Bundesliga always had a higher GPG average than any other major Euro league. FWIW, I think Gooch would get more exposed there due to bigger pitches in general and a mode side-to-side play. There's very little Route One type Fußball in Germany.
[sarcasm] Oh, because he's slow? I mean, he must be slow, because he's really, really, big..... You know whose also big, and has only experiene against Belgians? Victor Kompany. Oh well, Hamburg will just get relegated, I fear... sucks for Feilhaber and Zimmerman! [/sarcasm]
Kompany is not as tall, is a little faster, a little lighter and a lot more agile. Bundesliga doesn't have that many pure target strikers. Instead most of its top stars are very mobile forwards, who can also shoot very well from the outside and Gooch has long had problems with those. And ... uh, I love sarcasm. Yours is just pointless.
I would guess that is the point: put him up against competition that completes his game and forces him to grow his skills or sends him to Greece or Turkey.
I've seen them both play. Kompany is 6'3'', to Gooch's 6'4''. Kompany is certainly smaller in terms of frame (a lot lighter), is SLOWER (and though I wouldn't say "much slower", I don't think it's that close a call here), and maybe a little more agile, but it's really close. Where Kompany has Gooch is ball-handling ability. Gooch will never be a threat to bring the ball up the field, whereas Kompany, while no Ronaldhino, can push up on attack into a defensive midfield position when neccesary. Both need to work on their positioning a little, and Gooch uses his hands more. But that would all add up to Gooch being less, not more, "exposed" than Kompany in a game that's more free flowing and less "route 1".
According to Steven Goff, Fulham seem to be the front-runners for Gooch's signature. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/07/26/DI2006072601328.html
Strange, since my description directly contradicts your description. Since Kompany's only clear advantage is in keeping his hands down (hardly a bigger advantage in a wide open game with space than in a Route One game where the attacker uses his size to go over the center defender), and in contributing to the offense (which is irrelevant to getting exposed by another team's attack), how exactly is my conclusion off? Whereas it's clear how Gooch's advantage in speed can help a team that attacks to space. Everything else is somewhat of a wash - tho I should note that there are a substantial amount of large (not just tall) central defenders in Germany compared to every other league except maybe England, Scotland, and the Scandanavian leagues. Sure, a team that likes its center-defenders to contribute to the midfield attack will be less likely to pursue Gooch, but that has nothing to do whether he would be "exposed" by playing in a league where such play is common.
What advantage in speed? What the hell are you talking about? Rosicky and then Lewis ran by him like he was glued to the turf on the Czech's 3rd goal. If he has raw speed, he kept it well hidden during the World Cup.
Don't know if this belongs here, but Steaua is already beating Standard 1-0. I assume Gooch is still out with the injury.
Looks like it's based on info from July 31 that came out on Soccer365 and Fulhamweb.com Gooch to Fulham? Coleman in Driver's seat.
Once again, watch more than one game before you comment. By referring to one play in which Gooch intentionally let up to avoid getting a red card as your evidence, you ultimately have no evidence that means anything. If you watch his overall play against Toni, Lokvenc, Amoah, and Pimpong, all which have better than average (Lokvenc) to high level (Pimpong, Toni) to extreme (Amoah) pace, you'll see he kept up with all of them. You're once again resorting to "I've only seen Gooch play in the WC, I didn't think much of him, therefore he must not have Attribute X." Edit: I apologize to Sidefootsitter for attributing GaetjensGhost's comment to him, and apologize to GaetjensGhost for the "once again" part of my post. The rest of the post stands. I'm also curious as to whether GatejensGhost has ever seen Kompany play, because even if we accepted GaetjensGhost's point as true, Gooch could still be faster than Kompany if Kompany had the speed of a tranquilized slug.
Rosicky and Gooch were not in a footrace in that play. Gooch needed to quickly change directions to cover that play and he couldn't without committing a likely 2nd yellow card foul.
Why would you assume I've seen only WC matches with Gooch? Pretty stupid assumption. The more intelligent assumption would be that most people posting here watch most USMNT matches, qualifiers friendlies and tournement play. This is especially when they list amongst their teams "USMNT". Gooch let Pimpong and Toni get behind him. Results, he muscled the ball off Toni once in a very nice play at the edge of the box, and let Toni get by him with no adverse impacts on at least 3 other plays, and hell Toni isn't all that fast.... Vs. Pimpong.....well we know what happened there. Look I'm not talking about anecdotal evidence ....and I'm sorry I hurt your feelings.....if it helps any...Gooch is a good footballer. My point was, he is not the speediest footballer. So maybe you should watch the games more closely yourself, instead of trying to convince everyone that Gooch is something he's not. Gooch does not have a good burst over 10 - 15 yards....he may win 100 yard dashes, but thats not very useful. As for the Rosicky incident I reject your contention and flyerhawk's as well... He got beat flat out, the race was over before it started....it was a poor poor effort by Gooch......as for the card issue...red card v concede a sure goal....I've seen defenders risk the card more often than not, and the chase began well outside the box so a PK was by no means a real concern.
I've watched that play about a hundred times, Gooch could've easily brought him down, you could tell he was pulling his leg back a bit, it was a guaranteed second yellow or maybe even straight red and he knew it. If Gooch didn't have that first yellow theres no doubt in my mind Gooch wouldn't have let Rosicky go that easily. As far as that Ghana PK goes, I wouldn't say he got beat out by Pimpong, watch the replay Pimpong had a step on him already the last thing Gooch expected was for Boca to stupidly lob the ball back in the middle of the box, Gooch actually do a good job of even getting back there.
I think we've all seen the play 100 times...so I guess we have different interpretations. Lewis made the effort, Gooch didn't. If you want to be a Gooch apologist...fine.
But that's my whole point. As you said the race was over before it started. How can you use that play as a gauge of Gooch's speed when he was beat before he even started running?
I'll take this as a no. You haven't seen Kompany play at all. I don't want to turn this thing into another trollfest, and will let the fact that you blame Gooch for being slow, and then effortlessly transform your argument into him not trying hard without giving up your original argument, speak for itself. Of course, blaming Gooch's SPEED for Merck's PK call is just PRICELESS. I should also note that while you call it a "stupid assumption" that you've only seen Gooch play in the WC (an assumption I didn't even make, but I now wonder what got you so defensive), you fail to use any argument, or try to even consider, any play other than the WC. You don't rely on when Gooch shut down Borghetti, Nunez, Ruiz, nor do you rely on the mistakes he made against Jamaica when Ricardo Fuller scored or his mistakes against Mexico on Borghetti's goal and assist.
It wasn't a footrace to the ball. If you look at it again, Pimpong and Gooch run to the ball at about even pace (both with plenty of time to get under it). Pimpong overruns the ball, and Gooch sets up in position to head it away. Pimpong leans into Gooch and then dives. Merck, whose angle (Gooch's body blocks his view of the two) prevents him from seeing that Pimpong was out of position or that there was no contact initiated by Gooch, blows the whistle based on the (clearly wrong from any other angle) presumption that Gooch was out of position and knocked down Pimpong to make a play on the ball.