Why Are U.S. Fans Lukewarm On Dempsey?

[richie17]

Because of highlight packages we see more and more nowadays, I think there's a common perception amongst people who don't watch all that much football that star players do star things throughout every single game. 

The reality is that about three players in the world do this, the rest just keep plugging away at a consistently high level and, while experiencing ups and downs, generally do the right thing when needed, and will pop up with something special every so often.

So people are told by overseas media that this player's supposed to be something special, then they watch and he doesn't score with a bicycle kick or do whizzy tricks and they don't see it.  Clint reminds me of someone like Samuel Eto'o in this regard, someone who's not especially noteworthy when you're looking for the spectacular, but whose instincts and 'game smarts' (how American does that sound?!) are very strong.   Watching on TV you can't really see Clint doing a hard shift at both ends of the pitch, making defensive contributions, fighting for the ball by the touchline, throwing himself into danger areas in attack, linking up play between the midfield and the full-backs, etc, all of which Clint does very well but which wouldn't register on the radar of the average US fan, perhaps.   Which might sound patronizing, but hey.