Green Proves Yet Again He's the Next Freddy Adu

Barely a Pro

It's well known that the big-money friendlies are nothing more than meaningless money-makers for big-name European teams to travel to footballing backwaters like China, Australia and the United States and market their brands to audiences willing to pay top dollar.

These glorified training sessions provide little to analyze since players in these games have proven themselves time and time again. That is, except, the opportunity to see younger players and whether they have the chops to succeed at the top level.

Which one doesn't belong?

That's why we here at IMOTGP decided to take in Wednesday's Bayern Munich-AC Milan 'match' in the air conditioned club level in Chicago since we spare no expense for our comfort while watching football. And our keen eyes were on Julian Green, a former United States World Cup hero, who has yet to make his mark at the club level. His career in Germany has been nothing short of disastrous.

Word from new boss Carlo Ancelotti is that Green actually has a chance to play for Bayern, of course what else would you expect him to say? Javi Martinez also chimed in with praise. Green believes he will do it, also.

Well the reality is far from that to those of you who witnessed Wednesday's proceedings. Playing up top with stars like Franck Ribery, Philipp Lahm, David Alaba and Xabi Alonso in the lineup, Green showcased aimless running, no link-up play with his teammates and had next to no impact. His 79 minutes saw one MLS-quality shot in the second half that went into the 200 level, and his one shining moment was drawing a foul in the first half - only because of a clumsy and needless Milan challenge. Other than that, he drifted offside, showed no aptitude to make runs off his teammates and no ability to get on the ball whatsoever.

Usually playing with some of the world's best enhances a player's abilities. With Green, that didn't come close to happening since pass-happy Bayern players like Alonso and Lahm were simply unable to play Green the ball. There are many who loathe analytics in soccer, but we thought we'd show you a Julian Green heat map so you can fully understand his contribution to the game:

Julian Green 'Heat Map' vs. AC Milan - 7-27-16

That about sums it up, folks. It's a mystery to us how he is still property of one of the best clubs in the world. There isn't a top-flight Bundesliga team that would take him and certainly not our beloved Hertha BSC. What is especially galling is when you see how hard a U.S. player like Bobby Wood has worked to get into the first division and how he has shown steady improvement to do it and contrast it with how little Green has shown despite playing with the Bavarian giants.

It's clear that Green is following in the footsteps of Freddy Adu. Jozy Altidore is a flop who has yet to score this season in MLS and we still rate him higher than Green. We did capture Green's best moment with the picture below, showing where he truly excels.  Enjoy!

Meet a Bayern Munich star, courtesy of IMOTGP!!

We here at IMOTGP have decided to reward our loyal readers with a wonderful opportunity - and it's an even better prize than the free beer at FC Vaduz games. It's not often that the public gets a chance to meet some of the important people in the football world but, in agreement with Bayern Munich, we have decided to give you that opportunity.

Unfortunately, you won't get the chance to meet The Phantom, although many of you have already met IMOTGP's resident football expert. Please, no more autograph requests, although we do accept a self-addressed stamped envelope with $20 to fulfill them if you are that desperate.

Anyway we digress.  Bayern Munich is in Chicago for tonight's 'Carlo Ancelotti bowl' against a once-mighty-but-no-longer AC Milan. You can get a ticket and sit way up in the stands and listen to these Bavarian chants but we here at IMOTGP wanted to give our readers a more up-close look at the Bavarians. That's why we have convinced Bayern Munich to stay in town Thursday for some promotional events and to meet you, the diehard football fan.

There are two events scheduled for Thursday. One is at 5 o'clock at the T-Mobile store on 50 E Randolph Street, in which a Bayern Munich player will appear. This event is sponsored by T-Mobile and IMOTGP.  Concurrently, there is a meet-and-greet with a player yet to be determined at the Adidas store at Water Tower Place. This will also be around 5 o'clock on Thursday and is sponsored by Adidas and IMOTGP.

We will provide an update Thursday morning as to the times of the events and information on which players will be there since Bayern Munich, T-Mobile, Adidas and IMOTGP are in discussions to determine all of this. We can give you a tidbit of inside info that one of the players who will appear has a last name that rhymes with 'Queen' and has been coached by none other than former Bayern boss Jurgen Klinsmann in the World Cup!  But don't let that get out.

We would like to thank Bayern Munich, T-Mobile and Adidas for collaborating with IMOTGP to bring you these wonderful events. This should further cement our status as the top Bundesliga humour site in the world, if not Northeastern Illinois. Danke!

A budding U.S. star makes a big-time move in Europe!

Quick, IMOTGP football fans!  What country is circled above? We'll give you a hint - it's in Europe - where all the top footballers in the world ply their trade.  Need another hint?  The primary language spoken there is German - the same language spoken by the current World Cup champs! Need one more hint?  The prime minister is none other than Adrian Hasler! (OK maybe that last hint isn't too helpful.)

The correct answer is a country located between Austria and Switzerland, none other than Liechtenstein, the sixth-smallest country in the world! It's the country that is now the home of budding United States star Caleb Stanko, who has been loaned out to FC Vaduz from German club Freiburg!

Stanko is making history since he is believed to be the first American to play in Liechtenstein. And since you are no doubt wondering about what the Leichtenstein top flight is like, fear not folks.  The country is so small that FC Vaduz competes in the Swiss league alongside powerhouses like FC Basel so you can be rest assured that Stanko is not headed to some joke league in which derbies are lost by three goals or more on a regular basis.

Stanko is a 23 year-old American-Polish dual citizen who arrives in Leichtenstein on loan until the summer 2017. He made five appearances in the 2nd Bundesliga and 13 in the Regionalliga last season. He joined SC Freiburg in 2011 after the Michigan native played with Vardar SC in his home state. Now that Freiburg is back in the top flight alongside top-notch clubs fighting for major European honours like this one and this one, it was clear Stanko needed to go elsewhere to get on the pitch.

We suggest IMOTGP followers make a trip to the Rheinpark Stadium to see Stanko. If you do make it there, the beer is on us.  Just post a photo of your matchday beer receipts at FC Vaduz with an email address in the comments section below so we can get in touch to reimburse you!

A Trophy for Mourinho!!!

Jose Mourinho's tenure as Manchester United boss is off to a rousing start. The club is clearly operating on all cylinders as a friendly against Dortmund showed.

One positive since Mourinho took over is that the famed club has already added another trophy to its haul courtesy of Ryan Giggs.  Giggsy just masterminded a penalty kick triumph for Mumbai over Kochi in the Indian Futsal League championship match.

This triumphant moment showed that Manchester United is back on top, that India is a rising power and that Mourinho's magic has worked yet again! Congratulations to Manchester United supporters worldwide!!

Many Questions after a Wild Weekend of MLS

With top-notch European football playing meaningless exhibitions at this point in the calendar, we here at IMOTGP have decided to focus on the top-flight of United States football, the MLS.  We may actually attend a big game in the league next weekend!

So the blog spent plenty of time this weekend watching matches and highlights - so you didn't have to - and we will begin with a discussion of the jewel of the Pacific Northwest, the Seattle Sounders - who were reportedly on the pitch Sunday in Kansas City. Of course, it was hard to notice them outside of the fact that their green uniforms stood out since they barely got close to the ball and should have been walloped by seven or eight goals rather than the 3-0 scoreline thanks to MLS-quality finishing by Sporting.

Now the debate is raging on whether the big German himself, Sigi Schmid, will be gone. Of course, we wish another German-born coach was out of the United States, but that's for another blog post. This is about Schmid, who has won MLS Cup with the Galaxy and Crew. He has not won it with fancied Seattle and the Sounders are bad, folks. They have a bunch of aging players who are wilting in the heat while Jordan Morris has been solid as a rookie but has botched some recent chances.

Seattle is an awful team, no two ways about it.  They looked even worse Sunday than the Chicago Fire, a club that is winless in its last 35 MLS league road matches. We say Schmid should stay and the Sounders need to clean house since one Argentine superstar isn't enough to turn around their woes.

WHINING NYC HUMBLED YET AGAIN BY RED BULLS: Order was restored Sunday in the New York derby as the Red Bulls (Salzburg) thrashed NYC FC (Man City) by a 4-1 score  that wasn't indicative of how lopsided this mismatch was.

Now this wasn't the greatest MLS match ever but it was intense, with NYC coach Patrick Vieira sent to the stands. Vieira and Red Bulls coach Jesse Marsch don't exactly get along, and the NYC coach foolishly and pathetically blamed the loss on missed offsides calls afterward.

Those of you who tuned out early with the Red Bulls romping missed some fun stuff near the finish. There was Frank Lampard NFL-style tackling Sacha Kljestan and accusing the Red Bulls star of showboating. Kljestan responded by letting Lampard know the score. Lampard was assessed the first of four NYC yellow cards in a five-minute span with Federico Bravo and David Villa foolishly getting themselves suspended for the next match, and Ethan White getting sent off. Afterwards the NYC players continued to whine and complain, showcasing yet again they are a useless fake club!

As an impartial blogger, we do want to say that the story of how NYC star Jack Harrison came to the U.S. is a good one.

OTHER NOTES:  Ben Olsen, Gregg Berhalter and Dominic Kinnear are MLS coaching mainstays but none have turned in their best work this season. Should any of this trio be axed?  Possibly but we don't quite envision it happening.

The hat tricks by Didier Drogba and reigning MVP Sebastian Giovinco were sensational for sure but the biggest goal was this laser beam by Victor Ulloa of FC Dallas in a hotly contested draw at Colorado.  Many MLS observers consider FCD as the league's best team, but that won't be the case since Fabian Castillo is on to bigger and better things since he's moving to a much tougher league in Turkey.

Finally, we'll leave you with the wisdom of LA coach Bruce Arena after his team's 2-1 victory at Portland in which the Galaxy were outshot 18-9:

We are back from vacation!!!

Asia's finest football talent!

Welcome back football fans! You may have noticed that we were on hiatus since we were visiting luxurious Thailand  due to the relative lack of activity in the football world.  Please don't think it was all fun in the sun, though, as the IMOTGP blog was hard at work finding top footballing talent in Southeast Asia - and we succeeded as you can see from looking at Nadia above!

Anyway the big story remains who will coach England with Jurgen Klinsmann reportedly still in the hunt for the gig. We'd like to give a special shout-out to the U.S. soccer media for their excellent reporting on this story - the contents of which you can see here:




OK we're back. Moving along, whether Klinsmann is gone or not eventually someone else will have to coach the United States. American soccer expert Will Parchman stated his preference for Klinsi's successor in FC Dallas coach Oscar Pareja. Of course, Parchman may be late to the party since the IMOTGP blog endorsed Pareja back in November. It sparked discussion from Adam Belgeri as to whether Pareja is a good choice but it's clear that the Colombian has great support in Parchman and IMOTGP.

In other news, ESPN did another hard-hitting analysis of what needs to be done to improve soccer in the U.S. It's worth a read to see what luminaries like Pareja, Bob Bradley and Mike Sorber have to add to the discussion. The real hope is that this isn't the case.

Well that's all for now IMOTGP fans. We look forward to the second leg of the Hibs-Brondby Europa League showdown to determine the next opponent for this club that features a U.S. superstar.

And we leave you with this 'football' selfie straight from the Bayern Munich training ground!