Dempsey v Harkes

[White Noise]

http://worldcup.si.com/2010/05/25/dempsey-harkes-criticism-off-base/

Dempsey: Harkes Criticism Off-Base


Team USA,World Cup 2010


EAST HARTFORD, Conn. — On the day the U.S. meets the Czech Republic in a pre-World Cup friendly (ESPN, Galavisión, 8 p.m. ET), U.S. midfielder Clint Dempsey has something he wants to get off his chest. Dempsey isn't happy with the way ESPN commentator John Harkes has criticized him on TV, in particular during last year's Confederations Cup.

"He criticized me in [Confederations Cup] for looking tired and said I should be benched, but I was top three in distance covered in the whole tournament," Dempsey told me. "It's funny that he criticized me so much and yet I feel like I've done more in my international career than he has. Just compare our national-team stats. I've also scored in a World Cup, scored three goals in Confederations Cup, and got the Bronze Ball for third-best player in the whole tournament. Look at what he's done. I'm 27 and still have a lot of games left in me and he's finished."

On Tuesday afternoon I reached Harkes, who will be handling ESPN's color commentary for the game tonight. "Clint Dempsey is a great player, highly skilled and very entertaining," Harkes told me. "My job is to commentate on the games. It's never personal. As a former player you realize it's part and parcel of the profession. I wish Clint and the whole U.S. team the best of success, especially in the World Cup."

Some might argue that Harkes's own career is irrelevant when it comes to whether it gives him the right to be a critic. For what it's worth, though, here are the stats comparing Dempsey and Harkes:

Clint Dempsey

U.S. career: 60 caps, 17 goals, 7 assists
About to be 2 World Cups: 3 games, 1 goal, 0-2-1 record
1 Honda Player of Year award (1 3rd place)
Bronze ball, 2009 Confederations Cup.

2 Gold Cup titles

League career in England: 110 games, 21 goals.
Runner-up in 2010 Europa League.

John Harkes

U.S. career: 90 caps, 6 goals, 11 assists
2 World Cups: 6 games, 0 goals, 1-1-4 record
0 Honda Player of Year awards (1 runner-up)

Co-MVP 1995 Copa América (updated)

0 Gold Cup titles

League career in England: 164 games, 12 goals.
Won 1991 League Cup with Sheffield Wednesday. Also runner-up in one FA Cup, one League Cup.

For Dempsey's part, he also thinks he got a raw deal in the voting for last year's Honda Player of the Year award. Dempsey wasn't among the three finalists for the award (winner Landon Donovan, Tim Howard and Jozy Altidore). "In the year that a player got the Bronze Ball in a major tournament, I'm not even in the top three?" said Dempsey, who has sometimes felt like an outsider in the U.S. system because he didn't play on its elite teams as a youth player.

Do you think Dempsey has a point? Do you agree with Harkes? And do you think Dempsey plays better when he has a chip on his shoulder? Post your comments below...

[jarv]

We all know the game is about opinions. I have lived in US for 20 years and Dempsey is by far the best outfield player America has produced. He was the ONLY one which decided to show up at the last world cup, the rest were a disgrace.

His style is deceptive, he looks a bit lazy at times but look at his passion for both club and country.

Apart from that, my son has a mate who works at the Fulham academy. When the senior players help out with the coaching, his mate reckons Dempsey is the nicest of the lot. He gets my vote.

[HatterDon]

There's a cause-and-effect at work here as well. When the last Honda Award came out, the consensus on FulhamUSA.com was (a) Donovan deserved it, and (b) Clint not figuring in the top 3 or 4 was PRIMARILY down to Harkes trashing him. The treatment got so bad that, during one of the qualifiers where the US played without Clint, about 35% of Harkes's commentary was about how much of a disappointment Clint was. We won the freaking game, but a player who wasn't present was the center of the story -- in a negative way.

Where this came from is easy to trace. The USA stunk up the joint in South Africa in our early matches. As Mr. jarv pointed out, Clint always looks tired and lazy out there [count the "Clint looks jaded; he's played too many matches; he needs a week off" comments on this site along], and Harkes seized on him as the reason for the poor performance. Once Clint stepped up and, basically, took over the tournament, Harkes either had to eat his words or try to justify his judgement. Rather than admitting that he didn't know what he was talking about, Harkes kept up the abuse, even though Clint was voted the third best player in the tourney. Once we got back to World Cup qualifying, Harkes continued to keep at it, even though Clint led us in scoring.

It got so ridiculous that, within a 5 minute stretch, Harkes [correctly] applauded Donovan for tracking back to help the defense and then trashed Clint for doing the same thing saying, "He shouldn't be playing that deeply. He's not going to contribute anything to the attack when he's tackling back."

I had a lot of respect for Harkes as a player, but I don't have time for ex-athletes who create their niche in sports commentary by trashing their fellow pros. Every time I hear a Dark or a Motson say, "He really should have scored there," I think "What the @%! do you know about scoring in the Prem?" When I hear a Sturridge or a Walsh say that, I think "Oh, and you converted every chance you received, right?" One is ignorance; the other is cheap-shotting.

My, I do go on, but as Mr. jarv said [and so much more briefly], Clint is all committment out there for Fulham and for the USA. He makes mistakes, he has off days, but he NEVER mails it in.

Rant over.

[PaulUMD]

Harkes has always been hard on Dempsey.  And Clint has never fit into the US Soccer "mafia" for lack of a better word. 

[LordNelson]

Harkes is a posh Nancy wanna-be has been.  Dempsey's a working man scrapper--takes nothing for granted & loyal to his mates.  I would love to see Demps bash the livin shite out of that back stabbin Harkes in a cage match.

[SoCalJoe]

Harkes is jealous of Clint. He isn't known as being one of America's first outfield players to play in England (Wednesday & Derby) like he craves, but rather being the US Captain that got booted off the '98 WC team for having an affair with another player's wife (Eric Wynalda). That said I kind of wished Clint wouldn't bother, but he obviously got fed up with people telling him how Harkes rips him whenever possible.