I don't get it. Every game Juan Agudelo plays in, all I hear is what a great prospect he is, how he's going to be a star for the US, and how well he played that night despite the result. Uhh...what? Against Mexico, he constantly played with his head down. Drove at his defender with no concept of anything else on the pitch. Tonight, more of the same. Dribbling one-on-three, rarely passing, I just don't see where all this hype is coming from. He already looks like nothing more than the next USA striker bust. Meanwhile, all I heard from the announcers was how good he looked against Mexico, and then how well he played tonight. Are they kidding? Giving up possession, firing ill-advised shots into defenders, losing control out of bounds because he doesn't play the hold-up game. I am so sick and tired of being fed how good he is. Just like we heard with Altidore, with Adu, with Johnson...why not just say our forwards are pedestrian, we don't have a single effective striker, and not trying to sell us this same bill of goods again? If someone can please explain logically where all the hype comes from, I'd really appreciate it. Is it just US Soccer again trying to convince us we have a goal-scoring forward? Yeah...there goes Harkes again, talking about how impressive Agudelo looked up front. No, sorry, he looked like the same below average player he's looked like every other time I've seen him.
Every time I hear someone ( Harkes) refer to a player as "promising" you know it's not going to end well.
Justify that. What did he do that was "very good"? Dribbling at 3 defenders? Dribbling out of bounds when there were people behind him? Taking ill-advised shots with no chance of getting through? You sound like John Harkes. Just saying he played well because that's what they're feeding you. He played poorly again.
Him dribbling out of bounds as you say was more than Altidore did in the 2nd half. He was invisible after the break and it showed in the US attack. When Agudelo came in they actually created semi chances.
He's smart. Can play by himself or with others. Works hard for the team. Fearless. Can actually dribble. Poacher He pulls defenders out of position. He can last more than 35 minutes.
I consider him a raw talent. The kid brings energy and pace, and sometimes good dribbling skills like the instance he faked out a bunch of costa rica defenders in the box and got a shot turned away. He's a pretty average finisher, nothing special in that regard. I think you're dead on with the observation he drops the head and runs at multiple players far too often, he needs to learn how to move into channels because he has to pace to do that effectively. I'm hoping that between now and 2014, he'll become a smarter player and position himself better. As of right now, he's a fringe level U.S. striker, but I believe the potential is there. Just get him out of New York and away from Hans and send him to a league like the dutch league where he can be coached effectively.
He's not that intelligent of a player yet, his dribbling is good but not great, and I haven't seen enough poacher efforts just yet. You posted what I'm hoping he eventually develops into.
Landon played about 15 good minutes, then was poor. But his 15 good minutes were better than anything Agudelo did. Altidore played like crap too. But out-playing the guy that played like crap only means you were slightly less crap. Both of them are over-hyped. He's definitely not smart yet. Smart doesn't constantly dribble head down. Smart doesn't lose track of where the end line is. Smart doesn't try to shoot the ball through a defender's closed legs. He could develop it, but right now he's raw talent. He can definitely play by himself...that seems to be about all he does. I wish he played with others. The last forward we had that played with others was Brian Ching. How sad is it that he's been our most effective team forward since McBride? Yeah...he works hard...that and two quarters will get you a phone call. Not sure if fearless or clueless is more accurate. Running at 3 guys doesn't show a lack of fear, it shows a lack of common sense. Yes, but always dribbles into traffic and either shoots at a wall or loses the ball. Poacher? Really? Because he has 2 USMNT goals? Maybe at the U-17 level, but not at any level he's played at since. He pulls defenders out of position by dribbling himself out of position, leaving us with no one in the middle and killing attacks. Not sure I want to see him out there that long. I want the kid to succeed. I want him to be good. I want him to become a quality international striker. But I wanted that for Eddie Johnson, and Edson Buddle, and Robbie Findley, and Jozy, and pretty much everyone else who pulled on a US kit since McBride retired. But look at the numbers of the guys we've tried to replace McBride with: Eddie Johnson: 42 caps, 12 goals Brian Ching: 45 caps, 11 goals Jozy Altidore: 40 caps, 12 goals Basically, crap, crap, and crap. The best of the bunch so far was Ching because while he didn't score, at least he was willing to hold the ball up and play a team game. I'd rather have someone who knows they won't score but will try to set other guys up than someone who I know won't score and won't try to set other guys up.
Agudelo played well. He was one of the few players that played with intensity and was aggressive in 1v1 situations. Might as well start a thread complaining about how poorly Michael Bradley played tonight. If his dad weren't coaching he wouldn't have played the full 90 tonight.