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“Visions of Lionel Messi” Lets pump the brakes on that one Harkes.
Yeah, these guys feel the need to compare everything to some famous player.
Yeah, that was just awkward.
amen
That was a great goal. This is a goal of the year candidate. Agudelo has grat soccer IQ.
great soccer IQ. Sorry about that.
I agree
I think the remarkable thing to a tall, slow guy like myself is how fast he gets that shot off. I’d be able to pop a ball up like that, but never be able to swing my leg around to get that shot off.
wow was the pg version of what I said
It is like every time we try to temper expectations, he goes and pulls off an amazing goal. If he keeps it up, it is going to be very hard to keep him in MLS even this summer. He is going to get his big payday. I just hope he has good mentors around him (like Henry) that are keeping him grounded and hopefully talking him into staying for another season.
It was embarrassing, at the moment no usa player ever even comes close…..
+1
And let’s hope Luke Rodgers plays more like he did against San Jose in order to keep the competition up for Agudelo.
Pretty scary for opposition when Agudelo is coming off the bench and Henry is just getting warmed up….Real Salt Lake may have the best depth, but New York definitely has the best offense right now….
And agreed on Harkes’ Messi comment…What was the guy thinking?!?!…Not to take away from Agudelo’s goal because that was pure class, but to compare one fantastic goal to the greatest player in the world… Talk about not thinking before speaking…
Awesome stuff, but I love his attitude more than anything, he’s still really hungry. My sense is that a few of our strikers, Eddie Johnson and Jozy Altidore, have either lost the fire once they’ve made the jump to Europe or they rested on the laurels of their MLS careers (alternately they’re just not that good in larger pool). I’m really hoping he’s learning from Henry. The evidence points in that direction.
Wonder where he learned that?
link to youtube.com
Exactly. This is why we need Agudelo because unlike any of our other players, he has that instinct to take an opportunity, to pull a rabbit out of his hat. The problem with Jozy and Davies is the take the opportunity to shoot when it presents itself. Agudelo creates that opportunity. Even when it doesn’t go in, Philly comes to mind, you can see his instinct and want to score.
I don’t care if Henry never scores a goal again in MLS, he won’t be a failure because you can see his impact on Agudelo.
Of course I’m a bitter DC fan, but we are paying Henry to teach Agudelo.
Now my beloved DC fell apart due to terrible link up play and the impact of too much youth in the back line. But NY played us out of the water and we were flopping fish wanting to go back in..
Don’t think a team will make a bid until they get a full season. Let’s not forget this is his first true full season, let’s see how his form continues.
And I think managers would look at the likes of EJ, Adue, and Jozy and think twice about buying young attacking US players from MLS…
Wow. Great call Mike. Exact same shot from a different part of the field.
I guess Henry is a good teacher, like Mike said. I just wish I hadn’t been watching on ESPN3 in the library.
I think Harkes made the comment because the goal was Messi like. My father-in-law, simply said that looked like goals Pele scored.
That goal was instict and creativity there. The IQ part was getting into the right position. But enough of my “as a matter of fact” BS. GREAT F-ing Goal!
Or maybe they’ll look at dempsey and mcbride.
Whatever adu or eddie have done (or failed to do) has no bearing on agudelo’s ability.
sell him off to a Spanish club in the window
bank…
Great goal though I hated him when he made it.
Best part is that if you listen closely you can hear Harkes say “Oh my God” off mic after Healy’s goal call.
+ 1, didnt know it was Harkes, it’s the exact same thing I said when I saw it.
Yeah I totally agree. Just celbrate the goal for what it was…creative, instinctual, and an amazing moment of skill. When I heard the Messi comparison I was cringed. Terrible Harkes, just terrible. I liked Hudson’s reaction as usual. Just celebrate the goal for what it is. Good color commentary.
However, I don’t have a problem with Harkes bringing up the Henry vs. MANU goal. It was an accute observation for two reasons. 1: The goals are very similar in technique, although the range on Henry’s goal was much further out. 2: Henry now plays with/mentors Agudelo. Great observation Harkes. Good analysis. That is what you are paid for, analyzing. Plese stop comparing.
My bad. I wrote that Ray Hudson was the color commentator. In fact, it was Adrian Healey.
+1 this
it almost sounds like you are making those comparisons because they are black…?
Sick goal!
Fantastic! He did look quite a bit like the ol’ Arsenal masterclass there.
I think the difference with Agudelo vs. Adu/Jozy is everyone says he works so hard in practice and has been staying late to work with Henry. That is the mentality that you need to become great. I feel like Adu/Jozy let their quick rise get to their heads and stopped their hard work. Hopefully,that does not happen with Agudelo, but I think competeing with Rodgers for the starting spot keep him working hard.
I think his message was that the prior young attacking Americans bought by European clubs have been duds. They just happen to all be black. Let’s not turn this into a race thing.
Adu, Johnson, and Altidore were all bought prior to turning 22 (Adu and Altidore, WAY prior). Think about it: what other Americans that young with this much hype have been bought by Euro clubs over the past 7 years?
When’s the last time an American striker showed this type of creativity?
Wrong, actually Harkes is the color commentator and Healy is the play-by-play commentator.
That, my friends, is a true striker’s goal. No poaching, no pouncing, no defensive lapse or fumbling goalkeeper here. A flash of instinctual individual creativity, strength of position, skill with ball at his feet and in the air, and the physical gifts to wrap it up in a package and send it home. Agudelo need not be Messi to have a moment worthy of him, and he need not be Henry to reproduce one of his finest.
McBride started his European career via loan at 28. Dempsey was 25, but an attacking midfielder, not a striker. Unfortunately, Adu, Johnson, and Altidore are the closest matches.
I love how warm and toasty we are for Agudelo, but I still don’t understand this need to throw Jozy in the trash like he’s washed up or useless to the USMNT now. I get that he hasn’t been scoring goals but he’s always been at his most effective when paired with a mobile and creative striker (a la Davies). Jozy is at his best with his back to the goal holding up the ball drawing fouls and garnering the attention of at least two defenders each time he touches the ball. Every time he’s been on the field he’s done that. The rise of Agudelo will only make Jozy more effective. Everyone expects Jozy to be like Drogba or E’to (neither of whom lit the world up at 20 mind you), but I think the better comparison is Dempsey, the greatest US player ever but who took a while to “get there”. Jozy will get there provided we don’t eat our young before he has a chance to grow up.
It was great to hear Harke’s comment on the NYRB coach benching Agudelo because he was training too hard.
Seems like Agudelo has all the ingredients (technical ability + physical ability + ATTITUDE + mentor) to be a great forward for the US Nats.
yeah – he’s had some great moments like that calling games for the mnt.
“Consistent persistence.” What?? George Bernard Shaw said that England and America are two countries separated by a common language. I never feel that so much as when I hear Adrian Healey and Harkes call games together.
HARKES IS A HOOORRRRIBLE COMMENTATOR!
it all goes back to the article Ives wrote about Jozy being lazy during his last half season with the Red Bulls…eventhough Ives was the only journalist who reported on the record that Jozy was lazy…that has become the number one dagger people use against him…when instead of trying to psychoanalyze the kid people just need to realize he doesn’t have the greatest technique (first touch, high level dribbling ability, shot accuracy and power in traffic)…and that more than anything else is holding him back…he could turn into drogba…but he could also turn into carlton cole or heskey…he just doesnt have that elite level of skill to his game…hes not lazy or lacking in humility
i think it has more to do with the fact that the red bulls don’t wanna him to ‘burnout’ from all that has happened with him in the last 6 months. i think they’re handling this the right way. he’ll probably start a couple games, then come off the bench for a couple games, repeat.
I’m really not a fan at all. For a number of reasons, but I don’t feel like launching a personal attack on him.
Well, not really. McBride spent two years in Germany starting at 22 before MLS began. Yeah, he mostly road the pine, but he was training full time as a professional, which had to impact his development. And Deuce was just about to turn 24.
But your larger point is true. Most success stories are players who don’t go overseas until they’ve got a few years of development. In the MLS era, the only player to go overseas and succeed before they turned 20 was Bradley… and seeing how his career has come off the tracks now he really isn’t a strong example.
exactly what I was doing yesterday
Harkes continues to show why he’s the worst play-by-play commentator we have in this country.
With these hyperbolic statements and his “the #21, the #13, the #27″ listings of a players number for no apparent reason, it makes it incredibly hard to listen to the match.
Put Twellman in the booth for the love of everything holy.
“I don’t care if Henry never scores a goal again in MLS, he won’t be a failure because you can see his impact on Agudelo.”-Josh D
How exactly is Henry responsible for Agudelo’s innate creativity? I’ll grant you his presence alone can help with little nuiances of the game but what Juan pulled off is simply comes down to this:
Some players have that “it”. You know “it” when you see “it”. The beautiful thing about the “it” factor is you can’t teach “it”.
I’m not trying to pile on Henry or take away from any impact but let’s not fall victim to the moment and make proclaimations that are just ridiculous.
What Agudelo did is innate. It’s instincts. It’s simply: Juan being Juan.
Of course, the difference is…your father in law isn’t being paid by ESPN and hyperbole like that is best served absent of national tv commentary.
It’s almost like internal thoughts, it’s ok to have them but said aloud, they’re just ridiculous.
While I agree with you mostly..
There is something to be said for a young player like Agudelo training side by side and off with the forwards during breakouts.. to have Henry with him. You are shown, you do emulate and you talk about the little things in training. Of course you do have to have the skills to pull it off.
“Lazy Altidore” has popped up in other places. I remember the whispers becoming roars while he was at Villarreal and Xerez, and it continued while he was at Hull.
I don’t see what is wrong with drawing a comparison between THAT GOAL and Lionel Messi. He didn’t say “Wow Agudelo is just as good as Messi!” That was a play you would expect to see from Messi, ergo Harkes made the statement.
As an aside, I don’t care for Harkes in the booth either. He is way too biased to do the job properly.
Dempsey and Donovan have both had their share of creative play in and around the box.
Not really the “exact same shot”.
Henry hit his with the outside of the foot, Agudelo wrapped the foot around.
Agudelo’s instincts and creativity were apparent before Henry got to NY.
Jozy stopped working hard?? That’s news to me.
Was there a goal in that video? I just got a terrible headache from listening to the nonsense that came out of harkes’ mouth
Do we really know that he works harder ? maybe maybe not? I think they are totally two different players and Juan looks more comfortable in “his skin” than Jozy. And quite possibly he may just be a better talent. The team, the coach and the enviroment all play an important role in a players performance.
+1
There’s nothing like competetion to put these guys on edge. It would be great to see them all achieve their potential.
Juan was born with both.
A good artist can paint. But if he can study next to a master he’ll be that much better.
On the training ground a lot of conversation, comparison, tips and tricks are discussed. Training next to Henry is a plus to be sure.
“Lazy Out-da-door”
Jozy is way overrated. Why don’t we just admit it?
I hope you are being sarcastic.
In the Argentina game,right before Agudelo buried the ball in the back of the net, when the ball was sent into the area, on the slow motion repeat, you could actually see Jozy duck away from the ball as if he was scared it was going to hurt him.
And that’s not the first time he has done that.
Davies in the Confed Cup against Egypt didn’t create a chance?
And Altidore created plenty of chances when he was in MLS as well. Just saying.
I watched a video where Backe was talking about how Henry would stay after practices to work with Agudelo, because he had a lot of questions for him. When they asked Henry, he first said, “you weren’t supposed to know about that,” then proceeded to say, “well, if he has questions, I’m going to answer them.”
Therefore, I’m sure we can clearly say he’s helping Agudelo to become a better player.