Re: Re: World Cup Actually, some of you guys probably do get waaay too excited about the Cup, now that I think of it.
Re: Re: Re: World Cup We got up at all crazy hours of the morning, we went to work with 30 minutes of sleep a day for a month. You can't do that if you don't get waaaaay excited about the cup.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Beasley still lacking in some basics... You can't say he was playing forward or midfielder or anything when he scored against Poland. We basically went to a 2-8 for the last 30 minutes. McBride was still in the game when Donovan scored against Mexico
Re: World Cup Dude, a 15 year old good enough to play ahead of the three Rs would be, by definition, an incredible prospect. He'd, by definition, be destined to be the greatest player of all time, so long as he avoided injuries and drugs. Which is the whole point...a 20 year old good enough to start for a WC quarterfinalist is, by definition, a special, special player.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Beasley still lacking in some basics... Now I have a question... Is L.D. potentially as talente as the Michael Owen who plays and scores goals by the bagful for Liverpool and England? Or the Michael Owen who spends half his life on the training table?????????
Re: Re: World Cup Yes and no. Donovan was good enough to start for a World Cup quarterfinalist. Saviola wasn't good enough to make the team of a World Cup first-round loser. Thus, Donovan is clearly far superior to Saviola? The fact is, Donovan was good enough to start ahead of a bench of MLS guys and a Premiership benchwarmer. That doesn't make him a special, special player, except by U.S. standards. I could find dozens of 20 year olds across the world who could start ahead of Joe-Max Moore. By your definition, every young starter on Korea and Senegal are also special, special players. So, no, I don't buy your central argument. As for my hypothetical Brazilian 15 year old, I never said that he's better than Ronaldo. No doubt he's not. But he's good enough to score a goal or two in a World Cup if he plays a few games and gets service. If he gets the opportunity to actually play ... the opportunity that Donovan enjoyed, while equally -- or more -- deserving Brazilians, Argentinians, Frenchmen, etc. watched the games on TV. Hey, comparing Donovan to top Brazilian or Argentinian prospects isn't exactly an insult, is it?
So you found it necessary to bash the skills of an 18 year old, and want to pat yourself on the back for keeping it up for two years? Take it from a Chicago fan who has watched DMB for more than "the past two MLS games", the guy is exponetially better at 20 than he was at 18, and there is no reason to think he won't continue to improve. BTW, That Freddie Adu guy probably can't hack it in Europe. He's not bad for a 13 year old, but I just don't see the development from his days as a U9.
Re: Re: Re: World Cup Actually, Saviola was good enough -- Bielsa just didn't know it. Despite the lack of World Cup success, I think Saviola, Riquelme and Colochinni are still a class ahead of Donovan right now. Which isn't bad and being compared to players like D'Allessandro, Romanolgi etc. is not bad either.
Re: Re: Re: Re: World Cup Yes, Martin, that was indeed my point regarding Saviola -- and Donovan, too, come to think of it. Guess I made it a bit too drily.
Re: Re: Re: World Cup You have proven that it is easy to win an argument when you get to make up the other guy's argument. But if you're going to make up my argument, why be so half-assed about it? You people are always half-assed about it. Do something like this: So you're saying that since the US didn't win the World Cup, Bruce Arena must be in league with Satan?!?! That's silly, JohnR. See? I'm being just as moronic as you, but at least I'm being funny/. And if you can't be moronic and funny at the same time, then the terrorists have won. I tend to discount Korea because of a) the home field advantage and b) the dubious refereeing that contributed to their semifinal appearance. I mean, they're not really a semifinalist in my eyes. But as for Senegal, yes...if they have any 20 year olds who started every game, they're special, special players. Unless he can score from the bench, then yes, you did. Well, not Ronaldo specifically, but *one* of the three Rs.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: World Cup Wow that dripped with condensation. Anyway, write what you mean, is all I can say. And anyway, we agree for the most part.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: World Cup Martin - "Donovan must be clearly better than Saviola" - irony intended "guess I made my point a bit too drily" - no irony intended I am neither foolish enough to think that Donovan has proven himself to be better than Saviola, nor rude enough to make a snide comment to one of this board's best posters. Hope that makes matters clear. And yes, I think we are very much in agreement on where Donovan stands in the world-talent rankings -- somewhere very high (although not quite at the top) on the "hot young prospect" list, and somewhere quite a bit lower on the "world class player" list.
No, jri is golazo68. And jri has a mancrush on every US player, while sidefootsitter hates every US player. Confusing those guys is like confusing Gandhi and Stalin.
Is JRI really Golazo? Golazo threatened to put my post that DMB had a 99% chance of not being offered a contract by Man City in his signature. Which would have been nice since that is what happened. Then again we are talking about the guy who argued for months on the forums about how good Cory Gibbs was only to later find out that he had never even seen Gibbs play.
I mean really, this is soccer. The numbers always tell the whole story, and will give you great insight into the defenders.
if jri = golazo and golazo hates freddy adu (just read every freddy thread this year on him), but jri loves every US player then either i) Freddy is not a US player ii) jri /= golazo iii) I'm drunk I'll take door number (iii)