Adu Acts His Age

Soccer phenom Freddy Adu has been speaking out about his lack of playing time. It's easy and probably correct to shrug off Adu's comments as typical. Typical as soccer star and petulant are nearly synonymous. Typical as high paid athletes are always lamenting something. Typical because, well, because Mr. Adu is a teenager.

How many sixteen year olds that you know would be upset over not getting to stay out later than normal? Or not getting to take the car? Or not being allowed to go somewhere they wanted to go? Darn near all of them I suspect. Adu may well be a teenager, but the difference is the thing he covets is playing time.

Like every other teenager, Adu lacks an important quality that only time and experience provide-perspective. Adu seems to believe that because he was MLS Player of the Week, he should be starting and logging more minutes. Perhaps, he is right. However, what Adu needs to do is consider everything.

First, he is on a championship team. D.C. United has a number of quality players. It's more than a bit derogatory to his teammates to assume he should be handed a starting role.

Second, does Adu think D.C. United's management or the MLS, in general, want to see Adu sit? Nothing would garner the team or the league more SportsCenter highlights (which would then bring the total to one) or revenue than Adu in action. If he was clearly better than his compatriots, I have to think coach Peter Nowak would play Adu.

Third, just because you are MLS Player of the Week doesn't mean you are ready to start for Chelsea or AC Milan. If you cannot beat out D.C. United's midfield or forwards, you aren't going to see much playing time in Europe anyway. Just ask Landon Donovan how that works.

Better yet, ask another former teen phenom, Bobby Convey, about playing time overseas. Convey left Adu's D.C. United squad to play for Reading. (Think AAA baseball, non-soccer friends.) Convey sat for the better part of his first season. He became discouraged, but didn't quit. This year, Convey is significant part of Reading's fine start. Adu may be better than Convey, but Bobby isn't in the Premiership, either.

I realize Adu wants to be on the U.S. side during the 2006 World Cup and feels Nowak's lack of playing time has eliminated his chance. I'm not sure that U.S. coach Bruce Arena, who doesn't appear to be one ounce less a disciplinarian than Nowak, would take Adu even if he was playing and scoring for a different MLS side.

Unfortunately, Adu is living up to the stereotype of overpaid soccer star and teenager simultaneously. He is carrying the weight of all that hype the way almost anyone his age would. At sixteen, it may be going as well as can be expected.