Yeah she is struggling but she will learn & get better. There are a lot of rookies in the league some are adapting fine Bock, Klein , Dew, Falk etc & some are not. I don't think ARod was overated. She was on the WNT & had done well & was a big name in the college game. I guess on the college performance then Keri Hanks should have been 1st pick. She has been struggling also. Megan Rapinoe has had good games & bad. Bock went 5th i think & Dew was in the 2nd rd. To me drafts mean nothing. I don't get them at all.
She's struggling for sure right now... But that said, if it were up to me and I had to do it all again...She'd still be my #1 pick. With the attack we have on teh team we shouldn't have to rely on a rookie to carry the team...she's learning from some of the best players to ever play the game and one of the most respected coaches in women's soccer... Amy is gonna be alright!
I did not know who she was until I saw her play in TX in the 2007 NCAA playoffs. She was awesome and quickly became one of my favorite players. When she got called up for coffee with the WNT, she set herself on path to become one of the finest strikers for team USA. Since joining the Breakers, she gives new scope to the concept of "slump" !! I don't know what is going on, but there is (IMO) more disconnect between A-Rod's ability and her performance to date than with any other rookie in the league. This is more than an off week, and the gal sure has the chops; I've seen them! I'd be interested to hear from folks who are seeing her play a lot why she is not clicking as an effective scoring leader for the Breaker attack? I do believe she will emerge as a major force. Is Boston the right chemistry? She doesn't need time "to develop", and it seems she has been getting plenty of chances?
To be fair, she scored 31 goals in 82 college games and she took 252 shots to get those 31 goals. According to WPS stats, she's taken 8 shots for Boston and she's averaging only 53 minutes per game. Even some prolific goal scorers like Cristiane took a few games before they scored, although that one was partially because of injury. And by contrast, Kerri Hanks scored 84 goals in college and Yael Averbuch had 32 and neither of them are lighting it up either. The only difference is that Rodriguez has 36 international caps. Heck, Chicago's whole team didn't score for almost 4 1/2 games. Saint Louis has had similar scoring slumps. To this point, it hasn't been a scoring league. I don't think it was so much being overrated as fans having over-expectations. But, if anybody wants to give up on her, she's welcome in Saint Louis.
Also notice that the players mentioned above have been in mostly defensive roles. Even some of the seasoned veterans in the league have struggled on offense. It's just a lot harder to score at this level. You've got to do more with fewer chances, that's how it is. She really needs to get that first goal, then maybe she won't press so much.
Back in January, I compiled stats about the potential draft picks, and Amy's production was very poor relative to perception [link] I've watched Amy play over four years of college ball. Wonderful player, her speed is remarkable. However, because she has poor close control, she rarely goes for goal with the ball at her feet. As a result, prefers to shoot from distance, making her shot selection and conversion % quite atrocious.
Cristiane a prolific goalscorer? On the Brazilian national team, yes; at club level historically, no. With her Swedish team, Linköping, she scored 6 goals in 14 matches last season (0.43 per match), with 3 assists. Not too bad on the whole, but she had Daniela there to get the ball to her feet. In Wolfsburg Cristiane scored 7 goals throughout the entire 2006/7 season of 22 matches, while the league's top scorer that year, Prinz, scored 28. At Potsdam she also scored 7 in an entire season (top scorer Pohlers, with 36). Neither season was Cristiane even the top scorer in her team. So far at Chicago, her tally is 2 goals and no assists in 7 games (491 minutes, since she hasn't always played the full 90). Although she's shown some fancy footwork and occasionally made the matches I've seen more entertaining, I think people who were expecting her to be a ruthless scoring machine might want to adjust their expectations a little. Just to tie into some of cachundo's and Cville's sentiments above re. Rodriguez. This brings me to the most important difference I see between Cristiane and Marta: Marta doesn't just score goals, she makes them too. Marta may have shared the top scorer spot with another player in the Swedish league last season (23 goals in 18 matches), but she was outstanding in the number of assists, where she had 19 compared with the "runners up" who had 7 (among them Lisa De Vanna). Cristiane, as I mentioned, had 3. So I suppose the question is whether Rodriguez is doing something else valuable that's not as immediately visible as scoring goals?
I think Smulan makes some excellent points (and I am out of rep for her). Do the expectations for a player, in this case ARod, realistic or unrealistic? Also, are the metrics used to evaluate a player artificially and incorrectly limited (ie judging solely by # of goals scored)? I think the expectations for ARod's WPS season were quite high due to her performance during her junior year at USC and her USWNT play. It was also quite high due to comments made by scouts/coaches/gms leading up to and after the college draft (I'm looking at you Tony) and the fact that she was chosen first in that draft. I am not sure those expectations were realistic at all given her skill set, age and limited experience relative to her teammates and opposition. Given that, though, is her game getting better over the course of the season? I'm not so sure that it is. When Smith leaves for the Euros, she really needs to step up for the Breakers to have success. She needs to start that "stepping up" process now, though, b/c in the pro game, rookies can't just flip a switch.
She's a rookie. Seriously. There's an adjustment - even in a league of expansion teams. Some players adapt quicker than others.
In my original post, I said I thought Arod was in a big time slump, and asked why. I'm quite sure I didn't suggest it was all on her. Having just watched the St. Louis game, it appears to me that Arod is still not playing with the confidence that she might hope to have with the ball at her feet, but I was also struck by the number of very nice and completely unrewarded runs she was making off the ball. One of her greatest strengths is her canny runs right at the offsides flag. If her teammates can't get their heads up to find her, many of her best moments are just spent spinning her wheels. I'd love to hear from Breakers fans who are seeing a lot of games and in person; am I making this up, or is there a chemistry problem? It appears to me from the little I've seen that her teammates don't seem to understand how to play her?
The announcers today said DiCicco said earlier that ARod would have to earn her way onto the field. She hasn't, she isn't. I don't know what it is, but at this point i'm going to say chemistry. Look at what happened to the two players LA traded to St. Louis: Fletcher and Welsh, both of whom played well today. They didn't fit at LA, they do in St. Louis and they are finding success there.
A-Rod doesn't look like she belongs. She works hard when she has the ball at her feet but can't see to pass and loses posession frequently. She doesn't seem to accelearte to get to through balls that- with her speed -she should get to. And then to not be there to finish that gorgeous cross by Alex... In the second half of the Athletica game yesterday, her teammates were absolutely playing around her. She called for the ball on throw-ins and the throw went anywhere but to her. There was one give and go sequence with Lil where A-Rod just didn't go; the frustration was apparent. I was all set to love A-Rod based on her play with the USWNT but it ain't working for me.
Maybe this isn't the right thread to say this, but it is so apparant that there is more than a disconnect than just with A-Rod. It is more than the couple of players they substituted for in yesterday's game, its obviously not going to be that easy of a fix. This team is not playing as a team. Individually, there is nothing wrong with our team, we have some great players, except that we are not playing as a team. The other teams are 'connecting' while we are seeming to 'disconnect' more each game. It would have been nice to think that our 'stars' are not the problem, but unfortunately they are the players that the team should be following to victories. It is time to look to these so called stars of the team and demand more from them. If Lilly cannot contribute more than she has been, she needs to either move to forward or spend part of the game on the bench. Ouch, that hurts, but somebody had to say it. Another unpleasant comment (tune out now if you think Smith is perfect), Smith needs to start using her teammates instead of trying to be a one man band. She is an awesome player, no doubt, but even she can't get through the entire defense of our opponents, and there are open players that she could use. Ok, so maybe they're not as accomplished as she is, but give them a chance, they may surprise you. Marta is helping her team more by setting up her teammates than she is by actually scoring. If Smith keeps insisting on trying to plow her way through everyone, she physically won't make the rest of the season. There is definately a chemistry problem, but it goes way beyond A-Rod.
I do admire DiCicco for sticking with her and being patient during the adjustment period, if that is what is the problem. Other teams have benched players (Think LA and Welsh and Fletcher and Pride which flat cut Oakes, all of whom have done well elsewhere) rather than giving them time to develop. Tomorrow's game will be interesting . . .
While I agree that her finishing has certainly been subpar but I think she is starting to connect some of the dots. From my perspective in the Athletica game she was more involve in the run of play than any game I have seen her play this season. She was involved on both the defensive and offensive end of the field, when in some games she has become invisible. Now while her execution of her shots and positioning for most of those crosses was just not done well, she definitely did show some improvement with her posession of the ball and ability to deposess other players. While it is important that she starts executing the main functions of her position on the field she did show some progress.
Seriously, have any of you followed professional team sports before? Some players take longer to develop than others. Some never develop. But ten games into a rookie season almost nobody is a failure or a hall of famer. She's definitely been sub-par. That's obvious. It may even turn out that she doesn't have what it takes. But I certainly wouldn't a) be overly concerned or b) write her off. If she still sucks 10 games into next year, than start writing the obituaries.
Yes we have, but A-rod is not a rookie MLS player. She has more experience than your average rookie due to the National Team. She should show it. Right now she seems afraid to shoot and that's not what I want in my starting striker.
A-Rod has worked her ass off the last two games. She does all the right things to get to the ball in the right place, but she has no sense where the net is. Two or three times last night she had the ball within 8 yards of the goal and spun like a whirling dervish before blasting the ball into oblivion. She has to make the 'keeper earn her pay and put the ball on net.
FWIW the last time I heard someone refer to a player as a whirling dervish....Anson Dorrance talking about Mia Hamm. I am not worried about Amy. Frustrated? Sure. And you can clearly see that she is frustrated. I think she is feeling pressure to be our "go to" goal scorer coming out as the #1 pick. When she finally breaks the ice I think we'll be able to see the huge weight fall off her shoulders and she'll relax. We have a few problems on this team that we need to be concerned with....Amy Rodriguez is not one of them.
"We have a few problems on this team and Amy isn't one of them"..... The biggest problem is the coaching staff....Starting with the head coach but no offensive co-ordinator, no offense and a team now completely confused. Sad