Out with one Fredy, in with another

Let me be the first to say it: Freddy Adu to the Seattle Sounders.

Photo credits: Getty images

Like my other predictions, I'm just putting this out there both as a hope and to say "I told you so!" if it does happen.

Unlike my other fantasies (I’m still holding out on Didier Drogba, but admit that Puyol and Guardiola are long shots), this one is somewhat based on reality. Sounders have a spot on their roster; Adu needs a team. The pay scale and position actually seem to fit*! 
All that needs to be done is to add a ‘d’ to all those  “Fredy” posters.

But it’s more than coincidental and complementary needs and a really bad joke. 
This pairing needs to happen to make Adu the player he’s supposed to be.

Just like Eddie Johnson.


Yes, Adu had a bad year at Philly, but that can hardly be blamed on him. Philly’s breakdown was so ugly and so public, even my mom heard of it**. It wasn’t a healthy, happy team. Adu needs a healthy and happy team.

Adu did have a horrible spell abroad (my mom probably heard about that too***), but that’s why he should sign with the Sounders.

Schmidt and Co. displayed their brilliance in signing Eddie Johnson. Like Adu, EJ was a youth prodigy; like Adu, he went to Europe to hit it big. Like Adu, he flopped badly.

And then he met Sigi, signed with the Sounders, and started shining brightly again, capping his return to stardom by single-handedly saving the US from certain global humiliation by losing to some tiny Caribbean nation so small and insignificant, I can’t bother remembering which one.

I have my bias: I want Adu to succeed; but great skill alone does not a great player make. Coaching is amount about attitude as it is physical ability. Schmidt proved that he can coach former child prodigies who are still far too young to be washed up and make him the player he was destined to be. (That’s a very convoluted way of saying “Eddie Johnson”).

That’s why they should sign Adu.

* I really know nothing about this, but from outward appearances, they do seem to match.
**That’s an exaggeration.
**Also an exaggeration.