Now befroe i start, let me assure you i don't hate Landon Donovon. I just can't believe he was player of the year? He had one great game vs Ecuador, but most of his goals were off penalty kicks. I know he is a good player, but great will not be coming out of my mouth. He scores in the US soil, but never to be found when the USM team travels. Am i blind, or do i just not see why he is suppose to be the greatest US player ever.
Well, I dunno if I would go so far as to be 'outraged'.... but greatest player , ever?? I feel your pain. sorta. In a distant semi-empathic way, of course.
They had a discussion about this on Fox Football Fone-In this week. They concluded that the journalists that voted probably are not really "informed" about the game, and they most likely voted based on looking at box scores that had Donovan all over them rather than watching every game. The call-in poll had Howard winning it. The general perception is that he is the leader of the US team, but with the emergence of Bradley and Feilhaber taking over the central midfield as well as Dempsey taking a prominent position in the attack, I see his "status" on the team getting away from that of the field general. I think he can be an effective outside midfielder with his speed and ball control. He is still young, and I think he will be even better when the focus is not on him.
Hold on guys nobody has called Donovan the greatest US player ever. He just got the player of the year award again and he deserved it over Boca. You can put up a good case for Howard but I think goal scorers always have an advantage when it comes to votes like this. Also Howard didnt play in all of the Gold Cup games. For the MNT Donavan scored 9 goals in the 10 games that he played. Lots of them were PK's but if you take those out I think he still scored more than anyone else. He had several assists too and was not exactly selfish with the ball or with his chances. Donovan is not my favorite on the team but I do think that if there is anything more overated than Landon Donovan it is the extent to which he is overated.
hilarious!!!! i don't really have an opinion on this because I don't really think the US has achieved much in the past year. Sure the Gold Cup is nice, but please...win some matches against some European or South American competition, then i'll give some plaudits. On a side note...I was Michael Bradley's biggest critic and now I'm one of his biggest supporters. He showed me a ton in the Brazil match and I expect him to continue to develop. If so, I'd love to see him w/ the captain's armband some day
I think Bradley is playing great. Here is an interesting article. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/w ... index.html
I'm not a huge Lando fan either but the guy does have his moments. When he's great, he's great. When he's not, he's nowhere to be found during the match. Personally, I'd have voted for Timmy H but I'm not sure there were a whole lot of choices this year. If there is a Best Up and Coming Player award, I think Michael Bradley deserves it without question. Between he and Feilhaber, our midfield is going to be good for a while.
