Seems so. The only possibility that he will NOT be signed - if he'll be screwing up badly at La-Manga-Schmanga Cup ...
while the news does nothing for me, reading the article I found my new favorite player: Preston Burpo. the Quakes should get him instead.
Why are you guys so down on Ching anyway? Seems to me that he is probably an excellent value. He's young (23?), relatively tall, one of the top scorers in the A-league last year (albeit less than Tennyson), has several years of professional soccer under his belt, and he's probably going to sign a modest multi-year contract that will fit under the cap for years to come (leaving us with a lot more options than a Graziani-type player would). Perhaps there are better players available, but Ching seems like a reasonable prospect that fit's MLS' budget. That leaves us with LDo, Rastagol, Mullan and Chingy up front with Roger "don't pronounce the s" Levesque on the development roster. Plus Yallop is supposedly manuevering to use 1 or 2 discoveries which could shore up the GK position and/or a field position. Yeah we were all pretty impressed by Kei, but it's not Ching's fault that he isn't Tennyson. And Frank probably had the option of taking either player as McKinley seemed interested in the job. The fact that he chose Ching should mean something, right? As in better than McKinley Tennyson. I still have faith that Frank and company know more about what they're doing than we do. They obviously have a lot more information available to them. Plus there's that Coach of the Year thing and the MLS Cup champions thing. We could still have a brilliant season this year. I just wish it were April already...
All I know is what I saw in one meaningless friendly a week ago, and there Ching was harmless and Tennyson very good. Anyone else notice this line about an ex-Earthquake (or maybe ex-Clash ... I forget exactly when he was here): "Midfielder Leighton O'Brien, 2002 A-League MVP with Seattle, is in camp with the Chicago Fire"
If Ching goes on a scoring tear maybe Spartacus could have a cash register "KA-CHING" soundbyte ready to play after each goal... Speaking of soundbytes...with SVS&E gone, are we finally rid of the Sharks Power Play corner kick durge and the yellow card ditties?
I would assume so. I have no idea who will be joining me on press level this season. Maybe The Casbah will have to sing the corner kick dirge and the yellow card ditties themselves?
Preston's a class guy and a good goalkeeper. And his name is so much fun to chant. Hey, if you guys don't want Ching, we'll be happy to take him back here in Seattle. I'm sure Ching would like to make the jump to MLS, so I wish him the best. And who knows, maybe he has great abzz.
i'm sure ching is better than we saw. FY's seen him everyday, I saw him for just over an hour. ok, it's official .... i'm giving ching and FY the benefit of the doubt. I hereby throw my support behind the move to make him our no. 1 supplemental pick. afterall, i've ALWAYS been a huge brian ching fan!
So, Ching didn't score against Shenhua. If he had, I presume we'd be hearing about how the Quakes need to sign him. He dispossessed Shenhua fullbacks/midfielders several times, which kept our attack flowing in the opponent's end. Of course, a couple of these steals were "reposessions" and came immediately after a Shenhua player had taken it from Ching. Not sure if he'd have been as successful against MLS-quality backs, either, but he worked hard in the exhibition. So, we're probably not getting Tennyson (too bad, in an ideal situation I'd like to see us take a longer look at both these guys). Ching still seems like an improvement over what we were looking at going into this year with DeRo hurt (either Barclay before his trade or a rookie, and our best rookie forward is hurt, too). We can still cut Ching later, when everyone else is healthy, if he's not making the grade.
Becasue in his previous MLS experience in Los Angeles, he showed nothing to indicate he would be even moderately successful at the MLS level. Tennyson, on the other hand, showed very well in his run with LA at the end of last year. Then why trade Barclay? He's also a "reasonable" prospect, and he'd fit in our budget even more easily. Nope. FY has been deliberately silent about Tennyson. Could be personality issues, could be salary cap issues, could be that Sigi gave Tennyson a call and invited him back down to LA, could be that FY is just dense in recognizing that Tennyson is a better forward. We just don't know, and FY isn't talking. Given FY's history in MLS drafts, this is not a good assumption. First, he was gifted three allocations and three first round draft picks when he came into the league - not a bad way to start. Second, just because he is a good on the field tactician in no way means he's good at identifying/selecting/developing talent. Third, let's see how he does this year, now that he has to deal with salary cap moves, a less deep squad, etc, and has to rely on his draft picks. Why is Ching an "improvement" over Barclay? In his time at LA, he was less impressive than even Barclay's mediocre performances. Plus, Barclay was a P-40, with all the benefits that entails. Further, if we do cut Ching, then we just dumped Barclay for no reason - we do not have the squad depth to make moves like that.
I honestly don't get this.....and why the silence? MLS is hush-hush and confusing about enough crap, we don't need to get it from Yallop also. Yallop better have something big up his sleeve, or at least a very good reason why he didn't pick up on Tennyson. Funny thing is, Yallop wouldn't be the first to pass on Tennyson.
Ching, in LA, '01: 1 goal, 1 assist, 4 shots, 228 mins. As a sub on a good team that made it to the league final. Barclay, MLS combined '01-'02: 3 goals, 2 assists, 26 shots, 1645 minutes (all his points and most of his shots and minutes were on a bad Mutiny in '01). I don't pretend to have seen very many of Ching's mere 228 minutes in LA in '01, so perhaps there's a chance you're right...I did see every one of Barclay's minutes last season and wasn't impressed. So we should hold onto a guy just because he's a P-40? Even if he never plays? Let's see. Depth at forward. Donovan, DeRo (hurt), Alvarez, Mullan, Walker, Levesque (hurt & developmental). Throw in Ching or another player and that's a few forwards. I'm not saying that's quality depth, but it's depth. And, not that 6'1", 190, is that big, but Ching is significantly taller than all our other forwards except Levesque. Many people seem to believe having a bigger guy up front with Landon will help. Am I convinced Ching's that guy? Hell, no. But it's a start. Like I said earlier, I wish we were still looking at Ching AND Tennyson. IMHO, Barclay hurt his own development by not going to college. When players are kids, especially if they're really good at sports, it's hard to tell if they should go pro or go to college out of HS (just like baseball and hockey), but he seems to be one of the guys whose game would have developed more with the intermediary step of playing in college. Easy to say in hindsight, but I believe it's true.
Argument for MLS reserve/development system and/or loaning Barclay out to a lower division team (A-League)? Is it possible to loan out a player to a Pro-Select (D3) or PDL team?
I think depth infers quality. 4 lousy benchwarmers isn't depth. Depth would be Cunningham and Mcbride starting with Buddle and Washington on the bench.
I also watched every one of Barclay's games for the Quakes last year. Between live games and TV, I saw 5 or 6 of Ching's games in 2001 (I lived in LA for four years before I moved to the Bay area). Ching lacked pace, was often on a different page than his teammates, was outmatched in the air by smaller guys, and didn't bring any particular technical skills to the table. In other words, he was poor. Barclay is quicker, more versatile (you can at least try to put him on the wing), and exhibits the same lack of ball skills. Possibly he has a better shot, but that's a judgment call. To reiterate my point, I never said Barclay was particularly good. However, its foolish to pay more for a player who is not even as good, particularly when other players who may be of more help are available in the draft. So we should waste our first pick in the supplemental draft on a scrub who may never play (i.e. who you proposed dropping if he doesn't work out), and pay more for it to boot? Yes we have Donovan, a hurt DeRo, Alvarez - who's a winger, and still both young and inexperienced, Mullan, Walker (another draft pick out of college), and Levesque (injured). In sum, we'll have Donovan, 2 draft picks, and Mullan to start the season. That's not depth. However, Ching is poor in the air, and doesn't use his body like a target forward (sort of a poor man's Noonan). So what if he's big, unless he uses it effectively? I don't agree - not that I'm saying you are wrong, but its hard to tell. College soccer more often than not hinders a player's development. He would have done better in an academy type setting (as most of the major European teams have). Unfortunately, we just don't have that in the US.
Well, guys, it's been two years since Ching was playing for LA. He could have improved since then, couldn't he?
Donovan says the same thing. He said it was foolish to go to college, which would cut back on his training time(school stuff) and put him among inferior talent. You need to continuously grow as a player and Barclay was already training at a higher level than college. In Donovan's words, it would be like taking a step backwards. Granted, Barclay is no Donovan but its a similar situation.
Ching: Worst Quake of all-time If indeed he becomes a full-fledged quake, I can say that I have never seen a more clueless, no talent hack put on a quakes uniform. This includes Harut. He is awful...I would take AT Conteh over him any day of the week.