I'm pretty sure Bradley learned German and Italian as well. After you learn a second language, the 3rd and 4th are easy (so they tell me--but I only speak two and haven't ever tried for a 3rd).
Having been around Dutch speakers, I'm gonna need some evidence that either is fluent after just 2 seasons. I can accept low conversational level, but it's impossible to get Dutch speakers to talk to you in Dutch unless you are paying them. They bounce to English much too easily.
Flick on the youth: "We have some young talents currently training with us. We'll add Chris Richards. It was important for him that he could spend some time with his family. When he comes back in the next few days, he'll have to do some tests and he'll join the team."— Bayern & Germany (@iMiaSanMia) July 26, 2020
As I said a month ago, that was the next data point. Looks like he with be with the 1st team next season
No way! Unless Jamie Trekker is an 87 year old man who grew up in the Soviet Bloc. EDIT: Or is (very believably) pretending to be an 87 year old man who grew up in the Soviet Bloc.
If it turns out that he's now seen as the best CB in the youth setup and the first one to come up to the 1st team if there are injuries, etc., then that adds some real value to him playing at least one more year with Bayern II. But that all remains to be seen. Words are words, and who knows what their roster will look like by September.
This is the most interesting player/situation for me wrt the NT. He was on a decent trajectory, then it seemed he got moved to RB, a 17 year old was called up to the full team before him, and he wasn't playing that well. Then he "righted the ship" and closed out the season at CB, seemed to play well the last couple months. What now? Is he really going to be a 1st team fixture with Bayern? Get a couple league games with some cup appearances, maybe some CL group stage matches? Seems to be the path most recently postulated, especially if Bayern is turning down all sorts of interest from other BL clubs. If that's the case, then, he needs to be on our senior team. Generally with youth players, I'd say let's wait until they are getting minutes (Uly, Ledezma). But we are very shallow at CB, and don't even really have good options outside of Brooks. Richards was our best played at the U20 WC, a team consisting of various other NT players - Pomykal is routinely talked about as an option even though injuries hindered his past year, Sargent, Weah has caps even with variety of injuries. Hell, even Uly is now in the picture after the January camp, and he has zero first team minutes. I give Egg some credit for attempting to call him in for March. But was that just a one off, Euro, U23 type camp? I think he probably needs to be in the next camp, whenever that may be. If there is one camp and a friendly or two prior to the start of qualifying, I think there is a strong argument that Richards should be included. Do we really need to wait for a certain amount of minutes with Bayern, probably the best team in the world? Richards already has thousands of minutes playing against adults, at basically a B2 level (since they won the B3). I just don't think this is a typical youth player situation, and thus, shouldn't be treated as such.
Richards is a perfect example of how important the Olympics can be for a nation like the USA. It's another opportunity for him to prove he can hang. It's interesting to imagine what his next season would look like if we were coming off of....say a quarter/semis run in Tokyo with him being a fixture.
Yeah, I guess. The more games the better. But how useful is it? Random teams, U23, a lot of the better players aren't involved. Is the Olympics a better competition than the U20 World Cup, which he dominated as a CB? That France team was loaded with high end talent already involved in European league first teams. Seems last last Olympics had Brazil (loaded and trying to win it at home) and Germany, and then a bunch of randoms. Honduras and Nigeria in the semis. Like I said, it wouldn't have been a bad thing, as any NT games are an opportunity. But the kid was just put in the squad for the Champions League. I'm thinking he's close to, if not already at, the level required for the senior team (again, especially considering our lack of options).
Bright Arrey-Mbi, Chris Richards and Malik Tillman have been included in @FCBayernEN's Champions League squad for their last-16 clash with Chelsea, with a view to featuring in the final eight in Lisbon.https://t.co/Q23VanRe0c— Alex Chaffer (@AlexChaffer) July 27, 2020
While I agree with your conclusion, this part of your post irks me. And I am not necessarily irked at you. But at the efforts of some to read tea leaves from club decisions that we don't have full information on. Chris has played consistently well all season. He was not brought up to the 1st team training and the 17 year old was b/c that week the 2nd team was playing an important match, and he was deemed too important to miss that match or training. He was played at right back not b/c he was deemed a lesser prospect than anyone else, but b/c it was his first game action with men and they wanted to ease him in into the lineup...The club has consistently believed that he is a future 1st team player
Good info. I just get my "updates" from BS mostly, and people generally seem to be debbie downers more than optimists. So I can see why that opinion came thru here. I had also heard (I thought from more legit sources, maybe a quote) that Bayern weren't sure if he was "Bayern material", like George wasn't "Penske material", but that they thought ht was definitely top 6-8 BL talent. Which, in that case, the difference is slim and he might improve enough to be a Bayern player. Regardless - the news on him these last few weeks is probably better than anyone could have hoped for, and I still think he needs to be called up at the next opportunity with the full team.
Thanks for posting this Charlie. I am a huge Richards fan... I think he has the talent and is on the right path to be our #1 CB in a couple of years. I watched about 45 minutes of the video and he was 100% on his passes and had several nice blocks/tackles. Eager to see where he is playing at the start of the season.
I like Richards a lot too, and it sure seems like he has all the tools to be an elite CB, but I'm trying to temper my optimism because I thought the same thing about EPB. And we've seen non-CBs like Green and Weah get treated like part of the first team of super clubs in pre-season only to be dumped in the next transfer window or two.
Interesting ptrofile in the Guardian. It's a good article but this section stood out: It was an FC Dallas youth-squad practice session in 2018, and the coaches had designed a small-sided team game which used a tennis ball and had bizarre restrictions around how and when it could be passed and scored – You have to bounce it once with your left hand, then pass with your right, that kind of thing. While most of his teammates were bemused, Richards, who would soon sign for European giant Bayern Munich, came alive. “Chris quickly figured out how to take advantage of the rules and was coaching his teammates how to win,” Chris Hayden, Dallas’ academy director, tells the Guardian. “His team won easily. A player has to be able to figure out something and take advantage of the situation. I think he has that in his DNA and it’ll really carry him well in his career.” https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/aug/04/chris-richards-bayern-munich-usmnt-soccer] There are a few very positive comments from the Bayern II coach. As I posted maybe 10 days ago, they are very positive about his potential