What a great goal.
What a great goal.
He and Robbie Keane play a similar game but Keane's thing is finding a few yards. Defoe can create them himself with footwork. Of the two, Defoe has more potential to really light up MLS. Considering what Keane has done in league (and Di Vaio, another smaller striker who relies on great balance) we should have a guy challenging DeRo's 15-goal record.Originally Posted by PopePouri
Defoe
do you guy's realise how good he is, just hope you have enough talent to read his game, pure quality at 31, watched him today, do you know what you are getting? am a big Beckham fan but on his day this guy is awesome, watched football forum today, the pundits thought at least 15 prem teams should have taken him on, an awesome signing.
I am stoked to have him, for sure. I think he will do well, though I agree that we need to make sure he gets his service. That said, we've upgraded the creative part of our team with the recent signings, so I hope it will work.
Toronto FC baby...best team everrrrrrrrrr -Jozy
I'm curious, have you watched the MLS before? I have very high hopes for Dafoe and I appreciate his talent but this league is pretty rough and dirty - as an example, Robbie Keane has been a better MLS player than Thierry Henry has been. We've upgraded our mid-field (we've also signed Michael Bradley from Roma) so I'm confident that Dafoe will get service - my main concern is how he'll adapt to the constant holding and getting hacked down with hard fouls.
Di Vaio is a great comparison to Defoe, in many ways they are similar.
For this year, oh sure.
But was anyone else willing to give him 25M GBP or something guaranteed, regardless of performance?
“What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.”
To be fair, I think Keane joined them at a younger age than Henry and he also came into a side with the likes of Beckham and Donovan, with plenty of useful, if less sparkling, pieces and Bruce Arena at the helm. Henry joined to be the go-to guy and, in many ways, NYRB were still finding themselves, after some poor seasons, in recent past.
Not the fairest of comparisons to draw a frame of reference from.
Jermain is small but he's jacked and a tenacious little bastard. He loves fighting through traffic to create chances and is excellent at using his quick burst to create the separation he needs to finish.
I think the clutch and grab MLS will suit his style rather than hinder it.
Perhaps ignorantly, I'm assuming that someone in the UK hasn't seen many MLS games so I referred to players in this league that would be widely known over there. Acknowledging that every thing that you said is true, based on style of play I think that if Henry and Keane were traded for each other Keane would still be the better MLS player.
Both are good players for the league. Question is: how long does it take Defoe to get up to speed?
Henry and DiVaio took a while to reach their potential.
Found myself a Spur's fan today. What a treat to watch. Can't wait to cheer him on in person. And what the hell happened to Saldado?
Keep in mind Palace are an abysmal team and certain to be relegated.
It's not uncommon for it to take a season for foreign players to adjust to the EPL...he'll be ok.
How would Palace rate as an MLS squad?
The teams are built differently because the leagues have completely different styles. In terms of talent they'd be the best team in the MLS.
He really seems disinterested. He was a favourite of mine in La Liga.
Would you say they could beat SKC's MLS Cup winning side?
The EPL is a faster league, players typically have less time on the ball than they do in other leagues - it takes time to adjust and that adjustment period can be frustrating for players, especially when they're used to scoring goals they way he did for Valencia.
Yeah, I think so - but I say again, the teams are built differently for the different styles of play in the respective leagues. Top to bottom the talent level of the players on Palace are higher than SKC, but as a team Palace would have a hard time dealing with the hack and slash, holding and hard tackling of the MLS. Because of the style Palace could struggle in a MLS game, but if Kansas went to England they'd get destroyed.
we aren't
You're not suggesting that the MLS is more physical than the Premier league or the Championship (where Palace are most at home)?
It's one of those impossible questions, cause basically it can only ever be a hypothetical. I don't know that Palace would win the MLS at a gallop. I think the bottom of the Premier league / Top of the Championship and the Top of the MLS aren't miles apart and I'd say the MLS is on the ups in its level of competitiveness. The other thing too, is that the level of talent and execution of the bottom teams in the Premier league can change so much from year to year. I'd say Palace are particularly poor by the relevant standards. Idk… a little OT, but related, is Yanick Sagbo that much better than CJ Sappong?
That's a crazy generalization and far from correct. I think there are more than a few MLS teams (Houston, Kansas, RSL for example) who could hold their own in the back half of the Prem. Their style would fit right in, and a team like Kansas has a lot more in common - current formation aside - with a side like Stoke than you're giving them credit for. I think Houston could take Sunderland apart and I think QPR on a good day would have a rough go against RSL.
"If Kansas went to England they'd get destroyed." Really? You don't see Kansas stealing points off Hull City? Or West Brom? Or Fulham? Or West Ham? A harsh critic, you.
My only concern is that I hope our midfield can distribute the ball to him and he can gel with his new teammates in due time other than that lets hope we can hold on to leads I n the dying minutes.
Kinda surreal that we were talked about on MOTD. How far we have come.
^ no Kansas would not steal points from Hull CIty, West Brom, Fulham, West Ham. No MLS team is organized and tactically sound enough to win in competitive games against top level teams in the worlds top five leagues, a one off fluke win sure, not look too bad, but to compete against them on a regular basis not way. Top level European teams are not easy to brake down, and will have several players that will be able to capitalize on the mistakes that even the best MLS teams invariably make. Sure if they came in underestimating the competition they could be surprised, but if they come in ready to play forget it.
Bradley is not Pirlo, but he could be Pirlo like in the MLS, he has good vision and makes intelligent and well weighted passes, he just needs partners in the midfield to ensure that they do shut him down with extra marking.
Based on some comments here I'd say some people are basing MLS play on the dreck we peddled weekly for the past couple years. It's not all so shite. You get what you get with teams rocking a sub $3M payroll but this league is hardly hack and slash. Go watch a SPL match and learn what physical play truly means. MLS ain't even close. What we are is typical North American in demands. Athleticism and speed trump technical ability and the biggest problem for good players here isn't the "hack and slash" but the getting swarmed and getting no time on the ball. That's the main reason why our central & south American contingent in MLS has thrived. Our play they can adapt to. Go ask Izaguirre about what playing hack and slash is all about. He knows now.
oGive our teams unlimited payrolls like the afore mentioned teams have and MLS holds up. Compare MLS to leagues with similar payroll restraints and dollar for dollar, MLS is better, easy. Comparing our best squad to ones with 10 to 100 times our payroll is just stupid. Surely we all get this fact by now, no?
The MLS is definitely a rougher league - a lot of the tackles and half of the holding, clutching and grabbing that we see in this league would never pass in England. The MLS is a more basic league in general, that's not meant as a dis - I'm just saying that it's a more straight-forward league. In the Prem, players have very little time on the ball everything happens very quickly, most often a play involves a very quick series of decisions and actions that requires a high level of instinct that comes from training and playing at high levels from childhood.
That's not a style of play that most MLS players are capable of. Most of the play that we see here is very system-based.
Most of the players -I'm not talking about the stars and standouts, I'm talking about the bulk of the players who make up the league - are about 5 years behind similar aged players in Europe in terms of their development. The American college system doesn't come close to producing players with the same soccer IQ as the European academies do, but they do turn out athletes - big, strong, physical players who rely on their raw athleticism to get by on. They're athletes who play soccer rather than soccer players - if you get what I mean by that distinction.
I don't want to get distracted by this player vs that player discussions because it's not really relevant to the conversation...the question asked is how I think Crystal Palace (not Hull) compare to MLS teams and I'm confident in my answer. You can't really compare one team vs another because they're built with different intentions, but as a whole a bad team like Palace has far more over-all talent than a good team like Kansas has.
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