Certainly, most would agree Howard was overrated, here. Few would suggest Dempsey was as good as Donovan. Regardless, this stuff belongs in another thread. It was great to see kicker rate MB that high and him to be considered one of the better young players in the WC.
i would agree on both counts; dempsey was BETTER than donovan, and this stuff does belong in a better thread.
Torfabrik is a 'Gladbach-specific site, so I don't know that they will be doing ratings for this sort of thing.
I think it was a tounge-in-cheek remark. Humor, you know. haha kind of thing. That Torfabrik would usually grade Bradley with a little more generosity than Kicker for BL matches.
Germans need some help understanding the whole "haha" thing I got that joke. But was someone joking earlier when they said they thought Dempsey had a better tournament than Landon? Perhaps a good topic to debate in USA Men. Cause I totally disagree.
I ain't German, chief. Sorry if I don't always catch the sarcasm in a typed statement. I'm sure I'm the first who's ever made that mistake. Someone also said they thought Jozy was the best player for the U.S. in the tournament. Am I missing the joke in that one as well?
Kicker generally tends to give better ratings to keepers. There are usually 7 or 8 keepers in their top ten of the season; maybe you could discount 0.5 from their keeper ratings on average to be fair to field players. Don't want to kill a dead joke, and they won't do ratings here of course, but two or three Torfabrik writers are in South Africa, and I expect them to analyze Bradley's and Matmour's tournament performance in the next days. They did an interview with Matmour during the group stage, looks like they didn't get to talk to Michael.
Source? Link to an article? Did you talk to him? or a relative? How does this "BigSoccer" character know these things? I dont believe everything I read especially if it comes from a shady character named "BigSoccer"
Yes, I was making a joke at our own expense since we've waded through more than one kicker vs torfabrik rating silliness. Perhaps I should have added a or something.
Sorry, I was 100% playing with that post, didn't mean to offend. Didn't even know if you were German or not, but the joke was just teed up there for me and I couldn't resist
No big deal. I wasn't really offended. I don't usually use "ain't" or call people "chief", so you weren't meant to take it too seriously, not that you could really know that.
I have a random feeling that something big is in the works for Michael Bradley this open season. I'm reminded that there were reports that Manchester United were interested in Bradley.
I will say this: every time a player of ours is linked with a big club, there will be a sizable contingent that will dismiss the rumors as laughable or typical tabloid nonsense. But, in just about every case there has proven to be something behind them. Onyewu's name was linked to several big clubs at one point. Then, inspite of the skepticism expressed about that, he ended up at Milan, and we later learned that other big clubs like Inter were bidding on him as well. When Bayern was reported as having attempted to get Donovan on loan in the prior transfer window, several German posters dismissed those reports on this forum. And he ended up going on loan during the following transfer window. When Jozy was reported to have interest from Real Madrid, he ended up being purchased by the club that finished 2nd in La Liga that season. I know Everton's not in that same class, but just about all of the interest that Everton was reported to have in a number of our players (Donovan, Dempsey, Bradley, etc.) have been more or less confirmed by David Moyes in one way or another. The point is, I'm not sure made-up transfer news about American players actually generates enough interest to make sense. For the most part, as far as American soccer players are concerned, it would appear that if there's smoke there's fire.
I haven't been part of this crowd and didn't read these threads, but I assume the point was that he wasn't what Bayern really needed. At least that's what came out in the end.
Nah. I was here for that, and the point was "who the hell is Steven Goff and what could he possibly know about who Bayern are pursuing?"
Good point, but has there really been anything remotely substantial? Ives had a "hunch," Wenger and Moyes thought he was a good player. They think a lot of players are good players. All of this kind of seems self-generated, like, now that he's had a pretty good WC, people "must" be interested.
No there's been nothing substantial from Arsenal or Man United. But there have been rumors about both, and my point was that in the past when there have been rumors linking big clubs to American players, they've usually turned out to be at least somewhere in the ballpark of reality. I'm simply saying, don't completely dismiss the Bradley rumors just because they haven't been substantiated yet.
I think is fairly substantial from Jack Bell in Feb 09, considering he actually quoted Sir Alex Ferguson. http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/14/bradley-completes-a-trans-atlantic-hat-trick/ Is there anyone out there who still believes that Bradley’s place on the United States national team is because of nepotism? And where do you think he might end up next season if ‘Gladbach is relegated? On a trip to Manchester, England, last January, Manager Sir Alex Ferguson told me “we’re watching the boy.” Hmmmm. If Sir Alex kept watching...then he was watching one of best midfielders in the tournament. His numbers support that as well. http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/statistics/players/distanceandspeed.html He's 1st in the tournament in distance covered http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/statistics/players/defending.html He has the 2nd most tackles in the tournament, tied for 2nd in Tackles Gaining possession, tied for 3rd in Balls Recovered He also rates pretty good in both passes attempted and completed. He completed 80% of his medium range passes, I mean Xabi Alonso completed 81% - while attempting just like 10 more, and Xavi at 83%. This kid is an OUTSTANDING box-to-box midfielder...and those are rarities. I just don't see how any team that's looking for a central midfielder, at least wouldn't give him a long, hard look.