Oh yeah, just so it doesn’t get lost in my previous long winded soccer post…
Jozy Altidore is about to transfer to Villareal in Spain for… wait for it… wait for it…
TEN MILLION DOLLARS – in transfer fees. This shatters the previous record. of I think $4 million for Clint Dempsey.
Jozy, in my humble opinion, is well worth the money. He’s got all the physical tools – size, speed, strength – and unlike a certain Eddie Johnson (read previous post), his head is in the right place. He’s hungry, he wants goals, and he’s willing to run over anyone to get them. He’ll do real well in a league where his strengths are not the norm, but his skill is “good enough” to get by. Compared to the English League (he was linked with Reading, and another team, can’t remember) where the opposite would have been true with his skills outside the norm.
He’s gonna do real well there, and especially, they have already planned to loan him out to another team for playing time, and that means no one is expecting great things just yet. Low pressure, great training, lots of games against quality competition. Win, win, win, all around in this situation. Plus, he’s got tons of $$$ :D
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USA roster against Argentina. Here’s who Coach Bob Bradley has to pic from for his starters and subs. I’m assuming there will be a 6 substitute rule again since its a friendly.
The ONE THING I’d like to see out of this match if nothing else… I want to see FREDDY ADU AND LANDON DONOVAN paired together at forward. This would have me drooling, no question. Two guys with skill and pace who like to run AT defenses, and also probably the two best passers on the team. With Donovan’s recent form with the LA Galaxy, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him drop a few break away goals (there is no one on Argentina’s backlie who can catch him) off of feeds from Freddy.
As I mentioned in the previous post, I want to see Gooch paired with somebody other than Bocanegra. And that seems likely in this case since Bocanegra isn’t on the roster.