So, it’s come to this.
Four players.
Unfulfilled expectations.
The scorn of the commentors.
What more could an American international hope for?
I’ll be back next Monday with the “winners” of these semi-final matches.
I’m sure the players just can’t wait to see the results…
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Beasley should win this thing by a landslide. He’s been terrible for years. I could never figure out how he kept a USMNT spot for so long.
The real winner here is whoever gets grouped with us in South Africa.
Steve I voted for Adu because of the hype, at least Beasley has had some major injuries to fall back on as an excuse for sucking. (I think, didn’t he blow out both knees or am I thinking of another woeful underperformer?)
I went with Adu and Donovan. Adu because he’s just flamed out (Beasley wasn’t always bad, he just aged poorly), Donovan because, for the potential he has, to have never shown the ability to play well in Europe is a big miss.
Georger, I think you’re right, Beasely hurt his knees or something. Still, doesn’t excuse turning the ball over to the opposition every time you make an ill advised run at the defence. For me, at least Adu still has time on his side. Well, unless Bradley stays as coach, I guess. In that case Adu might as well retire.
Also, does anyone know why Adu is rated so highly every year in FM? Is it to give Americans some national team hope? He always ends up at top 15 team.
I went with Donovan for the other, mostly because the team has been too dependent on him for too long, and Eddie Johnson has never really even pretended to be be good.
Adu was a HUGE prospect when he left MLS; he’s one of those players who’s rated well because he certainly has potential. For the moment, really, he isn’t there, but there’s no reason to say he couldn’t get there; he’s still (theoretically) young.
He was fantastic for me in FM’09; I’m not to the point yet where I can buy him on FM’10.
Adu is at least 25 in actuality.
Yeah, that’s the other thing with him; it’s easy to look good at the U-17 level when you’re actually 21.
all true, all true. I haven’t ever bought him, but just noticed he always ended up at Milan, etc. Don’t think he’ll be coming to Valerenga any time soon.
In my Grasshopper/Fiorentina save on ’09, he was crazy good. He went to Man City pretty much right away (for a ton of cash, too), where he locked down the midfield. He also did pretty well for the U.S. national team. I tried buying him for Fiorentina (it was 2015, so he wasn’t actually all that old in my save; I’d just won a treble and had money to burn), but was outbid by Barcelona. I think he won the Champions League Golden Boot or something.