of the town. Compared to Pele and Maradona. Proceeded to stink it up at Sevilla, Real Betis, Marseille, and FC Dallas. But had cool stepovers.

I'm not saying this is Adu, but if you play thinking the game revolves around you, you go nowhere.

 

What romanticising? ITs fact. Brasil and Argentina are the highest exports of pro players! And yes, for every hit there is 10 misses, but they will continue to keep pumping out in that volume! Look at their league, and its very good, both in argentina and Brasil. Both leagues dont over emphasisze on defense, more so on offense, with defenders giving ample time for an attacker to attack. They are good leagues to make forwards, midfielders, outside backs, etc.

They also can hold their own vs. their richer European counterparts. Take out Euro' money and just leave it to pure talent, south america would be king all over again like in the 70s-early 80s.

Also you try to make it sound like argentina and brasil are LEVELS below europe, but look at estudiantes, the team that almost handed the world champs, and will go down as probably one of the most dominant barca's of their time, almost lost to a 'weak' south american side, with a over the hill Veron. Gimmie a break.

Oh yea, that same team recently lost to Alianza Lima in peru 4-1.

God knows what happened with Denilson, he was very good in the copa america 97', which i saw in bolivia.

He is always that one example that people will always use because yes, he was good with trickery, but couldnt do much past that. After his time at Betis he was never the same player.

You are just trying to say the majority of brasilians that come out and perform like him in south america turnout to flop just like that. Not true. But like i said above, for 1 that succeeds there are 10 that fail, but they will always be pumping out players like this that europes deep pockets will be after.


Pick out adu, take him from his time in maryland and insert him at the academies at either Argentino Jrs or Boca, or Internacional or Sao Paulo, and he'd be in europe right now probably being hyped as the next big thing, because he'd have been cultivated slowly in an enviroment where he could succeed in either argentina or brasil which their league is MUCH better for his style of play.

 

As somebody with only slight familiarity with Argentine and Brazilian leagues (so take it FWIW), I think the point is that Argentina and Brazil's leagues are in many ways feeder leagues.

Their teams and--especially--their youth academies do an exceptional job preparing players technically and, in many ways tactically, but when the very best of them, including the "flair" players, go abroad, they generally have to learn to fit into a system that doesn't give them a lot of freedom. And that's not just the "European" style; that's the style that seems to work when you've got a critical mass of players with sufficient athleticism and skill on the field. (From what I've heard and seen, Brazil is actually a fairly defensive league in part because its players do have that athleticism and skill. Mexico's Primera seems always to have emphasized skill over athleticism to an almost pathological degree--the opposite of the US--so their league looks different.)

Anyway, I think it's true that Argentine and Brazilian academies would have known what to do with Adu more than United could. But so too would most Dutch academies. (Really, any good academy is in some ways going to be better for a teenager because academies are about teaching and teams are about winning.) And the point is that if Adu had moved to Europe from Santos instead of from Salt Lake, European coaches still would have expected him to do exactly the same things that he's starting do at Aris (off-the ball positioning on offense and defense). He would have learned some of them already, and he would have had more time to learn them (he would have cost more coming from Brazil and Benfica would have had more incentive to bring him along). But he would still have had to learn them.

And I don't think Adu needed any help from learning to dribble. That he seemed to have learned by age eight. So I'm not sure how much technical work anybody at any academy would have needed to do with him.

 

lol, isn't that the next game???

 

Don't forget that Adu originally learned to play in Ghana. The foundation of his skills was formed there.

 

Yup. And he probably would have learned much the same if he'd lived in Brazil or Argentina or Mexico.

And probably not in the US.

But my point was that he seems to have learned most of it outside any institutional context.

 

Sucks pulling the hamstring. If he just rests he should heal up soon. But also depends on how bad he pulled it.

 

That'll tell a lot about his location come Wednesday.

 

Well he wasn't named to the squad, maybe the injury maybe not.

 

From Freddy's twitter:
"@overthere_usmnt huh? lol im not injured i just said my hammy is sore"

 

I wonder when that roster was made? I think his chance went to shit once Findley started getting called up. That spot was freddys, but he wasnt playing yet with aris at that point.

 

I agree with you. Freddy brings something unique to the US roster. One of the few guys when in form that can take on and BEAT 2 to 3 defenders. He will have to average 3 goals a game to even get on Bradleys radar..