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Monday, January 21, 2013

Dempsey is United's Boogeyman

Photo credit: AP
 
It's been half a season for Clint Dempsey in the Premier League with Tottenham Hotspur and it is deja vu all over again. Early in the campaign, the recently-signed American scored a game-wining goal for the Spurs versus Manchester United to give the White Hart Lane team its first victory over United in 23 years. Today, on a snowy evening, he did it again. "Deuce" scored in the 93rd minute to give his team a 1-1 scoreline and prevent the Manchester club from obtaining another impressive win.

It is now twice in one season that Manchester United has seen points erased by Mr. Dempsey and you can be sure this will not be forgiven or forgotten. That's a total of 5 points deducted from United this season courtesy of the American and he's showing no signs of stopping at 5 goals and 7 in all competitions. Little things like always scoring against the biggest teams tend to snowball into greater effects. Perhaps this is to be a trend for Dempsey? For now let's just say that the top English teams have categorized him as a major threat and Manchester United will look to double up on him from here on.

Much has been said recently about the former New England Revolution and Fulham FC player: he's better than Landon Donovan, he's the best United States player, he chose his team well. While the Donovan argument is just that, an argument, he is undoubtedly the best American player in the world at the moment, and yes, Tottenham was the right destination for him.

Aside from his exploits at the club level, Dempsey must now step into different shoes with the national team: he must be the one to carry the team into World Cup 2014, just as Donovan did for 2010. His partnership with Altidore must blossom in order to get the most out of  what is potentially a high-scoring American attack. While Michael Bradley and Jermaine Jones have significant knowledge of the game, their position is more withdrawn and their attacking communication with Dempsey is thus limited. Due to this, and in the absence of Donovan, players like Mixx Diskerud, Joe Corona, Graham Zusi, Brek Shea and Danny Williams will need to step up their game if they are to deliver the passes to Dempsey.

For now let's enjoy what the Texas native and Furman University product has to offer. Clint Dempsey is pure class and pure fantasy:


1 comment:

Alastair McCandless said...

Definitely a step forward in his development, he was never successful against United in the past.