I agree. The under-20's aren't paying him to.... Wait, they aren't paying him at all. If you want to discuss the financial motives (which I think are more-or-less irrelevant vis-a-vis Freddy in this tourney), one might think that the players not making 500K per year + endorsements would put forth more effort in the hopes of attracting such a contract. Your observation that "others have made the effort with far less" is right on, and it's understandably so.
Probably right on this one. That's kind of counter-intuitive isn't it? If he was so good with young players in college you would have thought he would have been good with the guys as pro's. But you're right, I can't remember a single P-40 player that has had any success with LA when he was there. Spot on. Once again correct Whoa!! Hold the horses!. If he didn't fit into Sigi's system then why bring him? And if you had to bring him why play him? I find it very hard to believe that Sigi didn't think Freddy could play on his team the way he wanted him to. Are you suggesting that Sigi was forced to bring Adu by USSF? Those days have ended since Arena took over. I believe Bruce has hiring and firing input on all of the other Men's National Teams coaching staff and Bruce wouldn't tolerate being told who to take and who to play and I don't think Sigi would either. Schmid resent that he didn't dominate the tournament? Where do you pull that from? I think you've gone way over board on this one.
On the first part, I think for some coaches, there is a big difference between dealing with kids who are 16-17-18 and college grads. The college players are a bit more mature, they can drink legally, don't need chaperones, are probably more developed physically, are probably "harder" players and probably aren't as moody. Some coaches (Bradley, Rongen, maybe Hudson, probably Nowak) seem to do well with what we used to call P-40's. Others (and some of them are fine coaches) seem to do better with college talent (meaning kids who have mostly stopped growing and probably have 3 years or more of college) and either don't handle the kiddies well or avoid them all-together: Nicol, Andrulis (look what has happened to Martino and Szetela), Clarke, Schmid. As for the second part, I didn't mean to imply that Sigi was forced to take Adu. Because I don't believe that at all. If you watch Freddy in drills or working out, he just oozes talent and ability. How could you not take him? But I think Sigi couldn't find a way to get the best out of Freddy. He didn't fit his picture of an A-mid or a forward, Sigi knew he had talent but was worried about the holes in his game so he made him a left-sided mid figuring "maybe he won't hurt us much there and he'll be on the field so maybe he'll do something magical". I think this was a case of a talented player who Sigi Schmid couldn't quite figure out what to do with and how to best use his skills. So he got shunted off to the side by Sigi. Not b/c he was forced to take him, but b/c Schmid couldn't quite figure out how to use that talent.
Let's just sum it up by stating the merely obvious: Anybody making what Adu is making should be putting forth max effort every time he sets foot on the pitch... I know Adu is capable of amazing talent; when such talent is absent one begins to wonder about motive, devotion, and sincerity.
Agree 100% I have no idea what you're saying here. Talent is an intrinsic characteristic, i.e. you either have it or you don't. Even the most energetic Adu-hater can't say he doesn't have talent.