Official: Union's Eleven - Part II

The English press seems to make a lot up but from from the Daily Mail comes this about Sol Campbell:

 

I hope he doesn't have a reality check after our first game.

 

On the plus side, if he does we'd probably get enough allocation money out of MLS to sign pretty much anyone we wanted. As opposed to Notts County, who just got screwed.

 

I got a chance to see Temple's J.T. Noone last week, and did a write up on him.

http://www.examiner.com/x-7377-Phil...21-Temples-JT-Noone-impresses-in-loss-to-Navy

Noone could be a great late round pick for us.

 

I watched Noone play a few times for the Ocean City Barons a few times this summer, as far as I can tell he seems like he could become a pretty decent player.

 

agreed, good article. It's too bad the A-10 schools don't get the exposure of a Wake or BC. Noone's on pace to be a top D1 assist leader again with 5 in '09, he was like 2nd nationally last year from what I've read. I'm really interested to see where he'll fall in the draft.

 

I am still hoping for the polish connection now it is more possible b/c Hamburg doesn't see him in their future.

 

Looked like the Superdraft thread was closed, so I'll add this here:

Per the NSCAA website the Superdraft will be from 1:00-5:30 in the Ballroom of the Convention Center on 1/14/2010. Subject to change of course.

 

Some news for you guys... after the disaster in the playoffs the PR Islanders FC are going to be rebuilding for next year and a part of the reason is that many of our players are probably going to leave due to contract expirations.

A few of the players have mentioned to some of the fans that they already have offers from Europe and MLS.

Bill Gaudette are awesome keeper, is said to have offers from 2 MLS teams, 1 in Spain and 1 in Denmark.

Jonny Steele also has an offer from an MLS team.

For both cases we suspect the Union, in Steele's case it's because he wants to be closer to his son. (His other choice was DC United)

I would be happy for you guys (and gals) but this is pretty sucky news for me and the rest of the Islanders fans.

Also it's going to suck having to get their jerseys if they do end up with the Union... oh well I love the players, your team will still suck! hehe

 

Don't get me wrong, it's nice to get names for us to ramble about, but we might as well say everybody from the USL is on the board, right?
Just to start another rumor: I'll be looking for Mo Odour in a Union uniform since he's been playing in Harrisburg...

 

Well not really, these 2 players have confirmed to the fans directly of the interest from MLS teams... and Steele has said he wants to be closer to his son, so he wanted to play for the Union or DC United, these aren't rumors, these are facts (about them moving to MLS)... but I will admit that while they may want to go Philly it could be any team in the league. And both are good enough for MLS... Steele needs a bit of work but I'm sure Nowak could help him far more then Colin Clarke.

The rest of our players will probably stay within USL-1, except Fabrice Noel who should be going to France soon.

Bill Gaudette

Jonny Steele

 

I watched Steele play a ton of times for the Baltimore Blast, decent indoor player. But my favorite memory of him is receiving a huge suspension for getting into fight with a teammate in the locker room after a win.

 

#1 is Mo Odour...

 

#2 is Mo Odour...

 

If Dilly Duka decides to come to MLS should we select him up with our first pick or knowing Nowak will probably be running a 3-5-2 should we draft Ike Opera the strong defender of the class?

 

That would be nice. I also hope we get Corey Ashe from houston he has looked good for them in the Concacaf Champions League.

 

If you're going to get a Houston player, go for Talley Hall. He's the backup GK for Houston, but based on the USOC and CCL games I've seen him in he's better than most MLS starters.

 

but corey ashe has been called a mix of david beckham and gary coleman what's better than that?

 

I have similar concerns with Steele, seems like everytime I've seen him play on FSC he's always getting chippy and gets some really dumb fouls. I don't know if it's just knowing that the national cameras are on him but that can't continue at any level. I believe there was a match against Minn. or Cleveland this year where he was totally ineffective for the final 30min. as he just ran around looking to hit someone. Now, Gaudette I'll take no questions asked, that guy is a big-time shot stopper.

In fact, if I had a choice between him and Hall as a GK pickup, I'd take him and grab Corey Ashe from Houston instead. Problem solved.

 

His play, at times, seems too predictable. He has a strong tendency to take the ball up the wing towards the byline only to then automatically send it into the box. Sometimes it does work (his ability to cross the ball is not all that bad), but after a number of times it gets repetitive. He'll improve his game when he starts cutting the ball back towards the middle for a cutback pass or run a little more often. Just a little more variety from him, that's all.

 

How about we pick up Gooch?