From Jeff Lemieux' twitter account: Linck is young - played college ball in the states before trying his hand in an apparently failed attempt in Romania. Stolica is 31, good sized, not the greatest goal scoring record, but not awful either. Gokce is young (20), came up through the Besiktas youth sides. Played 5 games with Turkey as a U-16.
As I was looking up the Serbian, I found an article from when he scored a goal in a cup final recently. Unfortunately his team didn't win, prompting some pretty familiar comments to the article, including this one (translation by Google): Sound familiar? Well, not the "Gore not be at the stadium" part, but the rest...
Stolica is playing in the Montenegrin first div for FK Boducnost Emir Gokce last played for Istanbul kartal Roberto Linck "Betu" played for CSM Ramnicu Valcea and played for the Chicago Storm last year
They all seem a step up from the trialists of recent weeks. The 20 year old Turk sounds particularly promising, though given our record of youth...
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OpdiGxaPWg"]YouTube- Ilija Stolica - Goals from Belgium part 1[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCqmTPoYbNA"]YouTube- Ilija Stolica - Goals from Belgium part 2[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qEDCtfBNQw"]YouTube- betu1988[/ame]
I follow my heart. Two things happened at the Chicago game that made me finally face how bad things are. First, I felt obligated to go to the game because I have season tickets and have already paid for the tickets. If I weren't a STH, I'd be watching games on TV - maybe. Second, I knew that if the Revs scored, I wouldn't have lept up to celebrate because it clearly would have been a fluke goal. I have nothing but respect for the players. Sadly, for most of them, they are just out of their league. If one of my youth teams got stuck in a division that was way above their level, I wouldn't be upset with them. I'd be upset with everyone who made that situation happen.
Contrast with this: http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_ives/2010/07/tfc-adds-former-spanish-international.html Who thinks these guys can help us? Look at what Toronto signed. Why are we always trying to find bargains? These clowns cant help us... we need real players
Seriously, how many of you guys have ever heard of these people? How many of you have heard of ANY of the Revs' trialists for the past 5 years? Who was the last major international that the Revs signed? My my count that was Walter Zenga (when he was old) and that was in the last century. It's long been apparent that management will NOT provide enough resources for the Revs to compete on the international soccer market, EVEN at the reduced level that MLS has to operate under. This is unacceptable.
Sign the Serb, Perovic will finally have someone who can score to pass it to, it lets him play his natural position plus who knows maybe the two of them might become an attacking tandem like Donovan and Buddle!!!
do they? they all seem like the same level talent to me. Guys that are down and out and looking for a team. The 20 year would be ok if this team were in first or second place but a team floundering in dispare, that lacks confidence, skill, cohesiveness and the ability to score should not be bring in 20 year olds in hopes that they can lift this team
The Belgian goals highlight reel looked pretty good, although I had to laugh at one he scored where he was wide open in the 6-yard box, right between 2 defenders. I could have scored on that one, but with the way things are going for us, our guy would have missed it! The thing is, no one we are ever going to sign is going to be anyone that any of us have heard of, unless by some fluke you've been following one of the second-tier leagues like that. Not to say that there aren't good players in Belgium, but all it means is that the Revs will have to work harder to find guys who are the real deal in leagues like that. Turn up your noses if you want, but a good player for a club like Mons or Standard or Club Brugge (and certainly Anderlecht) probably makes about $500,000. If you want to find guys playing for La Louviere (one of the victims in the highlight reel) you might be able to get a bargain. But there is usually a reason if he comes cheap. A guy like Petrovic is OK, and given the reality of the situation, we'd do well if we got more guys at that level for our signings. Diego Forlan ain't walking through that door any time soon, folks!
Perfesser, serious question. How many international trialists/signings in MLS have most fans heard of before they come? Blanco, Beckham, Ljungberg and Denilson come to my mind immediately over the past three or four years. How many of us had heard much about Angel or Schelotto before they came to MLS? To answer your question, the only addition/trialists I had heard of were Jankauskas (because I work with a few Lithuanians) and Fritzson because he'd been in a couple of Concacaf quali's that I'd seen. Tom, didn't see your post before posting (so I guess I just reiterated your good point), and I think you're exactly right. An MLS team with 7 or 8 mid-level "stars" is better than one with a couple of these and a superstar. Better to spend $120 - 200 K on 8 guys than 1/2 Million on two. The other downside of a DP or high-cap player is the TNT phenomenon -- you can be stuck with 20 or 25% of your cap on an injured player.
Yes, actually, you said it better than I did. Spend between $120k and $250k on 8 of your 11 starters. If they average $165k, that's still only $620,000 of your cap, with plenty of room for decent, competent, rank-and-file role/bench players and spot starters you can actually use in various game situations. Even if they use the "DP" designation to pay down one guy's high salary, that would work as long as there are other solid parts to the puzzle. Come to think of it, didn't we have a team like this a few years ago, with 7-8 really solid guys who were in the top-third of the league at their positions? That is where all this frustration is coming from. We used to be good, very good. But the decision-makers let us stagnate and never made any moves to replace these guys as they left one-by-one. After one guy left, we could still complete, two, OK, maybe a bit above average, but by now, when all you are left with is Shalrie Joseph and a bunch of borderline players, you can't fool anyone. Sure, we could be a championship contender if everyone was healthy. And the check really is in the mail. I promise. This time for real. Oh. Maybe the mailman lost it. Yeah, that's it. You know how those post office guys are. Whaddayagonnado? I really DID mail it, no lie!