This post doesn’t come from any desire to heap scorn upon any of the players mentioned below. I’m not even saying any that any of these players are “bad” (though I may be thinking it about a few of them), just that they don’t seem to have become the players that we (or maybe just I) thought they were going to be, or they were and then something happened to make them mediocre- or worse. Here’s how this all came about…
The other night while watching the Chicago-RSL match I was reminded that Clint Mathis is still an active player- this is something that I constantly forget. Then, the next day, I was at the MLS website and I saw that one of Clint’s goals this year was up for “Goal of the Year.” After that, I got to thinking, “What happened to Clint?” He was the “mohawk guy,” he scored a lot of goals in MLS, he was a national team mainstay, etc. Then I looked at the numbers- since leaving the MetroStars after the 2002-2003 season he has played for six teams (RSL twice) in three countries and scored a grand total of 19 goals in 142 matches. By way of comparison, he scored 33 in 67 matches for the MetroStars from 2000 through 2003.
That got me thinking of some other players who seem to fall into the categories of “has been” or “never were”…Jovan Kirovski was the first American to sign with Manchester United and the first to win a Champions League medal (at Borussia Dortmund)…Bobby Convey was a regular in the side when Reading was in the EPL…Taylor Twellman and Ante Razov are in the all-time top five in MLS goals scored and but have had minimal impact beyond MLS…Freddy Adu is an innocent victim of his own hype (but shouldn’t he have done something by now?)…and then there’s Landon…
So, I’ve picked sixteen active players and randomly paired them up “tournament style”: put your pick for each match-up in the comment section and we’ll narrow things down to eight, then four, then two, and then the “winner.” The winners will be “randomized” after each round, so pick based just on the current match-up, not on what you think will happen in future rounds. If you like to include explanations, justifications, or rationalizations for your picks (winners or losers), feel free!
If anyone would care to offer a hypothesis as to why I chose so many strikers I’d be glad to hear it. It’s got to be more than a coincidence- right?
I’m sorry, I’m confused – are we supposed to vote for the player that sucks more or sucks less?
I think the player who hasn’t lived up to the hype as much, so sucks I guess. Though I guess with the Landon one you could make a case while he’s the better player he hasn’t lived up to the hype surrounding him as much as Cooper has.
Exactly. Vote for the player who has left the most to be desired as far as the expectations surrounding go.