Gbandi in Glenn Davis column

That's a great article. My guess is that Broome starts out as the LB and then Gbandi starts getting time as the season goes on. Before it's all said and done one of them will have to be moved somewhere else IMHO. Broome really came on last year, enough IMHO to deserve a call-up to the national team.

Gbandi missed out on a lot by choosing to go back and play his senior year in colllege.

 

I was under the impression that Gbandi had pretty much recovered from his knee surgery. But according to the article:

"Gbandi considers his knee about 80 to 90 percent and is running full speed under the cautious eye of his doctors. Cutting and moving, I am still tentative."

Hmmm. Seems like those penciling in Gbandi as a starting defender come April may be jumping the gun.

Hopefully, with spring training, Gbandi will get back to 100% or close to it. But I'm getting concerned he may never fully recover from the knee injury.

 

I don't think he's even at the 1 year anniversary yet so I wouldn't count him out totally. I don't think he's going to be ready to jump into a starting 11 in today's MLS though either.

 

I though he was 100%, but I guess not. I need to change my starting 11, Broome's probably going to start at LB.

 

after an injury like that, he won't think he's 100 percent until he takes a knock and nothing happens. It's natural that until he can forget about it, he won't think he's 100 percent.

I agree that he should have skipped senior year in NCAA. He was too nice to his coach. I'm sure his coach coughed up 20,000 this year of his own salary to make up for lost income for Chris. NOT.

 

ROTFLMAO. He essentially gave up 150K offers in Europe to go back to UCOnn.

 

Which he did to please his parents iirc. That's the kind of character and loyalty that bodes well in a player. I hope he gets to see some significant minutes this season, but I'm one of those quite confident that we will see Broome starting at left back on opening day.

 

Actually he blew it in late October of 2001. While he has worked hard on the knee while in Dallas, reports were that he was "less than vigorous" in his rehab in his last few months in college which set him back.

I get nothing but glowing reports about him from team officals and everyone is excited to see him actually play in the coming months...

But yes, I think it would be smart to slowly introduce him... The fact that he is still claiming to be tentitive on the knee at this late date means he is awhile away from really being his former self.

 

Yeah but didn't he play through it with a brace or something? I thought he finished out the season with UCONN.

 

I talked to Glenn and he now has a Column every Sunday in the Chronicle. IT will be good tea hear from the Burn TV man about soccer stuff.

 

Yes, apparently so.



Per one newspaper article I came across, Gbandi had his knee surgery in Dec 2001.

 

If he is fully fit to begin training with the team in the preseason, I think he will be fully match fit by opening day.

I really want to see what this guy can do!!!

 

I'm predicting him as a central defender/libero type. Dmid in the Deering vain would be a stretch IMHO, at least now. As a pure destroyer dmid I believe that he's capable.

 

That is what I was thinking, given he was a defender in college, and not a midfielder transformed into a defender.

Isn't that the type of player Vaca needs to be paired up with in midfield?

 

We'll have to see how he passes the ball first I guess.