Who's to say Mathis doesn't train hard? With the Metrostars I think it's a whole team issue w/not training hard. If they trained as hard as the rest of the league they wouldn't have watched the playoffs from the touchline and Zambrano would still have a job.
just sitting here and reading mathis' words get me pumped up...any of you guys atheletes and former atheletes? Maybe you'l see something here.... I was always a believer in that there is no such thing as too cocky on a playing field. You play as well as you KNOW you are. And then you go out and do it. No doubts. If you think the guy across might beat you he will. It sounds like to me that Mathis realized that he was thinking too much instead of simply just dominating. In his mind there is not a player in the world better than him and if he just stops thinking about everything else and goes out there onthat pitch and just plays with confidence...look out.
Um, according to the article, Mathis is the one saying it. Incredibly classy, self-aware and encouraging remarks from Cleatus. When was the last time you heard any big-time athlete, or any public figure of any kind for that matter, come out and flat-out admit that he'd lost focus, screwed up and not worked hard enough. Admitting you've got a problem is the first step toward solving it!
Yet again, Clint Mathis shows more class and honesty than either of his coaches (or his GM). Too bad that it is the older guys who should know better who are being taught a lesson in maturity from Mathis, and not the other way around.
...well said. take note, Randy Moss, Allen Iverson....etc. chalk one up for the good guys in sports.....
Actually, I was thinking that one guy that I really want to see that day is Taylor Twellman. Nonetheless, this is very encouraging to hear. I had long suspected the reason for a Mathis post-WC "meltdown" was that he expected to be in Europe, not in MLS. I would bet that most folks over the age of 18 on this board have had jobs before where they were mentally disengaged. It's great to see that Mathis can recognize that publically and do something about it. And, kudos to Arena for the timely reminder to Mathis on what Mathis' long-term goals should be.
That's exactly my point. I was answering the question "Do you think Clint would actually air any breivances w. Arena when he's still coach." I'd say Mathis publically contradicting Arena about his fitness is pretty close to airing grievances.
I wouldn't be so sure... According to Soccer America, OZ is still with the team--he was in the first year of a three year contract extension and may move "upstairs" into a Director of Player Relations position (how's that for irony?).
he's still under contract and so the league doesn't want to pay him for nothing... so they moved him to a different job and if he wants to leave, that's fine.. but then he will have to tear up his contract
Clint needs to learn how to suck up. This is just the easy stuff. Speaking of sucking up. Steve Ralston, who has played a grand total of 67 minutes for the Nats in the last 5 years, despite performing fabulously in MLS, was asked who his favourite coach was. Answer: Bruce Arena. I mean that is what World Class Sucking Up is all about.
---------------------------------------------------- According to Soccer America, OZ is still with the team--he was in the first year of a three year contract extension and may move "upstairs" into a Director of Player Relations position ------------------------------------------------------ This kind of arrangement is typical: when a employee's (OZ) service is no longer needed but he is under contract, the employer must pay salary either he works or not. I doubt OZ will take any active role in Metrostars organization from this point on. The press announcement about OZ acting as a consultant or director is just to show OZ respect and save his face. I bet OZ will take a vacation first and start looking for a job.
Re: Re: NorthJersey.com: Mathis on a Mission to Redeem Himself jeez, if there's anyone on these boards who whines about the MLS, about attendance, about who should go to Europe,... I`ve always hated when people say this, but pot meet kettle
I've always thought Clint did a good job with the press. Many players in his position would not have remained quiet, let alone positive, during the World Cup. If he needs assistance anywhere, it might be with his off the field activities and his on the field temperment (i.e., proposentity to lose his focus as a result of questionable calls or reckless tackles). Here's hoping that Mathis, who quite simply is our most dangerous attacker, follows up with what he says in the interview and trains hard each and every week leading up to next MLS season. If he does that, and his knees stay healthy, I think he will be on the way to Europe come the end of the next year (and if I'm not mistaken, MLS will not see a dime from the transfer as I belive he will no longer be under contact).
This never ends. Clint Mathis's problems with "off the field activities" is a rumor which somehow found some tread on Bigsoccer that came from the imagination of some idiot poster. The only thing that substantiates this is that he has a beer tap in his basement. Hence, he has become a fat smoking brawling alcoholic who parties all night every night in the City. As far as his on field temperment, yes, he's had a few problems this year, as he says, but how many red cards does he have over the last 3 years. Someone with an undisciplined on the pitch temperment it would seem to me would have more red cards. And if his knees stay healthy, let's hope we see Clint tearing up United defenses for years to come (which isn't so hard to do anyway, after all).
Puh...leeeze. Zambrano said that all of his private talks about staying focused on the job at hand weren't working. He felt he needed to go public to get through. Bruce also must have felt that his messages to Clint about conditioning weren't getting through, so he also went public. Now Clint publicly admits that he wasn't focused, and he did let his Metro teammates, coach, and fans down ("In that game, I didn't even play"), and that makes him more mature than the coaches that have been saying this all along? If the coaches went public first without trying to get Clint on board privately, I would agree with his statement that they should have been in his corner. But given that they did try to motivate him privately to no avail, his criticism of them for going public sounds like the whine of someone who still doesn't take full responsibility for the consequences for his actions, or in this case, inactions. Where is his apology to his Metro teammates? And note that Clint is still in denial. He says he was fit as a fiddle before the WC (he wasn't). He also still says he was better than his MLS teammates and opponents when he was working at 70% or so (he wasn't). "I didn't expect to come back here and I had a reminder when I was playing every day that I'm back here, so maybe that had an effect on me too." Sounds like, in his head, MLS was so far beneath him, that playing here was just slumming it. Pehaps he let comments about his potential get confused with what he has actually accomplished. He's had some great moments for both his club and the nats, but if he thought he was a shoo-in for some top european club, he was a bit self-delusional. I'm a fan of Clint and I applaud him for taking the first step. But let's see if he is willing to do the day-in, day-out work needed to be a force over time in soccer before anybody else anoints him again, or label his coaches as being immature for telling the truth out loud.
Bruce owed him this one and Bruce knows it. Still, it's a signal that maybe Bruce isn't so full of himself that he can't recognize that messed up big time with his public comments on Clint. I will be interested to see if going forward Bruce is more careful about his public statements about his players. I'll bet that he is. I doubt that even Bruce could have anticipated that his comments about Clint would have been seized on in such an unseemly and unprofessional manner by Metroclowns in residence, Nick Sakiewicz and Octavio Zambrano, for the sole purpose of trying to save their worthless hides for the Metro debacle they fashioned this year.
I admit, after reading the credibility you give to OZ, I didn't waste a moment reading the rest of your post. You cannot know what you are talking about if you are willing to accept the word of Octavio Zambrano, a thoroughly discredited piece of shite if ever there was one.
So you don't believe that Zambrano had prior coversations with Clint about how his emotional reactions to the refs were interfering with the quality of his play?
Didn't know we had a teenage home-girl on the boards Sure he was. Do you think Bruce would have played someone who wasn't fit as fiddle for 90 minutes two straight games in Korea? You're making far too many assumptions here. He expected to be in Europe. Everyday he woke up, he was in the states which reminded him he was not in Europe.
Sure, and probably in the same fashion that any coach would give that speech to any number of players on his squad. I don't for a minute believe he gave it with the focus he now claims, complete of course with advice to see a shrink and coupled with his suggestion that he, OZ clued in Bruce about it resulting in Clint's benching in Korea. All of OZ's bullshyt came as the Metro season imploded. It came when scumbag OZ's gravytrain was coming off the rails. Seeing posters like you taking OZ's statements at face value and then repeating them as evidence of solemn fact is amusing in sad sort of way.
Why is this relevant. They could have talked a mountain, and it still doesn't justify what Zambrano said. Completely unprofessional. And how many goals and how spectacularly was Mathis supposed to play in the freindlies leading up to the WC to make you believe he was in shape. Would a hatrick in Germany, rather than just two goals, have conviced you that he was in shape. Very selective reading my friend. He came back earlier than expected from injury, tore it up in the Pre WC, and still, people say he was out of shape for the nats. Unbelievable.