Watching Roma -Milan. Roma GK Rui Patrício had a great save on Christian Pulisic’s shot in the goal box.
Player ratings today, Roma-Milan.... Pagelle Roma-Milan 1-2: dominio rossonero, Giroud implacabile e gol strepitoso di Leao (virgilio.it)
Pulisic played pretty well, but wasn't quite as dynamic as his first two games. His shot was very good - Patricio's save was just better. Tip of the hat to him for being able to stop that. According to FBRef, Pulisic has 11 shot creating actions in his first three games. His former team could probably use that right now given how anemic their attack is right now.
In difficult times it is important to show empathy. Hopefully Chelsea fans derive some comfort from the pity of others.
Pulisic needs to improve his passing, his crossing, and his shooting. He should also improve his dribbling in the sense that he should try to improve his ability to feint and dribble past people not with just pace and quickness, but with control and misdirection. This will serve him well in the later years. I know he can flick the ball to the side and burst past people, but that will not work against the best defenders.
Pulisic is the best dribbler the US has ever produced. I do not think it is realistic to expect him to turn himself into Messi at this point in his career.
I keep trying to find a video of Jim Brown, the only American international to play for both Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, but all I get is videos of a big guy with shoulder pads commiting handball.
You can make an argument for that. Tab Ramos on his day was pretty good. I want to see more variety in Pulisic's dribbling, more feints, more moves than just speed moves.
If you watched the last season at Chelsea, you can see there was a predictability to his play, to his moves, and opponents were able to shut him down because of it. I know he's super quick and that is going to work against a lot of defenders, but he can still add to his arsenal with new moves, new feints. Are you saying there is nothing he can improve on? Or are you just saying that people shouldn't think or that players should just stand still after age 24?
There were actually 2 Jim Browns who played for Manchester United, both Scots, however, the former one became American. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Brown_(soccer,_born_1908) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Brown_(footballer,_born_1907) But yes, maybe there was also some guy who played for the Cleveland Browns.
Today I learned something new so its a good day. I am surrounded by Indians in my neck of the woods. They are big Neymar fans too, at least the girls are.
Watch: Christian Pulisic take Italian-language pronunciation challenge by Mike Woitalla @MikeWoitalla,
The master at that was Michael Bradley. Like a savant. Within a very short time of being at a club he'd be giving interviews to the press in Dutch, German, or Italian. Ridiculous. I can barely speak English.
I majored in Italian and Spanish and used to team both. They are similar although there are a lot of differences. The grammar in both languages is very difficult but as opposed to English, you pronounce the words as they are sounded and spelled out. That is the easier part about it. My accent actually got better after having lived in Florence and now I speak with a Florentine drawl. Florentines pronounce the 'C' with an 'H' so Casa is pronounced as Hasa which sounds kind of funny. Michael Bradley spoke Italian and still speaks very well. I think he mostly translated for Sebastian Giovinco when he first got to Toronto. According to his dad, he was still speaking well initially with Domenico Criscito, Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi until they all had a falling out. Berna accused Mike of nepotism, saying he is Bob’s son and whatever he says in Italian goes right to the coach. This expedited Bob Bradley’s firing so in that respect, the power of language didn’t help Michael. I think Mike is still on the team for now but probably isn’t involved with coaching or being assistant any longer.
Yes I believe it’s true.. I mean you can’t really make that stuff up and why would anyone want to? Mike spoke Italian so I’m sure he voiced everything , good or bad to his dad who was the head coach. Players in every sport for as far back as I remember confide in their teammates complaining about the coach. That has been going on for as long as I remember so I’m sure players were reluctant to talk around Mike in regards to Bob Bradley. This was a tweet from Tom Bogert…..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1934_Japan_Tour The Wikipedia entry for Moe Berg is interesting and slightly related.
This MLS tradition of nepotism is not good. I get that the homegrown rules make it happen (in most cases, not the Bradley’s), but it ALWAYS creates resentment. It has messed up chemistry for teams coached by Adrian Heath and Josh Wolff. And it does the sons no favors either.