I made a post re famous Freddie that got deleted, which is just as well since it was a crappy post. Here's what I should have written. 1) From what I hear, Freddie was the best player on the U17 team in the Florida tournament in early December. 2) If you're a youth player who is better than any 16 year old in the country in 2002, then you have a decent chance of being better than any 19/20 year old in 2006. 3) If #2 above holds true, then Freddie will be at the 2006 World Cup. Because the best 19/20 year old player in the U.S. will be at the World Cup. Whether he's actually 17, 19, 27, or 8 1/2 is immaterial. If Freddie is that good, he'll go. So I think he has a good shot of making the team, a better shot than known quantities like Victorine, Wolff, Klein, or any of a number of other familiar names.
This week's Sports Illustrated (Lance Armstrong Sportsman of the Year) has the announcement of Freddy Adu as the Old Spice amateur player of the year, (first time ever for a soccer player and youngest ever).
Old Spice Joke 1: Funny, 'cause he's probably been shaving for four years now. Joke 2: Wasn't Old Spice the leathery one with the saggy breasts? I make joke.
It's very hard to find more than 2 or 3 players on a full national team that had U-17 experience, the rate of loss from U-17 teams onto Full-National sides is extreme. There's one Allesandro Del Piero for every 15 U-17 nats that don't make it. Freddie still has a very long road ahead of him, and the chances he will be so dominant at the senior level as his is at the junior level are very low.
NOT TRUE!!!!!! The best player on the under 17 national team is not freddy. Guillermo Gonzalez, Corey Ashe, Jonathan Spector, are better player than freddy. The best palyer is Guillermo Gonzalez.
Haven't seen the team play in person, so I can't really say who's the best, but I know Adu is right up there in total goals scored, even with missing out on a lot of international games because he's not yet a citizen, but that's about to change.
Re: Re: NOT TRUE!!!!!! One of the top players on the U-17 team, he'll most likely sign with MLS, if he hasn't already. He's an attacking midfielder IIRC.
I see on the USSoccer website that Guillermo Gonzalez is from Paramount, Calif. That's a pretty tough southeastern suburb of L.A. And what ever happened to Jonathan Spector's trial at Man U? this link says that as of the 9th of Dec, Spector's "discussing terms" with Man U to join one of their youth squads. Read elsewhere that's he's got an EU passport. http://www.planetfootball.com/article.asp?id=122859&Title=Spector+closing+in+on+United+deal
next to Compton Paramount is next to Compton tough neighborhood(Parahood)."Memo" Gonzalez proud to represent Parahood as one of the candidates for the US Soccer "Chevy Young Male Athlete of the Year."
Re: next to Compton Cool. Thanks for the info. I never heard Parahood before. 20 years, when I was in HS, my school (now closed Sierra High from S Whittier) played Paramount. I can't remember if we won or lost. Good to hear that kids from the barrio are making the ODP program. The American Maradonna will come from an LA barrio, I predict, and will lead the US to a WC victory within a generation...
Re: Re: Freddie Adu Redux Your are right here. Some guys peak too soon, and that peak is lower than the level of "peaking" that other players do later, but higher than most other players at the time. Relatively speaking, they look dominant now. However, while I haven't seen him, there are folks I know well who HAVE seen him, and whose judgment I value. Not to say that such judgment is infallible, but it is pretty good. As a result, I wouldn't says the chances are "extremely low." I would put the odds at somewhere between 1 in 4 and 1 in 5 that he is on the '06 roster. Medium to longish. That being said, I think the problem for Freddy is not that he will necessarily peak too soon or will flame out. Rather, it's that he will be -- at least "officially" -- too young to get minimum professional experience necessary to prepare him. If he is "officially" 14 now, he will be 16 in '04. He really needs to be on an MLS side at that point to have a shot--I think you need two solid years of MLS play to have a shot at the roster (see Beasley). He may simply be too young THEN to get on a roster IN TIME to get into the mix.
Re: Re: Re: Freddie Adu Redux I agree with you on the "official" age thing, Freddie is I believe at least one grade ahead of other kid's that are 14, so if he just continues along with his peers on the U17, some of which might be in MLS next season, he has a chance to maybe get in the 2005 season of MLS (if he's even old enough to legally have a job?), then the first part of the MLS season in the spring of 2006, but it's really all up to him where he wants to go from here.
According to ussoccer.com, his birthdate is 6-2-89. He's officially 13, which would mean he's two grades ahead. This summer when we were all arguing about his true age, I was most disturbed by him being, not one, but two grades ahead. But I saw him when they played in Cary. If you wanted me to pick one integer, I'd say he looked 14. But I would believe he's 13 well before I'd believe he's 16. I'm not worried about it, having seen him in person.
Next to Compton When "ODP" operates as a MERITOCRACY instead of an ARISTOCRACY and has the reach of American Football and the NFL, and more importantly, develops the scouting skills that the BEST American Football scouts posses, then we can talk about a true "ODP"! Mr. Cam will go you one better! Tell them to develop the work ethic of that player from Mississippi Valley State!!! A link to his future home! http://www.profootballhof.com/ When the so called "Hispanic" kids dominate the NFL, NBA, and the http://www.profootballhof.com/ then we can talk!!! ha LOL
Gringo...as a player, or as someone really truly ooly born 6-2-89? As a player, he has amazing control of the ball. Further, he has a nice sense of where the defender is coming from. He'll take a pass with his back to the goal, and his touch will allow him to start running toward goal, and away from the nearest defender. He was playing in the hole, and was so good in the role, I can't imagine him anywhere else. But, you know, maybe he's so good that if he were playing withdrawn striker, sort of like Landon in the WC when he was paired up top with McBride, maybe Freddy would look like a natural there, too. He was close to the smallest guy out there, which was a disadvantage for him. But he's fast and quick. I think I remember that he was too eager to shoot from 25 yards out. If it's possible to search for posts with each of two words, try "Cary" and "Adu." If that doesn't work, try "CASL." That's the team they played. Oh yeah, it's got to be 6 letters...try CASL Elite. Minnman and AndyMead were both there. Someone else, too..dheck, maybe.
1) Peledre has a point about the attrition rate from U17 to a National Squad. This is the USA however, where the top level talent is thin to begin with. Picking the best 18 kids out of 250,000 skilled players is not easy. Picking the most promising 18 kids out of about 50 is really pretty easy. 2) superdave has it right regarding Freddy's age. The USSF has thoroughly investigated all the available documentation and fixed his age as well as it can be fixed. Anybody that can prove any different should step right up. Most of this crap about Freddy being older than his stated birthdate originated in and around various tournaments where he played up with Bethesda Internationals. He was kicking the crap out of all the suburban white boy expensive summer camp golden boys, and Mommy and Daddy started muttering about how that simply couldn't be. It was jealousy, nothing more. 3) NASL fan: Gonzalez is with the U 17 residency program in Bradenton; he just signed an MLS contract, will begin the year as a Pro-40, and will be drafted high next month. 4) Jonathan Specter has finished his two week trial with ManU. He had some others scheduled but cancelled them when ManU offered him a contract, as did MLS. He and his parents are back home mulling the options but haven't announced any decision yet. 5) The real bummer out of the U17's is the keepers. They're just unbelieveable and we haven't got anyplace to stash them. MLS needs Pro-40 nkeepers like they need a hole in the head, and the A League is stocked. The best College keeper last year, Bryheem Hancock, can't even make a squad, DJ Countess is languishing on the bench, two or three good ones are graduating this year and they might as well go the Johnny Walker route. 6) Adu is a kid with a long road to go. Some people will tell you though that his younger brother is better. Unfortunately, last I heard he still plans on getting a Ghanain passport.
Re: Adu. I agree with everything Superdave said above. I also believe he'll be too inexperienced to make the 2006 WC roster. Like Karl Keller points out, it's hard to imagine Adu having much pro experience by 2005/6 when the final WC roster gets set. I also can't imagine him having much of a shot at playing time in WC qualifiers in 2004/05. With the liklihood that our player pool is substantially deeper during this run to the Cup than it was from 1998-2002, I just don't see Adu as having too many chances at playing in meaningful games with the nats. And Bruce Arena's not the sort of manager to take an unproven talent to the WC just for the thrill of it. As he said over and over again this past summer, he only took players who he felt he could turn to. That's gotta be one reason why he chose Meola over, say, Howard as third string keeper. I'm sure Howard would have enjoyed the "experience," and it might have proved useful in the future, but Meola's a lot more "experienced" in international football, even if it was rather unlikely that he'd see any playing time. Having said that, one wonders what the kid's going to do for the next few years. This is yet another reason why MLS needs to expand and act on all those statements about developing true reserve sides, IMHO.
And this truly puzzles me. With the success that Friedel, Keller, and to a degree, Hahneman have had in Europe, there should be dozens of teams competing to sign the next big American Keeper. I just don't get it. You could pick up 3 kids here in the US that are better, and cheaper than just one of their domestic counterparts in X European countries, what is the reason for this not starting to happen?
Yes, that was me, superdave. And I agree with everything superdave said about Adu. The kid oozes skill and tactical awareness. And he was just coming back from a pretty serious injury, too.