guilty as charged as well, Cory's one of my favorite players i havent exactly made my intentions secret . Just desperately want to see him back in the fold after all he's been through. like Vann said, we know the capacity he can play at, we've all seen it, and it is good. Its all about capacity at this point and i think Cory has the capacity to make a case between now and january for that January callup. dont think thats rushing it incredibly much, not like we're plugging him into the WCQ campaign or anything here This is precarouisly like the JOB situation at the same time, and im hoping for an exact reverse of that. The parallels are frightening though. Where JOB literally fell apart, im hoping karma shines brightly upon Gibbs and he doesnt have an injury the rest of his career. I hope baby Jesus can see that hope through, that would be very awesome of him.
Gibbs needs to sign first. Get back into form and see if he can play at the level he use to. He was called up for the March Friendly against Poland but he didn't even come on as a late sub. He has work to do. I hope he can get back to his old ways, but he needs to sign for L.A. ASAP.
Didn't we have the .... "Cory will now start games and we can have him back in National Team camps and games in a couple months!" talk about 6 months ago? or was it a year ago? or was it before that? Cory - I just hope you get healthy enough to actually play again. That said, I'm not holding my breath for him to be the defensive savior for the USA National team... if it happens great... but I just want the guy to try playing first... and hopefully if he's in MLS he'll be more motivated than the last time he was here.
You San Jose guys don't have to hate Cory yet! He's going to Colorado: http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_ives/2008/08/eddie-lewis-set.html
Not so fast! http://www.goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=823847 {Lengthy interview and career summary, concluding with ...} .... But for how long will Gibbs be “here”? He has been through this before -- returning to MLS, finding his feet -- and he skedaddled back to the Old World before you can say Dallas Burn. It’s understandable, his desire to succeed in Europe and prove that he can hang with the best players on the planet. It’s even more understandable when you imagine the sour taste in his mouth every time he thinks about his abilities and tries to reconcile them with the way things ended in Europe. “Yeah, a bit disappointing,” he says, sighing. “I spent two years in England and I wasn’t able to get myself fit enough to play. But I definitely see myself back there in the future. Definitely.”
Gibbs is retiring ... http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/sns-tsn-ahn-gibbs-chi-20121126,0,3275609.story
Could have been one of the greats if not for the injuries imo. Shame, but good for him for being able to come back pretty much every time and play at a professional level.
Defintely one of my favorites over the years. What could have been........... He oozes class on and off the field. I have to say, while it wasn't a regular occurance, Pope and Gibbs was my all-time favorite CB pairing for the US. They just worked well together and were so confidence, yet so smooth defending and moving the ball. I hope he gets that chance to coach and continue in the game as he wishes. I don't think he should have any problem finding a club willing to give him a chance.
I never thought he was more than a useful cog in the machine but feel bad for his injuries. Done at 33.
A lot of us will disagree with you. He was on the verge of becoming a USMNT regular at CB. But sadly, we'll never really know.
I think he probably would have been our starting LB in Germany in 2006 if he hadn't injured his knee during the send-off series. I remember they filmed and aired the moment the coaches informed him of the severity of the injury and let him know that he wouldn't be making the trip. That was a gut-wrenching clip.
A bit odd since they only played together 2 times. in 2005 - @ T&T and vs. England in Chicago (Pope only played 45 minutes). They played together 3 other times with Gibbs on the left. Best of luck to Cory. Heard very good things about him from members of the (then) Brown coaching staff.
Sure, but you also thought Robhino was left footed - and he's going back to Brazil! btw. Cory, when healthy was an exceptional athlete and very good back and, most importantly, one of the few players in the pool who had a chance of letting us at time legitimately play a 3 in the back. He was an excellent man-marker. He was not an exceptional attacking player, but was easily more skilled going forward as, say, a stay-at-home Heydude circa 2002. LB has often been an issue for us and I think a healthy Gibbs could have been more than a "useful cog" in the machine, especially since our machine lacked that cog altogether at times.
I remember that as well. He dominated that day, arguably a Man of the Match performance. Very sad. Cory was one of the many prime-age players either slowed by injury or missing altogether for Arena... Gibbs (injured, off squad) O'Brien (injured, with hindsight should have been off squad) Olsen (injury killed his speed and effectiveness on the flanks) Wolff (injury killed his speed and effectiveness at forward) Mathis (self-inflicted lack of fitness and form, off squad) Those 5 in their prime would have made a difference. Of course, every country has its injury challenges. But we didn't have the depth to recover from those losses. Best of luck to Cory as he moves into the next phase of his career!
Before Gibbs had his run-ins with injuries, he was one of my all time favorite national team defenders alongside Tony Sanneh. Wish him the best from here...
I hope you're right about that, Florida. I guess I'm just trying to protect myself from getting my heart broken by Stu the way my heart was broken by JOB. I feel like I spent a decade telling myself it was premature to write JOB off, that he could still come back from injury and realize his full potential...
Left-footed, right-footed ... what's the difference? He was if you tried to beat him on power and/or speed. He was not very good in space and reading the passing lanes. There were ways to structure that 2006 team that Arena never tried and those he did try never worked out. Back then 4-4-2 was the end-all/be-all for the US and any 3-5-2 formations would have featured Bocanegra in that spot anyway.