Pedro De La Vega's Make or Break Moment

[@samfc23]

i believe one day de la vega will play 90 minutes consecutively. goals and assists are probably too much to ask for. i mean hes so young lol

[@LobbingScorchers]

I think demand he be a carry the load type of guy is unreasonable. You are right, he is so young, lots of up side but also lots of pressure. Rooting for him!

[@Fireballof3]

Nelson Valdez was another one where "was he a bust?" was a long running conversation. He got a FEW goals in his 2 years, but as a DP he didn't work out very well.

[@TheZWSW]

Late to this video, but it is unfair for anyone to comment about his fitness when he battled injuries all year. I think he got onto a bit of a downward slide where he never got fully fit before injuring himself again. Fitness is not measured in weeks or even months. Soccer teams do know this, but they also know waiting until someone is actually at full fitness would take way too long. Here is another way to think about it. Professional marathon runners will be capable of 80-100 miles a week and still need 4-6 months of training before racing. Even shorter distance runners need months of training after they have very impressive base fitness. Soccer players are not some magical humans that defy these timelines. After an injury you need a few months to get your basic fitness and then an ADDITIONAL few months to truly build up to max. Also keep in mind that while the Sounders had access to his performance data it may not have been fully understood. I have wanted to ask managers and the sport science guys about their aggressive timelines. I suspect they are playing a statistical game of getting people back on the field when the likelihood of reinjury is acceptable. Most of the time it goes well, but you have cases like PDLV from time to time.