Headbangers Bawl – Some of MLS’s Best Talent Sidelined by Concussion
Posted on April 21, 2012 6:39 am
Ladies and gentleman, I give you Taylor Twellman. He scored 101 goals in 174 league appearances, seven goals in eleven Open Cup appearances, and an overall total of 109 goals in 190 games in all competitions.
To put it in the English terms that so many fans of the Beautiful Game who reside in the United States, yet fail to be aware of this brilliant individual, might be familiar with, he were a right brilliant lad, and a pity we did not see more of him.
Those familiar with his biography know that he is the grandson of a major league baseball player who died shortly after he was excluded from the 2006 World Cup roster. I recall this personal disappointment because I mentioned it to my partner, who is not a sports fan but understands personal stories. At the time, Wynalda thought he should have been included over Ching, whom he called “McBride with a tan.” I thought he should have been included over Josh Wolff. Both guys are still playing. Both guys will never accomplish what Twellman has.
He was sidelined barely past 30 and retired thereafter. Why?
It appears, these days, we worry about Post Concussion Syndrome.
Some like his work as an analyst, some think he shows promise, some, most of whom (I suspect) are too young and stupid to care who he is, dismiss him altogether.
But all who care about human beings and their health should take note of the caution MLS now exercises with brain injuries.
Twellman is not the only MLS stalwart to be so sidelined. So far this season, we have seen very little of Juan Pablo Angel, who, like Twellman, is one of the great goal scorers in league history, who, whether struggling with the Galaxy or rampaging with Chivas has provided an interesting comparison with Red Bulls, so far, successful campaign of goals-on-the-cheap, after eschewing a re-signing of the all-time Metro-Bulls scoring leader, with, first, Rodgers, then Cooper. Why has he sat? Concussion worries. The resurgence of Cooper might help to cement justification of jettisoning JPA.
Meanwhile, Seattle back up keeper and Puerto Rico first choice keeper Terry Boss has retired due to brain injury concerns. Pablo Mastroeni (for anybody who wishes to be less stupid and ignorant than Marcelo Balboa and the roughly nineteen thousand people who have sat next to him or have otherwise participated in the mispronunciation games, it is phoneticically pronounced mah-strow-eh-ni. You do not get any sort of culture cred by pronouncing Pablo’s surname the same as the actor surnamed “Mastroianni.” In fact, every time you do so, you demonstrate ignorance and justify Eurosnobbery, so, everyone, altogether, the man’s name is Mah (like a farm boy calling his mother) – Stro (like an ESPN anchor referring to an individual member of the Houston Astros) – Eh (as in short e, no “oy” “oi,” noranysuchagoddamnthingforpetessakehavingnotbeensuggestedbyanylettersbeforeyou) – Knee (as in, “We are the Knights who say, ‘Nee.’”)
For any brilliant person retired or sidelined from this noble game due to avoiding compounding brain injury or attempting to continue in spite of brain injury, we recognize you obtained those brain injuries because you were not shy in challenging for the ball, either to prevent a goal, as in the case of Terry Boss, or in trying to score a goal, as in the case of Taylor Twellman or Juan Pablo Angel, or, in the case of Pablo Please-Don’t-Call-him-”Mastroianni”-because-he-has-earned-the-right-to-be-called-Mastroeni-by-the-cheap-ass-people-wh0-employ-him Mastroeni, in trying to win possession for your team, we wish you the best of success, both in soccer and in your cognitive future generally. As much as we love the brilliant efforts of JPA and Pablo (Notmahstroplusthatgreekguywithbadhairandmusicwhosleptwiththebleachblondfromtv) Mastroeni, we want them to have full lives, which would include not suffering terrible consequences to prolong the efforts those of us seeing good soccer performed between Sea and Shining Sea might prefer they continue against their best interests.
Came for Ross Paule. Leaving disappointed. With a headache.
My list is not intended to be comprehensive. Please add information regarding other casualties. Like this: http://theconcussionblog.com/tag/ross-paule/
Great reading. Thank you for sharing this
“Those familiar with his biography know that he is the grandson of a major league baseball player who died shortly after he was excluded from the 2006 World Cup roster.”
Why was a major league baseball player going to play in the 2006 world cup?
It could be read that way, but I am not sure I am grammatically incorrect. I may be merely not clear enough. The antecedent to the second “he” is the first “he.” The antecedent to the first he is Twellman. But that is an amusing nit to pick.
it’s called the misplaced modifier error, and is indeed a grammatical mistake.
For example, the Police told me my pet dog was caught chasing people on bikes. I told the cops that it can’t be my dog, it can’t even ride a bike.
“On bikes” modifies “people.” It isn’t misplaced, although “people who were riding bikes” would be clearer. To the extent a pronoun can be considered a modifier, my mistake might be described as a misplaced modifier, similar to saying “Clark spoke harshly to the ball boy after he received the ball.”
Great (and important) article.
Those familiar with Twellman’s biography may also remember that his father played in the NASL (mainly with the Kicks). The only other American father/son tandem like this that I know about is the Wingerts (I expect there may be others; there are of course numerous father-in-NASL, son-in-MLS tandems where the father was born outside of USA/Canada: the Coopers, the Eskandarians, the DeLeons, the O’Briens, …). This is kind of off-topic, I know, but thought it might be of interest to some readers.
Yes, that’s one serious gene pool.
Twellman is one of my favorite players, and I’m glad he’s making a career out of broadcasting. He deserves to remain with the game, and helping move it forward, just like he did when he played.
And, yeah, I can’t stand it when they mispronounce Pablo Mastroeni’s name, too. I’m usually not bothered by those things, but, it’s so obvious how to say his name I always think the same things you mentioned when I hear it. Kinda like when I hear Chris Sullivan pronounce every single European and Brazilian name using a Spanish pronunciation guide…especially the slavic names, wtf.
No mention of Eddie Johnson? The news was out 12 hours before this was posted.
He might not be on the level of Twellman but you cannot deny the same devastating effects.
Story here. http://www.oregonlive.com/timbers/index.ssf/2012/04/portland_timbers_eddie_johnson_2.html
Pity for Eddie, and, as a Cascadia fan, I was looking forward to the amusing confusion when the two Eddies were on the field at the same time.
“…it is phoneticically pronounced mah-strow-eh-ni.”
ni is not pronounced “nee”
Did Marcelo Balboa write this?
Aleko Eskandarian?
He was mentioned in one of my links, but he, like Twellman, is the son of an NASL player, Andranik Esandarian, who played for some minor flash in the pan that played at Giants Stadium before the MetroBulls did. Esky, like Twellman, was forced to retire early. Read this article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/21/AR2010092103758_2.html?sid=ST2010092106085
The still young man suffers after effects. He is in contact with Twellman and with Josh Gros and Bryan Namoff, who also had to retire early due to concussions.
That thing that Calen Carr wears and Esky wore prior to retirement and that some ruggers wear – if it helps at all, perhaps it should become standard gear.
But some things will just happen. While in Korea, my very good Korean friends and I founded an amateur club. While playing for this club, I collided with one of my very good friends. I needed stitches to my head, and he needed dental surgery and one tooth replaced. We were on the same team. We are good friends. We were looking at the ball and not each other. Shit happens. Would wearing that thing that looks like 1915 pointy ball minimize the shit? It needs to be studied.
Learning proper heading technique would also help. First know where your opponent is by taking a quick glance around. Next angle your shoulders towards your opponent, and raise your elbows out (no higher than your shoulders)for added protection. Jump up into the ball when possible instead of jumping into an opponent which should be called a foul anyway.
Referees could help by calling jumping into an opponent more often and carding players raising their elbows above their shoulders when heading. Referees need to hold goalkeepers responsible for their punches. Its been a common practice to allow keepers to intentionally punch players in the head if they are anywhere near the ball. Keepers have more control than that, and too often are just looking to get a cheap shot at an opponent. Ask Twellman about this one.
I’d rep this 100 times, not only for the overall point, but also for the take down of the idiot announcers who can’t pronounce Mastroeni. Its really bad when I realize that the non-Colorado announcers have a better success rate than Balboa and whatever talking puppet they got to sit next to him in a given season (that does not include BigSoccer poster Marc Stout who does pronounce his name correctly on the rare occasion he gets to do the Rapids pbp).
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