The Adu debut

By Piet Van Leer Sports Central Columnist

The first impulse one could logically conclude would be to leave the soccer scene forever. Once again, promises have been made, that soccer would now compete with the big four. And once again, you feel let down.

It's disappointing. You feel extremely frustrated that you turned on the television to watch, of all things, soccer. On a Saturday! All to see this Freddy Adu, a 14-year-old phenom, who didn't even start!

Not only that, Adu didn't make his first appearance until the second half, the 61st minute, to be precise. And if you did stick around more than one hour to see Adu, and the 30 minutes he played, you probably wanted those two hours of your life back.

All this hype for guy who didn't score. He didn't even have a shot! The stats say he touched the ball 10 times, but you can only recall two of them. One was a pass down a left wing that led to a wasted cross. The other touch was Adu taking Jeff Agoos one-on-one, and losing badly to the Earthquakes' captain.

You've heard stories about Adu, making players twice his age and size look like they were standing still while he dribbled effortlessly around them. Where was this creative genius when he was matched up against one of the greatest defensive liabilities from the last World Cup?

The announcers applauded Adu, and the reviews have been, for the most part, generous. But you know what you saw. This was no LeBron James, who took the NBA by storm. Or Michelle Wie, who missed the cut on the PGA Tour ... by one stroke!

This was a kid playing with men. He looked overmatched, anxious, and nervous. In fact, he looked like a 14-year-old boy for the first time ever. This is what American soccer pines their hopes on?

All I can plead for is patience. Adu's coach, Peter Nowak, knows a little something about what it's like to be thrust onto the scene. Nowak turned professional when he was 15, and eventually captained the Polish national squad.

Nowak didn't start him because he doesn't want it to be too much, too soon for Adu. It might be a bit late considering the only place you haven't seen Adu is on the Food Network, but Nowak is worried about the wear and tear on the youngster.

Adu will have more games this season like the one on Saturday. But he will also have moments of brilliance. And what makes soccer such an interesting sport is that, unlike basketball, a brilliant goal is one of the most euphoric moments there can be, where as a brilliant hoop is probably worth two points out of a total of 200.

So while you might have an urge to abandon soccer forever, Adu will do something spectacular to make you come back. And he's only 14, so he'll be around for the next 20 years. He'll have plenty of time to make up for the ordinary display on Saturday.

Article courtesy of Sports Central.