Another excellent practice report. It's good to see Ed Morgans and John Dyson on the official DC United page. I found this part particularly intriguing: Hmmmm. I wonder who the other youth international Dmid/defender could be ...? Not Alex Yi at Royal Antwerp, not Oguchi Onyewu at Metz ... perhaps Grover Gibson? If so, I'd be very interested in that one. He was going to be Bruce Arena's star recruit at attacking central midfielder for UVa right before Bruce moved on to coach DC United. So, Gibson bypassed college and went directly to the lower eschelons of the Bundesliga. There, he was converted to a Dmid and wing fullback. Supposedly he has good dribbling and passing skills, decent vision and distribution, as well as all around defensive play. Sort of like a John O'Brien lite. -Digital
I'm gonna guess the youth international who is a defender/defensive midfielder is either Chris Wingert of St. John's and the U23 team or C.J. Klaas of the U20 team and the University of Washington.
I believe that CJ Klaas already had an extended trial with Dallas in the preseason (I thought it was around 2 weeks but my memory may be wrong on that) so it sounds as if he was doing some serious exploration. As for Wegerle, he just had a trial with another MLS club who passed on him (San Jose?). And again, great job by Diceson. I think it's ab fab that Ed Morgans and John Dyson are both affiliated with United's site. At some point when commercial media coverage of pro soccer expands, both of those guys are going to have the portfolio, credibility, and track record to be very prominent soccer journalists. Plus, Gardner and Grahame Jones have to retire sometime!
dunno who the mystery midfielder/defender is, but as for gibson. he has played only at midfield here in mainz (BL2)---bought from a regionaliga side. he is currently way out of favor, hasn't even been on the bench since november 4, a game in which he made a late substitute appearance---and his bad midfield giveaway led directly to a crushing last minute equaliser for karlsruhe. another bad giveaway in a game in sept. against reutlingen also resulted directly to a reutlingen goal. the consensus among many mainz fans is that he doesn't have what it takes to step up even to the BL2 level---even though he showed some promise preseason apparently.
I second that. I met Ed at Summers awhile back and had a great conversation with him. Really a nice guy. I hope both those gents go far. Maybe once Kornheiser and Wilbon are gone they can host PTI.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but couldn't Youth International be taken to mean a young person from a country not the US? Remember when MLS had designations as YI? When I read that, that's the definition I thought of instead of a young american international.
You are correct sir! I too was a little confused, but that was the terminology used. I suppose under the current system, the actual title would be Transitional International.