Phew...almost forgot the (R) there. Lee scored a hat trick in a 5-1 friendly win while on trial. Hey, coming in a week where one of our "top" strikers was comically subbed in and subbed out in the same match, it's nice to at least report a YA finding some net. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/soccer/12/18/nguyen.vietnam/index.html
There have been persistent rumors that Lee is going to join HAGL from Randers. Goal.com today: http://www.goal.com/en/news/1276/so...nternational-lee-nguyen-close-to-vietnam-move As a Vietnamese American, I have mixed feelings about this potential move. He will get plenty of playing time and be a star in Vietnam. But the league is cupcake, as evidenced by his hat trick. Will he really develop that much there? I also don't know what the immigration situation was for him and his family coming to the US, but I wouldn't play in that country simply for political reasons if I were him.
I would like to think he will make a move to the J-League in a year or two. I would say the J-League is on par with MLS, just more money.
Make sure to put an R in the thread title here guys... please no giving away the score.. ya know... I record Joan Anh Gia Lai live games all the time and watch them when I get home....
This sort of raises a question for me: do we have to have a thread for every American playing a game somewhere? It seems that the answer would be "no," as there are plenty of guys toiling away in the lower divisions in Europe, and they don't get a gameday thread, and really, why should they? Not to be mean, as it's cool that they are being paid to play, but are there really that many people interested in reading about it? I doubt it, and I think Nguyen has now decided to put himself in that category. That sounds negative, but ultimately I track guys playing in Europe with an eye on their professional progress because I want to know if they will ever contribute to the national team or improve the rep of the American player abroad, and a move like this pretty much guarantees that nothing is going to develop on either of those fronts. Does anyone else feel that way? If this is what he wants to do, good for him and I wish him luck and happiness, but as a player, I just don't care about him or what happens in his career anymore.
i find this totally strange. nguyen was a great prospect, it seemed, but things have just gone from bad to worse for him. i have no idea, other than i read somewhere that he has family in vietnam, why he would trek out there to play. could he really not find another lower league team? could he really not come to mls? i can't imagine he's getting paid in vietnam either...so what gives? if he does do really, really well (would a hattrick a game be too much to ask?) maybe he can get some small exposure and move up. but this seems like an odd move either way.
i expect this to happen more, altho i hope not too much. guys who show great promise sometimes evaporate when the top level slaps them in the face, while others who didn't seem to be great prospects sometimes shine thru.
It has never been the case where EVERY "abroad" game involving an American has it's own thread. Do you plan to set the boundaries as to who can OR can't be talked about? What category is that? The category that you've arbitrarily created because a player no longer figures in your national side picture? With vision like that, I wouldn't want you as my center mid. More than sounding negative it sounds very small-minded. All players great and small...
Everyone is free to start and read whatever thread they want about an American Abroad, as defined by the rules of the forum. It's your choice if you don't want to read about Lee Nguyen. No one really started threads for him when he was at Randers either.
Jesus, this just proves how crappy this league is. If i were him as i said in another thread, go the latin america route, see if he can go to mexico where the play over there is completely his style.
Exactly. I understand that many have a tendency to think about a player's club career solely in relation to their national team prospects, but this forum isn't called "US national team players abroad". And with good reason; it would be a boring place if its scope were so limited.
I acknowledged myself that there never has been a thread for every player - that is exactly the point of the post. What are the criteria for having such a thread? People being interested in the player and what he is doing? Fine, if people are interested, they obviously have the right to open a thread and discuss, but how many are going to do it? What is there to discuss about his play in Vietnam? I never claimed that I am in any way, shape, or form in the position to decide whether or not his games are worthy of discussion, just that I don't personally find them to be so. If other people disagree, that's fine. You clearly don't have to be scoring hat tricks for a big European club on a weekly basis to worth discussing, but why are we not discussing guys who only ever see action for reserve squads in lower European divisions, because this league might be on that sort of level. I admit, I don't know jack about the Vietnamese league, but for a guy to go from a string of not particularly great performances for a middling Danish club, and most of those for their reserves, to scoring a hat trick in less than hour while still probably suffering the effects of jet lag would seem sort of indicative of a general lack of league quality. Again, I hope he is happy living and playing there if that proves to be the case, good for him. I'm just not going to go looking for the reports on his matches because what he is doing there ultimately has no effect on me as a fan of the sport.
I understand that and wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment, I am just curious as to how many people want to continue tracking him while he is playing there, especially if this turns out to be a long term move. I guess I will just watch for these threads and see how many people are viewing/posting.
Probably cos he's a USMNT player. If he disappears into obscurity in Vietnam then you'll probably only get the odd "where are they now?" thread afetr a while. Whatever the reason he's gone there I don't think he's decided that he's not good enoguh for the USMNT or even the MLS as some as suggested. After all he's played for the USMNT this year, it'd be very rash for him to decide he's never goign to get another cap so soon. The reasons are probably personal rather than professional, thoguh they're could be finanicial reasons also.
I'm guessing there might be a bit of interest in his first few games, then almost none shortly thereafter. Kind of how we rarely have threads for Califf, Jemal Johnson, etc.
This move for Lee is all personal. If I had the chance to do what he does, I will go back to Vietnam in a heart beat. The perks are extremely high. 1 - Eat, sleep for FREE in the club owner's many hotels/resorts 2 - F*CK for FREE with anyone he wants (Viet girls are very cute if you ask me). This alone is worth the trip. 3 - Make a bunch of money and live like a king in a country where the average household make several hundred bucks a month. I wouldn't mind seeing him in the V-league for a few years, but at the age of 20? I would expect this move to come towards the end of his career, not at this moment.
I agree.. for those of you who do not know about Asian soccer, I will just let you know that Vietnamese teams are amongst the whipping boys of the Asian Champions League... in the last series group stages, against clubs from Japan, China, Thailand, Australia and South Korea - Vietnams two represenatives were thrashed... Binh Duong finished 0-1-5 (that's w-d-l fyi) and a -13 goal average, Nam Dinh had the same record with a -23 goal difference, including a 9-1 to the mighty Kung Thai Bank who were 2nd bottom of the group. Believe me, it's a weak league.. not only by continental but also by global standards... but hey at least we've got a player getting playing time somewhere...
Several hundred bucks a month? Maybe for some people in Saigon or Hanoi. Unfortunately, the average Vietnamese makes do with far less.
Sorry to be so late to the party on this one. Matabala, Gorky and Friedel'sAccent are correct. For the purposes of this forum, YA status is not determined by degree of competitiveness for, interest in, or commitment to playing for any version of the USNT. Nor has it been determined by posters' impressions of the league in which the yank is playing abroad. For as long as I can remember, and since well before I became a mod, the diagnostic features of a YA have been holding/eligible for a US passport and playing soccer outside the US. It's perfectly appropriate for this thread to be here; especially since Nguyen's move to Viet Nam has caused such curiosity. Edit: Also, please remember that this is a game-day thread and that more general discussions are for the regular YA forum. Thanks.
Speaking of "maybe it's just me," but I find this bigsoccer obsession with players' sex lives pathetic. Look, they're pro athletes. When they're overseas, they're the guys at the bar with the cute accent and exotic background. They can get hot tail anywhere. They can get hot tail in Algeria. Even Cleveland. You can't. That's why you care.
i agree u can get hot tails anywhere but he's not really a celebrity over here. In vietnam, he;ll be treated like King (if he's really tearing the league up) and chicks will come. It's always easier if ur the king.