Holden, Hahnemann: Bolton v. Wolves 2/27/10 10 ET

OK, but what about the giveaways, takeaways, and ball pressure which I alluded to being the primary differences between the two? He can benefit his team on set pieces as we've seen with Bolton also. These are the best aspects of Stuart's game which don't necessarily directly lead to goals.

You only solidified my point if Holden contributed to slightly more goals per 90 than Adu, in addition to doing more things which lead to possession and in turn dangerous situations by his team.

J.P. Dellacamera: "What do you like about Stuart Holden"
John Harkes: "Everything"

That's close to my sentiment as well. Although, one thing I'd like to see him improve is his patience with the ball in space. After that mediocre first touch before his shot directly at Hahnemann, he could have cut back across the defender and been 1-on-1 w/ Marcus and have the ball in better shooting position.

 

thedukeofsoccer, put Adu and Holden on the same team and see who's the better player. Oh wait, that's already happened, the 2008 Olympics. Adu>Holden.

 

Maybe Americans would get more respect in world football if we didn't blindly worship the PL. At least half the league sucks and doesn't deserve the international achievements of the big four to somehow transfer over to them. The rest outside the big four regularly lose in European competition.
Unless England does shockingly well in SA, their PL top players are going to go down to teams that have few if any players playing in the PL.

That qualifier about knowing Freddy IS young doesn't go anywhere near far enough. You're talking about stats accumulated between ages 14-17. That's not young, that's soccer babyhood.

 

Of course, there's also the fact that Freddy Adu started his MLS career at 14 y.o. and Holden at 21.



Hopefully both of them accomplish great things in their club & NT careers

 

What a great week it's been for Stu. To be thrown into the fire his first two games, play a complete 90 in both of them, and getting high praise from his manager for both games - well, well done lad, as they say. He's just getting started over there. His ceiling has a lot further to go.

Boy, this says something about how good the Dynamo have been the last few years...between Holden, Clark, Cameron, Ching, et al. Not a bad group.

 

Duke, I'm with you. I'm not going to get drawn into a discussion about who's a better player (although I definitely have a strong opinion). But I will say that I love everything about Stu's game. He's not exactly been a star or even a coach's favorite, but has risen to every challenge so far. He's taken every single opportunity and crushed it.

 

And that is why I haven't been this excited about a player in a long time, maybe ever. It's like he doesn't know how to fail. No matter what level he's playing at, MLS or EPL or international play, the guy just won't cease to impress me. It's uncanny, really.

 

IMHO, Holden is maturing very rapidly, like Dempsey did when he first went to Fulham and like Bradley did at each stage of his pro career. The point is, all three guys are showing strong maturation of their play. Barring unfortunate circumstances, Holden will be a key player for the US this summer. His presence will allow a lot more flexibility of positioning in the midfield and attack.

 

fyp

 

Seeing as you're from VA I'm assuming your are either 1. Flat out lying to me, 2. Don't know what you are talking about, or 3. Didn't have CSN from 2004-07. Freddy played much of his time at LWB, a FAR more defensive and removed from goal position than any Holden has ever played regularly. Were Holden's stints at dmid to fill in for an injured Clark during CONCACAF play and the early part of the MLS season? Who was his partner? Did he play more, or less two-way than Clark?

Wouldn't "assists" be a good proxy for "doing more things which lead to possession and in turn dangerous situations by his team"? And wasn't your position that Stu was "elite" in MLS while Freddy clearly wasn't? I do agree that in MLS Freddy would not step to the ball as much as the more energetic Holden. After Freddy had spent some time with Benfica I noticed that he had gotten better at holding off markers with his lower body and was clearly trying to emulate Rui Costa, there was one turn in particular he made in a national team game that made me think this.

When new to a league I'm always in favor of faking a shot with your weak foot to get it back onto the strong.

For the record despite Freddy's recent production his overall performances haven't been as close to reaching his potential as what Holden has done. Holden should be starting against Holland.

 

Good point. Freddy is the same age TODAY that Holden was when he started his MLS career.

One question. Why are we talking about Freddy Adu in a Stuart Holden thread?

Great first premier league game by Holden. I hope he is able to keep it up.

 

This is the question I was subtly trying to raise in my post above. Let's remember that this is the Gameday forum, intended for match-specific discussion. Let's also remember, more broadly, that one can discuss a player one likes without necessarily tearing down another player one likes less or just differently.

 

much adu about holden up a thread

 

Adu played left wing at DCU with full defensive responsibilities

I don't see why anybody needs to tear down one to prop up the other, it's pointless. 200+ posts focusing as much on puns, Adu's faults, and whinging about a lack of attention as on the game itself seems pretty much as pointless as most of an Adu thread.

 

I plead guilty to charge #3, my bad.

 

is there any highlights from this game?

 

Here are very brief highlights:

http://vodpod.com/watch/3135484-bolton-wanderers-1-0-wolverhampton-highlights

 

???

 

Holden has always been a two way player. He is tenacious no matter where he is on the field. I watched Adu regularly in his MLS years and I agree that he had defensive responsibilities but he was in no way a good two way player. Just because he played in a more defensive posture doesn't mean he was good at it.

People shouldn't be comparing the players they are fundamentally different. Sure they kick a ball around for a living but one runs all over the place making things happen, while the other waits for the ball to come to him. You decide which one is which.

 

thakns for the PBP guys! (as well the korean cooking lesson, one never knows what they'll learn during a YA PBP thread).

Btw - I now wish Freddy Adu picked Ghana.

 

I in no way was comparing the Quality of Adu's defensive play vs that of Holden's. The comment you quoted dealt with evaluating each player's relative offensive contributions in the context of the positions they played.

So like off-topic-ness I have pet-peeves of my own. One is when people say you can't compare two things. Things exist only in relation to other things, if you can't compare two things that means that they are the same thing (I'm sure there's a gainfully employed philosophy major who can prove that wrong). The figure of speech, "you can't compare x with y", is used to dismissively express the far superiority of one thing over another. Inherent in the phrase is a Comparison! What people mean to say when they say it is that, "you can't equate x with y".

My next pet-peeve is when people contradict themselves in consecutive sentences; instead of conserving their contradictions to a single sentence like the above example. After saying you can't compare two things in the very next sentence you go on to... compare those very two things. Congratulations, you have reached the level of discourse required to be elected to the US House of Representatives! I will now try to provide some SAT analogies for your non-comparison:

Zidane is to Beckham as Ronaldinho is to __________?

Riquelme is to Tevez as Zlatan is to __________?

 

One of my pet peeves is when I write posts like this

and no one listens. Why this threadjack has continued is beyond me, but it's going to stop now. Broader comparisons of Adu and Holden do not belong in match-specific threads.

 

Holden was 20 when he played his first MLS game not 21. I just had to make this correction, I really am not making an opinion on this Adu vs. Holden debate.