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ShattaCleve
New Member
USA
73 Posts |
 Posted - Aug 04 2001 : 2:36:39 PM
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By Tim Nash
Indianapolis, Ind., 26 July 2001 (TEAMtalk) -- I don’t normally get overly excited about watching youth players play. At an event like the SNICKERS/US Youth Soccer national championships, the players, on the whole, are all quite good. They all possess adequate skills. They all have a good knowledge of how the game needs to be played. And they all have bright futures in the game, some at various levels of college soccer, and some perhaps with a U.S. national team.
But, it seems, there are few that stand out. The special players – the ones that get your attention as soon as they touch the ball – are very hard to find.
Then there’s Freddy.
I don’t care what levels of soccer you witness on a regular basis, when you see Freddy play you are amazed. There are several reasons. First, he does not dribble the ball. He dances with it … on it … and around it. But never for show, always with a purpose. Freddy is one of those players that starts a run at midfield near the right sideline and finishes it by the left goalpost. He beats three, four, five, maybe six players along the way. Freddy is a finisher, as well. He is one of those players that has that killer instinct in the box, burying loose balls that others seem to study first.
And as one college coach said, “You didn’t tell me he was left-footed, too.” Yes, he’s one of those coveted left-footers, but the right one works just fine. He uses it for much more than a means of balance.
Wait, there’s more. He’s quick and fast, owning both acceleration and breakaway speed. Freddy always seems to be faster than his opponents, whether it’s going for a ball or running with it. He seems to be just as fast with the ball at his feet as he is without it.
But all of that is really not the most exciting – and at the same time, most worrisome – thing about Freddy.
Freddy turned 12 years old on May 23.
He’s Freddy Adu of the Potomac (Md.) Cougars Under-14 Boys team. And he is special, so special in fact I’m not quite sure American soccer will know what to do with him. Inter Milan has already been trying to sign him for big money – big money.
There are already problems with ODP and youth national teams brewing because, you see, Freddy’s mom does not have much money. That, we all should hope, will be taken care of, but in the meantime, let’s look at Freddy’s story.
Born in Ghana, Freddy K. Adu came to the United States with his mother, father and younger brother, Freddy A. Adu. They won the lottery, which decides which families get to immigrate to the U.S. The Adu family arrived here in November of 1998. So Freddy went to school, and one day he was playing soccer at recess with one of the members of the Potomac Cougars, who until that day was most likely the greatest soccer player in his school. Freddy was immediately asked to come play in a match with the Cougars.
When Arnold Trazy, one of the Cougars coaches, saw him, he “didn’t sleep at all that night.” Soon Freddy was a Cougar. Soon Freddy was traveling with the Region I ODP team to play in a youth tournament in Italy. He’s gone to two tournaments there. In the first one, he was named MVP, won the Golden Boot as the tourney’s leading scorer and was also given a third award – youngest player. The next year, there was someone younger, so his trophy intake was limited to MVP and Golden Boot.
Freddy, in case you haven’t caught on yet, is a special player. Soon Freddy’s mom, uncle (Freddy’s dad is “no longer in the picture”) and Trazy were meeting with Inter Milan representatives. “They offered $250,000 to sign him,” Trazy said. “We told them he was too young.”
Inter countered that argument with $750,000 according to Trazy.
Still too young.
Meanwhile, Freddy is helping the Cougars rip apart the Under-14 age group here in Indianapolis. Potomac is probably not the best team in the age group. That distinction would go to CASL Elite, a very solid and well-organized team with skilled players at every position. CASL lost to the Cougars 2-0 Thursday. Freddy scored twice.
Two CASL players were ejected for fouling Freddy. They were not malicious fouls, but rather fouls out of frustration, stemming from the absolute inability to get the ball off Freddy’s foot. I would venture to say that the red cards shown to the CASL players were more due to the referee’s inexperience in overseeing a game that involved someone of such immense (that word was chosen carefully) talent.
As Trazy said, “Not only does he have incredible skills, and not only does he have tremendous vision of the soccer field, and not only is he left-footed, he also runs faster and jumps higher than anyone on the field. People expect superhuman things from him.”
And that – superhuman expectations – is the scary thing. What will become of Freddy? While it will take Freddy 10 months to become a teenager, it has taken far less time for him to the subject of battles within the generally well-meaning political structure of American soccer.
And what kind of development will Freddy make? The way people answer that is crucial, because all Freddy needs right now – and for the foreseeable future – is a ball and a place to play.
There’s no reason for anyone to try to teach him anything. He learns just fine on his own. The first time he saw a golf course, he parred the first hole. In his first basketball game, he scored 28 points. No, he’ll be just fine. The job of Freddy’s soccer coaches right now is to not screw him up.
He doesn’t need to learn to defend better. If he never makes a tackle, it will never matter. He doesn’t need to learn to be a better passer. Right now, he sees open players and delivers them balls they are not yet equipped to handle properly.
The most important thing Freddy needs right now is to be 12.
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Karl
Senior Member
USA
914 Posts |
Posted - Aug 05 2001 : 11:35:39 AM
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Christ! Is this true? Or, is the report from a football novice?
It certainly, reads well!
Karl |
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Tillamawnin
Moderator
USA
197 Posts |
Posted - Aug 05 2001 : 7:42:16 PM
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If he has such immense talent, who will he represent? His homeland Ghana, or the USA?
It should be interesting.
Tilla
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An eye for an eye, would make the whole world blind.
Ghandi |
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