The Future – Freddy Adu, Major League Soccer and the United States Men’s National Team

Note: I rarely get a chance (read: excuse) to talk about the National team on this blog, or players that aren't Rapids or members of Rapids opponents. With the biggest game for the USMNT since that Ghana game in the World Cup coming up, I figured this was a good excuse. I also apologize for my over-saturation of USMNT material lately, the Rapids just haven't provided anything to talk about as awesome as this Gold Cup run! I know this is a bit long, but hear me out. 🙂 On to the article, now…

That's seven years of a career down the drain. This isn't hockey where careers can end several times over in seven years, but that's still a heck of a long time especially in a footballing world that can be simply cruel to players who don't pan out. Career over, right?

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How is he a special case? Well let's go back a bit.

In a completely related situation, the teenage Adu after 'graduating' the lower levels of the USA's youth system to get to the national team only managed to earn 15 caps for himself up until 2008. That included the pathetic World Cup showing in 2006 as well as a bunch of games in 2008. In fact, his last cap was a game at Dick's Sporting Goods Park against Guatemala, which he scored a goal in, and was promptly never heard from again. The years that followed left Freddy pretty much forgotten. No call up to the World Cup in 2010, no sign of him at the Confederations Cup either the year before. Ages 20 and 21 passed Freddy by and he was finally able to drink. Drinking of course was what USMNT fans had been doing while remembering him for years at that point.

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Fast forward to today. Adu was called a 'shock' addition to the CONCACAF Gold Cup roster for this season after such a long layover, and he unsurprisingly started the tournament on the roster but not on the starting XI or bench. You'll note though that Bob Bradley made several notes as the tourney slogged along that Adu – out of character from the Adu that we all knew and loved before – was working incredibly hard and giving his all in every single practice, seemingly begging for another chance to get put onto the starting XI or bench of the team that so long ago he seemed destined to star on.

Wednesday's game against Panama featured Adu as a second half substitute for his first cap in ages. The old Adu might have taken the opportunity to do pretty much nothing but lounge around the field, keep the ball moving minimally or even worse be a complete ball-hog while just making runs forward and finish the game with nothing particularly bad on his record but nothing to write home about either. This wasn't the old Adu though. This game Adu defined just what Bob Bradley meant when he said Adu was working hard.

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So is Adu back? Not yet, not in the slightest. He's been playing in below-average leagues for years, and we're talking worse than MLS by a long shot here. He hasn't seen national team action in a major tournament since Bruce Arena was still the head coach. He's not ready for prime-time yet, and his next cap with the team is certain to be less impressive than the first one, if not only because they won't be playing a lower-tier team like Panama next time! Adu needs to be slowly built back up to national team level, like rehabilitating a broken bone.

MLS isn't the only option of course. A trip to the likely accessible Turkish first division or even a place like the English Championship that is about on par with MLS would be a great stepping stone for the midfielder. He just needs a league that will fit his current still growing skill-set; that's right, with his age it's still reasonable to think that he's got room to get better. MLS is a special place for Freddy Adu though; it's the place where he began to learn his craft.

The Allocation order wouldn't allow Adu to go back to DC barring a miracle – they already used that on Charlie Davies – and he certainly won't go to Salt Lake, but he got a lot of buzz when he came onto the field in Houston. The American public still knows him and judging by the reactions I saw after that brilliant pass to Donovan, the American public still, if only secretly, wants to like the guy. If Adu comes to MLS, then he will be home in a place where he'll be judged a lot less harshly as he grows than he would be in Spain, Portugal or England. You can't underestimate what confidence can do for a player. Just look at Davies' current form in DC.

The idea of course is to get him back into form as a national team starter. He won't be starting against Mexico during the final on Saturday – or at least, it would probably be foolish to think he should – but the long, slow road to getting Freddy Adu back on track in his career is finally starting to get off the dirt road and onto the highway. MLS is a logical stepping stone in that equation because as his club football improves and as his confidence improves with it, as will his national team form. And his talents – if utilized correctly – could be an amazing addition to our goal-starved national squad in coming years up to World Cup 2014.

Would Adu's emergence be seven years late? Yeah. But as a wise man once said, "Better late than never." Considering that a year ago it looked like never was a distinct possibility, I'm thrilled to say that late has finally started to materialize. At a time filled with controversy, lackluster development and failure for the USMNT, there has never been a better time for good news like the possible re-emergence of Freddy Adu to come about. And for an unabashed Freddy Adu fan like myself, I couldn't be more excited at the prospect.