Ryan Miller has signed with Allsvenskan club Halmstads BK. The deal with GAIS apparently fell through http://yanks-abroad.com/get.php?mode=content&id=5672
Here is the confirmation from Halmstads website http://www.hbk.se/extra/news/?module_instance=1&id=5845
Not bad to secure a 3-yr. deal. Ryan made a jump up in divisions and certainly in club quality. Halmstads have a fairly storied history but slipped last season in the standings. They've lost some decent players, like Dusan Djuric, Peter Larsson, Tim Sparv, and Emra Tahirovich, to foreign sides so hopefully with some signings they will be back in the top 5. Nonetheless, I think it's a good move for Ryan and one that can certainly pay dividends if he gets significant minutes.
Agreed. Not only will this give hm the opportunity to be seen by "bigger clubs" or clubs in "bigger leagues", but if he plays and plays well in the Allsvenskan, he will have a good chance of being called to the next January NT camp.
Here is an web-tv Interwiev with Ryan on HBK's webiste. http://www.hbk.se/extra/news/?module_instance=18&id=5906
Ryan played 90 minutes as Halmstands drew Trelleborgs 0-0 in their first game. According to Ives' Twitter, Ryan Miller made the team of the week (I dunno where) along with Bedoya. EDIT: SvenskaFans.com http://www.svenskafans.com/fotboll/artikel.asp?id=345971
He looked like a capable pro in his limited action with D.C. United. Not suprised he's succeeding here.
The Allsvenskan season ended today, with all 16 clubs playing at the same time. Ryan Miller's Halmstads won away at Djurgardens, 0:2, in Stockholm. The match was relatively even, but Halmstads played with more spirit. Djurgardens had only a good spurt to open the second half when they were down a goal. Halmstads second goal was scored on a breakaway. Ryan Miller had a good match. He had one nice cross in the box late in the first half, and came up with two solid stops in the waning minutes of the match to ensure the shutout. Malmo is this year's Allsvenskan champion. Orebro, with YA Alejandro Bedoya, finish third and will play in Europa League next spring. Halmstads was dangerously close to the relegation zone, but finish 12th. Brommapojkarna and Atvidabergs are relegation, while Gefle plays GIF Sundsvall in a playoff to see if they go down or stay up.
Great season for him, establishing himself as a regular starter in a league that is probably a little better than MLS on the whole. Wishing DCU hadn't let him go. Still only 25. One to watch.
Halmstads Svenskafans fan-site has a "top three players"-ranking after each game. Since the season is over they have now added up the points for the whole year and posted a top-list. Miller placed at 10th with a total of eight points from the five games where he was considered to be among Halmstads top three performers. 21p Marcus Olsson (11) 20p Anel Raskaj (9) 18p Emil Salomonsson (10) 15p Joe Sise (7) 14p Robin Malmqvist (6) 14p Anselmo (6) 11p Jonas Saevarsson (5) 10p Michael Görlitz (5) 9p Mikael Rosén (5) 8p Ryan Miller (5) 7p Johnny Lundberg (4) 7p Kristoffer Thydell (4) 6p Tommy Jönsson (4) 6p Kalle Johnsson (3) 5p Richard Magyar (2) 4p Emir Kujovic (2) 2p Per Johansson (1) 1p Christian Järdler (1)
Great honor for Ryan as he makes the January camp for the USMNT! http://www.ussoccer.com/News/Mens-N...s-Training-Camp-at-The-Home-Depot-Center.aspx
And only 17 posts we've apparently been sleeping on this kid. Someone get us a Halmstads supporter to keep us updated ... meanwhile the Freddy Adu thread spirals out of control
These pictures are from an MTV-Cribs type of story about Ryan Miller published in Halmstads latest member magazine this month. There isn't really any soccer content, just him talking about how he lives. He says he loves his balcony (pictured above) where he eats his breakfast and barbecues in the summer. Being able to cook for himself is important to him as an professional athlete. His girlfriend is still in the US. The apartment has become the most frequent hangout place for a whole group of the younger players in the team. He likes to keep things clean and tidy and feel that swedish people have too many decorations in their homes and also adds that he enjoys clean surfaces. A final thing of note is that he always has a big bowl of "cod liver oil"-capsules on his table which he eats from several times per day.
We haven't ALL been sleeping on him! Good job, Bob, looking beyond the obvious places. Miller has earned this look.
A new article on Ryan Miller. It mostly deals with his first USMNT call-up, but has a little club talk as well. He does mention being optimistic about a move to a bigger club than Halmstads, but appears to just be happy that he is getting consistent starts, something which eluded him in MLS.
Maybe time for a summary of the things that have been going on at Ryan Millers club this winter: There has been a spanish revolution!! After slowly sinking lower and lower in the table over the last few years and feeling increasingly unattractive the club took drastic measures and replaced the whole board and fired the manager. They then proceeded to recruit Malmö FF's very hyped and popular assistant manager http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josep_Clotet_Ruiz to take over. He has been outspoken about how he feels that it is more important to play attractive football then to win games, so this is a pretty gutsy move by a club likely fighting against relegation. He has already brought in one ex-Espanyol player and three Real Madrid Castilla rejects. All of them midfielders/forwards though so no new competition for Miller. So far in preseason the results have been a modest four losses in four games. It will be very interesting to see if the upcoming season turns out to be a success or a spectacular disaster for Halmstad.
Like the article mention, the manager has been tinkering alot with the formations and right now it's starting to look like 3-5-2 will be the style of choice. Remains to be seen if this is a good or bad thing for Miller since he is a right back.