Nelsen chastises Adu for outburst :: Goessling. W. Times

Good. A mouthy Freddy isn't good for anyone.

 

It is sad to read when athletes go straight to the media instead of taking action into their own hands and talking to captains/coaches/team mates. In this case, it seemed worse IMO.

Being a young athlete myself, I know that I have to work for what I will receive. I am surprised Freddy isn't stepping up more in practices and being the bigger man that he is supposed to be right now. (This past week he has though.) Your comments?

 

I have no clue either, but he seemed better than Wright, thats for sure. Maybe this is thier new soccer writer?



Im glad Nelsen said something. I hope others did too. I like Adu, dont get me wrong.. but he really needs to learn a lesson here. I hope he has, and I hope he will focus on improving himself for his own sake, and the sake of his club, and us, the failthul. I know hes young, and should be cut slack, and I think this time is the slack. I truely hope he learned from this one.

I hope he realises the talent he has, how lucky he really is, and just how much MLS is doing for him. I also hope that he knows the HE has the tools and the power to change his own situation from being a last game sub, into a regular starter.

 

Do you guys remember that scene in Full Metal Jacket where they hold down Private Pyle and whack him with bars of soap wrapped up in towels?
That would teach him.
Or Peter could just make him choke himself.
















It's late, and I'm feeling a bit trollish.

 

Perhaps Nike, Campbell's Soup and Sierra Mist might disagree.

 

I love to read about DC United everywhere, so I am glad to see this story.

The angle of the story, however, appears to be controversy.

Take this statement:

"Adu probably won't start today's game against the MetroStars, so his next start might be in the MLS All-Star Game July 31 at RFK Stadium. As of Tuesday, Adu was third in voting among Eastern Conference forwards."

I am sure Adu will start in a game before then, after all there are US Open Cup games and friendlies to be played.

That said everyone on the team needs to step up a bit today, including the Captain himself who has not scored on a corner in a while.

Let's stomp on the Metros today!

 

It's not exactly trolling when someone agrees with you. Sometimes I don't think it's a bad idea to give Freddy a little "blanket party".

 

"Nelsen said, his voice growing agitated"

Pure fiction. Nelsen was calm and articulate when asked to explain Adu's difficult transition to the pro game. (sigh)

 

Having thoroughly defeated Wright, Goff sets to work on the new guy .

Thanks for clearing that up. It seemed out of Nelsen's character.

On a different note, "United has two forwards in camp trying out for the team and could sign one or both." We know one of them is Ciccia, so who's the other?

Cherno

 

Well these things happen when you are expected to act like a professional when you are 15 years old.

 

Thanks for setting the record straight. We can always count on you for the real story.

 

Dammit, Steve, you're trying to prevent the poor man from taking literary license.

Drama sells newspapers, right? Who needs the truth?

 

Maybe he was just a little choked up, having to scold his youngster.
You know, "this hurts me, more than it hurts you."

 

Maybe Goessling didn't know that Nellie was a Kiwi and missunderstood the accent?

We should get him a map to show hime where Kiwi is......it's OK we'll also tell him it's somewhere near New Zealand....

 

A couple more things:

I knew Claudio Ciccia was training with the team, but you'd think that Goff or the team would mention a second player. And isn't the roster one senior player short of full? Goose's column would indicate another player shuffle of some kind.

Freddy should sue for defamation of character, slander, libel, mental anguish, something....

 

I said on the radio show this past Monday that Nelsen should pull him aside and give him what fer.. Sounds like that is exactly what happened and I'm glad to see at least one of my rambling thoughts was carried out..

As for who the new guy is, who knows? It's good to know that Goff is available to correct every little detail from the opposite newspaper.. Let it go already, it's pretty well known that Goff has the backing of probably 98% of the soccer geek public, so please just stop with this petty nitpicking..

I've stayed out of the debate (Post vs.Times) for the most part, but it's instances like this that make me realize why Marco10 said the things he did the other day.. It's just not worth it to scrutinize every single detail.. Who cares whether or not Ryan Nelsen was completely lucid when talking about this issue, the point of the column was that Nelsen was trying to relay his frustration with his teamates outburst and I have no problem with the artistic licence that Mr. Goessling apparently took on this occasion.. It's not like it hasn't been done before..


Please just let it go....

 

You're absolutely right. This is EXACTLY the Captain's job. It's not just about leading the team on match day, but keeping the team in line during the season.

 

You weren't there. If you had been, you would've understood the context. Nelsen was not trashing Freddy; he was not agitated. He was simply commenting on Freddy's first half of the season and how the team (namely Nowak) reacted to his comments/complaints last week. That's it.

As for "98% of the soccer geek public"......

You may call them geeks, but I call them the backbone of soccer support in this country -- perhaps you should've used a more respectful word.

 

It might not be worth it for us to scrutinize every little detail, but from the player's point of view, I'd be angry if I were Ryan Nelsen and a newspaper gave the wrong impression of the way I said something. I know that when I read this piece, the "growing more agitated" part really stood out to me. I didn't make a whole lot out of it, but regardless, its not fair to him, and thats my point.

 

Actually, I do have a problem with "artistic license". Since most of us don't have access to press conferences and don't get to hear this stuff first-hand I think it's important that whoever reports it does so accurately and without embellishment. ESPECIALLY false embellishment. Especially false embellishment that was added just to make the whole thing seem more dramatic than it actually was.

Yes, exactly. It's also not fair to us.

 

I don't see it as Post vs Times, nor about Goff 'correct[ing] every little detail'. It's about reporting. If, as Steve says, Nelson wasn't becoming agitated as he said what was reported, then the writer is is trying to convey a secondary meaning to what Nelson said...a meaning that wasn't apparently there.

That's not good journalism. It is, in effect, changing the meaning of Nelson's words by taking, as you say, 'artistic licence'. It's not something that should be let go.

Of course, that's only the opinion of one 'soccer geek', isn't it?

 

I was not there and obviously can't speak to Nelsen's tone on that particular day, and I won't try.

I'll say this, though. I interviewed Ryan Nelsen about 100 times. Sometimes after really tough losses or in the midst of long winless runs. Even if I knew he wasn't happy, he never sounded agitated, his voice was never raised. Never. This in times where he was talking about serious matters such as dissatisfaction with MLS contracts, the poor performance of the club in key games, etc.

I sincerely hope for the Times' writer's sake that his capture of the situation was correct. Considering how important of a "little detail" that that is, it would be well below the level for it to be incorrect. The current beat writers are the only ones who can capture that feeling of the players over the situation of the club at any particular time. To incorrectly state that would be a disservice to fans reading the article - soccer geek or not.

 

Agitated or not, Ryan Nelsen is the perfect captain. His play speaks volumes and he always seems to chip in with the right comment at the right time. MLS is nuts if they let him go for a salary that's not completely out of line with what they could offer.

 

Actually, I'm up for some nitpicking, if only because, on the All-Star Game topic, I thought "is that right?" when I read what he wrote.

From the All-Star balloting rules:

From the WashTimes article:

He appears to have misread the June 29th press release from MLS regarding Freddy's place in the fan voting:

Since the balloting is MLS-wide (began when MLS was supposed to be playing Real Madrid), it appears from reading the MLS news release that Freddy is actually third overall and second in the Eastern Conference behind Ralph.

However, again, that release says nothing about the fans picking the starting lineup:

Did he just assume that fan voting selects the starting lineup, like it does in the NBA, or is he accurate and it's not listed in the rules or in the press release? Or, is the author's "If he were voted a starter" language taking into consideration the other 75% of the votes, but didn't have space to mention it (the clear implication from the article is that one is voted a starter by the fans)?

Since Adu is being used in All-Star Game advertising, I assume he will, at minimum, be a Commissioner's Pick a la Tino Quaranta, but when I read the article, my impression was that the author didn't read the press release very closely before writing his story.