7 Unheralded Players

Here’s a list of random players that impressed me last year. Some of these players are unknown (outside of their immediate family and closest friends). Others may actually have friends that know their names. lol.

Senior Stephen Reihner, from Penn State, is a talented outside defender that was able to combine with graduated senior Simon Omekanda very well. He passes well, can get forward, but most importantly, he’s a solid defender. I look forward to seeing him play in the Big 10 tournament in November.

Sean Kelley is a sophomore goal keeper for George Mason University (GMU). He was Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) rookie of the year. Additionally, he was named to the All-rookie first team by Top Drawer Soccer. I saw him play against Hofstra in 2006 that by all accounts should have been loss for GMU in the first half. Kelley kept GMU in the game that they eventually won 3-2. I’ll agree that Kelley isn’t totally unheralded – but he’s yet to become a household name. Let’s see if he can continue to impress as a sophomore.

Another goalkeeper that I saw stand on his head in 2006, is Billy Chiles from Towson University. He, also, starred against Hofstra. Wonder if it was just Hofstra? I don’t think so. He saved 16 shots and was barraged with 26 shots. He’s very athletic. He’s a senior that transferred from Rutgers. How many people can honestly say that they’ve seen him play?

Staying with the CAA, Matthijs Maruanaya, a senior midfielder at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), has one of the sweetest touches that I’ve seen. It’s so soft and well conceived. VCU had a disappointing year, but Maruanaya still earned 2nd team CAA honors.

Continuing south, Zach Shilawski is a sophomore forward for Wake Forest. In the ACC tournament, he impressed me with his speed, strength and touch. He was named to Soccer America 2nd team freshmen All-American team.

Midfielder Jeff Scannella is a scintillating dribbler at South Carolina. I saw him play a few times on TV last year and was simply amazed at his skill. He was named Freshman of the year for Conference USA.

Last year, I went to several UNC-Greensboro matches to watch their 2 All-Americans (Scott Jones and Randi Patterson), but came away more impressed with the play of Junior Defensive Midfielder Jokull Elisaberason. He’s a smart player with exceptional passing ability and terrific timing on his tackles. His corner kicks are bent with both the inside and outside of his foot.

If you knew of these seven players before reading this post, you too are a soccer junkie. Welcome to the club.   :lol:

I realize that these are all east coast players, but those are the teams that I see most often. The only teams that I saw live from the west coast in 2006 were UCSB, UCLA and San Francisco. This year, I’ll see a few more games. Live is the best way to assess. TV is ok – just not as good.

 

Spencer Wadsworth, Duke

Spencer Wadsworth, an outside midfielder from Duke, earned 2006 Top Drawer Soccer 4th team and 2006 All-ACC 2nd team.  He will be a senior in the fall of 2007.  In 2006, Wadsworth scored 8 goals to accompany his 14 assists. In 2005, Pope scored 7 goals with 9 assists.

He is consistent and honest.  He’s pretty quick and crosses the ball well.  I think he’s going to be a player – not a star.  He runs hard and makes very good smart runs.  This type of player can be valuable for any team.  He reminds me of Wells Thompson (Wake Forest grad that New England chose with the fifth pick).

 

Zach Pope, Duke

Zach Pope, a midfielder from Duke, did not earn any accolades. He will be a senior in the fall of 2007. In 2006, Pope scored only 1 goal to accompany his 9 assists. In 2005, Pope scored 5 goals with 4 assists.

To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure why I included Pope in my watch list. I like his speed and his passing, but I’m not sure that he’s a professional candidate. In reviewing my notes, I didn’t say much about Pope, except that he’s fast but small.

I will be watching him this year – his senior year to assess. I don’t expect a lot from him.

 

Mike Grella, Duke

Mike Grella, a forward from Duke, earned 2006 Top Drawer Soccer 1st team and All-ACC 1st team honors. Grella will be a junior in the fall. In 2006, Grella led the ACC champion Duke Blue Devils in scoring with 13 goals and added 6 assists. In 2005, as a freshman, he scored 4 goals with 7 assists.

Grella is a very “shifty” player with a tremendous first touch. He plays with confidence and style. He reminds me of Clint Dempsey. His OT goal against Wake Forest captured the ACC tournament championship for Duke. He is not easy to knock off the ball and he has exceptional dribbling ability. He doesn’t have blinding speed but uses his body and deception to make space for himself. He passes very well and has above average creativity.

Grella should make a national name for himself in 2007.

 

Marcus Tracy, Wake Forest

Marcus Tracy, a forward for Wake Forest, justifiably received no allocades in 2006. Tracy will be a junior in the fall of 2007. He scored 6 goals and added 4 assists. In 2005, he was injured for much of the year from a hamstring injury.

He has exceptional speed and athletism. It’s easy to see why many coaches become enamored with him. I’ll state unequivocally, though, he’s a coach killer. I’ve seen him sleep walk through 4 games only to see him awake and play agressively against UVA in the ACC semi-finals (still didn’t score – but he wasn’t grazing around the field like a sheep). Where was this intensity in the other games.

I saw Tracy play early in the year against OSU and walked away mildly disappointed. Here were my impressions:

 

Rodrigo Hidalgo, University of South Florida

Rodrigo Hidalgo, a forward for University of South Florida (USF) has signed a professional contract with the Minnesota Thunder of the USL.  So — he’ll be coming off my list.

 

Mike Gustavson, South Carolina

Mike Gustavson, a senior goalkeeper for South Carolina (USC), was a 2006 Soccer America pre-season All-American.  In 2006, he had a GAA of 1.09 in 17 games with 70 saves and with 11 wins versus 4 losses for USC. He is one of the most renown college keepers and has had a few looks with the US U-20  team.

I didn’t get to see him play live in 2006.  However, I’ve seen him play against both SMU and UAB and he played very well.  He deserves continued observation in 2007.  I’m a little concerned about the number of goals that he’s given up in 2005 and 2006 (26 and 19 in 21 and 17 games, respectively).

Note. I’ve heard that Gustavson has left USC – let me check around.

 

Paulo da Silva, Southern Methodist University

Paulo da Silva, a forward from Southern Methodist University (SMU), was selected for 2006 Soccer America pre-season All-American team.  In the fall of 2007, da Silva will be a Junior.  In 2006, he scored 3 goals with 4 assists in 13 games.   Unfortunately, the 3 games that SMU was on TV, da Silva did not appear in any of them.  So, I didn’t get a chance to see him in 2006.  In 2005, as a freshman, he had a hard time getting on the field due to his lack of fitness.  However, by the end of the season, he was a terror in the Conference USA (C-USA) and NCAA tournaments.  In 2006, he was beset with injuries and missed almost half the season.

 He deserves a look in 2007.  I have many questions:

• Does he do the work to be able to play the game without the coach overseeing him?  Professionalism.
• Can he stay healthy for an entire season?  Durability.
• Can he still be a goal scorer?  Productivity.
• Is he special?  Difference maker.

 

Bruno Guarda, Southern Methodist University

Bruno Guarda, a creative central midfielder from SMU, is a NSCAA 3rd team All-American.  In the fall of 2007, he will be a junior.  He scored 5 goals and added 6 assists in 2006.  Guarda is originally from Piracicaba, Brazil and he was born on February 6, 1986. 

He has tremendous ball skills and is extremely quick.  I like Guarda a lot.  He makes good decisions.  He is able to weight his accurate probing passes.  His dribbling is precise and he is hard to stop with his ability to change direction and his bevy of feints.

Given that SMU was a top team in NCAA division I, they were on TV 3 times.  In reviewing the tapes before the 2007 combine, I was really trying to concentrate more on Wileman and Needham.  Even then – it was hard not to be drawn into watching Guarda.

I would expect that Guarda may declare for the 2008 MLS Draft with 1 year of eligibility remaining.  This would give him 3 years of Youth International (YI) status. 

Hopefully, I’ll be able to SMU play live this fall.

Last thing - I realize that Dallas (SMU) isn’t strictly in the Southeast.  However, there’s only 1 Division I school in Texas.  So, I could categorize SMU as Midwest (nope), Southwest (don’t really have that category), Texas (1 school, please) or as I originally was going to categorize it – West.  However, given that C-USA has many schools (South Carolina, UAB, UCF) located in the Southeast, this seems reasonable.

 

 

Julian Valentin, Wake Forest

Julian Valentin, a central defender from Wake Forest, is a 2006 2nd Team CSN and NSCAA All-American.  He will be a senior next year.  Additionally, I expect that he will be on the Under 20 US team at the World Youth Championship this summer in Canada.  In 2006, Valentin scored 4 goals (3 game winners) with 1 assists.  He has good athletism and reads the game very quickly. 

In 2006, I saw him play 5 times (3 times live).  Against Ohio State, Valentin was the player that impressed me the most on the field that day.  He show-cased his athletic ability by towering over everyone to head the ball on a corner kick (good ups!).  More importantly, he seemed to organize and lead the defense.  Also, I was impressed that he had broke his nose 2 days before and was wearing a protective mask that limits visibility – but he hung in there and fought through it.  The only questions for me concern his foot speed.  Can he mitigate this issue by quicker thinking?  Maybe/maybe not.

He will be fighting to be a starter in the World Youth Championship against professionals (Sturgis-lock to start, Igwe, Subotic, Wallace) and other collegiates (Sarkodie, Beltran).  He may have decided to defer the MLS this year in hopes that he could make a splash at the tournament and sign a lucrative European offer.  I think he could be a solid MLS defender.  If so, Steve Nichols, from the New England Revolution, probably already has drafted him.  :-)

 

Michael Videira, Duke

Michael Videira, attacking midfielder for Duke, is a 2006 NSCAA third team All-American.  In 2006, He scored 8 goals and had 7 assists.  CSN included him in their 2006 first team All-American team.  In the fall, he’ll be a senior.  In 2005, Videira had 3 goals

and 9 assists.  As a freshmen in 2004, he scored 4 goals and amazing 15 assists on his way to being named ACC Freshmen of the Year. 

<— Sit up straight, Michael unless the photographer is trying to highlight the beautiful background! 

Videira is one of the best attacking midfielders in the country.  He has tremendous vision and touch.  His game is very subtle.  With very small touches, he opens up space providing him the time to find one of his team mates in dangerous positions.  He has the size to hold off smaller defenders.  Deficiencies - speed and doesn’t score a lot of goals.  He reminds me of 2 two All-American Scott Jones from UNCG.  I wonder if Videira will be able to excel against higher quality players.  This is something that Jones was unable to do in the combine especially when put in a wide midfield position rather than his preferred central midfield.  My point is that playing against other skillful players will Videira be able to stand out as compared to other college players.

I still want to see him play especially against the better teams.