Thank God Eddie Pope is back. Kenny Arena is a terrible player. The only reason he's in MLS is because his daddy is Bruce Arena, aka coach of the U.S. National Team. Sorry, Kenny, this is the big leagues. Go play at the Y so Eddie Pope can help the Metros win. Z
interesting question He did play for storied UVA and with the US Nat Youth squads, so he can't be too bad. Then again, I'm a United fan, so I feel free to suggest putting in any defenseman that our forwards can burn
Kenny's big mistake was not becoming a goalkeeper like his father. He is too slow and clumsy to play the field in the pros.
no, his big mistake was cutting off that mop of hair. what was up with metro soccer report actually airing a question submitted to the email bag about whether kenny would like to play for his dad one day? they followed it up with a video response from kenny, kind of shuffling his feet and saying, 'well, yeah, if im ever good enough.' it seemed almost cruel. i also noticed that the soccer america poll had kenny listed as one the "biggest busts" of the season's drafts, right behind alecko eskandarian. this didn't seem quite right either. it's not like you can really compare the expectations people had for these two. poor kenny. i suppose it's not easy being pooped on everywhere you go.
Might not be too late to learn how to play GK. He has a long way to go as an MLS player but then again I thought the same thing about Woly earlier in the year. Maybe with a good attitiude he could be a solid MLS reserve def midfielder type of guy.
I think Kenny Arena has some talent, but he is raw and we would all do well to remember that he played a couple of games as a rookie out of position and got burned by professional players. Not an altogether rare occurance, regardless of talent level. As mentioned, he was he Metro's 4th round selection taken with the 32nd pick, it's a bit hard to call him a bust. If his name was Kenny Williams no one would talk about him. He's a convenient target because of his father (sort of the Gunnar Nelson syndrome). With some years to work on his game, I think he can be a serviceable MLS player. No one would mind a 6'2" Richie Williams, if he could pass. He's clearly not Ricardo Clark, but who is. If you really want to talk about draft busts, let's look at our neighbors to the south, DC United. With 3 of the first 11 picks in the draft they took: (1) Alecko Eskandarian 3G, 2A, 8 pts (5) David Stokes (11) Brian Carroll Those players have combined for 8 points. They are players for the future, but Stokes and Carroll have yet to even get on the pitch in MLS (per league web stats). Looking at our draft and theirs, right now we are doing quite well with the rookies we took. Time will tell if Stokes or Carroll ever turn into anything. Of all of our draft picks, the one that might come back to haunt us most might be Tim Regan, taken # 17 in the third round, one spot ahead of Damani Ralph.
I think he can do it. Having played the field as def mid and fullback is an advantage to a goalkeeper. And if I am right in assuming that he has above average intelligence, then that is another advantage. If Kenny wants to be "all he can be", then he should enroll in GoalKeeping 101.
Nepotism all the way. He has got to be about the worst MLS player I have ever seen. After his performances this year, how can anyone justify that he is still on the roster? There are far better players in the A league but their daddy isnt named Bruce.
Stokes has been starting and playing the full 90 at USOC games and Ray is starting to praise him as a defender. He still has a few mistakes but they're going down. Carroll's play hasn't been as good and he probably won't play this year.
Arena's got some talent, and I'd imagine that in 2-3 years he'll be a servicable central defender in the league. Probably never a regular starter, but definitely a guy who will give valuable minutes throughout the season. Defenders who aren't named "Bocanegra" take a long time to develop, which I think a lot of people are forgetting. It's worth keeping Arena around as a developmental player because of that.
Everyone must remember that he is a rookie and was thrown on to the field and was given the daunting task of defending against Razov... not an easy way to get a feel for things... I beleive that with some hard work and some more experience he can develope into a decent defender... .... just not for the Metros!!
Difference between Arena and Richie Williams is that Richie has worked his ass off his entire career and its his work ethic that has made him a professional level player. When I was at UVA, he and John Maesner were running all the freakin' time, even in the summer in Charlottesville to stay fit. I just don't think Arena will ever fit into the pro game, and goalkeeping is so difficult to learn at a late age.
People are a bit hard on KA. Though he hasn't been too good as a player this year, it's not something that could have been predicted. Back when he was on the Junior Nats people would always dis his play, but it always turned out that those people who were putting him down (and saying he was only making the rouster for the junior nats because of his dad) turned out to never have seen him play. Before this year, every person who had seen him play had made the same comments about him: "Much better than I expected", "Not a pretty player, but as a Dmid does what has to be done to get the job done". He's now trying to do it at a higher level and is struggling, like many other rookies struggle durring their first year. Sure, people who haven't seen him play, and just looked at his name all said "hey, he's on the team only because his father is Senior Nat Coach" and they are now all smug at how they were able to predict that he would not be able to succeed at this level, but peole who had seen him play have all said that he was a good player. Probably worth picking up when we did it. Heck, the guy way a late round pick. Did you expect him to be a game breaker?
I've slowly come to the conclusion that those who don't believe nepotism was involved here are the same one's who believe we actually invaded Iraq because of weapons of mass destruction.
Lay off the kid and give him some time to develop. And if he's not up to the level of MLS, then who is to blame for playing him? Bradley.