Am I wrong or did this kid play with our reserves toward the end of the season. I know we had two left back internationals play in reserves (one was Jamaican and I think this was the other) If he did he played left back and he looked shaky at best.
That's our new guy, at the 0:03 mark, getting beat for the game's only goal ... http://www.dcunited.com/news/2012/10/reserve-league-dc-united-1-philadelphia-union-0 And the omniscient Zman Gunner speculated it might be this cat:
http://www.soccerway.com/players/damani-richards/145532/ He is a converted youth team striker who now typically plays CB but the Union had him at LB in that reserve game. Just hope that he does not have Keon-like visa issues when leaving the country.
The team also had Lopez at CB in that game ... just sayin'. So, what we get is a young kid who is here for at least one season and can play CB/LB. Sounds like some needed depth to me.
Seems like a sensible depth pickup given the lack of defenders on the roster and the large number of available international spots. It's hard to evaluate his level of talent based solely on that reserve game video, so let's hope the FO did its homework before acquiring him, and we don't end up with a Lopez-like player that is a huge liability on the field.
The difference is I doubt this player will see much starting time, being only 20. He seems pretty raw, so let's see if Hack can work on him. My sole hope is that maybe Keon can convince him and the rest of the team (well, except Casey) to grow dreads so we have a team of predators.
I wonder if this annoys the Union FO that the story broke today before the draft? They seemed to be trying to keep moves quiet before the draft to maybe mask their draft intentions. The acquisition of Parke seems to speak of this cloak and dagger moves as they had a good idea that Valdes was heading home when they made the move and for a period of time we only had speculation about why. I don't disagree with this idea in the least as teams will operate differently when the know why you might be trying to make certain moves.
It annoys them, probably. But it doesn't really change anything. The kid's eighteen. If he makes a first-team appearance this year, I'll be shocked.
He is not even mentioned in the write up of the reserve game.... Hopefully he fairs better under constant tutelage of the U http://www.philadelphiaunion.com/news/2012/10/reserves-united-1-union-0