I don't think this has been posted here yet, so FYI."December 14, 2009 - The City Islanders have announced that midfielder Tiyiselani "Tiyi" Shipalane, the 2009 USL Second Division Rookie of the Year and a First Team All-League selection, has been acquired by D.C. United of Major League Soccer." We had him on loan. More here: http://blog.pennlive.com/upper90/2009/12/post_7.html
Sweet! I really like waht i saw of him vs. the green team from honduras... damnit i forgot their name lol. But he has skills, and def. could fit into our midfield if we have injuries, or need some fresh blood to inject life into us. He has good ability to work with passing and go' type plays. Hes very fast too.
From what I remember, he never touched the ball. This is a Soehn pickup. Too late to let him go. We never see what goes on from practice, he might be good. Low optimism about this pick up. MLS needs to revive the reserve league.
Surely the new coach can cut him if he doesn't want him. We may just have had a deadline to "exercise[] the option in the loan agreement to purchase Shipalane's rights." You know how things are in US soccer... this probably just means we agreed to send a B-team to Harrisburg for a friendly.
Yeah? Well, right now the situation you're in is, it's either that or miss out on opportunities to acquire players who can contribute because you're not done selecting the coach yet. I think this is the lesser of two evils. YMMV.
He's the guy that runs like a girl, right? I kinda liked what I saw of him but like BK, I'm wary of picking up players before we get a solid head coach as I have no faith in the scouting abilities of Payne and co.
This is an Ely Allen, John DiRaimondo type pickup. If the guy is getting serious first team minutes in June, we're screwed.
Doubtful. I mean, we probably could have "gotten him", but not under whatever terms we negotiated when we had him on loan. Remember, he did belong to someone else, he was not a free agent here for a trial. Plus, it's a nice xmas present for the guy.
He's much better than Allen or DiRaimondo -- or Nick Van Sicklen or Justin Moose, for that matter. But, he's not a guy that you want starting for you on a regular basis. From what I saw, on the positive side he's very fast and he's fairly good dribbling the ball. On the negative side, with him there's a whole lot of locomotion but not much commotion -- a whole lot of sound and fury signifying nothing much in particular when all is said and done. Well, he is very fast . . .
I have a gut feeling he is going to do alot better than many think next season.... I was impressed with what little i saw of him. Quote me.
Hmmm, I think that he will be about the same quality as Boyzz Khamalo on the flank. I'd like to be surprised, though.
These type of pickups are the result of MLS expansion resulting in rosters diluted with career lower division players, and solid MLS players leaving the league for Scandinavia for a better payday.
I have always liked Shipalane after seeing him play against DC in the US Open Cup. Basically every year we pick up a new South African in the USL-2. 2008: Boyzzz Khumalo. 2009: Tiyi Shipalane. Waiting to see who we pick up in 2010.