This week in the comments [December 29th edition]

December 24th "The Beautiful Game and Signing Defensive Players"

sevenless

Lies, damned lies and statistics
I love articles like this Gardner piece because they can say whatever you want them to say to generate controversy and page views. But wait, I can court controversy too! Further evidence the Sounders are going into 2014 with a more physical style: they signed Stefan Frei, whose season record also includes more cards than goals or assists, and don’t get me started on their decision to re-sign yellow-card magnet and non-scorer Leo Gonzales! On top of it, they’ve ditched creative engine Clint Dempsey with a loan to a European team, the exact same same way they disposed of Fredy Montero!
What? You’re saying the facts and details don’t support my line of reasoning? Don’t worry — as soon as the Sounders sign a creative player I’ll write another article that shows how right I was and how their hand was forced due to my article calling them out for all of their earlier brutish moves.

Trolltossin

I bet if Alonso was actually cleared to play for the USMNT that the whole persona issue as a brute would change

BUT ballardiana's reply...

You mean Ozzie would become persona non bruta?

K61

I will agree
There seems to be a relatively common narrative among non-Sounders fans that Alonso is a brute. Thank you very much for this statistical analysis of Alonso and especially for the clear comparison of him to one of the MLS golden boys, Kyle Beckerman.
The fact that Alonso is incredibly good at winning the ball and making players on other teams look bad at times requires an explanation. The easy way out is to assume he’s getting away with something (being too physical). The analysis in this article is a great refutation of that narrative. Thank you.

December 27th: Major Link Soccer: Academy success, Bradley rumors

Disco_stew, because everyone needs to click this link.

So this is just the cutest damn thing I've seen all day

Some parents in Portugal trolled their Benfica supporting daughter by giving her a Porto shirt and, as you can imagine, she was not happy with them. She eventually got what she wanted but her reaction is priceless. If I did this to my nephew by giving him a Timbers shirt I have no doubts he would fashion a Lego shank in a matter of seconds.
Almost makes me want to have a kid of my own but the last few days of puppy ownership have put that notion to bed.

Dylan Vanderhoof needs context to appreciate.

whatgone on the other hand, is better with no context.

We should start a petition to get the name of this site changed
to stalkeratheart.com

December 28th: Mario Martinez likely to return to Seattle

bmvaughn's discovery is the best part of this whole investigation/rumor.

I appreciate
That the first person to RT this on twitter when it was posted was Mario Martinez

dc13

Statistically he was on par with Evans defensively (averaging slightly more forced turnovers in fact)
Make what you will with that. I think part of what at least appeared to be a not overwhelming defensive presence was the role he was asked to play. He should be compared more to Rosales or Zakuani when they were here, as Martinez was mostly asked to play a higher role in the midfield. The fact that he was about even statistically with Evans makes me think that—if asked specifically to emphasize it more—there’s no reason he couldn’t be even better. We also, based on quotes, seem to be leaning toward more of full field press where we pressure their players higher up the field. This is more of a team-wide defense and something I think Martinez would do ok at IMO—he’s never going to be asked to play an Ozzie like role obviously. It’s also something that many of us here called for more of last year—in the few games we played that way we seemed to play much better as a full unit but for some reason we reverted back toward the second half of the season.
Personally I’m pretty jazzed if this pans out. Not only do I think he has the potential to be a starter in the diamond, but he could be our go-to guy when Dempsey is out or called up. It also solves the aerial service we’re now missing with Rosales and a threat on set piece service. His cap hit won’t likely be huge either…

December 29th: Jhon Kennedy Hurtado Profile

A two comment whopper about logical fallacies

509er

Nirvana fallacy
when solutions to problems are rejected because they are not perfect

patrick.stewart

I thought that referred to
An instance where you need, in this case a player, to be simultaneously as they were, as they are, and as you wish them to be.

For example- re: the first two "as a friend" and re: the second "as an old enemy."

This is not a comment, but I think everyone will understand. Tacos.

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