Burn Fans, what is the status of Ed Johnson. We he get to play this year? From the limited times I have seen him play I have been very impressed. How is the team shaping up in preseason as far as the forwards go?
Cerritos is hurt, still rehabbing, and Kreis and Rhine are both playing...so that means Eddie either beats out Rhine while he can, or he gets minutes when Rhine is either tired or falls out of form. He picked up a groin strain of some kind early in camp in Dallas, and then had it flare up again later and missed games with the U-20 team. I have seen no report at all on whether it's still sore, or he's healed and back in training. Last year, some thought he'd be either a super sub, or a starter by the end of the year. Neither happened, in part due to injury, personal loss that took him home, and maybe some fitness/attitude issues. This will be his third season in a Burn uniform, but that's deceiving because he's logged no where near 1000 minutes yet in MLS. The long and short of it is that Jeffries is hunting hard for a foreign forward to add to his crew of Cerritos, Kreis, Rhine, and Johnson. This tells me that while he could emerge as a starter and take the job from any of them, Jeffries is not planning on Johnson becoming the most important forward on the team this year. He will get more time than in year's past, I think.
EJ I'm excited to see him progress and hopeful that he'll get lots of playing time up top. However, the Burn are supposedly looking for another forward, which does not really bode well for EJ. Also Cerritos is out of contract according to 3rddeggre.com and in negotiations.
The fact that the Jeffries is out looking means the job is open for the taking. EJ needs to step up and make his claim. Now or never.
Do you think that EJ is following the path of Jamar Beasley or do you think he will end up more like Josh Wolff. I recall that Wolff was brought along slowly in MLS and was used as a super sub. Olympics 2000 was Wolff's time to shine.