Our Lips are Tealed!: Let's unbury the Bunbury conversation and talk Teal

I really do like Wondo, but he is not a #9 and JK knows this. JK put him in tandem with Sapong and move Bunbury to the right side. BTW, the tactic worked.

Overall, this was a great team victory, folks who have an axe to grind are singling out playesr instead of praising the good effort of the team.

 

No, he's not. He had 9 goals in 1750 minutes. Not a bad rate, certainly, but not close to the top 5.

 

OK, give me the top 5 and I will truly apologize to you.

 

http://www.thebesteleven.com/2011/10/2011-mls-goals-scored-per-90-minutes.html?m=1

Teal Bunbury is tied for 5th with Thierry Henry for goals scored per 90 minutes at 0.55.

 

If his sophomore play was anywhere close to his rookie season we wouldn't be having this discussion.

 

Good points, but Bunbury regained his starting position as the #9 at SKC for the last 10 plus games at the shagrin of the SKC fans. Go figure?

 

http://www.mlssoccer.com/stats/seas...13447538786&form_id=mls_stats_individual_form

 

Thaks for looking that up!

 

Eddie Johnson Jr.: a guy who has no clue how to use his physical talents and lacks technique....

 

Bunbury has much better technique than EJ.

If EJ still had solid touch he would still be in Europe.

 

first time to see much of him, but he could do with adding a new move to his bag...seems like he just has the behind-the-leg move which is a bit slow

 

Agree!

 

Much too early in the cycle to write him off but a disappointing outing (though I thought ESPN3 commentators a bit harsh).

Showed some good ideas but lacking the finesse or timing to make it happen, to my eyes. That kind of thing can evolve in a young(ish) player....

 

he had a poor touch tonight, but right now the bigger concern to me is he gets knocked off the ball easily.

Teal is still young and should figure into our plans for 2014, but IMO they should take the approach with him they are taking with Juan; focus on the Olympics, and work on fundamentals.

 

The next Eddie Johnson at the moment. That first touch is horrible and he can't play with his back to goal. He doesn't deserve senior team callups at the moment. Maybe U-23s, he needs to have a good run with them and a strong MLS campaign.

Even Findley, yes I said it, is better than him.

 

you play as bad as Bunbury did today and you don't deserve a look until you have at least a 10-20 goal season with your club.

 

On the goal it looked to me like he back heeled it to Zusi. Maybe it was just a deflection though...

 

as i posted somewhere else, he was bad enough to ruin any chance of evaluting the US attack tonight. that said...he is young and will presumably be better but even with a shallow striker pool, he is falling fast.

 

Yep. He is going to have to earn it at the club level.

 

After tonight, burying it would not be good enough, nuke it from orbit.

lol that was NOT intentional... count it as another incidence of Bunbury fail that a nice opportunity in front of goal bounced off the back of his left cankle.

 

Nope, I was right the first time.

Had some lovely 30 yard traps tonight.....

 

Yeah the problem with that "much better than EJ" logic is, it's not like Bunbury is in Europe either...

 

Teal looked very bad tonite, he couldn't put anything together, passing was off, his trapping non-existing, he was out-muscled like a 90 pound weakling.

He is nowhere ready for first team minutes, this performance might cost him the starting spot for the U23 team.

I was very high on this kid as a rookie, still had hopes in him in his second season that was mainly up and down but now? who knows what porter is going take from this showing.

 

If CJ Sapong continues to outshine him, I would expect him to suit up for Canada.

 

Teal looked bad tonight for sure. Most noticeably, he was unable to hold up the ball at all, due to poor touch and a lack of strength in possession. I was hoping to see more from him, but it seems he is far away from making an impact with the MNT.

Even before this performance, I think Teal was fairly far down in the pecking order. Even for the U-23s, Teal was behind Agudelo and Boyd, not to mention Jozy. He still could be useful in Olympic qualifying as a late game sub, because his ability to run in behind defenses could be more effective there than in games with senior sides.