Zeppo how is your youths performing

[Assasin]

Adu, Eddie Johnson, Bearsley, Bradley, Donovan and the rest a youth in Europe?

I know Brad, Howard and Dempsey doing their thing.

[Zeppo]

Adu, Eddie Johnson, Bearsley, Bradley, Donovan and the rest a youth in Europe?

I know Brad, Howard and Dempsey doing their thing.

Well, let's see...

Adu is at Monaco and since the coach, Ricardo, hasn't taken much of a shine to him so far he has had to content himself with mostly sub appearances at the end of each match.

EJ is on loan at Cardiff City (from Fulham) and is struggling so far. He was getting starts recently due to an injury crisis, but didn't play well. Now he is back on the bench. He has yet to score a goal there.

Beasley is getting a fair amount of playing time with Rangers, although not as much as last season. Sometimes he starts, sometimes he's a sub. And his Yank teammate, Maurice Edu, is still trying to get a place in the starting linuep and has been featuring for the reserves lately.

Bradley has cemented a starting spot with Borussia Moenchengladbach, and recently scored the equalizer against Bayern Munich. But overall the team is struggling to put up decent results.

And Donovan will not be able to start playing for Bayern Munich until after the winter break. I believe he is there now training with them, however.

[Assasin]

thanks.

the ups and down of football

[HL]

I benefited from your question Assasin.

I wanted to get an update on Eddie Johnson.

He was not a part of the WC qualification line-up...

I hope he plays better-- and gets well enough to become a part of the line-up in the Gold Cup and Hex.

[Assasin]

Slow time for the US in Europe right now.

I like Johnson and I hope he can step up. Not finding form with a championship thing is not really good it can hold you back for a long time. People like Omar Daley know how that go.

[Zeppo]

For me Eddie Johnson's limitations became obvious quite some time ago; he has a poor first touch, can't hold up the ball, can't shoot from distance and is tactically clueless.

What he does have is speed, and he has always gotten by with his ability to outrace defenders and put away chances. But I don't think it's enough to carry his career at a higher level. In fact, if you look at his goals for the USA almost all of them were scored against lower tier CONCACAF teams (except a PK against Argentina). It was just a matter of time before he got found out.

I hope that he can turn things around, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Zeppo]

Oh, and by the way, Oguchi Onyewu is supposedly very close to a move to Olympique Marseille.

[Sensi]

I mentioned on this site some time back that Eddie Johnson was overrated, and he is yet to change my mind. On the other hand, Donovan and Adu are really good but I think that Adu will be plagued by a size problem. I think Cooper is a better striker than Johnson.

[Me]

I agree on Cooper. He is a good striker. Altidore was looking good, but I watched him for Villareal and his movement without the ball is a bit disappointing.

[Mosiah]

Zepps, why don't they try and place Adu with a lesser club or even in a lesser league where he can play and get noticed? All this benchwork at good clubs is not helping him any!

Imagine if Bibi had moved to Chelsea while Babayaro and Les Saux were there. He would probably still be warming the bench. Instead, he went to lowly Bolton, and the rest is history.

Yes, Chelsea was also interested in Bibi, but his handlers wisely chose Bolton.

[Peter R]

NPL for Adu ?

[Zeppo]

Zepps, why don't they try and place Adu with a lesser club or even in a lesser league where he can play and get noticed?

I agree completely.

While his playing time with Benfica was limited last season, he was quite effective (I forget his exact goals/minutes ratio, but it was impressive). He also quickly became a fan favorite. It's just that with all the new players brought in he became crowded out for the more experienced ones.

He should have stayed in the Portuguese league and gone on loan to a more modest team there. It would have ensured more playing time for him and more opportunity to get used to the style of the league. Going to France and having to adjust to a whole new league (especially when he's not getting much playing time) really didn't make much sense.