Mathis is a good pickup. Especially if we win our qualifying game for the Champions League. We will have a lot of extra matches and he will be needed.
Say what you will about the Galaxy being a nursing home and a retirement home for the 2002 World Cup team but the fact of the matter is that Mathis was a damn good player last year for RSL. First sub or 60 minute starter, he was an effective player all year for RSL and was fun to watch. I have no problem with him coming back to LA. Best of all, he MUST make Kirovski completely unecessary. They are similar players but Mathis is about 3x better at this stage. All it really cost us was 3rd round pick next year. Big whoop.
soccerbyives.net has a live draft/commentary blog http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_ives/2010/01/2010-mls-draft-commentary.html#more
Does anybody know anything about the UCLA kid we picked up? Who is Stevens? (I don't really follow college ball)
Bringing back Mathis has no purpose. No he isn't a starter. If he understands that and will be getting paid dirt cheap, then ok. They need to deal Mathis to some weak team that needs a veteran defender or whatever position he plays, midfield. I'm expecting 2 of the Brazilians coming in to come good, so. I don't know anything about Stephens
Mathis puts in the effort. He'll be better than half of our bench. I wonder if this is permanent or if Clint will be used as trade bait.
i will not question bruce's player picks, i will not question bruce's player picks, i will not question bruce's player picks… [small]because he made me eat crow last season[/small]
I have no problem with veterans, BUT we need to have more youth than vets, and the vets I mean are those 29 and up. Vets that are 25 is fine. We need youth with legs and speed. There's no telling what can happen next season with all the old bones, hahaha. We need some forwards. Gordon is slow, has horrible feet and doesn't score enough, he needs to go. Buddle I don't know about him, Alecko got injured right after we got him, but he seems to have technical ability. We need a natural finisher
No purpose? Are you for real? You realize how many more matches we'll be playing next season if we win our play-in match for the Champions League? Mathis is just the kind of player who can help us. He will have no problems fitting in with our group of guys. As mbar said he was a very good player for RSL last year. With Beckham and Donovan both being sure to miss significant parts of next season Mathis is just the kind of player we need.
What we need is an Edson Buddle who can finish and not look stylish. What we need is an Alan Gordon who can score. Ahhhhhhh.... forget it. Bruce Arena's Facebook page reports he plans to use Clint Mathis up top in 2010. In other news, Mark MgGwire was seen by TMZ handing Ricketts some steroids... that way NO ONE will want to come near our goal.
I know nothing about him but if I am not mistaken he trained with us a bit last year so Bruce certainly knows about him.
Here's hoping he sticks around. I don't know how Bruce pulls this kind of stuff off but he's terribly good at it. Clint is no 90 minute player but he's still one hell of a player. The name of the game is depth. A bench of Lewis, Mathis, Klien, Escandarian, and Kovalenko is really something to be proud of.
Here's info on stephens. He is 5'9" And a midfielder. http://www.uclabruins.com/sports/m-soccer/mtt/stephens_michael00.html
Stephens is a central attacking midfielder (or was at college level) who has also occasionally played on the wings. Has been probably UCLA's best player for the last two years. Very solid all-around player. That said, I don't think any part of his game really stands out.
Like I said, if he understands his role and isn't taking up too much salary, fine, but thats not our immediate needs, we need a forward. And he was just on our team 2/3 seasons ago, I'm tired of the Galaxy trading players then they succeed at other clubs, and the players we bring back in that we had before don't seem to work out. Yeah and IF we get into the CL, we aren't in yet. And Lando is supposedly will be back for the beginning of the season, but I don't know, if he impresses at Everton...
He also have USMNT U-20 experience and has scored, so I guess that's something. But I want to see the youngins we have get some time, like Bowen and Sesay. We have had Sesay forever and he has scarcely played a MLS game with the senor team
Mathis > Kirovski 'Nuff said. We added some youth (Brazilians), we added some experience (Mathis). Now I'd like to see us add a little more outside speed and a forward.
I've seen little bits of both Bowen and Sesay... neither have made much impression. You've got to figure that with the coaches watching them day in, day out.... and they still can't get more than a few minutes here or there, they probably just aren't up to it. They are young and projects, but it's not that abnormal that young players that show promise DON'T pan out as they get older. I remember reading a blurb about this not too long ago.... great players at 22 are a far better risk than those who are great when they are 17 by a huge margin.
Yeah I know. But I just want to see a young American phenom so bad, one who actually turns into a great player, a superstar, like in South America and Europe you know, found at 13 and by 20 are known around the world (Messi, Fabregas, C. Ronaldo, Bojan...). Its down to the culture in this country and the way we train our soccer youth and develop them, something has to change, hahaha. I mean Giuseppe Rossi is kinda that, the one to come kind of close for a while, playing consistently and scoring in Europe, but then he chose to play for Italy, so he's irrelavant now hahaha.
http://www.insidesocal.com/soccer/2010/01/galaxy-swap-picks-with-rsl.html Updated: I just got off the telephone with Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena: Here's what he said about Mathis: Clint Mathis ha proved to everyone he's a quality player, he's a champion and we want him to be a champion with us, too. ... I know him and he knows me. Clint can play anywhere in the midfield and up front. Arena observed that Mathis won't be a regular starter, but believes at age 33 he's still got the legs to make a difference: "There's enough there. We just need to lean on his ability and his experience." Here's what Arena said about Stephens: "Mike Stephens is an exciting young talent and gives us the local flavor we want."
So, anybody know anything about this Mathis kid we picked up in the draft? Eh, this year's draft was almost guaranteed to be pretty interesting for us. Only one pick (yes?) and no guarantee that any of the remaining players would be useful to us in positions of need. Seems like we did okay. This year, it's all about who we get outside the draft.
We still have a third round pick left. 39th overall. We got Josh Boateng last year in the 3rd round, and Kyle Patterson in the 4th for comparison. Darrius Barnes was the 4oth overall pick last year for the Revs.