Climbing the Mountain: Bob Bradley at Stabæk

Stabaek gets the 1-0 win at home against Viking thanks to a sublime, left footed, curling strike from the top of the box from Cole Grossman. It was an entertaining game to watch with lots of end to end action. Stabaek had less of the ball but countered often and aggressively and had a lot of shots but struggled to find the target, but it finally paid off in the end as they secured the 3 points at home.

Stabaek fans had interesting chant at the end of the game to the tune of "Yankee Doodle Dandy". Looked like a great atmosphere at the stadium.

 

You can watch Grossman's goal here. Click on the orange and white play icon next to his name. (Unless the video is blocked outside of Norway.)

 

Did Soares play for Viking?

 

He is back in training but probably needs another week or so and was not in their squad for this match.

 

Fwiw, I'm getting what looks like a blocked outside of Norway msg.

 

I'm not sure if it's the same source but maybe this one is working. If you're using Firefox with addons like Adblock or Ghostery you may need to disable them.

 

Works for me, thanks.

#11 had a nice run at one point.

 

That's Yassine El Ghanassy. At some point he was considered to be one of those highly promising talents in Belgium's golden generation but his career never really took off despite interest from clubs like Milan, Man City and Lyon, and the main reason is his lack of a professional attitude and mentality according to people in Gent. He was in awful shape when he came on trial, and he still is. For that reason I was a bit surprised that we signed him (Bob turned down Freddy Adu for the same reason last year) but he clearly has talent and lots of potential. Question is if he'll ever get in proper shape.

He looks alright on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=37&v=CmAlDuovuLM

 

I would say it's a better gamble than Adu. Adu even when fit doesn't quite have the athleticism/bursting sprint speed that this guy has. He looks to have a HIGHER potential upside than Adu.

 

Behind-the-scenes video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=57&v=JQaMzHeiZ_I

 

Stabaek won their cup match, and kind of a cool moment in that the backup GK started, thus becoming the first Indian to appear in a competitive match for a 1st division European side.

 

More from India Times

http://www.indiatimes.com/news/spor...lay-for-a-top-notch-european-club-229565.html

 

Got a shutout too

 

He's no Baichung Bhutia though. ...

 

Which led me to the obvious question, "who was the first Indian to appear in a non-competitive match for a 1st division European side?" Thereupon I learned of Mohammed Salim.

 

It is amazing to think between China and India that they can't put together a competitive XI.

 

Bora helped China for a while.

I spent a lot of time coaching and watching soccer in Cambodia, recently. Amazingly street skilled players who have no idea where to make runs, creating space for others or seeing, even looking up at the field. It is nothing to see the 20 field players bunched up together in a small quadrant of the pitch. No academies or youth training, whatsoever., any coaching has been a missing ingredient. And it is very hard for them to get in their souls the value of "team play." For years, it is almost ingrained that sports are a selfish (not exactly the right word) expression. Coaching distinctions and the concepts of teamwork are challenging to incorporate. Soccer is basically a selfish self expression. And it's surprising because off the pitch the same folks are amazingly selfless. Tactically, the typical U-14 travel team offers more than the Asian u-19 or even the Adult Hotel League sides.

Fantastic stuff, more here on the Asian sensation, this was probably as big a news back then as discovering aliens would be today.
http://www.thecelticwiki.com/m/page/Salim,+Mohammed

 

I'm guessing they mean people born in India to Indian parents. Because I can assume there have been numerous people born in India to play European 1st Division soccer and then you have guy's like Michael Chopra whose dad is Indian.

 

Iirc there was an ethnic Indian who represented France in the '02 World Cup.

 

Maybe you're thinking of Mikaël Sylvestre, who played in the Indian Super League last year? I don't think he has any Indian roots though, and neither had anyone else in their 2002 squad as far as I can tell.

But of course, there are probably lots of players in Europe of Indian descent. Molde midfielder Harmeet Singh is one.

 

I'm pretty sure he's referring to Vikash Dhorasoo. There's several players of Indian descent that I can think of - Neil Taylor from Swansea, Michael Chopra, Luciano and Furjdel Narsingh, etc.

 

Landon?!?!? Is this really you?!?!



(Kidding aside, very cool story Deuts!)

 

That's it. I had to look it up - he actually played in '06, not in '02. I remember the announcer at the time saying he was the first player of Indian descent to play in a World Cup match.

Having said that, it's not entirely clear that he is of Indian extraction as his Wiki bio lists him as being of Mauritian descent. Further descent into the Wikipedia rabbit hole reveals that about 68% of Mauritians are Indo-Mauritan and the Wiki page on Mauritians of Indian Descent lists Dhorasoo. So I suppose that means he's ethnically Indian.

And I just wasted a huge chunk of my morning.

 

Not unlike what I've noticed for years with Hispanic players I've played with/ against. They are skilled, but lack the knowledge of how to play the team game.

I've played with a group of 30-40+ year olds regularly against 20-30 year olds who overall (not to a man mind you) were faster and more skilled. Yet week in week out we beat them. Why? Team play.

At one time we got tired of basically the same teams every week and we mixed it up. That lasted one game. Those of us who played the team game couldn't stand those who didn't.

 

Another prominent one is Aron Winter.