Compelling Soccer

The US addition of Frankie Hejduk to the 22 man roster for Clint Dempsey yesterday caused me to grimace. This is nothing against Hejduk; he's been a contributor to the National team for years. However that's part of the problem. He's old, 35, and his skills have declined to the point where he should not be on the roster of a national side with aspirations of making it out of a World Cup round robin.

Before anyone brings up El Salvador; it was El Salvador. This is Honduras. While they won't be mistaken for a world class group any time soon, they are light years better than El Salvador. Whether or not the US team actually struggled in that game is of no consequence. If I played with a bunch of NFL players in a pick up game and I was the best player in the game because they didn't take it seriously, it doesn't mean I should be anywhere near the field against actual NFL competition. I might have worked harder than any of those guys. It doesn't change the fact I don't have anywhere near the talent to perform at the requisite level when the bar is raised.

However, there are many applauding the Hejduk move as good because he'll provide some fire to a team that appears at times to be sleepwalking. (Seriously, read the comments to the Soccernet story) Never mind that should be a coaching issue, not a player selection one, this is something that drives me nuts across the sports world.

My issue, and I suspect many others, is that high effort players tend to be overvalued by observers who are too preoccupied by appearance. Players who look like they are trying hard are lauded while players who don't get railed upon. Recently, I've seen many a complaint about Clint Dempsey not working hard. His form has been poor, but it's hard for me to truly say Deuce cares less than other players on the National team.

When a "hard working" player fails, it's glossed over because he looks like he's trying. When a player who doesn't look like he's struggling to keep up has bad games, it looks like he doesn't care. It's funny because we always love players who make the game look effortless when they excel. But maybe that's just a manner of playing the game; some people are more graceful than others.

Generally, the "he's a hard worker" argument also annoys me because there's no proof a guy isn't working hard. However, let's take the extreme case and say we have two players. Let's say Player A has 100 points of talent. Player B has 40 points of talent.

Player A is lazy and uses only 50% of his talent. Player B is the pinnacle of maximizing ability, getting 100% out of his skills. What are we left with?

Player A is using 50 points of talent. Player B is using 40 points of talent.

Player A might be a lazy SOB. But his half assed effort is better than player B's whole ass. Therefore I'd rather have player A, because my goal is to get the best result.

And this is normally borne out in results. You take the hard worker over the more talented player if the hard worker outproduces the talent. But if it's close to even, you take talent every time.

Now look, player A might be incredibly frustrating to watch. You might sit there and think he's not getting the most out of his abilities. And you might be 100 percent right about that fact. But no matter how hard player B tries, he still cannot match the production of player B. It's really that simple. However, fans will tend to like player B more and laud him over A because he works hard. It's human nature; or at least part of the culture we've been raised in. We want a world were effort is rewarded. It's annoying to watch someone coast by and a hard worker struggle. Unfortunately that is part of life. Some people are naturally gifted and can get by putting in less effort than others.

For Hejduk's selection, it comes down to what purpose it serves. Even if he doesn't play in either qualifier, and hopefully he doesn't, why is he there? If it's to get another warm body for 11-11 drills, then why not call in another younger player and see how he fares? If it's because of the work ethic he brings, then you're already lost because these are professional athletes performing at high levels of competition. If they haven't figured out how hard they have to work by now, then they've got issues and sadly, you do too. If it's to play, then the US team is really screwed.

I said years ago that you cannot spell scrappy without, well, everything after the "S". So any time I hear a player's defining quality as that, I have to shake my head.