Little by little, soccer news creeps into the American consciousness. CNN Headline News has been airing a little blip about Landon's new deal every 15 mins or so today. VERY COOL!
Meissen was right. MLS were idiots trying to keep this guy. If you can get Monster to give you an "OMG" - then you know you've got something.
what was i wrong on? no one ever gave a solid argument to refute anything i said, hell... most everyone came around on the matter or shut up because they didn't have anythign that stuck if you have the ability to read my name and then type it out correctly... have the ability to bring your proof with you... i didn't see any as it is, a monkey can be taught to type out what you guys did
Let's all keep in mind that this isn't a very empirically testable question right now. Meissen says staying in MLS could keep Donovan from reaching his full potential, and I personally don't disagree. I personally believe, and from reading this thread it sounds as if others do, too, that US Soccer has more to gain if MLS can keep a star, gain credibility and financial strength and use this new strength to improve the overall quality of the league than the NT could glean by the development of one player. (And keep in mind, Landon can still learn while in MLS. Tim Duncan learned new tricks his senior year in college, long after he was clearly hed and shoulders above nyone who hadn't left early. The development potential is not the same, but it still exists). And while the media attention to Landon's signing lends credibility to that opinion, it doesn't 'prove' anything, and it should be years before we have anything like a good answer to the question of which path serves US Soccer better.
What else is there to say on the matter other that you're wrong and we're right! Donovan's a good MLS player right now but he's certainly not dominating the league. Donovan's stats for 2002: 7 goals and 3 assists in 1681 minutes. Pretty solid numbers, but nothing especially impressive. The Burn's Bobby Rhine, for one, had similar stats (7 goals and 6 assists in 1686 min) and I don't think anyone in their right mind would be saying, "Man, that Bobby Rhine's tearing up the league. No way should he waste he talents anymore in MLS. He should head off to the Bundesiliga right now!" Now in a few years, if Donovan continues to improve his game, I think he'd be a solid player for Leverkusen and perhaps even become a star for them. But as it stands right now, if he headed back to Germany I'd say his chances of becoming a regular starter would be just 50/50.
good lord vw, do you have a purpose? or you just having fun putting more crap in here? donovan would play at bayer, would he be a full time starter? i have no idea, he would have a chance to become one though he's creative, they love that, he has talent, they love that, they currently are doing horrible, they want him donovan orignally states that he will only go to bayer if they play him... bayer's doing bad enough, it's a guarrantee... donovan changes it to i don't wanna go everyone applauds donovan for not being a prima donna, because in germany everyone would fawn over him and let him cake walk and he wouldn't have to earn his keep unlike in the u.s. oh wait i find people to be stupid for not looking at the whole situation... i clearly see the positives of ml marketing him here, i just don't see the overall positives... and pretty much anyone that has bitched with my questioning of mls has failed to see that it's rather a shame too, i spelled it out... as have others (each of us to varying degrees and ways) but people gotta pick up that cross for baby jesus, if only they could wear his crown of thorns *sigh* the overall positives and negatives don't end or even begin with donovan, people do say it does... but that's looking at things while being blinded
Do you mean an actual video clip or the anchor talking about it or a mention in the crawl on the bottom?
What's with all the baby jesus stuff, meissen? Your name mean messiah, or something? Donovan's good, but he's still got loads of room for improvement. In MLS, he has the guarantee of getting loads of playing time -- the key to his development as a player. In the Bundesliga, he may or may not get much playing time. If he does, great. It'll probably help his game a bit more starting regularly in the Bundesliga than in MLS, but not that much more. On the other hand, should he end up on the Leverkusen bench, who knows how his development will fair? He may end up doing OK, but then again, he could well see his game plateau. Obviously, Landon's taking the safer course by staying in MLS, and his progress toward world stardom is slowed down by doing so. But at least by staying here he's improving the odds that his game will continue to improve, while going back to Germany is more a roll of the dice.
Point 1, yes he has lots of room for imporvment. Point 2, do you, or any of us, know what the "key" to his development is? The example of Tim Duncan was used for staying in college. Coversely, Allen Iverson (sen?) needed to come out early to reach his potential. Will it do LD more harm than good to leave MLS? I'm sorry, but Miss Cleo has closed her doors. Who says that LD will become a world star? He had an outstanding WC, but a single 1 month tournament does not make a star - it only makes a hero...just ask Just Fontane (sp?). 13 goals in one World Cup, but nothing otherwise to delcair him a world star. World stars are created over time performing at the accepted highest levels - of which MLS is not. Certianly B Munich's Santa Cruz (the Peruvian kid) is rated higher than Donovan, but what kind of World Cup did he have? Santa Cruz has won his way into B Munich's starting line up and stayed there. But Santa Cruz is not considered a world star...yet. For Donovan to become an accepted world star that we would like him to be, he needs to move to one of the leagues that is considered at the highest levels and prove himself. Whether he is ready to attempt that, and willing to attempt that is what his decision is all about.
Sorry, that was just something I taught my monkey to type. Meissen, let's add up the score. First 45: Landon and his people think he'll develop better here in MLS. Bruce Arena thinks it's likely he'll develop better, and even lays out an argument for why. Meanwhile, you think he'll develop more poorly. To go on to the second 45 minutes, you argue that Landon isn't worth as much in publicity here in MLS as we have been saying. A few days after you say it, his signing, the kind of thing that MLS has had trouble publicizing on sports tv news shows, is suddenly running every 15 minutes on CNN Headline. In the game of Bigsoccer boards v. Meissen, that's 3-0 to boards, with goals by Landon, assisted by people (35th), Arena (38th) and CNN (79th). Even under MLS rules, there's no reason to go overtime.
I'm sorry, Meissen has pointed out in a private e-mail that his squad had scored an accidental sort of goal in the second minute - Ian Bishop, assisted by that dumb Australian guy who used to play for our national team back when Coach Milotinoswanson thought that packing it in was a bright new strategy they had just invented. So it's really boards 3 - meissen 1.
everyone gave solid arguments. no one came around. they shut up 'cause they got tired of arguing the same points round and round. you didn't. a better way of saying is a monkey would have responded to our arguments, instead of going all over the place, putting words in the mouth of the other side, and then claiming victory when in fact you were stuck 10 feet below the mud. i presume you're being a bit facetious in all this, trying to goad people as you have alluded to in many other instances. from what i saw you didn't convince one person, and may have in fact turned off a number by sheer obstinance, if not by total illogic.
A little snippy, aren't we? Well, considering it was Headline News (sports comes on every 30 minutes) and the original post said it was mentioned every 15 minutes, I would guess that it was a crawl. Ya happy now?
Well not really..lol.. There's a huge difference between a spot where the anchor actually says something and a crawl in the sports ticker at the bottom.. They have done many crawls on soccer items but an actual "report" is a totally different thing.. The original description of "a blip" doesn't answer the question so hopefully the original poster will clairify. If they decided to do an actual spot then it means something as it would be the first time a major news outlet in the US did a story on a contract situation on a US soccer player. A crawl doesn't have nearly the significance.