United announced that Andrew Dykstra, who has made 17 MLS appearances and currently plays for the Charleston Battery, was brought into camp as well. http://www.blackandredunited.com/2012/1/22/2725054/alanzo-adlam-dc-united-trialist-jamaica
I have a question about this whole players trial thing. I saw on the website that there was one players trial right now and there is one in february. What is the difference between the two? Is one more of a combine and the other more of an actual trial?
the last one is typically an invite only trial. they bring in players they have seen and want to see again. It also mixes them in with current Battery players to see how they stack up so far the Battery have gone to the Seattle trials, and have plans for USL Combine and the trials in Ventura, CA. I imagine a few players from each of those will be invited in along with one or two players with Pro experience. The Dates of the last trial are right before the Battery Carolina Challenge Cup. typically a dozen or so players are then offered a short contract (a week or so) and will play during that tournament. Hope it helps. Mikey
don't forget about the trip to Jamaica, there should be a couple of players from down there, here in February too.
I'd have to look at my notes from last year but I want to say it was about 20-25 plus the Battery players that are in town and a I think there were three or four keepers. I'd say about 30-35. IIRC, there were three teams. Two teams would play a 20 minute session, then one team came off and the third team came on for 20 mins and and so on for a couple hours. Out of those 20-25, about 10-12 stuck around for the Carolina Challenge Cup. think five or six stuck with the Battery for the whole season but most went on to play somewhere in the USLPro (Luke Mullholland, George Davis IV had good years)
Seems like a pretty good process to get the players the team needs. What are the battery's current positional needs?
I would say just about everywhere. there always seems to be lot of turn over from year to year. the current roster only list nine players. three defenders four midfielders, a forward and a Goal Keeper. the keeper (Andrew Dykstra) is currently on trial with DC United and i know the Battery works with players if they can move up. Last year there were 23 players on the roster so you can see we still have alot of spots to fill. I expect their will be a couple more players from last season that have there contracts extended. Three or four more veteran players with professional experience. the rest will be from this process. That said I feel we need a proven striker and the Battery has always liked a strong defense.
Do a lot of players leave after season to other teams then? Sounds like they are really going to put in a lot of effort in finding players from the combine.
I think turn over is pretty high with most lower division clubs. It is especially hard to hold onto standout players. that said, I think this is pretty typical of the Battery each year. this is the first year they have gone out to Ventura if I am not mistaken but they have had a good relation with Seattle over the last couple years and have a couple former players coaching and inside the system in Jamaica. We've found a couple good players out the process so I guess it is working!
somehow I missed this. http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/02/07/schmid-pleased-work-put-sounders-arizona "Schmid went on to name 23-year-old midfielder Alex Caskey, a 2011 Seattle draft pick who spent that season with the Charleston Battery, as a player who benefited from a year at a lower level." looks like Caskey has been in Camp with the Sounders and has made it through the initial rounds of cuts.
There were a couple players that looked pretty good in my opinion. Of course I only saw the Scrimmage yesterday. and haven't seen the rest of the small asides or drill sessions. Ill not go into names just yet as the coach asked us not to put too much out just yet. Said it was a mix of guys getting other offers and not wanting to jinx things before they were done. the game I watched was divided into three periods, each one about 30 minutes long or so. The First two the were mostly the trialist the last one was mostly Battery players. There was a kid from Honduras that looked big and strong up top but seemed to not want to pass the ball too much and was offside a bit. That may be down to communication or he just wants to impress Im not sure but he held the ball well and and looks like he had something. in the middle, a former MLS player impressed on the wings. Got up and down quite a bit and had some speed. Another guy that looked very good was a kid who has played in Turkey. There was an guy with some USL-1 experience in the middle and a kid from Florida that seemed to do very well in the center of the field. Read the game well and distributed the ball nicely. In the Back there were two who he looked good. One on the left back who was very aware of the game and did well. the other was a center back who is very big and played along side of Colin Falvey in the last period. There were three kids from the SCU Battery academy team that REALLY did well. shame about some of the college eligibility rules as I would be happy with all of them on the team. The future is bright for those kids for sure. I will definatley be watching some of the academy teams during their games in conjunction with the Carolina Challenge Cup games. There is a preseason match against the College of Charleston on Tuesday and we will see who is still around then.
looks like we will be needing a new keeper Dykstra goes to DC http://aroundthehorns.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/dykstra-united-i-stand/
Here is a bit on Charlie Romero, they have not announced him being signed yet... http://uslpro.uslsoccer.com/home/595231.html