OK, I confess, my problem with Convey is called DISAPPOINTMENT.When TR brought him to the league he was a sixteen years old junior.I was enthusiastic to see a young american talent playing for DCU.Usually,when a teenager is brought to play in the professional league ,that means he must be a very,very talented player.Usually a professional coach brings a teenager to the team because he believes the teenagers' abilities are so great that he can surprise the oponent teams.In other words,the youngster's talent outweights a lot the trouble to have a teenager on the field.Really,only great talented teenager players are selected to play professional.This is the rule I knew for a very long time. Well, I was expecting to see a great talent on the field. Total disappointment, Convey is just an ordinary,average player.Of course, it was not his foult that TR didn't know what he was doing and that the coach has poor jugement.But, since than I allways juge Convey's performance compare with a hypothetic great player performance,that he was ment to be. I know, I am biased against Convey because he was not the great talent that I was expecting him to be. No ofense but,IMHO he is a mediocre soccer player. He might improve but, he will never be a Valderama,Ech,Moreno, Donovan or Beasley.This is my opinion, I wached him closely and I found no reason at all to consider him otherwise.Sorry,I might be wrong but,I do not think there are any foreign or domestic teams interested in him at this time.
I expected Convey to develop a little quicker. Perhaps score some goals. I don't think Convey right now is as good as Olsen was Olsen's rookie year.
Now we get to the crux of Bobbygate.. He has underwhelmed you in your eyes.. Well, to be quite frank, that's your problem, not ours.. I think it's comical that Bruce Arena, Paul Gascgoine, Cafu and Romario went out of their way to praise Convey on occasion but the all mighty and wise sormun thinks he sucks because he doesn't live up to the hype despite being only 19 years old.. Just for arguments sake, what hype are you reffering to when you suggested that he was some sort of 16 year old prodigy? This is a kid who didn't even start on the U-17 World Cup team and was drafted #10 by United and basically shocked all of MLS by doing so.. There was no hype whatsoever except for the fact that he was a then 15 year old kid being drafted by a professional soccer team.. There were no expectations whatsoever from this kid in his initial season with MLS and didn't actually come into his own until starting his first match against Colorado in Denver back in 2000.. With all due respect sormun, you're way off base on the Convey issue.. I do respect your opinions as to why this team is playing badly, but to say that Convey is a main reason is ridiculous and shows your clear personal bias against him and thusly clouds your vision somewhat.. I suspect you'll still be ripping Convey when he lines up for the USA in Germany in 2006...
You may be right that Bobby is not quite as good as Ben was during his rookie season, but keep in mind that Convey is more than six years younger than Olsen. That means that Convey will be the same age during the 2004 season that Olsen was during his 1998 rookie season. I think its highly likely that Convey will be better in 2004 than Olsen was his rookie season. And by the way, had he not gotten hurt, I believe Olsen would have occassionally started in Korea and taken the role that Cobi Jones had on the team. So merely being "as good" as Olsen means he'll soon be a fixture with the USMNT.
Convey's Play Compared to Other MLS Left Wing Midfielders Well there are only 10 teams in MLS now, but there are still precious few left wingers that I would realistically call clearly better than Convey. Let's look at them by the MLS table and divisions, shall we? 1. San Jose: Manny Lagos. Last season Lagos was possibly the best left wing in MLS, but not this season. Convey's better in 2002. 2. Dallas: Antinio "Chivas" Martinez. All offense and precious little defense. Dribbles like crazy but rarely makes good crosses or passes that lead to shots. The Western Conference's version of Petter Villegas. Convey's better. 3. Kansas City: Eric Quill/Stephen Armstrong. Quill is a good solid left wing offensively, but plays no defense. Armstrong is an exciting left mid as well, but neither is as good as Convey, particularly now that Convey tracks back on defense. 4. Los Angeles: Simon Elliott. Also had a better 2001 than 2002, but Elliott is still one of the best, and perhaps THE BEST left winger (although he plays Hmid really) in MLS. 5. Colorado: Chung/Henderson. No matter which of them is on the left wing, each is better than Convey in 2002. Hankinson has Chung playing out of his mind, and Henderson has had back-to-back stellar seasons. 1. New York/New Jersey: Brad Davis. Yeah, other people have played that position for them, but Davis is their best left mid in 2002, and frankly, he's nowhere near as good as Convey despite being older. 2. Chicago: DaMarcus Beasley. Yeah, DaMarcus is having a strong year, but in MLS his performance is not too different than Convey's, so I'd call them even. Luckily for DaMarcus, he has people who can finish and who know how to execute a beautiful midfield passing game. 3. Columbus: Kyle Martino. In their revolving door of left mids Martino is arguably the best. Known in college for his inconsistency, Martino predictably started with quite a bang and then fizzled a little bit. He definitely has the talent, and when he puts it all together consistently he'll be fantastic ... but he hasn't done that yet. Despite the quick start, he hasn't caught Convey this season. Convey's better. 4. New England: Uhhhhhhh. Well when Chronopolous was there he wasn't all that good, and now that he's gone they don't really have anyone decent at left mid. Kamler has had moments, but after Ralston and Rooney the Revolution is in dire need of midfielders. Nicols doesn't seem to think Chacon is a midfielder. Whomever New England fields at left wing, Convey's better. 5. DC: Eliseo/Villegas/Mapp. Convey is clearly better than any of them. If Olsen were healthy I think he could be better there, and if Reyes were played there he might give Convey some comeptition, but as it is, Convey's clearly the best. By my entirely unscientific estimate, that makes Convey on par with the third best left winger in MLS in 2002. Not bad for a kid that will not be able to drink for two more seasons. -Tron
Tron- good assessment of the league's left wingers. You (we) should do that for every position as an exercise and for fun. I'd put Elliott at h-mid though as he just doesn't stay anywhere near touch to be called a winger. FWIW, he plays a-mid for the All-Whites.
Here's what I like most about Convey's play of late: he has responded psitively to being challenged by Ray. In late May or early June - I forget exactly when - Ray sat Convey down for a couple of games, basically benching him because Ray thought he wasn't playing as well as he should have been. Convey could have whined about being benched and pouted and complained and not worked hard or taken the message the benching was meant to send to hart. But none of that happened. Instead Convey reacted to the challenge by putting his nose to the grindstone, working harder, presumably in both training and the games, and as a result, playing better. He got challeged and he stood up and met the challenge. I applaud Ray for recognizing that Convey might benefit from a little time on the pine and I applaud Convey even more for taking the criticism to heart and cranking up his level of play. Shows a lot of character and when all things are equal in skill, character is gonna win out. I've been impressed with Convey since he joined the team but since his benching, I respect him as well.
Heh, no sormun, I'm not gonna analyze every midfielder. I'll be the first person to agree that anytime we need to play Lazo, we will have a sucky midfield. And, as much as I do think Richie Williams is underrated, he's one dimensional, so the players around him need to be multidimensional. When Etch was fantastic offensively, Williams could be his counterbalence, and it worked well. Now that Etch is only good, his lack of defense puts added pressures on Williams, and Etch's lack of speed allows the other team to buckle down and force the ball into Williams, where they can neutralize any thoughts he may have of offense. Without TWO quality wings (and until Olsen is a 70+ minute player we will simply not have two quality wings) the Etch + Williams combo will be a weak point for United. So as far as that goes, I do agree with you sormun, at least to a certain extent. But, I think that absent a Mathis-esque run of 70+ yards on the dribble and then a shot past the keeper, or drawing your own PK and then making it, there are precious few plays in soccer where one person can both create and finish goals himself consistently. My argument was simply that Convey has been doing all of the correct things offensively to create those goals, but we cannot finish them or take advantage of his individual victories on the pitch. Despite his couple goals this year, he's not a finisher ... and neither is DaMarcus. In the future, maybe they will be, but not yet, so don't expect them to score goals. Leave that for the veterans like Ralston, Henderson, Chung, etc. I do think you underestimate our team, and our midfield in particular, but that doesn't mean I'm saying that United had a great midfield in 2002. With Convey and Olsen manning the flanks in 2003, and if our defenders stay healthy and in tact, we should be dominant in the back, and own both flanks against every team. But until we have someone to head the ball in, take and make shots from distance, and find space behind or inside the defense, it just will not show results. -Tron
Diceson Interview with Convey In a very nice piece by John Dyson at UnitedMania, he asks about Convey playing in the middle, his tet-a-tet with Hudson and his defensive improvement. Great stuff! The article can be found at: http://unitedmania.mlsfansites.com/story.php?news_ID=200773 Some choice quotes include: Left Winger or Central Creative Attacker?: On Reyes and Defense: I think in this article Convey provides a lot of insight. He also details the physical problems with the hernia and separated shoulder and alludes to off-field problems that have cleared up. Great reporting by Diceson. -Tron
"We just don’t have someone that can play on the left. Talking with Ray and John (Trask) that’s where I play because we don’t have anyone for out there." Golly, wouldn't it be nice if the team were able to get its hand on - say, through the draft - a young, talented, up-and-coming left mid like, oh, I don't know... JUSTIN MAPP!!! Shee-yit. Let's try Mapp wide left and Convey in the middle (like Rongen is gonna do with the 20s) and see what happens. It's not like we can score less goals than we're already scoring. (Or not scoring, to be more precise.
I don't like how Convey mentions in the article that it took him an entire offseason to get his fitness back from that damn Hernia surgery because he played on it too soon. I'm wondering if by some stroke of luck we back into the playoffs if Quaranta will be able to go even then.
Quaranta is toast for this season. It's too risky to rush him back so soon. Also, after reading the interview, does anyone doubt the effect of having McKinley behind him hampered Convey's game?
ok everyone keeps saying he is going to play this weekend and he even said it but how? he hasn't practiced all week so he obvouisly isn't ready yet.
We have a lot of players unavailable for various reasons ... Convey will have to play if healthy. Likely we'll finally get to see Justin Mapp in an MLS game at some point as well. I expect that Hudson will use all 3 of his subs because sooooo many players are partially injured or returning to match fitness (Convey, Moreno, Olsen, etc.) so much of the team simply cannot go 90 minutes, particularly with the Quakes' pace at Spartan. -Tron