I agree 100%. At this point Gooch is not an every-game starter. We should use him when we're going up against teams with a big target striker. In internationals, many teams have big strikers, but in 2006, maybe Gooch should have been on the bench against Ghana. He needs more seasoning, especially in learning how to better position himself against quick players. Until that happens I hope Bob uses Parkhurst in his place when we play against quicker forwards.
http://soccernet-akamai.espn.go.com/news/story?id=404287&cc=5901 Do you think this is a good move?? Ive heard Carvahlo might be leaving to join Mourinho wherever he ends up. They still have Alex, Terry, and Ben Haim I believe.
Is all the shit in that article true??? Turned down Madrid, Fulham, now maybe Lyon, and Chelsea are in for him?? Wow. His name is obviously popping up somewhere with that much interest in the last few months.
read the fine print, people... That article is a year old. Also, I'm pretty sure Gooch dropped Will Sherling as his agent and is now repped by Lyle Yorks.
Ives has quietly dropped this story from his blog. Posting a year-old story as current news is a very MLSRumors-ish thing to do. Pretty embarassing for Ives.
My bad, sorry about that. I was thinking I read that article before and I probably did. I guess I get excited easy. I didnt mean to post it to rile people up, I thought it was real.
Why? Are players in those countries less prone or less good at simulating fouls from Gooch's overly physical play?
I'm in the same boat, i definitely think theres a place in the starting XI for Gooch when we go up against a country with a more physical target forward type and he should be left on the bench against a smaller/faster team without a big guy up top although to be honest, i like parkhurst a lot but i'm not convinced yet he can start against some of the better international teams we face, although i'd love to see him given more chances. for me, Jimmy Conrad is the best and most complete CB we have right now, i realize he's a bit older and might be out of the picture by 2010 but he's only 2 years older than Boca and has really shown well IMO when given a chance, although i was a bit dissapointed in his play vs. Sweeden but he had been off the pitch for several months so a bit of rustiness should be expected, even with the camp. by the way this is coming from someone who considers themselves a bit of a eurosnob, i'm not a Wizards fan or anything.
only made worse by his (terrible) explanation: "Apologies folks, that Oguchi Onyewu story I posted earlier was an old story. My mistake. No new news on a Chelsea-Onyewu link. That's what I get for not checking the date after being emailed that story. Now, if Onyewu magically winds up with Chelsea I will be sure to take credit for it. Once again, apologies for the false alarm." So he just copy/pastes emails as news updates? Oh behold that feat of journalism.
But thats what makes Ives so popular,that he will post rumors. The MLS-only beatguy in Chicago, Luis Arroyave, has a blog of his own that has a decent following, but the one criticism he always gets is that he doesn't post enough and that he gets "scooped" by other writers on his own team aka Ives Galarcep. The reason Luis has gotten scooped lately is because he's not willing to post rumors without checking them out, whereas Ives will post rumors because that's what his readers crave. Even if only 50% of his rumors come to fruition, he's already got people hooked looking for the newest nugget of info. I understand your criticism, and I agree that he'll be washing some egg off after this gross oversight; however I think the criticism is harsh considering some background.
I guess my sarcasm was a little to subtle. I get very tired of all the talk about Gooch's physical talents. Yes he's big and strong and he has decent speed, but he only has average quickness and physical talent does not a soccer player make.
I'll explain this one time for the few who don't grasp what happened. A friend saw a linked story of an Onyewu-Chelsea story in the comments section of my blog and emailed me the link. I saw the link (which was an AP story on ESPN.com) and posted it. It was my mistake for not checking the date but at no point did I try to pass the story off as my own. The post was up for 10 minutes at the most and when I found out it was an old story I yanked it and gave my explanation as to what happened. And Fscat, you're explanation for why I've broken Chicago stories is WAY OFF. I've broken Chicago stories (and stories throughout MLS) because I have the sources to do so, not because I post "rumors" that magically become true (seriously, how absurd does that sound?). Maybe that's what some folks have fooled themselves into believing, or want you to believe, but that's not the reality. I have covered the league for 10 years and have cultivated a number of reliable high-level sources during that time. Back to the original topic. I made a mistake with the Onyewu story and admitted it. I'll gladly accept the jabs about it but folks who try to make it more than it is sure sound like they've got axes to grind.
Alright dude. My bad . It was just my take on everything, and why you were "scooping" Luis so much recently on the Fire. Regardless, keep up the good work, I honestly do enjoy your site.
Don't expect Gooch to be playing for Chelsea anytime soon. Chelsea has stocked up on several other defenders. Chelsea went out and got many defenders since its temporary flirtation with using Onyewu as a short-term bandaid (the British press used the British term "plaster") last January when John Terry got injured. I think that this interest has passed. Chelsea got center back Tal Ben Haim last June from Bolton on a free (Bosman?) transfer after Abramovich refused to pay a pretty hefty fee to Bolton last January. I don't think that Ben Haim is a top-four club EPL defender although he would be okay for Bolton or Fulham or West Ham or other midtable or lower teams. Chelsea retrieved center back Alex last July from several successful on-loan seasons at PSV Eindhoven. He is quite good but he may need more time. They got Juliano Belletti from Barcelona last August for about $8million to time share right fullback with Paulo Ferriera. Now they have gone out and paid big bucks ($18-20 million?) for Lokomotiv Moscow defender Branislav Ivanović. Ivanović plays all defensive positions although I think that he he is paired for the Serbian national team at center back with Nemanja Vidić, the superb center back for Manchester United. I think that Vidić is one of the top 2-3 defenders in the EPL. AC Milan, Chelsea, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus, and Inter Milan were tracking Ivanović but it looks like Chelsea won the bidding. From the a recent news article: Ivanovic can play across the defence and is expected to challenge Paulo Ferreira and Juliano Belletti for the right-back position. In the longer term, though, he is regarded as a central defender and a potential future partner in that position for Terry. A website predicts that Chelsea is going to dump center back Ben Haim to another team (Tottenham?) for $16million to pay for most of the new center back's contract. That's a pretty good profit for Chelsea on Ben Haim. So. Chelsea could have Carvalho, Terry, Alex, and Ivanovic at center back. That is a pretty impressive quartet. Gooch needs to find another club to move up from the Belgian League and time is running out this January transfer period.
Hey, it's cool Fscat. Didn't mean to snap but there's been a lot of talk going around about why certain people break stories and certain people don't. It really isn't rocket science. You put your time in, develop good sources and relationships and over time you'll put yourself in position to break stories.