True dat, but in all honesty, he took a unGodly amount of grief on these boards based on his first few appearances for the team in 03' and 04'. In 05' I thought he actually did quite well and didn't do any worse than any other defender on this team before he got injured. He actually made the run and the cross to Boswell for the game winning goal in the 4-3 win over Chicago in which we were down 2-0 in that game. But all people seem to want to remember is his petualant attitude towards his loan move to Richmond and his rookie mistakes early in his career. The bottom line is he was a much better player in 05' but people seem to want to ignore that for whatever reason. At the end of the day United isn't really missing much. The kept him on a Dev salary for three seasons and didn't see the justification of paying him a Senior roster salary, not unlike Jay Needham. Best of luck to you David.
Well you're right that he was better in '05 than he was in '03, but he still wasn't good enough despite the improvement. I just think we expected a little bit more of a guy who seemed to be such a good college player and had the size and speed to be a force on the backline. I also think he was a victim of the fact that for the bulk of his time here we played a 3-5-2 and I really think he was more suited to a 4-4-2.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! I really hoped things would work out for him in DC.... oh well.. Best of luck Stokes... The Army will march on... I never got my refund for my Stokes' Army T-Shirt.... (gives beltwayrob the evil eye)
Sad really. Just goes to show you can have all the physical gifts in the world, but need to have something more to truly make it.
A nice guy off the field who didn't have the hunger on the field Stokes and Needham and Boswell all started off at the bottom of the rung with only college credentials to their name - Stokes never rose above that rung either with the starters or with Reserves - Boswell obviously did - And so DC United is probably justified in regarding Needham (or any other college talent) as worth only a DEV slot and pay - At first - Who can say Needham will blossom in his playing time in Puerto Rico and come out better than Stokes? -
You heard it here first folks, David Stokes will be with the Carolina Railhawks the new USL expansion team in Raleigh/Cary NC within' two weeks. I know that some talks regarding him and the team had already started last week... My information comes from a Railhawk player I know....
According to the "all-knowing" Wikipedia a Railhawk is a way to win 2 lifetime season tickets. "The RailHawk is a fictitious bird of prey that combines the speed and power of the locomotive with the aggressive and fierce nature of a hawk. Cary originally grew out from a depot on the New Bern, NC - Hillsborough, NC rail line and the CSX and Amtrak lines run directly across from the team's grounds. Hawks are indigenous to the area. The name "RailHawks" was chosen as part of a name-the-team contest which was won by W. Jarrett Campbell, a soccer blogger and Cary resident. Campbell received two lifetime season tickets as his prize." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_Railhawks
Chris Carrieri, seems like only yesterday he was a starter in the league. Connoly Edozion(check spelling) name also sounds familiar.(Maybe the Revs)