This was the FA cup mate, that's why he got the start. I thought he did okay, but Bolton are an awful side.
Holden your horses! I don't really holden with your sentiment. It's not cool for you to agitate for upholden a standard, of your own making I might add, that all the rest of us are beholden to. Just because you don't enjoy it, don't holden us up from an otherwise dreary cup tie by holden our own with puns here and there. This needs to be no-holden barred forum where we're all free to holden or break with BS tradition when it comes to our posts. Any other view really doesn't holden any water. I mean I've holden my peace (and holden my tongue) on this issue for a while but I've holden it up to here with this kind of crap. We need to get holden of this of this issue immediately. I suggest a BS summit where all of us can holden forth on our individual opinions. Holden out if you want to but know that you'll forever be known as part of the Holden holden-out faction of the YA board.
Except I wasn't talking about this specific game alone. I was talking about in general. It kind of struck me a few days ago: Holden's signing to an EPL team hasn't attracted nearly as much fanfare and edge-of-the-seat interest as these things typically have. Now, granted, a lot of the Yanks Abroad oxygen right now is getting sucked up by the Donovan saga, along with Adu and Johnson at last getting settled. But still -- it actually may be notable that we've paid less attention to the likes of Holden and Edu. It may mean this stuff is getting routine, which itself would signal something good.
Not really trying to be sarcastic or serious - just a jerk I guess. I wanted to cut my left arm and leg off reading this thread. I'm all right now. I've joined the club - now you guys can rag on me.
Holden and Edu weren't part of the youth Nats setup and do don't have the built in fanboy thing going for them.
Played the full 90. Looked a bit tentative in the first half, a bit too much on the back pass as he seemed to be finding his legs and figuring out what he could do out there. As the game went on he was clearly Bolton's best player. Not that that was saying much as they were no better than a mid table MLS team. Still, Stu made some nice passes and really should have had at least one assist (there was at least one play in the box where I was just shocked at how not-even-close-to-a-goal Bolton came). Good work rate and good performance against a pretty decent side in Tottenham. Looks like the fans on Sky are giving him 7.5. I'd say he was more like a 6.5 but still, hard to get much more than that when nobody else on your team rates better than a 5, might have earned himself a looksee in a league match. My personal highlight was the announcers insisting how incredibly good Knight has been for Bolton right before he trips over his own two feet leaving his man alone with the ball in the box to score the first goal. Seemed like the same old Zat Knight to me.
I think Donovan and Adu have set the bar high. Before he went to Everton, if you saw a post count above 150 for a Clint Dempsey thread, it pretty much guaranteed a goal, if not 2.
Many thanks for the terrific puns! I thought they were hilarious. It kind of reminded me of that scene in the Princess Bride when they keep rhyming ("anybody want a peanut?")
True. Edu had to be a starter on a great run by Rangers to win the SPL title to get much fanfare. Good point. And even with Holden's solid performances for the Nats in the second half of '09, there are still a lot of posters who are not convinced of him yet. It seems strange considering just how well he has played. Its kinda like the people who never embraced Mikey until his brace against Mexico. Stu isn't going to be a player like Donovan, Altidore, Davies, Dempsey, etc who is going to win the game on his own, so he isn't attracting as much hype. Another good point. Donovan's debut was a perfect storm for exposure and reeled a lot of people in from the start. With Donovan, he is on a good team in the best league, he's our best player, and we're getting a lot of good first hand accounts (Arteta's Girl). With Freddy, he is the enigma of US Soccer and the Aris contingent has brought a level of enthusiasm to Yanks Abroad not seen before. So its really hard to compare anyone to those two. Before, even the attacking players like Dempsey, Mikey, Jozy, etc would only get up to 200 posts if one of them scored. (And the Adu threads post counts defied logic) While defenders, goalkeepers, and role-playing midfielders had a tough time breaking 3 digits.
I agree with the rest of your post, but just want to add that goalies and defenders more often than not fail to generate into the double-digits in posts, and many times only get 3 or 4. I also would add that I think with the recent successes of so many field players, fans are coming out of the woodwork with new or renewed interest in our boys. And I, for one, think that's a fantastic development.
I think 230+ posts on an extremely one-sided FA cup tie was good, Edu's a holding midfielder, how many posts does the Bradley thread get? 100-150? The EJ & Adu threads get to 250-300 because there's a thread about it 4 days before the actual game(so it has 20-40 posts before the actual game begins) + Johan Derksen's GIF(which are really really awesome) + the videos, photos and comments from our friends in Greece. So the formula for an EJ & Adu thread is this: Let: X = 4 day start J = Amazing GIF's from Johan Derksen A = Aris' fans posts & B = Regular Adu/American BS posters. X+J+A+B = |275 posts| Note: I'm still trying to figure out the formulae for single YA's like Charles Kazlauskas, DeMerit, Bocanegra, Dempsey etc. etc. & for YA teammates like Timmay & LD or DMB & Mo'. It should be out in a couple of months or years so don't keep Holden your breath.