Seems the United States might be actually good at spotting young talent. Young Freddy Adu at 15 has proven an influential contributing midfielder in his first professional season and earning his way on a Championship Final club. More significant is the club was a very poor performer for the past few seasons until the arrival of an influential coach and emergance of key players in the team this season. Mr. Adu played strongly and contributed importantly among full international professionals from Bolivia, New Zealand and USA in his team. Good fortune aligned for this team and they learned how to win and just kept going. So this is a tremendous breakthrough year for Mr. Adu. He was not "the" dominating player. But he was significantly influential at times with goals and assists, along with his teamates played their way into the championship game MLS Cup. He has really passed the baptism of a first year 15 year old professional!! His confidence and swagger earned by him and his teamates may cause him a leap in ability for next season. There is no better experience than winning your way to a Championship game for a professional player. Good, good, first year for Freddy Adu, New coach Novak and DC United.
Re: (R)15yr Old in Cup Final -Adu Not to sound like a jack-ass, but I think even with putting the [R] in the title, you still gave away the result.
Re: (R)15yr Old in Cup Final -Adu There's no "I think" about it. He gave it away unless the reader is pretty dense.
Re: (R)15yr Old in Cup Final -Adu Sorry guys. Didn't really know what to do with the title. ...Games are over, t.v. aired the games, only final two teams remain in the league this year. I had hoped this thread here in News & Analysis wouldn't mess up the info for anyone though. Thanks for being cordial.
A lot of people TiVo the games. I know I did with the LA-KC West Conf. title game. I wouldn't put anything that might be a spoiler until at least 36-48 hours after the game was played.
I have a crazy idea for all you [R] psychos, dont check a SOCCER forum if you dont want SOCCER scores. geez. grow up.
You can always start your own website with these rules. Call it bigsoccerspoiler.com. Here, the rules are what they are.
Getting past the spoiler which has been corrected, I give Coach Nowak a lot of credit for his handling and upbringing of young Freddy. You could easily see the additions to his game over the course of the season.
no, we must all bow to their wishes to not post the results of the game they have yet to watch but are still browsing around the one place they are sure to find those results....
You'll never make a rule somebody out there won't find a way to ahve a beef with. I personally don't find it to be 'bowing', which somehow implies some sort of loss of dignity. If your dignity was that precarious, you must be the equivalent of a hunchback.
Simple fact is that my the News and Analysis is my homepage so anytime I open my browser, N&A pops up. It's not bowing. It's just being conscientious of others.
I thought he was great against Metro but next year Novak NEEDS to teach this kid how to hustle and play defense. Christ the kid is 15, he should be able to run like the enegizer bunny especially as a second half sub. last night I saw Eski and Olsen running as hard as they could into extra time and little Freddy just jogged around and only ran when he was looking for the ball on a break away. When in defense he didn't pressure anyone he just stood 3-5 yards away from his man and tried to stay infront of him. If this was by design then fine its on Novak. But if it was just his piss poor effort then he should be ashamed of himself for half-assin' it while his teammates emptied their tanks. So with that said I reallt hope DC works with him on tactical positioning and defensive effort for next year because he is too talented to and young to not be hustlin his ass off out there on both sides of the ball.
It doesn't matter what forum you place a thread in when the last 20 threads to receive a reply are posted on the home page... Accidents happen...just not twice, ok? It SHOULD be pretty simple to avoid making the [R] mistake... Just think. On the other hand, if you're recording a game, and the first thing you do upon arriving home is open your browser to BigSoccer.....I don't really have much sympathy... I recorded the game myself... But I was smart enough to watch the damn thing first. If you didn't have it recorded, and are still bitching... Shut up. What were you expecting to do? Go to MLSnet.com, and hope you could open the video link before you noticed the entire rest of the page? Or were you hoping to ignore the result until after some imaginary replay? PS - The game just went up on BitTorrent... PPS - Good summary of Freddy's first season...
Re: (R)15yr Old in Cup Final -Adu If you werent watching the game and then come on here not knowing the score, then your dense and not an MLS fan!!! Why dont you guys go find something better to bitch about.. Couple of putzs'
Just curious. By what logic should a 15 year old, who has not reached physical maturity, be able to out-hustle a physically fit 22-yr old, or a physically fit 27-yr old? I would think it would be the other way around. But I agree that the DCU elders, especially Nowak, have a lot more to do with his training.
Keep in mind that he was in card jeopardy. He sometimes tends to be a bit aggressive defensively (the rashness of youth), and prudence would suggest that he not attempt anything silly, lest he not be on the roster for next weekend (a la Kovalenko & Nelson this weekend).
Well, his penalty was quality. Much better than many players on both sides. Really, no one would have stopped that. Other than that, he looked like he did in the early part of the season- too wound up, kicking balls past the end-line, and bouncing off of defenders. I'm not dogging the kid, but that's what I saw. He needs to settle down, not try and carry the team or make the highlight reel with each touch. I dig it just when he makes a smart pass.
Re: (R)15yr Old in Cup Final -Adu So a person is dense if they don't watch a game, and haven't been to a soccer website, and don't know the score? I don't think that's what you meant to say. I don't see how you can really argue with my statement. The title said that Adu was in the final. The only way Adu would be in the final is if DC won. So the title gave it away unless you can't connect Adu being in the final and DC being in the final. I'd say that makes you dense. This topic is dead though so I'll just stop.
That's exactly what it was. He was simply overexcited. And who can blame him? The great thing is that this experience will only help him in the future, especially when he's setting up and scoring goals in 2010.
I am making the assumtion that all things equal an athlete in his teens has more endurance than an athlete nearing his 30's, thus doesn't tire quite as quickly under the same physical exurtion. It is my theory, I am not an expert in human energy physics...but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
I don't have a beef with it at all... actually its a source of endless amusement to me. Like the now-sober alchoholic who walks into a bar and yells at the bartender for offering him a drink. Another pervasive source of amusement is the person on each message board who drops small uncalled for insults, as if it somehow shows him to be more clear minded or intelligent. But I suppose someone as dignified as yourself could never stoop to laughing at those idiots either.