EJ & Adu: Aris vs Paok (Superleague) 3/14 19:00 Greek/ 1:00pm ET

Ronaldo (the REAL one) is one in a million, not fair for freddy. For me the next best player right after Pele and Maradona. But taht is beyond the point.

Now CRISTIANO Ronaldo..... first of all, is a great player because he has the physical tools to do well in the modern game today, especially in europe(well mostly all leagues minus Spain where shorter players still can do pretty well) which calls on blistering speed and height. He not to mentioned hit the gym like a mad man with that thick neck and upper body. Not the same kid that was trying to earn fouls by falling over all the time his first couple of years. He grew into himself, and is one of the worlds best becasue he combined his natural gifts in his speed and height/muscle with his natural talents on the ball. Another player that will be considered one of the worlds best and top 100 ever in the game. Ronaldo had a superior grooming at one of the biggest clubs in all of portugal, one of the top 3 in Sporting. He came up through their youth teams, and later made appearences as a hungry youth player, impressing a sir alex fergueson when he played Man U. He was what 17-18 at the time maybe? Either way that led to him being signed by Man U. Comparable to Adu with DC United and before that being groomed by US U-whatever teams he was playing at as a 13-14 year old? No way. At DC he wasnt being 'groomed' and instead thrown in there to prove himself as a 14 year old, and being in a bad enviroment with hate in the lockerroom, Not comparable.

You know how it is to play at that age, what we were like playing at that age, imagine being thrown in there with your limited size and strength to compete with MEN that do it for a living, and on top of all that, you are earning TWICE what the highest guy below you is earning. NOT a good place for a youth player to develop comapred to ronaldo.

Messi is smaller, but he is 'thick'. He had issues with growth and testosterone issues, and lack there of, which led him to being given a chance at Barca'. His strenghts like Maradona, is to keep the ball glued to his left foot, to zig and zag and cut, and break defenders just based on this. Not to mention his incredible speed, and how he grew into his 'own' body as a small kid, into a stocky sized guy like Maradona. For Spain, his size is perfect. He is fast with the ball, his ability to NOT lose the ball, shoot, pass, feint, etc. Is waht makes him world class. He came through barca' and with tehir products like Iniesta and Xavi, Pedro, its safe to safe its probably better then DC United at raising a 14 year old talent, into a pro player.

Anyways, This is why i believe we might ahve a different freddy Adu that just recently would be getting playing time (at seniors side) at whatever youth team he was at and would have been brought along slowly and steadily.

Thats one thing that makes the US youth level of soccer different from that abroad. Academies look to MAKE good youth players, bring them along, success comes second at that level. Making a good product at teh senior level is the key. There is NOTHING (well maybe bradenton, but tahts not for clubs, strictkly for the youth NT) like that in the US, and Adu going straight to pro IMO messed up his growth. Had he come through at say Boca Juniors and his mom immigrated to Argentina instead of USA, or say brasil.... things would be most likely different.

 

Maybe it doesn't translate well?
The english version says 3 years at Aris, 36 games in year 1 (with the European Cup), 30 games in year 2 (w/out European Cup) and 30 games so far this year.

4 goals in year 1, 5 goals in year 2, and 4 goals in year 3.

Freddy has 2 goals in 3 weeks....honestly I watching the PL 7:30 game last weekend (Blackburn I think?). They raced up and down the field for 70 minutes with no sign that a goal would ever been scored. Seems like people who can actually score goals are in such short supply -- Freddy scores goals and then gets dumped on the bench as a result.

 

Toni Calvo in his first season.

Greek Superleague
15 starts. (Subbed off in 14 of them)
Subbed in 7 times.
That's 22 games.

Greek Cup
Can't find much, he seems to have played 6 games.

Greek Superleague playoffs.
3 starts. (Subbed off in 2 off them)
Subbed in 1 times.
Which makes it 4 games.

UEFA Cup (Europa League)
3 starts. (Subbed off in 3 of them)
Subbed in 2 times.
That's 5 games.

So we have 22+6+4+5=37 games.

He played 1191 minutes in 22 league games, that's 54 minutes per game.

Javito made more appearences in the league (25 games) but played 971 minutes. That's 38 minutes per game. So it appears that I was wrong to say that Calvo was Javito's sub. He played in 22 out of 30 games in the league (73.3%). Adu came in January, played in 3 league games (131 mimutes, 43 minutes per game) out of 10 so far (that's 30%). Of course he wasn't ready to play in the first two or three games so the percentage should be higher. Also note that Calvo participated in the pre-season preperation, when Adu came in the January transfer window, with little playing time in 2 years.

Now on the Cristiano Ronaldo/Messi comparison stuff, I saw some ppl mentioned it, he's not even close, but imo he can be the next Donovan or even better.

 

LOL. Agreed!

Adu is nowhere near their levels, but to be fair, not many players in world are either.

I do believe that if, IF, Adu can harness his full potentials, I think he'll be a much better player than Donovan.

 

I'm convinced that he's played for some good clubs but has always left on a sour note...a troubling pattern. He's got talent but the "intangibles" would seem to not be in his favor.

 

good news for Freddy if Meriem wears out his welcome...but he was at 3 of 4 clubs for at least 3 seasons

 

Agreed

We'll see, won't we

"Pride cometh before the fall"

 

Miracle Growth Soccer Food!

 

AKA HGH.

 

3 DNPs is not a major ordeal, and said so. But you can't make something not good into something good. I remember you were one of the "sky is not falling" lecturers on the Monaco threads. But the sky was, figuratively speaking, falling.

I understand that you have some personal emotional investment in Freddy being perceived as something that he is not yet. But cmonn gmonn, you've got to get over it. Not playing, now 4 games in a row at Aris is either good, bad, or neutral. My choice is "bad".

 

No, the sky is never really falling for a 20 year old. The sky is only falling for BS posters. It wasn't falling then and it's not falling now.

Try turning your eye to the whole world of 20 year olds trying make their way in world soccer for some perspective. Or if that's too "average" for you, take a good look at the elite, like Barcelona, which is highly youth oriented and develops a ridiculous amount of its own players. Just from watching what happens in connection with that club I know better than to freak out at Freddy struggling at 18-20.

I have zero emotional investment in misrepresenting Freddy [accusation removed by mod]. You must be making some false assumptions and not realizing it.

 

any EJ updates?

 

Who?

 

So what do you think? Is he better off in Benfica's academy or sitting on various benches of lesser teams around the continent? Please tell.

 

Benfica's academy? I thought he was practicing with a couple guys in a park there. I think Aris is a good place. Good coach, players that have made progress. Unless he and Cuper have a falling out, he should stay there for the 18 months.

 

I agree. He should stay 18 months and get the benefit of going into pre-season training with some familiarity of the team and coach. That would be a benefit he hasn't had for awhile.

 

The guy who dosent play Video games.

 

You've got to stop with the straw man arguments if you want to have some credibility. I don't think he should go anywhere at this point either, but when all is said and done, he would have been better off training and playing with benfica reserves for the last 2 and a half years, working his tail off for a call up rather than this nonsense.

 

You're not making sense again. A straw man argument is where I make up an argument for you, and then laugh at it. That's what you've been doing since you got here. "You were one of those guys that thought Freddy was the next Pele."
That's a strawman.

The fact that I heard Freddy was training away from everybody else in Benfica with a few guys that weren't going to make the bench has no connection with a strawman argument. For one thing, I didn't try to make it your position. It's what I thought. I'm getting bored with your incoherence, so I might start ignoring you at any time if you don't improve, just so you know.

 

he's not even in the 18 for the semi tomorrow.

http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_...make-aris-roster-for-greek-cup-semifinal.html

 

You don't say. Maybe EJ scores a brace to make up for it.

 

Paying attention to the facts helps.

There were no Benfica reserves.

 

Man you ladies talk a lot, can somebody refer me to the page the starting line up is in?