All aboard the Jozy Altidore bandwagon

On Sunday, 35,402 people showed up at Gillette Stadium to watch David Beckham sit on the bench as the New England Revolution defeated the LA Galaxy 1-0. Two hundred miles to the south, 12,103 people were on hand to see Red Bull New York defeat Toronto FC 3-0 at Giants Stadium. The impressively large crowd in New England might have delighted at having the chance to snap Beckham’s photo (or they might have been pissed he didn’t play), but in was the people in the swampland of New Jersey who saw the real reason soccer fans in the US should be excited.

While the general sports media will continue to monitor ever move that Becks makes, it is left to the true soccer writers like Ives Galarcep to beat the drum of Jozy Altidore. The 17-year-old RBNY striker scored a brace on Sunday and continued to display a level of play that belies his age.

For all his skill and even playing in the largest media market in the country, Altidore has largely avoided the hype. Sure he is the new cover boy for a video game, but I bet if you polled most sports fans in the US they would know Freddy Adu but they wouldn’t know Jozy Altidore. Adu was the chosen savior of US soccer before Beckham. The league wanted it that way and the media bought into it. He managed to score 12 goals in 98 games in MLS before departing for Portugal.

Altidore has quietly gone about his business scoring 8 goals in his 21 MLS appearances, while also doing something crazy. He has remained a grounded teenager, even opting to attend his senior prom on the night of a RBNY game. He has managed to develop his game without having to deal with the outside expectations of the media and the over the top promotions favored by the league.

That may change as people start looking at MLS with something other than the Beckham microscope. Altidore’s play deserves attention. A natural goal scoring forward has been a rarity in American soccer. One that is physically gifted and who will only grow as a player as he gets older is the exception, not the rule.

The question is whether anyone will notice before he scoots off to play for another team in another country.

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Category: MLS, World Football