The Aftershock: Rose City Ruse

JazzyJ says:

Another good one. Agree on Dawkins. He is playing better than people seem wiling to allow, especially in that Portland game, and you provided some data to back that up.

On Colvey, there is a “young player double standard” that drives me crazy. Yes, he lost the challenge on that one play for the goal. But then there is tendency to jump to a “see, he’s not ready!” conclusion. And yet a guy like Muma can get burned on a 1v1 for the next goal, and it’s just “well, that’s Muma!”. Or Francis can take a bad angle in Dallas and cause a PK, and it’s just “well, that’s Francis!”. See, all players make mistakes or lose challenges occasionally. We should be treating them on equal footing. The fact is that Colvey is way better than Francis. Way better passer, way better at attacking, can cross well with either foot, as opposed to Francis, who can’t even cross with his good foot, way more calm on the ball, better soccer brain, better 1v1 defender, way more versatile (played right mid at the end of the Portland game and crossed into the box to lead to PK on Wondo), etc.

We do not properly deal with that phenomenon called “prodigy” – when someone has a level of talent that is unusual for their age or experience. We want to overlay this template of “experience” over everyone and put them in their little box. The fact is that some young players are just really talented, and it hurts the team to keep them out of the lineup because we presume that they are not ready, and then validate that with every play that doesn’t go their way, as if no other player has any plays that don’t go their way. Enough already!