Making Sausage of SuperFreddy

There was a mini-media horde at the first practice session for the Under-17 men's national team last evening. (If that sentence makes no sense read my previous post--or go elsewhere for your porn fix.) Reporters from the Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, KARE-11, and Minnesota Public Radio were on hand. Naturally they all wanted to talk to 14-year-old millionaire phenom Freddy Adu. The Pi Press story ran this morning on the front page of the sports section. Unfortunately, it's poorly written and riddled with errors.

Reporter Greg Johnson states that when Adu was 10 years old he played on the U.S. Under-14 team. This is simply not possible. First of all, there's no such thing as a U.S. Under-14 team. Secondly, Adu only became a U.S. citizen in February and was previously not eligible to play for his adopted country.

Johnson then goes on to claim that Adu has been playing for the Under-17 team for two years, "notching 34 goals and 23 assists." Lord knows where he came up with this nugget. As any dedicated LNW reader knows, Adu made his U.S. debut in March against Jamaica (delivering a dazzling assist just four minutes into the game). In five games, he has amassed 4 goals and 4 assists.

All of these facts are, of course, readily available on the U.S. Soccer Federation web site.