Interesting. I'm always a little skeptical about signing young defenders for my club, but Onstad has presumably given Hainault a good review. Here are some links relating to André Hainault (I assume that's who Glenn's talking about): His official bio/stats page at the Canadian soccer fed BS discussion from the Canada forum in 2007 Here's some info on José Perlaza: Stats from Soccernet Official (fairly useless) bio page at Olmedo's site
Hmmmm. Hainault played a fair bit for FK SIAD Most before they were relegated to the second division. Now he's on loan at Sparta Prague but can't seem to get a game which makes some sense seeing as how they are one of (maybe the only) big teams in the Czech Republic. It looks like Perlaza has gotten a sniff at the national team level. He made the trip to Germany on 06 but it doesn't look like he got a game. It's no big mystery how Hainault came up on Houston's radar but my question is what his potential role would be should he join the team? I can't imagine that he would be a Boswell replacement should he move to Europe (or at least I hope not). My guess is that he's a replacement for Ianni. Perlaza seems like a person better suited to replace Boswell if it comes to it. I don't know much about it him but if you're getting a sniff for the Ecuadorean national team and you are 28, you aren't coming to MLS for $30,000 a season and a backup position. My guess is if he comes, it would be for a more substantial role and salary. My question is, how did they "discover" this guy? Is this a DVD/youtube compilation ala Caraccio?
Hainault has been with FK Banik Most (change of name) since the beginning of the 08/09 season. He was on loan to Sparta Prague for a short spell last year, but things didn't really work out.
I keep up with Futbol from Ecuador and Peralsa has been has been linked to several clubs in Europe but nothing solid. I think he will be a good Defender for MLS, I wouldn't mind seeing him on the Redbull roster
Sup ya'll. I decided to break down the Discovery Option players, and I found a couple videos on 'em. Check it out, yo: http://www.dynamoplanet.com/profiles/blogs/looking-at-the-two-big
I really liked the Ecuadorian. He does look like a beast in those videos. Thanks for posting them. Of course -- from that we don't know what his lowlites look like. One that that would kinda concern me about a non-english speaking defender is communication and chemistry. It doesn't worry me for forwards, since they tend to communicate with their eyes and runs to each other. But defenders is a different deal. Players must be able to communicate and act as a unit, and bond. Anything that seperates the defenders apart is worrisome. Is that a justifiable concern? Otherwise, he looks like a Dom Kinnear type of central back. Big, strong, intimidating, good in the air.
Why the he** did you cut this Brooks? Well I'm kinda changing course slightly - to comment on communication. That is why I will miss not having reserves games. They were great because you could hear everything - all of the communication. During the first team games you can't hear anything just those noisy EB and TA people. In the reserves games you could hear things like "Get Up Pu**y" Bloody wonderful!!