"NEWS: Earthquakes Sign Costa Rica National Team Forward Marcos Ureña" (SJEarthquakes.com - Friday, 1/27/17) GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
He was even born in San José (albeit the one in Costa Rica, not the one in California). GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
Dang, you beat me to it, though I was let it hang at "born in San José" then wait for someone to dispute it, then pounce! Alternative facts, baby!
"FEATURE: 5 Things to Know About Marcos Ureña" (SJEarthquakes.com - Friday, 1/27/17) GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
Looks like a solid, if uninspiring, addition. His goal scoring record at the club and int'l level certainly aren't overwhelming.
Urena 26 y.o (Career) - 136 apps, 15 goals, 10 assists, 9 yellow, 5629 mins = involved in a goal every 225 min #SJEarthquakes— Football Player Stat (@StatPlayer) January 27, 2017 Club form isnt all that impressive. But he has 10 goals in about 2650 national team minutes. But 2011 was his banner year there, hasnt been as productive since. He doesnt have much in the way of minutes at Bronby, but had good production in limited minutes at Midtjylland (5 goals in about 669 minutes). Had a very uneventful set of years in Russia (4 years, 900 minutes, no goals). Everything here looks like Urena is pretty uncertain value. We could be getting a steal of a guy who just never really adjusted to life in Russia/Denmark, who may be revitalized in a more culturally similar environment with much better weather. Or he could just be an inconsistent player who as a result always gets inconsistent minutes. Not a "slam dunk - will definitely help us" player but there is potential there. Could jsut kind of drift on through though as well.
Extrapolating those numbers in the tweet to a full season of starting minutes in MLS, he'd have about 8 goals and 4 assists. But as you say, he's been up and down. I did a similar analysis earlier and saw that he'd been productive at Midtjylland but kind of a black hole in Russia. At Bronby he is apparently behind like the league's #1 and #3 strikers, so he doesn't get many minutes.
I'll take 8 goals 4 assists (and above, obviously) from Urena, that' a decent start for a sub-DP player who is new to the league. Dawkins is a DP and he only had 5 goals 2 assists last season. Some people here love Lenhart and that level of production would be his second best MLS season (6 goals 2 assists with Columbus in 2010) by a fair margin and pretty comparable to his best (10 an 2 in 2012).
Yeah, looking at his overall Superligaen numbers (a league I would say is roughly equivilent to MLS) a 2400 minute season from him might look like 9 goals and 9 assists, which frankly would put me over the moon. The problem is thats a lot of extrapolating. At this point my feeling is kind of
From a post on the FB 'Quakes Discussion Page: Brøndby journalist about him [Ureña]: I have a different perspective on him. Football in Brøndby can be very black and white and Ureña hasn't met the expextations. But there can be several reasons for that. He was bought in the summer to compete with Pukki and Wilczek, but they both hit a gold mine of goals and are number 1 and 3 on the topscorer list in Denmark as we speak. Hard to kick them off the team. He then mostly was used as a substitute - hard to contribute with a lot of goals. As a player he is a hardworking striker. Very fast and aggressive in the presseing which is why the Brøndby coach wanted him in the first place. He has never been a great goalscorer in any of his clubs, so I think he will work the best with a goalgetter next to him, so he can run around og run deep etc. Besides that he is a great and very likeable person. Never complained about his situation in Brøndby. But he wants to play more 90 minutes games to keep his spot in the Costa Rica team. Understandable.
"...he is a hardworking striker. Very fast and aggressive...". Sound just like a Dom guy. No mention of skill. On a positive note, he is only 26, has good national team experience and played in some solid leagues.
I'm assuming he played for teams that create more opportunities for him than our league basement offense. 8 goals is probably a reach for him on the 2017 earthquakes with how few chances we generate. This guy is another middling player from a middling league that is hard to get excited about. It also seems like Dom is putting way too much expectation on him saying we expect him to come here and do awesome and score a bunch of goals because based on his career that is unlikely.
Judging by his picture, he looks like he might be the oldest 26 year old I've seen. Really hard living? Same people created his birth certificate as Freddy Adu?
I don't know about Costa Rica, but I have an Afghani friend who told me (un-asked) that all his countrymen look 10 years older than they are, and Americans look 10 years younger, because of the relative hardness of life. There may be something to this. I've often noticed that Americans in photos from the early 20th century look far older than their stated ages.
I'm cautiously optimistic. Nice to hear he has good pace and is a hard worker. He wouldn't be on the CR nats if he didn't have a high soccer IQ... Maybe he's a flank attacker in a 4-3-3...which morphs defensively into 4-2-3-1 Or better yet a 3-4-1-2 Wondo underneath Urena and hopefully the Dutch forward.
I read all the relatively positive comments on this thread and still all I can feel is a general sentiment of just 'meh'. So yeah, meh.
Having Marcos Ureña at his first training session with #Quakes74 makes us 😀. pic.twitter.com/Dqe1BRSF35— San Jose Earthquakes (@SJEarthquakes) January 27, 2017 GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
"Earthquakes sign Costa Rican star Marcos Urena" (San Jose Mercury News - Friday, 1/27/17) Jesse Fioranelli, right, speaks to the crowd after being introduced as the San Jose Earthquakes new general manager during a press conference at Avaya Stadium in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2017. At left is Dave Kaval, president of the San Jose Earthquakes. (Gary Reyes/Bay Area News Group) GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G