Buried in Wash Post pregrame article about the Red Bulls game: With the college soccer season launching (women kick off today, men next Friday), MLS teams will keep a close eye on their homegrown prospects. For United, that means Eryk Williamson, a sophomore attacker at the University of Maryland. Barring major injury, an alarming drop in form or considerable overseas offers, United hopes to sign him to a homegrown contract after this college season, the Insider has learned. (To maintain NCAA eligibility, he won’t sign a pro deal until he’s sure of leaving school.) Williamson, 19, is a U.S. under-20 national team starter from Alexandria, Va. Last fall at Maryland, he started in all but two of his 23 appearances and posted six goals and five assists. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...r-stops-and-starts-d-c-united-aims-for-a-run/
There's definitely conflicting info about him. Everything else I've read said he wants to go to Europe if he can get a contract. I tweeted with Goff to see if interest was mutual or just from DCU's side. He said it was, but wasn't specific in any way about it, so who knows if he really knows.
Part 2 of Nolan Sheldon Q&A: http://www.soccerwire.com/news/club...lan-sheldon-talks-fees-residency-da-and-more/
I'm guessing he wants to see what kind of interest he gets from Europe. Not sure he has any Euro connection that would make getting a permit any easier. I hope for his sake he finds a way to get over there.
Here's an interesting tale from DC United's Academy. (This is cross-posted from the US U18 Program thread in the USA Youth National Teams Forum.) http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/the-u-s-u18-program-2016-thread.2027869/page-3#post-34608349 And here's a link to an article by Charles Boehm. The pertinent info is 15 paragraphs down, in the article: http://ussoccerplayers.com/2016/09/...us-player-development.html?platform=hootsuite Damn, United! SMDH!
I read it, disappointing but the stadium trumps all. Well be so far behind when the stadium is ready, it will start to be funny.
It will be interesting to see who DC offers Homegrown contracts to this offseason. There are a lot of college prospects (Harkes, Dainkeh, Williamson, Neidermeier, Foss, and Albrecht) that could be legit professionals, and I could see a few of them replacing some of our less desirable backups/bench depth (Aguilar, Mishu, Kamara, and Saborio). I've seen questions about our ties to them, but all of them have multiple years with our academy as well as repeated training stints with our senior squad.
DC academy players were heavily featured in today's Michigan-Maryland game. Eckenrode (Michigan) and Reeves (Maryland) both started and had goals, while Dainkeh, Williamson, Neidermeier, Albrecht, and Pines all started for Maryland.
#DCU hire Ryan Martin as new @DCUyouth Academy Director.Welcome, @rpmartin10! Read: https://t.co/RUUFduYVRR— D.C. United (@dcunited) January 6, 2017 Welcome to the #DCU Academy’s new boss: @rpmartin10! https://t.co/tC3PQoz6e2— The District Press (@DistrictPressDC) January 6, 2017
Looks like an excellent college coach who wanted to get in the door of a pro team. At the college level I would assume there's a lot of teaching, and thats whats also needed in the Academy.
College coach and Harkes' assistant at FC Cincy. I'd say there is next to no development in college. For starters they have so little time with them due to NCAA rules. He has no real pro experience and no youth development experience at all it seems. Compare to when we had Sonny Silooy who played and coached for the club with historically, greatest youth development organization in the world. Don't see this as a intent to reestablish the academy in any serious way.
I'm very impressed with that Q&A with Ryan Martin. Sounds like a fantastic hire for United. Hopefully his soccer IQ will translate to the first team as well.
http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/the9...r-paradox-and-how-the-club-is-getting-better/ interesting look at our and MLS academies in general and their use/non-use, etc.
I'll put this story here - for now - http://www.si.com/planet-futbol/2017/02/28/mls-increases-roster-size-emphasis-homegrown-players How does this effect our own roster?
You're not the only one. I've seen a couple of tweets from soccer journalists in recent weeks wondering why he wasn't signed.
They offered a contract, I thought. I should look that up. Maybe he wants to concentrate on the WC, a good showing could make his price go up. I still think there's a decent chance they sign him this summer.
I remember hearing that too now that you say that. I also remember Cirovski saying he thought he needed another year at UMD - and possibly someone else saying the contract offer was low enough that he might want to wait to increase his price for the next window/season. Glad to hear he's doing well.
Yes, it was Goff's Soccer Insider from Jan. 17. It said he was advised to stay in school to increase his value, but if he shows at the WC, we can forget all that.