re: Soccer fans- Freddy Adu?

With some exceptions in soccer around 18-21 you can pretty much get a good read on a players potential and it's probably safe to say that Adu's potential,let alone actual skill, will never reach the level of hype he had.

and yeah it would be helpful if Adu was 6'0 and not 5'8

lionel messi and freddy adu are about the same size. size doesn't have shite to do with it for a CAM. he's probably immature and pissed off bradley.

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Yeah you can always name players that don't fit the usual size parameters of any sports position, but those guys are on the ends of the bellcurve.

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you pretty much took the words out of my mouth

you can find exceptions to any rule. hell, other aregentine scorers of messi's size have failed b/c of size

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And u would hope that someone once billed as having to be the potential to be the greatest player of a country with roughly 300 million people could be a superstar

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the problem is 300M people don't care about soccer or train to be superstars

we could have some superstars, but they play other sports

no he was the supposedly youngest player to sign with mls at age 14. i really believe he just lied about his age since he was born in ghana and is probably as developed as he will be but he just needs more experience on the national level. he is still quite a player.

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5-8, 145 pounds

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beasley doesnt even weigh 130 he may now but i recall him beign around 127 last world cup.

If Freddy Adu lied about his age, he must have gone through puberty later than anyone else in recorded history. The guy's voice changed completely during the summer when he signed with MLS at the age of 14. So I am very doubtful that he was actually 17 or 18 at the time.

I think he was overhyped by some of the companies he had endorsements with, and in turn, the press. He is basically a clone of Andres D'Alessandro, so it shouldn't be surprising that he hasn't had much success in Europe as a 19-year old, though he has shown the necessary talent.

He may have pissed off Bradley, but the guy is just not cut out to be the coach of the national team. He feels entirely comfortable playing veteran also-rans like Brian Ching and Eddie Lewis who have no place on the team, rather than developing new players.

are you kidding there is a big diff between being 14 and 16, dude was born somewhere without a birth certificate just going by what his mom says. and to the post before who played fore the Lightning? My friend that just left my apt. played there.

i just remember hearing about him when i was younger and he seemed to stay 14 for a couple of yrs. it happens in all sports.

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are you kidding there is a big diff between being 14 and 16,

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Do you know guys who went through the tell-tale signs of puberty at 16? I certainly don't.

Well, a lot of people were also discussing Adu's somewhat disappointing career in Europe. Besides a big factor in getting playing time for the National Team is the player's performance with his club team (unless you are one of the coach's favorites).

Beasley's club performance has been dismal of late, and he has had a place on the national team mostly off of reputation. Dempsey has been a far better winger than Beasley.

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He may have pissed off Bradley, but the guy is just not cut out to be the coach of the national team. He feels entirely comfortable playing veteran also-rans like Brian Ching and Eddie Lewis who have no place on the team, rather than developing new players.

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Bradley takes a lot of heat, and a lot of it deserved, but he has shown the ability to get a lot of the youngsters involved in the team in a way Arena was unable to do. Arena is a better coach, but he just got too attached to some players well past their prime.

Adu is exactly the kid of player who gets horribly overrated. He has great ball skills which gives soccer fans a hard on, but he doesn't actually move the ball forward. It's how Reyna stayed on our team forever despite the fact he was one of our most ineffective players. Soccer is the only sport where pure scorers are often derided and the assist man gets the hype (think: when was the last time anyone wrote a hossanana to Jan Koller, who was a goal scoring machine, even if his style was ugly as he was)

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name another 19 year old who is/was at their top that young

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Pato, the brazilian for AC milan is like 17 and he's pretty frickin good.
Fernando Torres scored 21 goals when he was 19 with athletico madrid, and he's also a year older than christiano ronaldo.

Robinho's second highest scoring total came when he was 19 playing in Serie A.

Robben scored his most goals total when he was 19 playing for PSV.

Carlos Tevez had his 3rd and 4th best scoring output when he was 19 and 20 plaing for Boca Juniors.

Lukas Podolski had his best scoring year as a 20 year old scoring 29 goals, although it was in the 2nd Bundesliga

Ronaldo's best scoring years came when he was 18 playing in Serie A and then the next year playing for PSV as a 19 year old.

I am pretty sure you can find many more names of guys that contributed exceptionally as 19 and 20 year olds in a much higher level of soccer.

You also have to remember that these guys didn't have 4 or 5 years experience playing at this level when they did this as 19 year olds.