The Tuesday Ten: Freddy Adu vs. Panama, a Shakespearean Drama

We continue to welcome some great new contributors on the Free Beer Movement site. In collaboration with the quality soccer site, "The Other 87 Minutes" we present the "Tuesday Ten" (and sometimes the "Tuesday XI") a thoughtful list on a variety of topics in the world of soccer.

What is this new site we're exposing you too? We'll let them explain:

The Other 87 seeks to provide something that’s not instant analysis or eve of matchday previews. Think of us as the good bits of your favorite soccer coverage: the profiles that examine what makes a certain player tick, the historical background that sheds some light on how the sport has evolved to the present day, the silly features that are more than just tacking names on a list, but considering and explaining why each one deserves to be there.

O87 wants to be a home for soccer writing that makes you think, but that also treats the game as just that, a game. The greatest game, the one we obsess over and fixate on, to the point where we can’t read that gas costs 3.43 a gallon without thinking of Ajax’s 1995 Champions League winning team. But a game nonetheless.

“When you play a match, it is statistically proven that players actually have the ball three minutes on average. The best players – the Zidanes, Ronaldinhos, Gerrards – will have the ball maybe four minutes. Lesser players – defenders – probably two minutes. So, the most important thing is: what do you do those 87 minutes when you do not have the ball…. That is what determines whether you’re a good player or not.” –Johann Cruyff

We present.... the "Tuesday Ten". Today's edition uses Twitter reaction to from around the American soccer Inter-Net-Blogo-Sphere from Freddy Adu's resurrection last Wednesday against Panama in the Gold Cup Semi-Finals.


Let us know what you think in the comments section.



Act I: Introduction of the hero


@JPatarino And here he comes. Freddy Adu makes his #USMNT first appearance since 2009. Bob Bradley = desperate. #USA

@edsbs 52 year old teenager Freddy Adu in for #USMNT. #EnsureInTheHouse
Act II: Rising action


@racheldulitz Freddy Adu is about to be the first person tonight to trend on twitter with multiple question marks & exclamation points following his name.

@joshklingler I remember when Scottie Pippen once said Freddy Adu was better than Pele

Act III: Climax


@SoccerByIves WHAT A PASS from Freddy Adu to find Donovan, and Donovan hits the perfect pass to Dempsey. 1-0 USA. Welcome back FreddyAdu

@matchpricks I am unapologetically thrilled that Freddy Adu sprung that attack with a truly fantastic, crossfield, 50-yard pass.
Act IV: Falling action

@joshklingler If Freddy Adu put on about 200 pounds, Kenan Thompson could play him in the movie

@FisolaNYDN In a related story Berman of the Post reports that the Knicks are "targeting" but not "eyeing" Freddy Adu with the 17th pick.

Act V: Resolution, Denoument
@MLS_Insider So was the Freddy Adu comeback special better than Elvis' in '68?

@SoccerInsider The match changed when Freddy Adu entered. There, I said it. #usmnt


Epilogue

[Tweeted while Adu was on the sidelines waiting to be subbed in] @darrenrovell In April '07, I called Freddy Adu a failure. My critics slammed me saying it was "too early." Four years later, is it still "too early?" Yes, Darren. It is still too early.



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American Soccer Fans Get on the Transfer Merry-Go-Round

Wheeeeee!

Thus ends another "silly season" in European soccer. For us Americans there is hardly an equivalent in our other sports to the insanity of the rumors, speculation, and maddening amounts of money that are thrown around during the transfer window and particularly the closing days of it. The always brilliant Brian Phillips (of Run of Play fame) wrote for Slate.com during the summer transfer season:

"That's also the secret of transfer gossip. For all that soccer turns on discrete, actual events—goals scored, games won, contracts filed—its appeal also depends on its role as a kind of vast public daydream."

American soccer fans are just becoming accustom to the wonder, and terror, of the transfer periods. For years we looked on with bemusement that players and money danced around the world as players moved from team to team, country to country, and league to league.

But now, as American players ply their trade across the pond more and more frequently, they too are taking a spin on the transfer merry-go-round. And we, too, as fans are taken along for the ride.

This January we followed the saga of U.S. Men's National Team player Michael Bradley as he looked for a new home away from sinking German ship Borussia Mönchengladbach. As we wrote earlier Bradley's destination was all over the European map
from England's Sunderland to Galatasaray and Fenerbahce in Turkey before going on loan to Aston Villa.

American fans hung on nearly every blog post, tweet, and column inch (OK maybe there weren't that many of those) about the latest Bradley rumor. Many bit on the Galatasaray reports only for the Villa about-face hours later. By the end of yesterday only Baby Bradley holding up the claret and blue of the Villians ended the speculation.

We've been here before. Last year, and before he ended all the rumors of another move aboard, we played the "Where Will Landon Donovan Go?" game. This winter, beyond Bradley's movements, U.S. soccer fans saw the final day of the transfer window swing wide open for a few more Americans.

Jozy Altidore, who saw preciously little playing time at Spanish la Liga's Villarreal, moved to Turkish league defending champions Bursaspor. Eddie Johnson, also seeing little of the field for Fulham, moved to Preston North End and European vagabond Freddy Adu also dropped into Turkey, albeit a step below, for the second division's Çaykur Rizespor.

In fact, as FanHouse Soccer's Brian Straus points out, 12 of the 23 members of the 2010 World Cup squad have changed teams since this summer. With nearly each of these moves American soccer fans get to experience the same rumor, speculation, half-truths, and out-and-out mis-reporting just like our Euro fan friends.

Welcome to the big time American soccer fans! You know you've arrived on the global soccer stage when you get to participate in all the gut-wrenching, nail-biting, will-he-won't-he-drama that the rest of the world experiences twice yearly.

Pass the Tums.

Photo Credit: AVFC.com

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Phun With Photoshop - Where in the World is Freddy Adu?

Ever get the impression that Freddy Adu just doesn't like Major League Soccer? The former "next-big-thing" in American soccer is now on trial with 2.Bundesliga basement dwellers Ingolstadt.

Adu has been thrown overboard by his Greek club Aris and has already been to Denmark and Switzerland in search of employment during the January transfer window. It looks like the child "star" of MLS doesn't want anything to do with the American Dream anymore.

Isn't time that Freddy just come home? Is playing in no where Germany that much better than whatever club would GLADLY have him in MLS? Does he really think that playing (or more likely, not playing) in European backwaters is going to get him another look from Coach Bob Bradley?

Only Adu knows these answers, we guess....

Where will Freddy go next?

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