The local paper writes today that three americans will be trialing with the club. They are apparantly in Sweden with some kind of touring team from Chicago consisting of players looking for a contract in Europe. They have also visited Holland and Germany before coming to Ljungskile where they managed to get a 2-1 win in a friendly game played during the current Superettan midseason break. The team is also going to continue on to two other places in Sweden where I guess they are also going to be playing games? Either way Ljungskile were impressed enough with three players to have them stay and trial with the club. The manager also comments that they would not do this unless they consider them potential signings. Here are the three players and how the newspaper describes them: Aaron Nichols, 24, winger/fullback who is athletic, fast and works hard. Patrick McMahon, 26, central midfielder who is good in the air, works hard, and has played with Patrick Hopkins in Australia. Paul Tracy, 24, winger who is fast and good at crossing the ball. I should also say that a guy on the Ljungskile forum who watched the game pointed out Nichols as the best player on the american team.
Here's a list of all the players that are touring Europe with the team. It would be a bit excessive to make a new thread for all of these guys but someone might be interested to see who is included.
A name that jumps out to me in that group is Christian Ibeagha, a former Bradenton alum and US U17 international. I thought he was playing with the Puerto Rico islanders, though. [He had trialed at FC Dallas one off-season if I remember correctly.] Then again I thought Yaw Danso was in Puerto Rico also, and he's on the list.
The Islanders are on hiatus this season and unlikely to come back next year. Quavas Kirk is another notable name on that list, formerly of the Galaxy and DC United.
Ljungskile announce that they have signed two of their three american Bridges FC trialists: Aaron Nichols (on the left in the picture above) and Paul Tracy (middle). In a radio interview with the manager he says that he hopes that they will bring enthusiasm and speed on the wings. He also mentions that Paul Tracy acts "very swedish" as a footballer, which surely must be the ultimate compliment! Their contracts lasts to the end of the year and Ljungskile hope to have them both ready to play in the next game on the 29th. The third american, Patrick McMahon, will continue training with the club but they say that their priorities are finding a forward first before deciding anything more with him.
A little off topic maybe but: two of the other touring players, one of them american, were signed by third tier Sandvikens IF. I just wrote about it in this thread. Seems like this traveling team has gotten a pretty good outcome with at least four players signed.
They ended up signing McMahon too (pictured below playing against Ljungskile). The club also had a game yesterday but unfortunaly the americans haven't gotten their work permits yet so they have to wait for the next one.
I just watched Ljungskile beat Hammarby 1-0 away today. Paul Tracy made his debut and played 73 minutes on the right wing. I would say that he had an alright first game. He wasn't that noticable except for on two occasions which on the other hand really stood out as he had the two of the biggest Ljungskile chances. Patrick McMahon also got to make his debut as he came on to play the last ten minutes. I can't really say much about his performance though as I didn't really notice him, Ljungskile was busy defending their lead at that point. The manager did note in the TV interview after the game that he was happy with both of their performances. Ljungskile captain Patrick Hopkins on the other hand played the full 90 minutes as expected and impressed by playing a big part in keeping the clean sheet. He has definitely grown into his role and it would be interesting to see if he could perform the same in something like a bigger Superettan or bottom of the table Allsvenskan club. In Hammarby Adis Husidic spent the game on the bench while Billy Schuler was not included in the matchday squad.
Paul Tracy seems to have permanently captured a place in the Ljungskile starting eleven. After that first game where he was a winger he has now mostly been playing fullback from what I can understand and the fans seem happy with how solid and hardworking he has looked so far. McMahon on the other hand has only played that 10 minutes that he got in the first game against Hammarby in Superettan, although he did play the entire 90 minutes in the Swedish Cup game last week. About the third american Nichols, I believe I heard something about him being injured but couldn't find anything when I searched. He has yet to play or make the bench for a game.
Nichols had only gotten about 45 minutes of playing time before tonight but got the chance to double that number when he played the second half against Varbergs BoIS. He also got to score the final 4-0 goal which as you can see in the video above was probably not his most elegant goal ever but in the end they all count.
Perhaps a bit surprisingly since he's was injured for a long time and has only played a total of 254 minutes so far, but Ljungskile has extended Aaron Nichols contract for another two years. The manager comments that Nichols is a class player and that Nichols himself feels that Ljungskile "gives him a positive vibe" so he wants to stay there.
The local paper notes in an article that McMahon will not be returning to the club next year, which is probably not a surprise since from what I've read all the Ljungskile fans seems to agree on that he struggled at this level. The article also says that they are negotiating contract extentions with several of their players and since nothing has been mentioned either way about Paul Tracy it would be reasonable to assume that he is one of them. And like I reported earlier they have already, and very quickly, signed a new contract with the third american Aaron Nichols.
An article in the local paper reveals that Paul Tracy will not be returning to Ljungskile next year. The manager says that they were interested in keeping him but that Tracy unfortunaly suffers from homesickness so they agreed to part ways. I guess this mean that this will be the "Aaron Nichols at Ljungskile"-thread from now on since he's the only one out of the three that will remain with the club for another two years.
Time to give an update on the two Ljungskile americans. Their manager said in an article today in the local paper that Nichols will be looking for a new club even though he has one year left on his contract. The reason being that Ljungskile have signed other players since he joined them who they prioritize. He has almost exclusively been a substitute for them so far in his 1.5 years there. Things also seem to be up in the air when it comes to Horwath staying for another year, seems like it could go either way there. Horwath also appear to be currently trialing in Norway, I don't know what club.
Nichols is mentioned on the Ljungskile website as one of the players who have now officially left the club this offseason. I haven't seen any further info on where he's left for though.