Thierry Henry signs with NY Red Bulls
I’m just as giddy as when Beckham signed with The Galaxy, which is to say … I’m not that giddy, but I do think I can get on board with he US sending all it’s best players to Europe while our domestic league becomes a retirement home the best European players.
We should get Zidane out of retirment and get him signed up with the Revs.
I don’t get him. It seems like he didn’t so much drop off in quality as he did stop playing regularly. When I’ve seen him enter games as a substitute he’s been more or less the same player as ever, but nobody seems to think he should still be a full-time player in a top league anymore.
Did he just quit on his career, or what? I can’t imagine that if he had any interest at all in playing competitively, he wouldn’t have opportunities to do so elsewhere, and I can’t imagine that he wouldn’t score about 60 goals in the MLS if he really wanted to.
In the Castrol World Rankings, he has dropped to #619. He was #5 as recently as February. He was #1 last November.
Well, with his ball-handling skills, if your goalkeeper ever gets injured, you have a handy replacement.
I suspect he thought he was signing for an American Football team not an American football team.
Very interesting, but are there contract details anywhere? Could be a coup or a boondoggle.
His problem was that he was playing for the best team in the world, a team that was based on passing and not so much on individual actions. I think he might still have quite a bit in him for the MLS. The level of play and defending is probably a bit less than in Spain, so he’ll be given more time and room to do his thing.
That’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard. Kraft is content to let the Revs stagnate and flounder. Making the Revs better would mean spending money on something other than the Patriots.
MLS can’t dream of a level of play anywhere near Spain, but what always surprises me when I watch an MLS game is the high tempo and general physicality. It’s almost like Scotland or England but with even less on-the-ball skills and intelligent movement. I can’t imagine a worse league for guys who need a lot of time on the ball, but I don’t think that Henry falls into that category anyway. Where I think Henry will eat MLS defenses alive is with his vision, range of passing, and off-the-ball movement. Those skills are almost completely non-existent in MLS and guys that have them - even over the hill old men like Cuauhtemoc Blanco - can make a huge impact.
Scotland isn’t really a league. It’s two teams kicking the shit out of everything in sight.
MLS is often compared to the Coca-Cola Championship, and I think that’s apt. Not great, lots of donkeys, but some good games as well.
The biggest issue with foreign players coming to MLS later in their careers has always been the attitude of the individual. Donadoni came over, wanted to win, and was fantastic. Denilson and Matthaus came over for a paycheck/vacation and were crap.
I think Henry is just looking to live in a city he loves and have some recreation on the side. Hard to really get up for games after being on Barcelona and Arsenal. Although, NY has never won anything, so he could easily make himself a NYC soccer legend. NYRB has deep pockets, a decent team in place, and maybe next year Henry bangs in 30. It’s possible.
Yeah, I like watching my Seattle Sounders, but I’m getting pretty sick and tired of Freddie Ljungberg bitching about the physical play. Even our announcer often points out his having to get over “calls he’d have gotten in Europe.”
…aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand now I’m a Galaxy fan.
And NYRB now have a level of hate comparable to Boston sports teams in the ol’ Book o’ Scrappy.
Why exactly? I’m not asking to be snarky I just don’t understand the hate.
[QUOTE= Xan]
Why exactly? I’m not asking to be snarky I just don’t understand the hate.
[/QUOTE]
Because your man Scrappy is an Irishman, that’s why.
I’m not very familiar with the player in question so that doesn’t mean anything to me.
Damn, beaten too it. I was going to say he thought it was a professional handball team.
Thierry Henry has become a bit of a hate figure for some people (rather ludicrously IMO) due to an incident in which he deliberately handled the ball before setting up a late winning goal in a game last year against Ireland, a result which meant that France went to the World Cup and Ireland didn’t. The referees didn’t see it, but Henry admitted the handball after the game with an infuriating Gallic shrug. Controversy ensued.
Other than that, he has been a widely-admired and quite popular player.
It wasn’t as much the way the goal was scored that made him a hate figure, but the manner in which he celebrated it. A player with true footballing class, a la Eric Cantona, would probably have admitted it was handball, but said “If you want to give me the goal, I’ll take it”.
Besides which, Henry denied handling the ball on the field while the game was going on, and then, the instant the whistle blew, came clean.
He’s a poor sport. And he cost the Republic a grand opportunity for the team, the people, and the nation by cheating.
Sure, he didn’t steal nuclear secrets or anything, but then again there’s no opportunity to steal nuclear secrets in soccer.
His first few games should be interesting, if the opponents assume he’s going to sit in front of the goal and get used as a poacher (of course, if he is actually played in that position, NY would be wasting him).
Even as an Arsenal fan I wasn’t particularly fond of his cheating there. But I suppose it’s more classy than lauching a kick at a crowd member, eh, ivan? 