Dempsey [R]

i thoguht he did well with his 25 minutes of playing time too. when he got on the ball he looked confident and tough. i agree with you the issue in my head is where to place him. i mean anywhere and we are safe, but im curious where he will be placed...whether hell be a guy who plays wherever theres a hole or if he will eventually have a set position. who knows but he also looked promising tongiht, i look foward to watching him in the future.


forza inter

 

I thought he did very well in his time. He was one of the few US players taking people on in the final third. Only had one bad giveaway that i can think of.

 

I watched him all year and he's a hell of a player regardless of where you put him.

I like him as a forward best, and then as an A-mid, but he's good everywhere. When his job is just attack, attack, attack he can be a real handful.

He'll grab some cards along the way though if he continues to play for the Nats. Not sure there's anything you can or should do about that. They apparently like to mix it up a bit in Nacogdoches.

 

I agree, Dempsey looked good.

My only comment is that it looks like we might have the heir apparent to Frankie when it comes to stepovers. His double stepover one on one with the Jamaican defender was somewhat Frankie-esque...he may not be ready for full out Frankie's freaky stepovers class yet, but he's working on it!

Surely I'm not the only one who noticed that!

 

Clint Dempsey took a three week summer course to learn the deadly art of the HeyDude stepover. It was taught by Cristiano Denilson who got his teacher's liscense at Sau Paulo community college. The course required Clint to grow his hair, forget how to trap a ball, and practice two foot diving tackles. He spent two hours a day stepping over a ten pound medicine ball followed by video breakdown sessions of his technique in comparison to Frankie's. Afterwards he would take a light launch consisting of a caesar salad and green tea. In the afternoon session he was requiered to climb stairs at the cotton bowl, stepping over each one at the appropriate 6 inch height. At the end of the session Clint put his stepovers to use against a local U-12 side, who produced nationaly ranked Conor of star kick commercial fame. Clint slept under the close scrutiny of a staff of four sleep learning reaserchers, who would manipulate Clint's legs to replicate Frankie's stepover while he listened to a tape of fans cheering and yelling Ole. Overall Clint highly recomends this course for aspiring hotdogs.

 

He showed well enough to earn a call up next year...but he won't get near the pitch for any Hex matches IMO unless we are in a pinch. I think he will be looked at fmore or friendlies next year or Gold Cup.

 

The game was starting to slip away from the US until Dempsey was inserted into the line-up. I really liked his debut as well as Onyewu and Spector's.

 

looked good. He will progress quickly with more minuites like he has always done. I think the red card made it hard for him to get forward but it showed that he was disciplined enough to get back on D. Give him a few more matches and you will see a drastic improvement. Great player though. I like the dirty look. I hate that panzy pretty boy look of some of the others. Speaking of pretty... Is Spector the prettiest boy you have ever seen?! Get him some implants and he might have guys calling round the clock. lol.

 

mixed emotions

Morocco- at first I thought we would agree on this topic since you sig pic is actually my brother Tony. However, don't like your take on Clint. I am an FU grad and Clint is the man. Difference of opinion I guess-hope you are a Nielson viewer, need the ratings to pick up.

 

If his progression with the National Team is anything like it was with the Revs, he'll make and play on the '06 team.

Solid debut, especially thrown in a situation with a man down. I disagreed with Stone and Balboa on his run late in the game-- I like the fact that he was going to goal, looking for a winner.

What I especially like about Dempsey (and that we saw glimpses of last night) is that he operates with an "economy of touches." You saw the stat that Ralston had something like 50 touches half way through the second half...that's because he's receiving the ball with one touch, positioning with a second, then passing on the third (this is the same problem most our players have in the back as well.) Dempsey fluidly receives and distributes the ball in as few touches as needed.

Donovan and Reyna are masters of playing one touch soccer (and Beasley and even McBride recently show this as well.) Throw Dempsey in the mix and we've come 180 degrees from long ball.

 

IMO, for the time he was in the game, Clint was the MOTM for the US. He seemed to be all over the pitch and most of his decisions looked excellent. Though I believe it likely that he will get minutes as a forward, his natural position, I would really like to seem him utilized as a Dmid. We need more depth at that position and, especially considering EJ's emergence, there seem to be a boatload of forwards we can utilize. I think we could do much worse than Clint at DM.

 

Having watched every game he's played this season, this is the position where he's most effective, a "box to box midfielder."

He had a good game last night: not spectacular, but did what was expected of him, didn't try to do too much, but certanily grew in confidence as the game wore on.

The Magpie

 

I love Dempsey too...but I don't think ANY American players are yet the 'masters' of one-touch soccer. We are getting better though..

 

Near term, right mid is the most available spot for Clint to see time. Forward is probably a longer term project.

No fear last night. I don't think I've seen that kind of confidence in a young new player since Donovan. Whether his skills can back it up, only time will tell.

 

Dempsey is one of the most exciting US players to come out of nowhere in a while.

And you have to love the eye-liner. He wears eye-liner, right?

 

I liked Onyewu's debut as well in that 6-0 Nats victory over Panama in RFK (he almost got a goal). I was very impressed with Dempsey every time I see him, he confidently steps on the field and makes an impact.

 

I had a bit of a different take on his match last night. I agree that he was "solid" in that he didnt make any glaring errors and certainly worked hard, hustled and made some decent defensive plays. On the offensive side he ran hard and showed the same work rate but I thought his results were a lot less promising. Looked like on that double step over run (where he just sort of wound up running into a couple defenders and turning the ball over) like he hadnt yet developed the offensive moves to beat a defender 1 v1. Also had a couple of particularly poor passes (there was one in the Jamaican third where he was trying to make a relatively simple square to Ralston and the ball wound up nowhere near him that particularly comes to mind). I certainly think he was solid enough to earn another look in a friendly or two (most likely at defensive midfield unless he develops some more offensively) but I also wouldnt say it was a "good" match.

 

McBride had no partners before where this would work. The US now has players that are learning to play more fluidly. I think that is one of the benefits of having the Nats on TV so often. The kids are learning to play this way from what they see. The other is that this is the way that Arena wants them to play.

 

Is there an advanced, follow up course, where after said player actually, finally, succeeds in the step-over move (or double or triple step-over) then crosses the ball into the fourth row behind the goal? Many aspiring USSF coaches failed in their attempts at an "A" license unless they could teach/coach their players to perform that at least 8/10 times in the field session part of the coaching schools.

 

I'm unsure why people continue to say that his "natural" position is forward. did he play there in college? I think he did. however, in a recent interview in the lead up to this game, he said that he prefers the midfield to forward. I'll see if I can find the article to link, but he said it. maybe he was played as a forward in college, because noone else can score like him, but to me, he looks to be a middie, and a darn good one at that.

 

Found it. http://www.boston.com/sports/soccer...lution_stars_worthy_of_national_stage?pg=full

"I don't know what my best position is, but I like the midfield and being in more of an attacking role," Dempsey said. "I don't mind holding midfielder or defensive midfielder. With each team you can have different roles, but I like to be somewhere in the center of the park."

Notice that he never even mentioned forward.

 

I watched Clint in every game this year- he would not make it as an international forward.Also, his attributes of tireless work, skill and fight are better in midfield. When the Revs have a full team, he plays D-mid and that is where I like him too. He may be our Viera- a tough, tough guy who can surprise the other team with his offensive ability when he gets forward. He is simply MUCH more athletic than Armas,Mastro and Zav. He needs seasoning, but his overall ability is on a different level then those guys.

 

Problem with that is Clint is MUCH better (saying this as a Revs fan) in the middle than on the wing. I spent half a page in another thread explaining why he might be a good fit for the Reyna, holding mid kind of role ( call in "box to box" if you like), it would be very interesting to see him paired up top with EJ, with Dempsey playing the "target" forward role. He wouldn't be the guy to go to on crosses, EJ is a big enough target but he would be the back to the goal, hold, turn, pass the ball under pressure forward.

In the short term, he is young and needs games to round off the rough corners of his game and his best position for the MNT might be on the bench where he could bring great energy and urgency into a game as sub at forward, offensive mid, or defensive mid. Nice flexibility to have coming off the bench.

 

Thanks for the update. I was in Ottawa and could not find the US v Panama game televised anywhere. I saw the blurb in the Canadian papers, but it made no mention of Onyewu's debut.