Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Altidore in Spain

No, not for the match today, but permanently, for Villareal.

Can I just say how excited I am to have young American talent going to La Liga again?

I've known Jozy since he was fifteen and playing ping-pong with Dan Kelly at the U17 World Cup in Peru in 2005 (which means the Times is wrong about him joining the squad after his rookie season in MLS; he was done with the U17s by then). What struck me at the time was that his parents weren't along for the trip - although he was the youngest one there. Yet Jozy was fine, a sign of his early maturity.
Granted, I'm based on the West Coast, but I never really bought into the rumors that Jozy was getting big-headed on his own press.
He seemed distracted, definitely. It's hard to focus in the here and now when you're thinking about someplace else. I think that happened to Guzan a little bit when his Aston Villa transfer fell through. Plus, Jozy is competitive enough to get easily frustrated when things get worse - an injured Angel and Reyna left him with little help on his club. A young player can be a great complement to the core of a team, but asking Altidore to carry the squad was more than a bit much.
It will be interesting to see how New York copes with his time left with the squad as well as his departure. It might give Juan Carlos Osorio a chance to restructure, or completely cripple the rest of the season to lose his young gun and have injured vets left.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

only US defectors do well in la liga.

A.C. said...

You mean like Kasey Keller with Rayo Vallecano or Tab Ramos with Real Betis? When did they defect again?

Mister Zero said...

MLS was asking 10 million and only got 8 for JA. Why did MLS not get that 10 mill price? Whatever JA was doing for the past month or so probably cost him 2 mill. So can he play today or are we stuck with EJ and Jaqua and Josh Wolff (probably a half a contract between the three of them).

MattJack said...

looks like I might have a new team to root for soon..

CACuzcatlan said...

uptown, there are disputed figures. Ives is saying 10mil.

Anonymous said...

he'll be back soon enough... it'll be another adu/donovan typa european odyssey... lots of bench warming duty.

A.C. said...

Actually, Goff is reporting the deal is worth 12 million.

Anonymous said...

Might be 8 million Euros, which would account for the confusion.

Anonymous said...

Any word about Donovan's groin? Will he play on Sunday?