How many stupid reds and yellow has Wayne Ronney gotten over the years? A fair minded scout will consider both factors ... and it's far easier as a rule to tell a player not to be reckless than to be physically dominant. Personally, I think he'd do pretty well for a mid-tier German club such as M-gladbach, Hannover or Nürnberg. PS. He should have gotten a Euro trip off his performance against Brazil - Kaka mostly - in the 2,003 Gold Cup semi-final.
But, he had a much better SK/J cup and that didn't send a younger, more attractive Mastro overseas. the problem with the red is that he realy was horrible against CR, came back and played well against Italy, but is now out for the cup. anyone watching the first game would have questioned any previous rating, and then watching the second game would have questioned the down-grading. His problem is he's not getting a third game to confirm anything. On a more general point, the guardian talks about the players making an impact in this cup. No one from US yet on the list: http://football.guardian.co.uk/worldcup2006/story/0,,1800910,00.html
So you honestly think professional soccer clubs makes personnel decisions based entirely on one play in one game??? I suppose the teams getting relegated might . . .
This is the usual suspects list from Guardian. IMO, the biggest factor for Pablo is his salary requests. If he's willing to be reasonable and accept the peformance bonuses, he may find more suitors than if he's looking for a sizable guaranteed deal.
The biggest thing is finding a suitor. There is the possiblity that he was talking with Reading before the cup, the mysterious third man (not comparing him to wells or cotten). Barring that, he'd have to hope the right scouts were more common at the second game than the first. But, if he wasn't being tracked before the cup, how likely is he to have drawn attention during it? One AWOL performance v CR and one good one v italy that ends in a red (it didn't look nearly as cut and dried a red as the elbow, but it looked marginal enough to look unthinking given the situation). That said, someone who arrived knowing his game would have seen enough of it to believe they'd confirmed his quality. Someone watching him for the first time this cup would leave shaking their head and wondering what mastro is really like.
that's exactly the point: they don't make decisions on one play, or one game. I'm sure everyone would agree he wasn't raising eyebrows (except by causing yawns) in his first outing. He just was left with very little time to prove anything. The situation changes completely if he was already under the microscope by teams.
Mastroeni had a terrible game against the Czechs, and played a good half but got a red card against Italy. A manager trying to sign him would be lynched by their fans.
Folks... As with the Dempsey thread... We don't want wild speculation threads for any player we think might be possibly maybe moving to Europe or that could have draw attention. I don't really like being a killjoy (ok, I actually love being a killjoy), but unless there is some real evidence of a possiblly transfer link from either Pablo or a foreign team... we may have to nip these threads in the bud.
Can fix your post to read: "It was a good performance negated by a very stupid referee" Anyway, most of this talk belongs on a USA Mens Board or a World Cup board rather than YA
Well, with Mastro i think it's almost been rumored that Reading are interested. It doesn't get more definitive than that, I'm afraid. Dempsey isn't even that close.
"almost been rumored" -- hehe, I know there's speculation that Mastro was one of the players watched by Reading in the lead up to the World Cup, but sadly we don't really know that to be true. Is the speculation better than: "My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw Reading talking to Pablo at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty serious." If not, then we probably don't need a thread --- yet.
I think MSchofield basically got it right.If a team has been tracking him and been impressed, they would likely discount the first game as a team breakdown, and see his outstanding first half performance as confirmation of his quality. They wuold probably already know about his tendency for cards. But so far, I doubt his performance has opened new eyes. Now if we go to the round of16 and he does a number on Ronadinho or Kaka, things can change.
I think Pablo could hold his own for a lot of clubs in England. I'd personally like to see Newcastle give him a shot.
Really? Cuz Convey suffered a worse foul, and people aren't bitching about it except to point out that if Convey's foul didn't earn a red, Pablo's shouldn't have either.
He hasn't ended his chances, it's just unlike the OP was claiming he didn't do himself any fvaours in the Italy game. But I'd also say it's a fallacy to think scouts are fair-minded. Look what happened to Shearer, Newcatsle United invited him for a trial as a youth, but as they had a surplus of strikers trying out they made him try out as a goalkeeper. Years later they had to break the world transfer record for a player they could've had for nothing. It's besides the point, I was responing specifically to people think that clubs in Europe are going to see his perfomance against Italy in a positive light.
Mastroeni's performance will land him a spot in Europe once we advance to the round of 16 and he puts the shackles on one Ronaldinho. Then when Johnson burns both Lucio and Roberto Carlos for the decisive goal in the 2-1 victory, he'll have offers from all over Europe and have to choose between Aston Villa and Everton. Then when Dempsey scores one and assists one in the victory over Spain, he'll get signed by Man City. By this time, Donovan will have offers from Lazio, Atletico Madrid, and Fulham, leaving him to decide whether UEFA Cup or Champions league competition is enough to pry him and Bianca away from LA (surely she can get the same caliber acting roles in Rome, Madrid, or London). Cherundolo will have picked up yellows against both Brazil and Spain, and be suspended for the semi-final match against England. However, Chris Albright will ably take his place and shut down Rooney and Joe Cole. Bolton will come calling. Finally, in the final against Argentina, Brian Ching will score two goals and become the first Hawaiian to play in both the Premiership and the Champions League, after he signs for ManU in a swap deal for Ruud Van Nistelrooy, who is out of favor with Alex Ferguson. Strangely, Van Nistelrooy will only be a so-so striker in MLS, never surpassing either Carlos Ruiz or Taylor Twellman in the scoring race in his three seasons in the league. Once the US is crowned World Champs, LD's offers get better: AC Milan, FC Barcelona, and Real Madrid table the largest offers. Bianca still kind of wants to stay in LA, but Don Garber practically shoves him out the door, as the transfer fee would alone cover the league's entire operating expense for one full season. And Bruce Arena, recognized as a footballing genius, is disappointed to not get any offers from English clubs, except Scunthorpe United. He takes the job, and when Liverpool only garner 12 points from 8 games in the Premiership, Rafa gets the sack and Bruce takes the reins, in late October. Luckily, Liverpool's Champions League hopes are still alive and BA becomes the first manager to win the world cup and the champion's league in successive seasons.
Nice observation, but after Saturday's performance, I'd drop the "poor man's" qualifier. Mastro looked more like Gattuso in his prime than did the man himself.
How could he look more like gattuso in his prime if gattuso is, now, at 28, in his prime. He could look better than Gattuso, but he can't look more like the man than the man himself, can he? Or is this a twilight zone dealy?
The guy´s already making around 50k a year in MLS and has his own rap thing going on. What more could he want in Europe?
The Guardian's impression -- at least, the impression of a number of their writers -- of US players hasn't changed since the days in which the English called Americans "shot putters." Fun reads, but some Guardian writers wouldn't give the US credit if they went out and beat Brazil 5-0 with goals brilliantly fashioned in every conceivable way. That's a little melodramatic. As is that.
Convey didn't suffer any worse foul. There weren't even any highglights of any major foul on him (the clearest indication that any foul that you saw as worse was mainly in you mind). Show me some evidence of a player going in studs up with a two footed tackle on Convey where he went through Convey's ankle with said studs and you may have something. I think I will be waiting awhile.