Sweet justice yesterday--Harkes repeatedly criticising Dempsey for lack of effort, lack of passing, lack of deserving to be playing. Meanwhile all statistics prove otherwise, he sets up three players for what should all have ended in goals, and then scores the most important goal of the tourney for the US. Why does Harkes hate Dempsey? It was unprofessional what he continued to say regarding Dempsey yesterday, and everything he said was proven to be completely off base. What did Harkes say when Dempsey set up his teammates three times for what should have been three goals? Nothing. What about when Dempsey clears the ball out of his own goal area multiple times? Nothing. What about the FIFA stats that say that Dempsey is our most effective passer, and is working harder than anyone buy Michael Bradley? Nothing. It tough to stomach, but listening to the other commentator, JP Dellacamera react to Harkes was funny. Obviously, for every 'team' of announcers, you have two types of announcers: The Expert in Soccer and the Professional Sports Announcer. Harkes would rip Dempsey, and you could almost hear JP trying to understand what Harkes was saying (okay you are the expert, but what do you mean?) "Donovan put through by Dempsey!" "Dempsey clears the ball out of the goal!" "Michael Bradley put through by Dempsey" I think for the Spain game, I will try to find it on another feed
PS: Soccer is more than stats...and isolated plays. Its about attitude...passion...heart....all of which Dempsey lacks.
Harkes was right about Dempsey's effort and some of his clearances, just glad that Dempsey had his good moments too. Harkes isn't a great commentator, but I really don't think any American soccer color commentator, has ever impressed me. I loved Jack Edwards as a play by play guy, but who Celo or Shep Messing? No thanks.
I was actually pissed off that Harkes was going too easy on Demspey. Demspey has been complete shit that last five matches. Not only is he a liability defensivley, but his frequent give aways and side show tricks often put our defenders in a bad spot. He redeamed himself with the well taken diving header. We need him on the pitch for his finishing, but need to find a way to better hide his many weaknesses.
If he's going to play he has to play up top. Thing is can he create space for himself with those tricks? I've never seen it.
Dempsey's goal was fantastic, but it just barely makes up for his absolute crap play, barely better than beasley over the past few games
I think Harkes has done a fine job and his shots at Dempsey were warrented, the guy needs to play with a fire in his belly all the time not just in 10 minute spurts. You can't expect guys like Harkes, Lalas, Wynalda and Balboa to not get angry or be disappointed when our team sh!ts the bed. These guys have put their blood, sweat and tears into this program. To see a Dempsey, Adu or Casey half-a$$ it out there and make stupid mistakes is unacceptable to them, and I couldn't agree more. Those guys have brought our program a long way and they are the stewards of it. If they say that Bob Bradley needs to go, I may not agree with them, but I sure as hell respect their opinion.
generally Harkes has been spot on in his analysis. his skills as a commentator, ehhhh...but would you prefer, say, Christian Miles?
Did you watch a different game? Three times Dempsey's play should have been rewarded with a goal, as his receiving/passing gave people clear opportunities to finish: LD, MB, and JA. How is setting up a teammate to score on three seperate occasions crap? And heart? Are you kidding me? Dempsey throws his body at anything with half a chance and has come up big in the goal area twice over the last 5 games: once against Honduras where he headed the ball down to Boca who scored. And now,last game he scores the third goal with the side of his face and full body contortion. I have yet to see anyone hating on Dempsey give some evidence of anyting that would support Harkes calling for him to be benched.
I don't think Harkes was unfair to Dempsey and was definitely not unfair when he slammed Spector for the first goal in the Brazil game. I think Spector has played the better of the two all and all and Harkes is just telling it like it is. He has had some nice things to say about Spector also and after the goal actually said something nice about Dempsey too.
Good for Harkes. He, Lawless and others are spot-on in their criticism of Dempsey. About time someone called this idiot out on national tv. Long overdue. The whole "It's All About Me" showboating exhibition at the end of the Brazil game simply brought things to a head. And take away Dempsey's border-line sitter of a goal and what you have is another completely ineffective game by "Deuce". BTW, Harkes was right on that too: Get the idiot out of midfield and put him up front. BTW, if you want to see what a pitiful, insecure, unprofessional little pr**k Dempsey is, go to the 13:20 mark in the Brazil game and watch him go out of his way to throw a shoulder into Kaka as he's walking by, for absolutely no reason whatsoever (other than the fact that Kaka had just run diagonally through the entire US midfield and backline to set up a scoring opp). It's like the guy is insanely desperate for attention. He can't get it by playing well so he showboats and takes ridiculous, juvenile cheap shots at a guy who actually does play the game extremely well. Embarrassing that someone like Dempsey is even associated with US soccer.
Great thread. I was watching the game wondering about some personal vendetta against Dempsey. The commentary got so bitchy at times (reguardless of facts) I thought I was watching figure skating.
I am a big Dempsey supporter thanks to his years here with the Revs and even I think he has been off his game for the last few games he last played. Too much dribbling trying to take on 3-4 players, too much holding the ball and losing it. He has not been the Clint of old. However, let's remember he assisted on the winning goal against Honduras and scored to send us through. The problem I have with Harkes is that he's all over Dempsey but he goes a lot easier on Beasley who I feel should never step on the pitch again for the US. Beasley and his bad touches has killed this team, two bad touches against El Salvador led directly to goals. I think at least one of the Costa Rica goals came from him losing the ball and then that icing on the cake as far as I am concerned was his losing the corner kick in the Brazil match and then standing there for 5-6 seconds before trying to chase it down. Maybe Harkes is jealous of Clint's European success?
Harkes is an idiot, absolutely clueless. Dempsey set people up all day long yesterday, its not his fault they couldn't finish.
Dempsey started well in the game, very well. As you said he sprung a few teammates with some nifty long-range passing. But he began to disappear as the game wore on (even lost the ball with an unnecessary move in the team's defensive 1/3) until he was moved up to forward. This game was probably his best all tournament but it wasn't that spectacular either, save for the goal of course.
Harkes went in with the idea of embarrassing/exposing Dempsey for bad plays and laziness. Unfortunately for Harkes, Dempsey was effective. The comment about pass completion percentage was funny. It just showed Harkes wasn't really paying attention.
Well he also played through Davies in the second half which really should have led to a goal, except Altidore's shot was deflected off the line. Dempsey does make mistakes at times but Harkes jumps on everything he does and he isn't like that with anybody else. If he's just holding him to a higher standard then I don't have a huge problem with that but it doesn't seem that way to me. Does anybody really think that Harkes would have labeled any of our other guys selfish for taking a long shot like Dempsey did in the second half. It was in front of goal from not too far out, its worth a try. On the other hand Clark takes a horrible shot from a worse angle and farther out in the first half and its oh well he just had a rush of blood to the head, happens to everybody. God knows what Harkes would have said if Dempsey had been red carded for that idiotic tackle against Italy.
<shrug> I like Harkes. I think he calls it as he sees it. Of course you are going to disagree with him...and that's why I like him. If everyone liked him...It would mean he was just playing it safe and spitting out the tired old garbage of a typical color guy. I did think his stumble on uncharacteristically was hilarious yesterday.
Harkes is obviously biased. I love the average American fan and the "expert" american fans. America can put anyone on the field to run around and pressure the ball. We lack creative players. Dempsey almost set up 3 goals and scored his own. Dempsey pulls the strings a lot of the time. Average fan listens to Harkes, and agrees. Expert fans are split. Older expert American fans like "hustle" and "heart" which apparently Dempsey doesn't have. They don't like him. Other Expert fans realize that we have lots of players with those attributes, (imo including Dempsey), but lack few that can create. Even if you think he sucks on defense, he can create. he needs to focus his energy on that. Our culture is so bent on hustle and effort, we don't focus on creativity. P.S. Dempsey steals the ball a ton from defenders, intercepts a lot of passes, and is strong in the air on defense.
Dempsey has been awful. If it wasn't for how bad Beasley has played, and the goal which was big- more people would be saying it. Some people cut him slack and say that he is tired, but for me he has always struck me as the kind of player that is in it for himself. I've seen him look lazy on counters in the last 5 matches, and he gives up on balls that defenders run down which is unacceptable. He hasn't played well.
It would be nice if he showed any tacticle wisdom... how many time have we seen him loose the ball in our half of the field (usually in the center) because he's trying to show-boat. Learn to protect the damn ball already "Deuce". Would be nice if he played defense as well. Soccer is a simple game and he tries to make it much more complicated than it is.