Adu has a good relationship with most of his teammates, but a few of the veterans haven't fully warmed to him. Early in the season, some seemed irritated by the attention heaped on an unproven player and questioned privately whether he belonged on the field during a tense match.
Jaime Moreno, a Bolivian-born forward who has been in MLS since its inception in 1996, appeared to be the most frustrated with Adu, who is still learning where to move without the ball and when to take the initiative on the attack.
Adu, with his arm around Ray Trifari, D.C. United's director of team administration, draws a crowd as he exits the tunnel for an exhibition game in Rochester, N.Y., where 14,000 turned out.
(Kevin Clark -- The Washington Post)
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"We try to do our best to help him, but it hasn't been easy for him," said Moreno, 30, United's all-time leader in points. "I think he has realized how hard the league is. He's learning and taking something from each time he has stepped on the field. He's going to be a good player."
Nowak dismissed suggestions that there was a riff between Moreno and Adu, saying: "I think Jaime wants to make Freddy better -- tough love. This is what it's about; it's not personal."
Adu has become more comfortable around his teammates as the season has progressed but realizes it's sometimes best to tread lightly.
"The guys accept you much more when you work hard day in and day out in practice and just be humble and let your play do your talking," he said. "I know who I can joke around with and who I can't. I've learned that. The guys have accepted me a lot better now, I think, because I'm working hard and I'm contributing."
Some opponents also seem annoyed by the presence of a 15-year-old in their league and try to throw Adu off his game.
"They'll say, 'This isn't a boys' game, this is a man's game, you better be ready to play, kid,' " Adu said. "I just say, 'Okay, pops!' "
But those same players are almost unanimous in their opinion that Adu will become a special player someday.
"You can see he absolutely holds his own at this level, and that's incredible," said Donovan, the San Jose star who became an almost instant success in MLS at age 19 after toiling in Germany for a few years. "I can't even fathom that."
Said Adu: "I don't want to be an average player. I want to be a great player. I want to be the best player I can be and I know I have the potential to become the best player, if I really put my mind to it. . . .
"I look at this year as being just the beginning for me. It's been good and bad, but there's a lot more to come, I can tell you that."
