Soccer, sports and politics (R)

Having said that, Eddie Pope was a stalwart and perhaps the best defender US soccer has produced the last 25 yrs. He was a rock for DCU in the late 90's/early 2000s.

 

I've long ago tried to erase my onetime interest in MLS from my mind, but:

Couldn't Justin Mapp be considered as being Conveyesque in his waving for the ball, then wandering around aimlessly whenever he didn't get it?

(God, both those guys sucked.)

 

Went to this disaster:

 

Disagreed with the bolded, in that Pope never played at a higher level than MLS, did he?

I will agree with you that he was a larger fish in a tiny pond, soccer-wise.


DCU and fire fans do have an inflated sense of their favorite players. Unfortunately, a faded past of their clubs is all they have to lean on. DCU fans will swear that pope was the sh!t, but he never played outside MLS. Since his time, there have been several who have accomplished more at the club and international level than Pope did.

 

was that the weekend of Project Mayhem?

 

Bora Bora Bora...
Is he one of the German pilots that bombed Pearl Harbor?

 

Eddie Pope didn't play outside MLS for one main reason,US Soccer players were not being supervised or taken that seriously back then. Having said that, Pope still attracted interest from some European clubs, Feyenoord and AC Milan but opted to stay in MLS.
If you think of one US defender more solid, talented and disciplined than Pope, please share.

 

Deserved....... Japan should be proud of their team.

A heroes' welcome home for Japan 🇯🇵❤#FIFAWorldCup #Qatar2022 pic.twitter.com/ByYVZa0Ck5

— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) December 7, 2022

 

Fair question, and just off the top of my head:

Carlos Bocanegra had a solid career outside MLS, and he also captained the USMNT for 6 years,
Oguchi Onyewu similarly had a solid career outside MLS,
Cameron didn't exactly suck outside MLS.
Cherundolo had a good run in the Bundesliga.

There are a few others, if I actually took the time to think about it. Bocanegra started his career as a peer of Pope's while both were playing, so the idea that US players [to quote someone] "were not being supervised or taken that seriously back then" isn't exactly true.


Pope was a good player, but not at all "the best defender US soccer has produced the past 25 years," especially since he only played in MLS; his "interest from some European clubs" sounds like that imaginary "Canadian girlfriend" nerds used to tell us about back in high school.

 

In the era when I watched almost every USMNT match, from 2000 to 2014, Eddie Pope was our best center back. He was the gold standard. That said, I was very impressed with the current crop at the 2022 WC.

 

Cherundolo was perhaps the best fullback but obviously I was talking about Pope the central defender. Not comparable.
As far as the other three, I have seen them on tv or live and none come close to Pope in term of defensive ability, leadership and skills. Just because he didn't play in Europe should not diminish his skills and talent. Landon Donovan just had a few cameos in Europe and he still considered if not the best, month the top 3 US players of all time.
Don't be a ********ing douche, that Pope attracted interest from European clubs was well documented at the time. That was regularly reported in main stream medias at the time.

 

But it was a different era, relatively few Americans played overseas at that point. Berhalter did but Pope was better than him from what I remember. I’ve actually wondered what Pope would’ve been like if he’d come up these days, with a much better youth development system and a clearer path to a European career.

 

This dude wasn't too bad overseas

 

This is what you said: ..."perhaps the best defender US soccer has produced the last 25 yrs."

You may have MEANT to type "central defender," but you said "defender."

Two things:

1. Pope's peer, Carlos Bocanegra actually CAPTAINED the USMNT for 6 years. Did Pope ever wear the armband? (You were saying about "leadership skills?")

For that matter, Carlos Bocanegra might be the longest-tenured captain of the USMNT up to this point. Oh, and he did most of that while playing more difficult club games between international caps than Pope did against mere MLS comp.

2. Yes, playing at a higher club level does matter, when arguing "the best defender the past 25 years."

Look, if he had a chance to go, but didn't, he wussed out, which reflects poorly on him.

But more commonly, "interest from European clubs" turns out to be as realistic as one's interest in seeing a 25 year old version of Sofia Vergara naked.


Look, YOU made the absurd boast of Pope being the singularly best defender in a quarter century. You're just wrong on that, and thats neither to your discredit, nor to Pope's.

Because of his substandard club record relative to the others, he's merely say top 10 US defender or so over the past 25 years. We get it: You're an old timer DCU fan, and you romanticize your club's former glory.

 

Pope and Bocanegra played during the same timeframe around Y2K.

One captained the USMNT for 6 years, the other probably never wore the captains armband. One played in Europe in more than one top league, the other played in MLS.

Both were great for the US, but as they said on Sesame Street, "One of those things is not like the other..."

 

Hey douchebag, this is not my "boast", this is something that is generally agreed upon in US soccer at large, by both fans and journos, that Pope may be the best US defender the last 25 years. The idea that he could not have been good because he never played abroad is so absurd and dumb that I should not even entertain that conversation anymore. GTFOH.

 

Lonnie Donegan who wrote and sang "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor Overnight" or rather Landon Donovan is touted, by some wearing rose colored glasses, as the best US player ever. Lonnie err Lanny did go to Europe but soon scampered back to safety. He might have been considered if Michelle Akers didn't hold that title!

 

They overlapped some but Bocanegra’s peak was later, and at a time when more people were starting to make the move. But you’re right, Bocanegra made the choice to play and succeed in more challenging leagues, and should get a lot of credit for that.

 

I don't know if that's true in this particular instance. The US women didn't have a league initially, but neither did anyone else (I may be wrong about this), so the field was still level where opportunities are concerned. Or maybe someone else did but the sheer numbers and money tilted the tables in the US favor anyway.

Did European women have leagues in the early 90s? Asking.

I had a discussion in the Woso forum with another poster who started talking about what the USWNT had to go thru to win the WWC. I replied that they had a great deal less to deal with than most of their opponents, citing US money and dedication to Woso. That poster acted like I had cursed at her mom or something.

 

Firstly, check yourself. I'm not insulting you in any way, and you're taking this entirely too personally.

Secondly, to the bolded, where are your source(s), apart from the fact that he played for your favorite team's best sides?

Lastly, he had fewer caps, and played at a lower level than some of his peers like Bocanegra, and fewer than those that came after him in this hypothetical 25 year period. He also was never a team captain, as others were. You may not like it, but thems the facts.

And again, no ones insulting you as you have insulted me.

 

They played concurrently enough to have been peers. Its not like comparing two guys that played a decade apart.

Moreover, Bocanegra had more caps, and captained the USMNT and his club. He did more than Pope did at the international level, and as you said, he challenged himself, while Pope chose comfort ahead of challenging himself.

 

Many popes do

 

This is a fair post, but the other guy starting out with:

"The greatest defender in the past 25 years," then
"I meant CENTRAL defender," then
"Well, his era was different than the era of a guy who started his a career a mere 4 years later," then
"You're a douchebag for disagreeing with me"

Is all a bit much.

A more cogent argument could be something along the lines of, "Pope was one of the best American Central Defenders of his era."

Because there have been several who have done more than he did, both at the club and international level.