Is Freddy Adu Our Lukas Podolski?

Over the past few years, German striker Lukas Podolski has become known for two things: Scoring loads of goals for the German National Team and riding the pine at Bayern Munich.

Football logic tells you that if a player doesn’t get quality playing time for his club side, he won’t be able to perform at his peak, or even get selected, for his national team. Podolski completely nukes this notion by being driving forces for the Germans in international play while spending his weeks complaining about the splinters in his rear-end from sitting the bench all the time. One can’t explain why he can’t get into games for Bayern, nor can one explain why it doesn’t seem to affect him at all when he pulls on the colors of Deutschland. It’s like magic. On comes the jersey and in pour the goals.

Sine Freddy began his European adventure he has been scarred by carousel of head coaches, a subsequent loan move to Monaco who doesn’t seem to want him in the first place, and the inability to get minutes in any seemingly meaningful situation. With this, all Freddy has done is rise to be one of the most dangerous players on the USA roster, putting in exceptional performances against the world’s elite such as Spain, Argentina, The Netherlands, and of course his dominating play vs. Guatemala in World Cup Qualifying last week.

When the Freddy hype first hit what is now many years ago, most people, in their dreams, envisioned him carrying the USA to a World Cup. Not many, however, probably envisioned caring about him winning Champions Leagues. If Freddy is going to be our version of Lukas Podolski, is that a bad thing at all?