But he isn't in The Clique. That is why someone somewhere had to supplicate so people with interest in the USMNT could discuss Adu on the Internet. How many Adu threads have they closed in 2005 alone? If you say He is Great, DC is Great and the other required prayers, they never would close the thread. Dissidents get hammered not those In With The In Crowd. I think my views on Adu, like my views on Beasley in 2001-2002, proved valid. Adu would be lucky to be on the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, making $11,000 per year, but for what I think were fantastic stories about his visa lottery, his age, the height of his father and so on. The real tragedy is the MLS/USSF bet big time on what I think was a hoax from day one and now it is payback time. Fans will never believe your advertising again, if they were ever dumb enough to believe it in the first place. I was right about Adu. He really hurt our U20 team because it was all Adu all the time, and he was not even close to ready for it. He took almost all the free kicks and corner kicks. And HE WAS AWFUL.
you make good points ..However, the truth is, DC won MLS...And that naturally (although it should not always be the case IMO) gives fans in DC lots of patience with respect to Novak....regardless of the .500 ball they've more or less played since he got there...Gomez turned around their season greatly last year , I thought..... And whatever he does with Adu is seen as OK, since he won the cup.... Can't blame DC fans having so much faith in Novak.... but there is room to question....
Who are "they" which you refer to, Thomas? If you mean the moderators of the USA Men fora, I (for one) have only closed one Adu thread, ever -- this one, in fact -- and I even re-opened it on request. Bear in mind that he is still only, what, 17? If that? Still growing, still learning, still developing. Sure, the hype surrounding him has been deafening, but of we look at him as just another player, just another piece of the puzzle, we can see where he fits in for the future, for both club and country. It is far too early, and quite unfair, to give up on him yet.
But it is quite unfair how some of the people put him on their world cup roster, or Their hypothetical roster. Its silly how they say. He is good enough and will make the roster and so on. Thats unfair to him. He has to either live up to the fanboys expectation, or face their critisism. Even if you go to the Italy in game and post game thread, you will see howmany turned their backs on him.
He just turned 16 last month. I predict next season will be his last in MLS, he'll have a breakout season, and he'll sign a big European contract in the Winter after next MLS season.
Probably because Freddy Adu has to -- in stating the bloody obvious -- earn his spot on the USA's World Cup final roster, just like anyone else. And he has to do so when he's deserving of it. True, we have massive expectations for this kid, but at the same time, we're all expecting him to fulfill some sort of potential, whether that's now or later.
No, you were wrong, but not completely so, and your hyperbole about his lack of abilities are silly. Adu is one of the most skilled players in MLS, and still has a very bright future. However, you are right that he isn't ready for the Nats. His problems are mostly mental. He needs to have a better understanding of the game, when to pass, when to shoot, and where to position himself off the ball. He needs more maturity. That will only come with more experience. Adu is already better than he was before he started with DC United, and he is only going to get better. More practice with free kicks and corners and penalty kicks will serve him well. Although he did not have a great U-20 tournament, he is still one of the reasons that the team beat Argentina and advanced in first place out of group play. He drew two penalty kicks and made many dangerous runs. Just look at his first half play against Argentina. To ask a 16 year old to be a leader on a team where most are 4 years older and more emotionally mature is pretty unrealistic. Just give Adu some more time, approximately 4 years, and he will blossom into a great player. Although comparisons with Pele are a bit much.
No, he's barely 16. He will be age-eligible for the 2009 WYC, and I'll bet about half the players there will be older than him. He earned 2 PKs. If he was awful, what adjectives would Thomas use for two CLEARLY worse attacking players, Gaven and Ochoa? Given that we basically used 4 attackers, and only one was (even arguably) better than Freddy, yet we won the group of death and beat and outplayed the eventual champs, is it possible the problem is either the standards of dumb fans or the tactics of Sigi? You know what Freddy is? He's the new Landon. He's the guy dumb fans hold to an impossible standard, then bash when he fails at the impossible. He's the guy that hatas look at, harp on every negative, without balancing that with the positives. Because some fans are Negative Creeps who have poisonous minds and enjoy spreading hate and pain. F' em. Unfortunately, I can't rep Thomas again. Please, can someone cover it for me.
He was born on June 2nd, 1989. He won't be able to sign with any European clubs until June 2nd, 2007.
I consider that more of an English punishment........in America we...(*fill in creative punishment here*)
Before everyone gets mad at eachother and starts fighting, the point of this thread is to see what he has to work on, not to flame him. Lets get back on topic.
Okay, I think this may be a little excessive. Why call the guy a hoax? What has he done to deserve that title? As far as I know (and I don't know everything) he's been a class act. In the few games that I've seen him in, he's done okay for a 16 year old, playing with older people. I can't say for sure how he did in the U-20's because I only watched one US game against Argentina. Even in that game, I thought he played okay overall. How did he hurt the US U-20's? Did I miss something? Didn't the US top a group that included Germany and Argentina (the eventual champions of this tournament) in group play? Didn't the US have a 1-0 lead against Italy at the half before things fell apart? Was it Adu's bad play that caused the US to concede 3 goals in the second half? I'm not being sarcastic, I'm just trying to understand where you're coming from. With that said, I feel bad for Adu. He's been put in a terrible spot. He's supposed to be what Jordan was to basketball, Ali was to boxing and Gretzky was to hockey. To make matters worse, he's in a country where a vast majority of its inhabitants (media and others) do not know soccer very well, the coaching, the strategies and the function of various players on the field. They don't understand that arguably more than any other American sport that it's a team game, where a single defensive lapse can mean death for your team in that game. The media can say anything and most American sports fans will accept it like it's the gospel. If Adu doesn't win a WC, he'll be considered a disappointment.
we.. take them to Gitmo and attach jumper cables to their nipples? Actually, no one has answered the question:"Where have all the Adu fan boys gone?" Sigi ate them...
Thomas I struggle to understand where your retarded logic stems from. Are you blaming Adu for what happened at thw WYC? I mean the whole tourney? or are you just trying to be a shoe in for "Hater of the Year"
The Clique. The Quota. The Gang of Seven. Do you ever notice how many conspiracy theories you espouse? Do you ever wonder how freaking silly that makes you look?
I thought he was the new Pele. Now he's only Landon? At any rate, it was a disappointing showing for Freddy. He should have been much better than he was 2 years ago at the same tournament, and he was not. The "he's only 16" stuff doesn't address the reality that for all the red, white, & blue tinted talk of Freddy's improvement, in the one clear example that he was afforded to demonstrate his improvement, he didn't. Not that he was bad mind you. He was pretty good. But he was pretty good 2 years ago, also.
Why wouldn't he blame him for the WYC? You do realize that Flannigan already blames Adu for destroying attendance and interest in MLS, so to him, making the WYC claim is small potatoes.
FYI, your question was good but the insulting title got this thread off to a bad start. Nobody likes being called a "fan boy." To address your question ... what does Freddy need to work on? His role. Fitting in with the supporting cast. He's dangerous on the dribble but he's not quite dangerous enough to be a "put the head down and dribble at 'em" player, a la Cristiano Ronaldo. Not really a finisher, either. More of a dribble, move, & pass playmaker ... but he wasn't doing very much of that, either. Then again, we could say much the same about Eddie Gaven, too. Whatever Sigi wanted his offense to do, it wasn't working ... this team scored a whopping 2 goals in the run of play in 4 games, and that's about what it deserved. The offense consistently looked out of sync. I mean, you shouldn't have Eddie & Freddie on the field and look that ragged.