Month: February 2019

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.

Well it didn't go quite as smoothly as any of us expected at the start, but the dream final for the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup will indeed be the United States of America vs. Mexico.

Mexico had a tough time in their game against Honduras, looking rusty and tired the entire match as passes went errant, headers missed the post and Los Catrachos stole the ball seemingly at will sometimes. The match needed an extra 30 to be solved, but Mexico finally found their scoring touch nine minutes into the extra time and slotted home two goals – including one from a until-then frustrated Chicarito – to win 2-0. The extra 30 minutes played may be a saving grace for the United States, as Mexico will be just that tiny bit more tired after only two days of rest.

The final will be at 7 PM Mountain Time on Saturday. Make sure to tune in and watch the United States have a chance to win their first Gold Cup since 2007.

As expected, the now talent depleted Crew are not having a season up to par with their previous dominant campaigns from 2007-2010.

As expected, the now talent depleted Crew are not having a season up to par with their previous dominant campaigns from 2007-2010.

Mullan's playmaking abilities and defensive ability on the wing have been sorely missed by Colorado as Wells Thompson and Sanna Nyassi were forced to take his place for most of the 10 games he's been out. Fortunately for Colorado, Mullan will return to the roster this weekend against the Columbus Crew. With Mullan and Jamie Smith both healthy – assuming that the fitness test that Jamie failed before the LA Galaxy game was just a fluke and he's not injured again – will give Colorado its first taste of their first choice starting midfield since that fateful day against the Sounders.

Without Mullan, Colorado had a strangely mediocre yet almost productive record of 2-1-7.

Panama managed to win their match against El Salvador after a long bout of penalty kicks with them, so it's the United States' time to figure out Panama and make it to the finals where they can face Honduras or – more likely – fierce rivals Mexico.

Honestly I think the US will win this one. It's incredibly difficult to beat a team twice in such a short time, especially when both games are at the United States' home field as it were. The US has been in the last three finals and can be the first team to ever make four finals in a row with a win today. They beat Panama for the title in 2005.

The game will be on FOX Soccer and Univision at 5 PM, Mountain Time.

Panama managed to win their match against El Salvador after a long bout of penalty kicks with them, so it's the United States' time to figure out Panama and make it to the finals where they can face Honduras or – more likely – fierce rivals Mexico.

Honestly I think the US will win this one. It's incredibly difficult to beat a team twice in such a short time, especially when both games are at the United States' home field as it were. The US has been in the last three finals and can be the first team to ever make four finals in a row with a win today. They beat Panama for the title in 2005.

The game will be on FOX Soccer and Univision at 5 PM, Mountain Time.

The last thing that the Rapids need after that huge injury spat and a string of mediocre results including seven draws and a loss in their last 10 games is a controversy at any positions on the pitch. Unfortunately, coach Gary Smith seems to have decided that he has no idea who he wants to play at left back, with three players – two of which have subpar quality – getting starts recently.

TeamOps security came upon The Fort – the name of the supporters area at Gillette Stadium which houses a couple of supporters groups including the Midnight Riders and The Rebellion – and decided to 'crack down on profanity' by asking for the removal of the capo of the group after the popular 'You Suck, Asshole!' chant was performed. As the night continued, arrests took place and the already deadened atmosphere with the tiny crowd was completely squelched. Take a look here at The Drug Is Football and here on tBM for a more in-depth explanation of the events. Really petty and pathetic by the Revs front office.

It all reminds me of the Rapids supporters and the problems between them and the Rapids FO that we saw for so many years, efforts that squelched our real supporters groups and killed any attempts at atmosphere we ever may have had at Invesco Field up until last year when the Terraces were finally put in. Although there was never anything as straight up sickening as this, bans from the stadium and even an arrest or two took place between security and the supporters at DSGP on occasion. To this day, things like streamers, smoke bombs and a lot of other things are banned and anything to be used in the terraces has to be 'checked in' so as to avoid any conflicts.

The Revolution seem to be one of the final teams if not the final team in MLS that's stuck in the 90's when soccer in the US was a baby sport for babies and MLS was nothing more than a place to take the youth soccer team after getting ice cream. No 'European' style support at most of the stadiums, and in the places that there was that sort of thing it was usually to cavernous to hear them anyway!

Well, times have changed.

I have never been to a single major league sporting event in my life where I didn't hear a single profanity, except for a few 90's Rapids games perhaps where there weren't enough people there to HEAR the profanities. I've been to NFL, MLB, NHL, MLS, NBA… pretty much every type of sporting event possible even down to college ball in America, and there has been so-called profane language at every single one, loudly often. If you're foolish enough to take your 5 year old child to a sporting event in 2011 – this ain't 1950 anymore, folks – then you damn well better expect a little profanity to come at the kid.

If Revs supporters are anything like any other supporters I've ever heard, YSA is probably one of the more mild chants that they oft perform! And if a fan from another country heard about this, there's a good chance that the reaction would be something like 'They got a bunch of people thrown out and banned from the stadium for saying 'asshole'? Are you kidding?" We as a country just need to catch up to the rest of the world, and slowly but surely we are except for incidents like this. The support is there in Boston, we've seen loads of people show up to games at times in the past. What they need is a front office who realizes that this is not a baseball team, and the real fans of the team don't want a baseball atmosphere.

Good luck to Revs fans at getting your stadium back into the hands of the people. Every supporters group in MLS is right alongside, rooting for you.