First off, let me say that I admire Santino Quaranta for the adversity he's overcome with regard to his battle with addiction. That said, I'd like to put his personal saga aside for a moment and focus on what he's shown on the field. In that regard, I have often found myself wishing that Quaranta would display a more focus, toughness, grit, workrate, and intensity. Now, he has been sidelined by an ingrown hair. Of course, I don't know the full details of the situation, but having had a carbuncle on my posterior before (of the staph infection variety) I do have some experience with such things. I can emphatically say that my staph infection, which was nasty and had to be lanced, drained, and bandaged, would not have kept me off the field for a day. So, I find myself wondering: Does Quaranta fundamentally lack in toughness and grit? I'm starting to think so. It seems that he is, for lack of a better word, incredibly soft. He is the anti-Ben Olsen. And if he doesn't find a way to reinvent his on-field personality, I think the team is best off trading him. We cannot afford someone so lazy and soft in our midfield.
DC United 2008 Minutes played - 6th on the team (2nd among midfielders, 3rd if you count McTavish)) Fouls suffered - 2nd on the team DC United 2009 Minutes played - 8th on the team (2nd among midfielders, 3rd if you count Wallace) Fouls suffered - 1st on the team Don't know what you consider soft, but if you're talking about a player who shows up week-in and week-out and gets the snot kicked out of him for the effort, then I can't really agree with your definition.
Yea, but if he has some kind of infection can't it mess him up like get him to have fever, and just all around be weaker? It isnt just something superficial right?
You havea a point, but you didn't make it. Come back when you have some idea of what you're talking about.
Anyone who has to overcome a drug addiction is tough. Dealing with that temptation on a day-today level is tough. I think you chose a poor choice of words. From my own prospecitve, Tino needs to keep focus on defense. His lapses come when he forced to be on the defensive for some stretches.
See, I think he needs to be more aggressive in looking for his own shot...and be played as a forward. His defense, even when enthusiastic, is not great and he's probably the best striker of the ball on DCU...he's just put so much effort into being Jaime Jr. that he's not nearly aggressive enough in creating for himself.
Yes. My future son-in-law had this (infected hair follicle) happen twice and he was very sick (high fever, etc). Also, I'm retired now, but for over 30 years I was an orthotist-prosthetist. I had a patient many years ago, who lost his leg from an infected hair follicle that wasn't properly treated. Getting sick is not a measure of toughness, imo. asitis
So given that Quaranta lacks Moreno's skills and the pace Moreno once had, what's that make him? I'd also say Moreno is way more physical a player. Jaime's not afraid to body someone up or, sometimes unwisely, throw an elbow. Even so, Moreno's lack of workrate is the main reason (I think) he has never played center mid. Maybe Q does need to be played as a forward, but we're not playing him there and we're not going to any time soon. To reiterate, I'm trying to start a discussion of Quaranta's merits or lack thereof without taking into account his battle with addiction. I think his biggest problem on the field is that he's soft/lacks grit/isn't aggressive enough. Getting fouled a lot could just be a sign that he holds onto the ball too long. After all, he almost never dribbles past anyone 1v1. I'd love to see him take control of a position on the field (any position) and win his battle against a defender all game long. But I just have never seen him display the will to harass an opponent defensively and to put them under pressure with relentless movement in the attack.
DCU - I think I have read that same exact post for pretty much every year Tino has played for United........
I saw nothing in Onalfo's comments that would suggest Tino took himself out of the 18. It sounds more like the team took Tino off the list to deal with a very nasty infection (which could have side effects, like fever). You don't screw around with staph infections, especially when some particularly lethal varieties are on the loose. I don't think this is a judgment on Tino's toughness.
Yeah - I see that. He always facilitating a play, rather then going for the score. I wonder if he's "selfish" enough to go for it?
And the world has changed in the last ten years. These MRSA (resistant bacteria) infections are now part of the general community, where it used to be just a hospital phenomenon. If Tino has this as a bug, you don't want him near the other players.
This is interesting. When Santino came into MLS as a 16 year old, he was an out and out attacker going agressively to goal every time he got the ball. He terrified defenders because he gave them no quarter whatsoever. He didn't always succeed of course, but he did go after them and he was successful, five goals as a rookie who played mostly as a reserve. He didn't reach that goal total again until a year or so again, btw. However, he had no real defensive sense to his game, so many people moaned and cried that he wasn't a "complete" player. So, he was kind of forced by coaching and circumstances into changing positions and being more active defensively and lost his natural attacking instincts somewhat, then there were injuries too of course. The point is he was flat out a natural attacking talent that I contend was helped into ruination by being forced to become a better "overall" player. So, he's still a top notch player (and I think this idea of him being soft is ridiculous, he's tougher than most of us combined) but he hasn't really gone as far as he might have gone had he just been nurtured in his natural role as a blitzkrieg forward. Now, if he was midfielder like Adu or Mapp or Convey, I can see wanting them to be more well rounded, but Tino should always have been played at forward and nothing else, and he might be the US' Wayne Rooney heading ino this world cup. That he is only a decent midfielder is because he's such a talent overall he can adapt in my opinion. I wish Tino would have had the chance to stay a forward through thick and thin, and he might well be Buddle (or EJ, who was his running mate on the youth teams) right now, instead he's kind of going the route of Adu, et al. and not really fulfilling his potential in my opinion. Just a thought.
I mostly agree with this. Thomas Rongen has suggested something very much like this also. I think Tino has absorbed too much of the Etch/Moreno style of play, which is to facilitate the attack rather than do the attacking yourself. Good strikers have to be selfish, and Tino has put aside selfishness in favor of "team play." That's not such a bad thing, of course, but I sure would like to see the somewhat reckless all-out attacker I remember when he was a teenager.
I feel tino' didnt absorb the good things from Etch, which was his holding and 'cold blood' with his ability to not be scared to hold it away frmo opponents to open up other guys as he gets 2-3 guys on him from holding it. Quaranta is too quick to just do a long pass the second he feels pressure.
At this point, I too would like to see Pontius on the right mid spot, but Q' on the bench. I like how Christman works with Allsopp. As far as I am concerned they both are a lock unless something changes or they have terrible games! If not Christman, then Najar. He does things that Q' should be doing, but does it better and is only 17!
Tino underwent surgery today, per Goff, because his infection was a MRSA staph infection, which is resistant to most antibiotics. "Untreated, MRSA can lead to organ failure and death." Presumably, they cut out the infected tissue before the infection got into a muscle or the bloodstream. Anybody else want to opine on what a ********** Tino is for not manning up and getting out on the pitch? After all, it was just an ingrown hair, right? What a wimp! Tino dodged one, it seems, and I just hope they disinfect the locker room so this doesn't spread. We know RFK is a dump, but really....
Geez. Hearing that MRSA staph is running around the locker room after last year's "seeping infection under the cast" incident is really worrisome.