What is with Keane? He is just incapable of not being a b@stard at times. The game was over, maybe 30 seconds of stoppage time left, and he clocks McAteer. What did that accomplish? It reminds me of Larry Johnson's quote during the playoffs a couple of years ago "We aren't going to let them chump us. We will out chump them if we have to" How many times does Keane puts his personal chip on the shoulder agenda over the good of the team? Just shameful. While a draw at home may be considered a loss, if you are Sunderland today was a good result. They were significantly outplayed, possession was 59-41 to Manu and they had 17 goal attempts to 8, with 7 shots to Sunderland's 3. Drawing the likes of Manu at home is good based on their play today, which was largely uninspiring. Reyna was solid, with some nice touches, but he did lose the ball a couple of times, in dangerous positions. He is their only real motivator out of the middle. Interested to see what Stewart's presence will bring.
Not to mention that gives them four points from a possible six this week, against the likes of Leeds United and Man U. Not too shabby... No kidding-- and that's considering that Reyna's played better over the course of 90 minutes than this... Not at his best, but still inspires a good result against top-class opposition for his side.
Reyna played a big role in the goal. His pass was perhaps a bit too fast but it was taken nicely on the run (it is the Premiership) and the resultant go on goal directly atributable to the pass. The free kick into Beckham's back was bush and worthy of a South American team and I don't think it did him any credit. Overall, not a bad performance, a 6 out of 10 would be a reasonable rating I think.
Could someone please describe for me, who has no FSW anymore, the Reyna ball into Becks' back? Was it a free that Becks was trying to stall?
Sky gives their MOTM to Reyna: http://msn.skysports.com/skysports/article/0,,3360-1062573,00.html Blue uni:
Tigger played Keano for a fool, knew what he was doing, drew him in and took an elbow to the face which no doubt will seem sweet when his former team mate is given a hefty suspension.
I know Claudio is great but it still blows my mind to read the boards at A Love Supreme, and see all the Sunderland fans just raving over Captain America.
Claudio seems to be emerging as a legit elite player. A player who could make the matchday 16 for any side in the world, and start for all but the top half-dozen teams. This is several fine performances in a row for him.
I thought Reyna had a very inconsistent game. There were times when he just looked plain awful. Particularly in the first fifteen minutes, he was turning the ball over and giving the ball away even when making square passes and back passes. As he sometimes does playing for the nats, he also has an uncanny knack for killing his own team's counter-attack. For a creative mid, he makes a lot of conservative passes -- at times when Sunderland was down, Reyna played as if he was trying to hold a lead. That said, Reyna also had moments of sparkling play. He threaded a beautiful pass to set up the goal, and he showed his skill in the midfield, sometimes fighting off more than one blue jersey, and one time dribbling past Veron.
My favorite quote from the love whatever. MoM though has to be . . . Claudio Reyna - Pure unadulterated orgy of hardcore CLASS.
I've been learning to appreciate this more--it seems to me that Reyna was playing square passes and slowing the game to help the team regain its shape and set up its defense. It may seem counter-intuitive for a team that's behind, but it helped them get established and stop having ManU stroll through midfield. Once they got that done, his passes were more probing and even some over the top long balls, and he was also more willing to drop a ball off and run forward, rather than wait for a square return. I still think that there are times that he can kill a promising counter, but I'm growing to appreciate his ability to read the game and choose to support the defensive shape rather than just press forward for an equalizer. Truly makes him a captain, pulling the strings.
I love Reyna, really I do, but I think the Sunderland fans are giving the Yanks a run for our money in the rush to call reyna world class contest. He had a good game, but he's played better. He's not Zidane out there. He is a very good organizing mid, with the ability to play some great balls forward, and he's made great progress over the last 2 years. But let's not get carried away. He plays smart, (usually) passes well, and he makes those around him better. But the remarks about him making the 16 on any team in the world, um, I don't know. He's great, but I think "elite" is a stretch. To me, elite means there are only a handful, maybe 5 or 10, in the world at a position. Zidane, Figo, Becks, they are all elite midfielders. If you had to put a list of mids together, does anyone really put Reyna in the top 10 worldwide? Does any non-american? Again, I love the guy, but I can't do that. Those of us who actually watched the game saw him play well (with a few bad spots), but it wasn't his best effort.
To be honest, not many will agree with this, but I think Becks is over rated and Reyna is class and his passing may not look as good on the highlights but causes more trouble to oppisition, if I had to pick one of them, I'd pick Reyna.
I only said it was my favorite quote. I have always liked him, but then I have been watching the Nats for many years and remember the times when we couldn't string three passes together and never had any of the play in the midfield. I agree with you that he may not be elite but I think he is special. He can certainly play with anybody in the world. And best of all he's a yank and he is showing very well. It's obvious that Sunderland are very happy with him. I hope he keeps it up, sounds as though he has lifted his game to another level, but hard to tell from a webcast.
come on you guys. you all know Claudio sucks and if BS hadn't crashed so many times, I'd find the threads to prove it. It's only a matter of days before the international press and the EPL figures out he plays soft, isn't creative, can't go forward, slows the pace, can't play defense, belongs at RB, should sit, can't control his temper, has no commitment, is a cry-baby, is cold, is half the player Mathis is and will disappear in key games. This week could well be the last four points that CR gets in his entire career.
If captaining a World Cup quarterfinalist and making the World Cup all tournament team doesn't signal that Claudio is an elite player, I don't know what does.