April 3rd, 2004 was a great day for the New Kids on the Block in MLS. And I'm not talking about a precocious 14 year old that made his debut in D.C. I'm talking about Jeff Parke, the last pick of the Draft, starting, and looking great in his debut for the Metrostars. Alecko Eskandarian, a 2nd year player seeming to finally live up to his potential as a striker, before he was unjustly subbed out for Mr. Adu. Brian Carroll, another D.C. newcomer who had a solid game in a 5-man midfield for United. Cory Gibbs, who has finally given the Burn backline some stability in the middle. Mike Magee, just 19, scored a beautiful goal against Columbus off a flicked header that ended up in the upper corner of the net. While the attention of the world may be focused on a young # 11 in Washington D.C., there are plenty of other new young talents to keep an eye on in MLS this year. As well as some old flames, like Jovan Kirovski, who at 28 seems like he's been around U.S. Soccer forever. I believe Kirovski is finally going to get consistent first team minutes, something he's never really had before, and shine for the LA Galaxy.
http://www.dcunited.com/index.cfm?section=team&cont_id=roster&roster_id=15 Why would the world care about Eskandarian?
Because he scored the winning goal, he's a classy kid, and was thinking of someone else at a moment he had been working hard for. I am really proud of him. Phyllis Arena
I think he meant #9, Adu. Adu wants (and has worn in the past) the #11 jersey, that's probably where the confusion came from.
One of the best things about the league is that every year kids come out of nowhere to make an impression. If we had twice as many teams, we'd probably have twice as many Borchers, Parkes, and Ralphs. It probably has something to do with the difficulty of scouting college talent, but it sure says a lot about the US talent pool.
Slightly off topic but Youth and the DC United Edition--the Saturday line-up never would have occured under Ray Hudson. Near the end of the game, with DC leading the reigning MLS champs 2-1, on National TV and in front of a sold out stadium DC was basically fielding 4 rookies. David Stokes--who didn't play 1 MLS second last year; Brian Carroll--also didn't play 1 second in MLS last year; Josh Gros--rookie; and of course, Freddy Adu. Also, consider Eskadarian who did see limited time last year. I think it's great that these young guys all were able to contribute to the DC victory and I believe it is a good omen for this particular team. I also believe that their lack of playing time last year directly correlated to the diminished success of United.