Because he plays for the Revolution. I'm not joking. I've observed that certain MLS teams seem to have more fanatical supporters and haters on this board. This leads to excessive love and hate for a player from one of these teams.
when dempsey plays deeply. he doesn't do what reyna does, and he doesn't do what mastroeni does... so, in terms of role, dempsey offers something different..... he goes full speed all the times, runs people over or gets run over... in terms of how the revs play, mixed with joseph, twellman, noonan and ralston, his approach can be very effective... but transitioning into how arena wants to play, he's a square peg looking fior the round hole... he needs to adapt his game, embrace being a d-mid, if he can (backing mastroeni) OR seize being an a-mid (meaning he's donovans back-up)
I think his opting to rest rather than train in Europe was at the recommendation of Coach Nicol. The kid was tired and has a huge year ahead of him. Look for him to be back in top form when he gets to the USMNT camp and as an active part of USMNT success in Germany. He had a sophmore slump during the second half of 05. Pradiction: In 06 we will see him emerge as a real major asset for the USA.
Demspey is the perfect guy to get under Totti's skin i think...just have him follow Totti the whole game. Even the biggest Dempsey fans will aknowledge that he has a little bit of "goon" to him,,thats something we need.
I disagree. I hate the Galaxy, for example, but if Landon ain't on that field there's issues. I think Cobi is devil spawn, but I could certainly see him playing a role for the US even at this stage of his career. I think your perceived Revs bias is the fact that their 4-5 national teamers have been mediocre on their best days. I just can't see that much hate for the Revs ... I mean, nationally do their inspire much love/hate or do they just exist? kinda like columbus, colorado and KC. I don't mean that in a bad way.
perhaps if he follows Totti around rapping the entire time Totti will take a red card just to put himself out of his misery.
I don't know about the prediction, but I do feel the kid was too pooped to pop after May of 2005. You could see it at kickoff. That calm, cagy look in his eye was gone, replaced by a kind of wide-eyed uncertainty. Hopefully he has learned how to take care of his body. Also hope guys like Rolfe and Mapp have learned from his example. You gotta work hard to recover and rebuild your body in the offseason. I just can't believe Mapp is still injured from freakin October. That's ridiculous. Have some surgery. Eat some vitamins. Do something. Put up an effort. Don't just stay injured.
I saw CD totally destroy my Fire defensively and offensively. Then saw him score against the England Nats at Soldier Field and anchor the midfield. Enjoy him in the MLS because he will be playing in europe soon. He is one of the players I pay to watch.
A rich man's Gaven. Eddie was even more tired, and he looked even worse. I wonder if it's not related to their body types? Those long, lean guys tend to be slow developers (look at Peter Crouch, finally coming into his own at age 27). I wouldn't be surprised if it takes them longer to develop stamina, too.
CD is a work in process. He's darn good now, and he's going to get much better. I recall the thread comparing CD to Ballack which was started by a Revs fan and supported by a bunch of them. It was about that time that CD started slumping. No doubt that thread put a lot of unnecessary pressure on him. With JOB and/or Reyna so unlikely to be 100% physically fit for the WC, CD is slated for a lot of work this summer. I'm sure he will rise to the task even though he is a reject from Texas HS gridiron ball.
I hope you're not serious??? If so, this may be the most idiotic comment I've ever read on BigSoccer... A dopey thread on a message board put pressure on a world class athlete....and led to subpar performance??? C'mon...tell us you're joking!!! BTW, find that thread...I want to see who said/agreed that Clint was in the same category as Ballack...
Go to "Search" at the top of the page. Enter "Dempsey Ballack" and a list of 20 threads comes up. Now I only checked the first two, and they each have several posts comparing the 2 players. For some strange reason, the search does not allow me to fetch the links to the 2 threads I mentioned. Players do react to pressure. For example, it seemed to me that the pressure of the MLS Cup rattled the entire Revs team.
I think there are a couple of very legitimate reasons why Clint Dempsey isn't getting much love in terms of the USMNT. 1. What position does he play? True, Arena LOVES versatility. But you've got to be able to play at least one position very well. Is he good enough to make the USMNT as a withdrawn forward? I don't think so--there is quite a crowd at forward: McBride, EJ probably start, add Donovan at times to the mix, include Twellman, Noonan, Quaranta (who also is a right mid), Adu (who is also an A-mid), Cunningham, Ching, Rolfe, Gomez (who was an alternate for this camp), and it's hard to argue that Dempsey is a serious candidate for withdrawn forward. Well, then, let's slot him in at A-mid. Oops--that is where Donovan, Reyna, sometimes Convey, perhaps Adu and even O'Brien like to hang out. Even Gaven is out of the running and he's not chump. Don't guess there is much room for him there at A-mid. I know, he started out as a D-mid with NE so let's um....Mastroeni, Carroll, Clark, Armas, Zavagnin. In a pinch Reyna and O'Brien can play D-mid too. Hmm...guess he's not a D-mid candidate. How many games has he played at outside mid? The USA could use a good outside mid. But Ralston is probably better than Dempsey at right outside mid so that's no solution. Now if Arena's favorite scheme was a 3-5-2, Dempsey would be a real serious candidate. But it isn't and he isn't. 2. He started like a man on fire and then progressively cooled off. Didn't mean he was bad. But Clint in the first two months was significantly better than Clint in the last two months of the season. 3. His play with the USMNT has been...okay. I don't think he's eliminated himself by his play. But he didn't electrify when he had chances. Combined with his club play most recently AND his position-dilemma and you can like him a lot as a player but conclude he's likely outside looking in when it comes to Germany in 2006. I really like Dempsey as a player and think he has a huge upside. But I feel the same way about Adu--and I think neither is likely to be on the USMNT. Both would have a better chance if the USA relied on a 3-5-2 formation.
Then again, if you looked, you'd see that only four guys scored more than a dozen goals all season in MLS, and one of those did it primarily on PKs (maybe Dempsey needs to take more PKs - although definitely not in the playoffs ). And if you look again, you'd see that only two guys in the top ten in MLS in scoring at the end of the year had equal or less experience than Dempsey (the two Gomezes). So, sum it up, and you'd have to say that he had a pretty solid season for a second-year player. Say what you like about his international games (a pretty mixed bag I'd say - but that shouldn't be surprising), but the guy is a very good MLS player.
Some players react in a positive way to pressure. And I disagree that the Revs choked in the MLS cup. They were beaten by a better team (that day). If I was going to make excuses I would mention that the Revs were not 100 % for that game...(Twellman had been gutting out a painful hernia for a month prior to the cup, Ralston's leg was not 100 %, Joseph was nursing two injuries at the time, Noonan's ankle was not 100 %) And beleive me...Dempsey does not have the type of personality that would make him play poorly due to pressure. Just the opposite. He's got loads of confidence.
It's a pretty good possibility that the Revs were just dead at the Final. Their main players had to pull double duty nearly all year long, then they had to scale two very large walls in the playoffs. And they had a tough, tough conference and such very few opportunities to rest those players. Put all that together with a paper thin roster and one can see why they looked like they were running in mud at the MLS Cup.