And can someone remind me what the composition of the Fire was when they won their title? I seem to remember veteren and hairy with lots of names ending in -ski (that part is figurative).
Meaning even if Bradleys only youth success was Magee, thats still 10X better than anything Nowak has done w/ his youth MLS players
(Gilberto) Flores wasn't one of them? I thought he was young. Oh well, Bob cut him too. At least he made John Wolyniec shine like a diamond.
Guys. I have to concede. He got me with this one. He warned me and I should have seen it coming. Let me shuffle over into the corner and scrape the burnt edges off my keyboard.
This would be the point in your "party" where the chick you've been telling how smart you are asks you to "put up or shut up". In other words, right before you leave .. alone. re: your silly Magee post --- Magee is hardly a success, unless "success" means getting a guy to show some promise once in a while. Already, Freddy has done that. So Freddy, Gros, Carroll, Stokes, Eskandarian, etc. .... against Magee. Gee, you got us there ........... Oh, he has made Mikey Bradley a decent player, but I hear he takes him home and works on him privately.
2003 Code: TEAM ATTENDANCE REPORT HOME GAMES ROAD GAMES DATES TOTAL AVERAGE DATES TOTAL AVERAGE Los Angeles Galaxy 15 329,752 21,983 15 209,091 13,939 Colorado Rapids 15 251,578 16,772 15 205,612 13,707 Columbus Crew 15 243,756 16,250 15 233,704 15,580 MetroStars 15 237,326 15,822 15 216,485 14,432 Kansas City Wizards 15 233,594 15,573 15 269,478 17,965 [B]D.C. United 15 233,476 15,565 15 230,874 15,392[/B] New England Revolution 15 219,611 14,641 15 209,503 13,967 Chicago Fire 15 210,080 14,005 15 213,494 14,233 San Jose Earthquakes 15 156,989 10,466 15 236,578 15,772 Dallas Burn 15 118,585 7,906 15 209,928 13,995 MLS Totals 150 2,234,747 14,898 150 2,234,747 14,898 2004 Code: TEAM ATTENDANCE REPORT HOME GAMES ROAD GAMES DATES TOTAL AVERAGE DATES TOTAL AVERAGE Los Angeles Galaxy 15 357,137 23,809 15 217,411 14,494 [B]D.C. United 15 258,484 17,232 15 355,289 23,686[/B] MetroStars 15 257,923 17,195 15 199,720 13,315 Chicago Fire 15 257,295 17,153 15 227,933 15,196 Columbus Crew 15 253,079 16,872 15 188,664 12,578 Kansas City Wizards 15 222,235 14,816 15 205,703 13,714 Colorado Rapids 15 212,925 14,195 15 258,502 17,233 San Jose Earthquakes 15 195,015 13,001 15 234,512 15,634 New England Revolution 15 183,385 12,226 15 247,236 16,482 Dallas Burn 15 136,319 9,088 15 198,827 13,255 MLS Totals 150 2,333,797 15,559 150 2,333,797 15,559 Freddymania sure didn't hurt.
Then again, it would be amusing to see Messrs. Kornheiser and Wilbon blow a gasket as Freddy Adu rotted on the Dallas bench behind Carlos Ruiz, Eddie Johnson, and Roberto Mina. And that's FC "profitable from Day One in Frisco, according to Lamar Hunt" Dallas to you, bub.
Let's see, according to Magee's bio on MLSNET, he's scored 11 goals for 4,060 minutes played as a forward. That's a strike rate of 1 goal ever 369.09 minutes, or roughly one goal every four games. If you want to call that success as a forward, who am I to argue? Maybe you know something about forwards that I don't.
There were plenty of them, but you also had young guys like Marsch, Armas, Razov, Brown (A-League) and Thornton who had been around a year or two without having done much. Later on came Dema, Boca, Beasley, etc. Magee's numbers over the last two years (4 goals in 34 games) put him somewhere around the Convey Line. And yet, he couldn't shut down a midfield containing a rookie, a journeyman who never did anything worthwhile when deprived of Preki's umbilical cord, and two of the laziest bastards ever to disgrace an MLS field...with a man advantage.
Fine then. Here are Gaven's stats. Feel free to tell us how successful he's been. Like for instance, how many trophies has he won under Bradley?
Sorry. I just went by what you said. It failed to leave much of an impression. I am glad that Eddie Gaven was discovered and formed, as if out of raw stone, by that Michaelangelo-esque sculptor of footie Bob Bradley. Now imagine how great Michael Bradley is going to be after experiencing that touch, genius and vision for nearly 18 years. Not to mention his superior pedigree *scoff*.
This is true. And while this was done in a very young, raw league it is still impressive. But I don't think that Bradley was nearly the magician that he was made out to be. I think he is probably decent at growing up youngsters, but Piotr Nowak had a huge influence even then.
That's why I only listed the young players under Bradley's tenure with the Metros, and not with the Fire.
I like going through this thread and counting all the non-DC posters who would be shitting Zach Thornton-size bricks if Nowak played Adu tons of minutes and Adu ended up spending his teenage years prepping for surgery, in surgery, or rehabbing from surgery like the larger-and-more-physically-suited-to-playing-against-grown-men-while-still-an-adolescent Santino Quaranta.
So how do you represent in writing, the sound you make when you laugh and spit diet coke out your nose? Tim
Whether Bradley is actually GOOD at developing young players isn't the point. The point is that right now, Freddy sees Gaven, Magee, Ibrahim and Ward (when healthy) and Bob's kid - not to mention - Rico Clark when he played there - all starting as teenagers under Bradley and thinks, again, according to Mike Wise's article in the Post, that it might be a good fit. We all know perception ain't the same as reality. I'm of the opinion that Peter's tough love will be the best thing for Freddy long-term. But right now, Freddy probably doesn't see it that way and is looking at all the teenagers playing in Jersey and thinking, "if I was there, I'd be starting, too." Would it go down like that? Who knows. But I bet Freddy thinks he would play more there than here AND have more teammates closer to his age to hang out with.
Mike Wise's article specifically said that Freddy thinks he'd be a good fit at the Metros? I don't remember that at all; and somehow I think that a statement that that's what Freddy thinks (about being at the Metros, no less) would have caused an explosion of commentary here. But I don't have a link or a copy of the article, so maybe I'm wrong. Do you?