What if we hadn't passed on Lee Nguyen -

Should've...could've...would've

 

Dom would of benched him for being too creative leading us to believe he sucks.

End Thread.

 

if Nguyen was here we would have won. Get it? Win/Won.

 

If "IF" was a "FIFTH" we'd all be drunk!!!

 

It would have been Nguyen-sanity in Houston.

 

dont make me bump all those threads where i was begging for Nguyen!

seriously, i should of gotten something for watching all those V.League game snippets/highlights that i could get my hands on.....and don't forget we had a shot to land Nguyen TWICE! when he first came over and then when Vancouver cut him. they cut him!

 

I believe I was advocating that we try to get him as well. I thought NE won him via some waiver draft order and we weren't ahead of them. I thought Vancouver won him via some similar mechanism and that we were ahead of them in that particular order but did not put a claim on him. Am I remembering things wrong?

 

You remember correctly. Vancouver won a lottery and New England was first in the waiver list.
http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/ne...itecaps-get-midfielder-lee-nguyen-mls-lottery
http://nesn.com/2012/03/jay-heaps-thanks-lucky-stars-as-lee-nguyen-falls-into-revolutions-lap/

 

Actually, the ESPN article indicates that we did put in for him, but Vancouver won the lottery.

Vancouver was selected ahead of FC Dallas, the Houston Dynamo, the Los Angeles Galaxy, Real Salt Lake and Toronto FC. Each team's record dictates its probability of winning the draw

 

I think Jones is actually the key player there, and then that their array of marginal NT type attackers (Davies, Bunbury, Nguyen) makes it such that none have to perform incredibly but you also can't just mark one out of the game and be done with it. Nguyen benefits from the arrangement because he doesn't have to carry the load but can instead be one of 4 cogs.

I don't think Nguyen would have done well here. We moved to 2 DMs and he didn't fit that. [I don't even like it because it makes us even more wide oriented and low percentage.] He's not a big two way guy who goes out there and smashes people. I think NE also gets away with him because they play 3 backs and 5 mids, thus meaning Nguyen doesn't have to cover tons of ground. He also prospers by having people like Jones handling a sort of division of labor where he can focus on creating and they go destroy attacks for him. I think Houston needs to have defenders better able to handle their own business, back to one DM, and then you can bring in people like Nguyen who are finesse creators.

 

The second whiff was the bigger whiff and that was still pre-season. Vancouver cut him. Allocation, immaterial. Cost, reduced.

 

Look, the articles make the history clear. We put in for Nguyen and wanted him. We lost him to Vancouver and New England due to MLS allocation/waiver rules. There was no whiff.

 

That not how I remember it. We could of traded up for it and at that time we were seriously lacking offense and creativity worse than we are now.

 

People trade those picks.

And NE made no attempt for him the first go but suddenly did the second. A lot of the aesthetic of the discussion is revisionist. "How did they overlook him?" It was more like, you have this guy who wandered around and ended up in VietNam and was already being written off, and then he gets cut. There was a draft but you can tell even NE was uncertain what they might be getting, which sounds like for the right price it could have been a trade.

Despite being a Texas kid, he didn't fit our mold, we didn't really try. I think it's a weak echo of Wondo, who we similarly underrated because Kinnear couldn't exploit his value. That's part of the reason I want us out of the tactical straitjacket.

I wouldn't beat up on us too much for this one because it has been a pretty big surprise. But our track record beyond the obvious is not good. But then to be fair, the Texans do glorious by 1st round picks and then their depth stinks beyond that. But this is how personnel people make their money, is not so much signing Boniek or Garrido or Beasley, but doing better than Horst or Cummings or Brunner. Our problem is break the bank up top but then basic talent evaluation and acquisition through the senior roster spots.

You look at NE and they are doing what we used to do the first few years. Give capped internationals second chances, accumulate people with talent. They steadily accumulated these Davies/ Nguyen/ Bunbury type players -- and they even had Benny F for a bit -- where individually each might have borne some risk but the sum total is a team incrementally better than us in several positions on the park, as long as it stays healthy. We have some obvious people better than theirs, but then the rank and file are a full notch or two below. We are smugly satisfied with our crap roster filler.

 

ok, i think i am remembering wrong.

you couldn't trade up in the waiver draft BUT 3 days before Vancouver cut him we played against him in preseason and there was already noise from the Vancouver camp that Rennie Martin was going to cut him because they had too many CAMs and because he had made an offensive remark on tweeter. we needed a CAM and he performed well in the minutes against us. here's what we lined up that day:

LINEUPS:
Houston Dynamo – Tyler Deric; Warren Creavalle, Nathan Sturgis, Andre Hainault, Oscar Recio; Josue Soto (Luiz Camargo 71), Emerson Sato (Alex Dixon 71), Colin Rolfe (Brad Davis 57); Macoumba Kandji (Brian Ching 71), Cam Weaver (Calen Carr 71), Eder Arreola (Brian Ownby 57)

its like we had the luxury to thumb our noses up at Lee Nguyen.

 

I don't get how we fault Dom/the soccer side when he puts the claim in and loses due to waiver/draft order.

I get criticizing the front office of every single team that passed on him but not these teams:
FC Dallas, the Houston Dynamo, the Los Angeles Galaxy, Real Salt Lake and Toronto FC.

I get criticizing the front office of Vancouver for being total idiots and cutting him.

I don't get criticizing Dom though as the article above clearly indicates Heaps/New England were very high on Nguyen implying that it would have taken a lot to pry him from New England.


Oh by the way, it would appear that ...Montreal and their GM did not feel the same way about Nguyen as Dom did.

 

I am not usually one of those dellusional let's go get Kaka (the player, not the crap) guys but I am beginning to think that just a recognizable name might be nice to remind the vast majority of the city and country that we're still here, we're still viable. Hell if the Rockets can get DH to come here, I am sure we can get someone with name recognition.

And please let's not bring up the Run DMB thing. Most run of the mill Americans can't even recognize Dempsey in Times Square.

I still can't figure out why folks wouldn't want to play here or in Dallas with no state income tax. Watch it-Orlando will also use this to their advantage.

I don't doubt for a second, that someone reminded Deuce about that in Seattle. It probably went something like this-I want to be close to family, what about Houston?

They are cheap and don't have the pockets. But Seattle does and it also has no state income tax so you can keep more of your take.

OK