Ashdod GM: Shriki deserves to progress Idan Shriki will join the Kansas City Wizards on trial starting June 4th. This past weekend league play ended in Israel. A short profile of Shriki: Idan Shriki Born: 30.11.1981 Nationality: Israel Stats: 2006-07 33 games, 11 goals, 3 assists (32 starts) 2005-06 31 games, 6 goals, 3 assists (14 starts) 2004-05 13 games, 2 goals, 1 assist (5 starts) 2003-04 11 games, 1 goal, 0 assists (3 starts) =My take= Idan Shriki had a breakout year along with team mate, Yaniv Azran. The F.C. Ashdod strikeforce of Holtzman, Azran and Shriki accounted for 77% of the teams goals. Shriki was often said to be national team calibre but has not received a call up yet. The agent bringing him to the US is the same agent that brought Dedi Ben Dayan over. Shriki could definently play in MLS, but I don't know what kind of player Kansas City is looking for.
This is fantastic news. Idan can be a good fit up top with Sealy while Eddie is off winning the Gold Cup and could inject some flair into the offense. If I could read Hebrew I'd have more say, but to my ignorant eyes all I see is lines with lines on top of them.
interesting, so he's a forward? Not sure if he'd be coming in and challenging for a starters spot, or maybe Onalfo realizes that after Eddie and Scott there's too big a drop off and we need someone else.
looking at the original posters comments in the Israel forum, it seems that he's thought of highly, could be a very nice move if we sign him it sounds like.
looking at the roster and ages, could we technically drop a player to the Dev roster like Dallas did?
If MLS had something like the NFL's injured reserve list, we wouldn't have to ask that question. Just hoping this kid is as good as advertised...
he looks like he is on his way to Birmingham http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/27052007/4/hasselbaink-eyes-blues-talks.html http://www.teamtalk.com/football/story/0,16368,1765_2136897,00.html
I don't really speak Hebrew, but I know the alphabet and a few words here and there. For example, the thing next to the numeral 1 at the top of the page says: "SPORT" This: קנזס סיטי וויזארדס means Kansas City Wizards (it's a phonetic transliteration rather than a translation, and remember, it's right-to-left). There's no "w" sound in Hebrew, so proper nouns in English that contain a "w" are represented by putting two "vuh"s together: "וו" in the example above. For the record, there's no "chuh" sound, either, which is represented by a "ts". So, "Wichita" becomes vuh-veets-ee-tah. There is a guttural "ch" sound, e.g. "l'chaim" or "Chanukah", but the "ts" is used as the substitute for "chuh" instead. Why? You've got me. Ask the good linguists of the mid-to-late 19th century that brought us Modern Hebrew. Now, the more enterprising and inquistive among you may have opened Wikipedia, found the Hebrew alphabet, and tried to figure this out for yourselves. Good luck. One thing you may notice is that there are no vowels in the letters you see. See, Hebrew is written without the vowels...you're just supposed to figure it out for yourself using the context. Ths mks 't dffclt t' r'd 'f y' dnt spk th lngg'. Further, there are "silent letters" that just act as placeholders for the vowels...which, again, aren't actually written. Oh, inscriptions for the vowels exist, and they include them when you're learning Hebrew, or in some forms of written Hebrew specifically for prayer purposes (though not others...a prayer book usually has vowels, Torahs do not, and commentaries split the difference), but almost never in everyday writing. That's all the help I have. Let's see if the guy can ball, assuming this report is accurate.
Hey, I am trained in the dialects and regional linguals of Pig Latin. Unfortunately however there's not much of an audience for it these days as most of my students have now reached their teens leaving Uncle only to use it on the cat. She's seems vaugely interested though. Now back on Topic: I'm all for Idan if he's cut out for a 3rd or 4th forward. I think we all say that Yura's not there yet but don't doubt the talent and build for MLS. Pore in my opinion has peaked and is a bit slight for the pro game with out a feature ability of really good speed or setup passing like say Wolff was/sometimes did/could do/when he wasn't wussing out etc.. I don't really notice Pore on the field when he's playing, at this point he's just a filler option that won't hurt you but doesn't really help either.
What exactly does "on trial" mean? Does it have anything to do with "we'll wait to see how long it takes for him to get a visa" or "we have to wait for the transfer window" ala Vandenbergh last year? With Eddie leaving on Sunday and Sealy not up to fitness yet, we could use another forward NOW!
here's another question, who is gonna make it out to practice next week to see this guy on trial? I have class Monday through Wednesday and would be willing to make it out Thursday.
On trial means he practices with the team without signing for them. That way the coaching staff can assess his talent and decide if they want to sign him or not. If he's good enough he gets offered a contract if he's not we don't offer him a contract and he goes somewhere else. Otherwise all you have to go off is video to make a decision if you want to add him to the squad or not.
Come on now which is more important getting the scoop for all of us loyal KC fans or providing for family? Where are the priorities?
This is interesting news. Does anybody know how he got connected with KC in the first place? I'm guessing we don't have a large scouting presence in Israel.
I honestly don't know, but it is the second player in Israel we've been connected with, remember De Bruno? So maybe we have more scouting of that area then we thought.