There's a nice write-up about Bouna Coundoul in the Denver Post (link below) and how he is caught between a rock and a hard place both at home and with the Senegal national team. He's saying all the right things about being happy as a deputy to Preston Burpo but it is clear how frustrated he is at being on the bench both for the Colorado Rapids and Senegal. According to the article, Burpo looks set to continue in goal for the game on Sunday against Chicago. Burpo is a highly competent goalkeeper and arguably deserves a run in the team but I can't help but feel that this is a similar situation to the one with Herculez Gomez. Granted that both sides in the Gomez case wanted out in the end but there is a strong argument that it should never have got to that position. Gomez was left for far too long on the sidelines. He got frustrated and it became a fait accompli in the end that he would go elsewhere. The same will happen with Bouna if we are not careful. It's no secret that his ambitions are elsewhere, probably in Europe. He wants to become the number one choice in goal for Senegal and he is not going to do that in the Rapids' Reserves. When I discussed about how we could not afford to ignore Bouna in a previous post, that is no reflection on Burpo. It is simply the case that we cannot afford to underuse and eventually lose highly talented players. It's happened before with Herculez, I hope it does not happen with Bouna.
http://www.denverpost.com/rapids/ci_10441200
I may be dogged but I could not get up to training today given the awful weather conditions. I write just as the sun is coming out. From Bryan Forbes' article, it looks a pretty much unchanged team from the one that beat Dallas other than that Conor Casey is out injured. Christian Gomez looks likely to remain on the bench. Talking of underusing talented players?
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4 comments:
The fact that Burpo's poor play over the last tow games doesn't get him benched is another indicator of the poor talent evaluation in the Rapids organization.
I am sick of everyone saying how bad Burpo has been. Bouna makes alot of mental mistakes. No one is blaming Petke or Gibbs for not marking their men or getting beat. Some how Burpo takes all the blame.
As for Herc he was and is garbage. He is a dirty layer that commited the most fouls of any player on our team save Pablo. Oh and hes a forward/A-mid.
This team without Clavijo is light years better than they were 3 months ago.
I am with you Doc. Preston is a seasoned goalie with far more experience tha Bouna. Don't get me wrong, I love Bouna, but since his return from the Africa Cup, he hasn't been the same. Bouna needs to regain his confidence back and get his head straight. Preston on the other hand, is ON FIRE. He has saved our butts numerous times when our defense was lacking, which by the way is improving with each game.
I happen to think that Herc is a good player who got pushed aside when Christian showed up. Hell, he even had to give up his number. How demoralizing is that? What has Christian done for the team now?
Herc moved on because he was wasting his time here. It might happen to Bouna as well. Such as life...
Jason, I think you got it all wrong and are writing off players without giving them a chance. With time, Preston will continue to improve.
Thanks for the comments, guys. I think that Bouna is clearly a more talented goalkeeper who has shown a little lack of confidence which has cost him his place. It does not help either when he is so frequently called out on international duty. Burpo has performed very well in recent weeks and it would not feel right if he was dropped now whether or not he is less talented than Bouna. He does deserve a run in the team and I think he will get it barring injury or loss of form.
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