Is it just me or does this first round draft pick seem mysteriously absent in the Fire's early season plans? As far as I can tell he hasn't travelled with the team to any away matches as an avaliable sub. For this past home game he didn't come in. The Fire's website hasn't been updated regarding our new guys so there is no information about him. On soccernet, http://soccernet.espn.go.com/match?id=143908&cc=5901 he is listed as George Buete for some reason. Any speculation to why we drafted him first round and he seemingly isn't ready for prime time? If Armas is going to be gone for Wednesday will he get any playing time or will it default to Capano?
Okay I see why. http://www.chicago-fire.com/pressbox/superdraft.asp Scott Buete Position: Midfielder DOB: July 23, 1980 (23) HT: 5-8 WT: 160 College: University of Maryland High School: Bowie High School Hometown: Bowie, MD 2003: True hustle player ... Described as the team's heartbeat... All-ACC First Team ... 24 career assists at Maryland... Two-time member of the Soccer America Team of the Week (9/10, 11/5) ... Named to the ACC All-Tournament Team ... 2002: One of the Terps' three tri-captains ... Started every game except the Mount St. Mary's game ... Registered two goals and tallied eight assists ... Second-most assists on the team ... 2001: Scored three goals and four assists ... Lifted the Terps to NCAA second round with his goal against Notre Dame (11/23) in the 88th minute ... Played 17 games, missing only the Virginia game (11/4) with a left medial collateral ligament strain ... 2000: Played in three games, starting all three before suffering a stress fracture in the fifth metatarsal bone in his right foot and taking a medical redshirt ... 1999: Started 19 of 20 games ... Averaged 0.33 assists per game ... Second only to leading scorer Taylor Twellman in assists in 1999 for Maryland with eight ... Named to the ACC honor roll. USMNT: A 1998 finalist on the U.S. Under-18 National Team ... PREP: Entered his high school's hall of fame in 1997-98 ... The Washington Post named Buete to its All-Met first team ... The Prince George's County Journal chose him for Player of the Year honors in 1997 and 1998 ... PERSONAL: The son of Gary and Anne Buete, Scott is the youngest of four boys: Tony (38), Gary (32), and Robby (30) ... Born on July 23, 1980 in Phoenix, Ariz. ... Majoring in marketing ... His full name is George Scott Buete. It still seems a bit odd that he hasn't been playing at all.
How much more invisible and worse can he be than pause,jaqua,griffen or some of the other players. He must not be impressing in practice at all.
I went to the University of Maryland's camp and he was an amazing player. The team all worked well with each other and all got along well, but Buete and Seth Stammler were the teams leaders. Coach Sirovski praised them and Sumed Ibrihim(spelled wrong) greatly. Chicago is stupid for not playing these two amazing players. S-T-U-P-I-D!
And now let the Fire's snub of Ned Grabavoy discussion begin.Could they use a creative a-mid right about now?Or are they content with a player who will ride pine until Armas hangs it up?Not saying Ned would have changed any results yet this season,just comparing the usefulness of who they got with who they could have had.
Has Ned put in a lot of minutes with the Galaxy so far this year? I don't think he has put in a minute yet. He also hasn't made the traveling roster. It seems to me that Ned has had the exact amount of usefulness for his team that Buete has had for ours. There's nothing to suggest that if we had Ned intead that he would have broken into the lineup at all. I would go out on a limb and say he probably wouldn't have, just like Scott Buete. My hope at this point is that Buete is at least practicing well and on his way to contributing. On that matter, there aren't many ways for us to know short of someone from the team telling us.
I should add a disclaimer:as an IU soccer fan and Fire fan,I was disappointed that Grabavoy was passed over by the Fire especially when he fell to them.Local boy makes good and all that.With that said,you rightly point out that neither he nor Buete has sniffed the field,so we don't know how either of them are coming along.It just seems that the Fire could have used a player with Grabavoy's skill set more than an Armas clone.Buete's stuck behind Armas(and others) here and Grabavoy's stuck behind Herzog,Kirovski etc in LA.Reverse them and maybe Buete spells Vagenas and maybe Grabavoy works in as a sub for Williams or Jaqua(or in place of Jaqua) With all the injury problems up top Grabavoy on the bench seems better right now than Buete.IMHO
I know about Ned and what he can do. I don't know much about Buete. But my understanding was that while he is very good defensively, he also brings some offense to the table. I am not sure that he is strictly an Armas clone. We generally play with two d-mid types anyway. One being slightly more offensive then the other. With Marsch out I would think that Beute just has to beat out Logan Pause. But appearently hasn't been able to do so yet. As for Grabavoy, I think he would be behind Andy Williams, DaMarcus Beasley and even Justin Mapp in the a-mid roll at this point. I don't think he would get on the field very easily right now.
Did I read correctly that at some point in the Dallas game(only saw highlights) the Fire had Williams up top with Armas in an attacking mid role? If so I can only say Yikes!Razov's groin sounds like it may take some time so hopefully Dipsy/Jaqua and Mapp at mid can take up the slack.It's just this type of injury(and multi-game ) depletion that may show that depth at the attacking position would have been a better strategy in the draft. Of course if Armas or Pause go down then Buete may look like a great move This is all hindsight and guesswork with some admitted sour grapes thrown in---but that's why this forum is here!
It looked like more of a 4-5-1 with Either Williams or Beasley occassionally roaming into a forward position.