NSC Stars Open Camp with 12 Signed Players and 23 Invitees
| Name | Position | Birthdate | Hometown | Previous club |
| Altman, Kyle | Defender | 1/31/86 | Albuquerque, New Mexico | Minnesota Thunder (2008) |
| Arango, Andres | Defender | 4/23/83 | Medellin, Colombia | Minnesota Thunder (2009) |
| Bracalello, Simone | Forward | 10/21/85 | Genoa, Italy | AC Prato (ITA) (2008) |
| Crayton, Louis | Goalkeeper | 10/26/77 | Monrovia, Liberia | DC United (2008) |
| Clements, Chris | Defender | 3/2/87 | Allen, Texas | Minnesota Thunder (2009) |
| Cvilikas, Brian | Forward | 3/16/84 | Highlands Ranch, Colorado | Minnesota Thunder (2009) |
| Friedland, Kevin | Defender/Asst Coach | 10/3/81 | Irvine, California | Minnesota Thunder (2009) |
| Gotsmanov, Andrei | Midfielder | 5/6/86 | Minsk, Soviet Union | Minnesota Thunder (2009) |
| Hlavaty, Neil | Midfielder | 12/28/86 | Lombard, Illinois | Osters IF (SWE) & Jagiellonia Bialystok (POL) (2009) |
| Kallman, Brian | Defender | 4/23/84 | Woodbury, Minnesota | Minnesota Thunder (2009) |
| Menyongar, Johnny | Forward | 6/26/79 | Monrovia, Liberia | Rochester Rhinos (2009) |
| Warren, Joe | Goalkeeper | 10/20/74 | Minneapolis, Minnesota | Minnesota, Thunder (2006) |
~~~~~~~~~
The Invitees are:
Matt Van Oekel: (Chesapeake, Virginia) Graduated from Rutgers. Back up keeper for the Thunder in 2009.
Eric Berg: (Hastings, Minn) Graduated from Bethel. Local goalkeeper. Currently coaches keepers at Bethel. He attended the 2nd combine.
Scott Lorenz: (Barrington, Ill.) Played forward for UW Madison. Been training with the team occasionally this winter. Will be trying out as a outside defender.
Vorgen Less: (So. Africa) Center back. Recommend by former Thunder player Godfrey Tenoff. Trained with the Thunder for about 3 weeks last season and has been around the community for a while. Attended the 2nd combine.
Marco Pulido: (South Gate, CA) Attended Cal State. Outside back. Attended combine #1.
Max Lipset: (St. Paul, MN) Those of you who are regular readers of IMS already know Max. After SPA and college Max spent last year with the Kitsap Pumas. He worked out with the players at the NSC this winter. Max is a central defender and has been helping lead and design the fitness program for the Stars players.
Drew Lukas: (South St. Paul, Minn.) Graduating this spring from Hamline. Defender.
Luc Harrington: (Diamond Bar, CA) American and French citizenship. Has played for Portland, Miami FC, and Charleston Battery as a forward. At 6’2″ is converting to a centerback.
Jordan Raybould: (Kansas City, MO) Defender who was team captain at Yale. Was at the 1st combine.
Kentaro Takada: (Japan) Spent time in J-league. Played midfield for the Rochester Thunder last season and tried out for the Sr. Thunder team last year and was one of the standout players. Midfielder.
Leland Wright: (Eugene, OR) University of San Diego. Attended the 1st combine. Spent some time in Germany last year, M/F.
Lucas Rodriguez: (?) Left footed midfielder. Did not attend combine but was showing up occasionally to winter training.
Steffan Vroom: (Libertyville, Ill) De Paul University. Another player who was occasionally doing winter training.
Ian Sarachan: (Gurnee, Ill) University of Illinois Chicago. Coach Dave Sarachan’s son. Midfielder.
Jordan Crasilneck: (Eugene, Ore.) University of Vermont. Midfielder/forward. Played U-23 Portland Timbers PDL team last year. Attended 1st combine.
Garret Webb: (Prairie Village, Kan.) Attendees Drake (Sr) Forward. Named a semi-finalist for the 2009 Missouri Athletic Club’s Hermann Trophy and earned 3rd team All-American honors as well.
Devin Del Do: (California) Attended 2nd combine.
Chris Sanders: (Federal Way, Wash) University of Portland. Forward. May have spent time with the Rhinos.
Keido Pour: (Libera) Ansu Toure’s step brother. Attended St. Bernard’s HS in St. Paul were he was Pioneer Press Metro Player of the Year. Had a brief trial with Borussia Dortmund. Played for Chicago Soccers and trialed and was released by the Whitecaps last season.
Geoffrey Meyers: (Libera) Was with the Thunder last season and has trialed and trained with team throughout the last several years.
Israel Sesay: (Sierra Leone) 5’6″ Forward/midfielder was a Generation Adidas player who was with the LA Galaxy and the Galaxy reserve team and spent some time with the Cleveland City Stars last season.
Leon Abravanel: (South Lake Tahoe, Calif) U Denver, played for Kitsap Pumas last season.
Melvin Tarley: Need I say more.
Comments are closed.
We’ll win the cup with Melvin Tar ley.
Melvin Tar ley
Melvin Tar ley
We’ll win the cup with Melvin Tar ley.
Melvin Tar ley
Melvin Tar ley
The guy’s last name is Vroom?! We must sign him.
I am just stoked the cheeseburger banner may be completely irrelevant again in 2010!
TAKE THEIR CHEESEBURGERS!
Lucas Rodriguez is Argentina by birth, though now has family in Minnesota. He was an All-American at Midwest Nazarene University and has been with Kansas City Brass the last 2 seasons while in university.
Thanks Matt!
Interesting to see Keido Pour’s name in there. I was wondering what had happened to him – I also didn’t realize he was related to Ansu Toure.
Regardless of who is there, I’m just glad that balls are now being kicked in anger (so to speak) and actual games are not far away. I’m planning to go into the season with low expectatations, so that I will then be pleasantly surprised.
I was glad that last night was St. Patty’s day. I slept well, but if it had not had been St. Patty’s Day yesterday, I would have been tossing and turning like a little kid on the night before Christmas.
Do you think we will win any games this year with the players listed?
yes
SSM?
The Wrangler is going to ensure many victories!
BELIEVE!
I’m having trouble understanding why people seem to be concerned with the talent on this team… sure there are a bunch of new faces, but it’s not like these players don’t have any experience. Unproven does not mean bad and there is plenty of proven talent on this team. The biggest challenge will be learning to play well together – as the roster stands, I see no reason to believe this team won’t be competitive – it may take them a while as they are clearly at a disadvantage from the late start, but come on… they clearly have talent.
I am with you Nordmann. Let’s keep things on the positive tip people.
Brian, you are providing an invaluable service. Please continue.
Nordmann-
Wait, you actually think a team of 23 professional soccer players, including some with international experience, may actually be good? I am baffled and shocked with your reasoning!
Next thing you are going to tell me is that this team will actually pay their players!
Sure, let’s be positive; but that doesn’t mean being blinded to the reality that this is a sub-par squad.
Agreed Lamps… .
I hope the Stars come out and play well but the roster isn’t very promising.
Hey, I am at practice session one and there are a few players here not on this list. For one is a Chinese national Lillei Gao (sp?) who just left Seattle’s camp a week or so ago. Another player just showed from DC United camp. Not saying these guys are going to take us to the promised land but the benefit of being last to camp is that we may get a few of the last cuts from MLS squads.
FWIW, Crayton is looking good on the endline.
Glad someone gets to report on it. I was quite frustrated yesterday when all my plans were thrown out the window when the 1/2 day vacation I requested was suddenly rejected because of deadlines. Then we I did get out the NSC in the afternoon the team went for a run outside and only about 1/2 the players were there anyway. I went home and popped open a beer and sat in the sun for a bit. At least not everything went badly. So went my report and interviews.
Since I can’t get through to USLDiscussions.com and, for the most part, haven’t been able to over the last couple of days, I’m posting my camp invitee research here. Hope I’m not breaking any comment rules here.
I didn’t bother with former Thunder players or players I reported on already in the combine reports. Here it is:
Scott Lorenz – F/D
College pic, bio and stats:
http://www.uwbadgers.com/sports/m-soccer/mtt/lorenz_scott00.html
Video interview:
http://host.madison.com/sports/college/vmix_af387f16-b916-11de-a723-001cc4c002e0.html?mode=comments
Another tweeter:
http://twitter.com/mop4
Vorgen Less – D
S.A. U-20 player:
http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/tournament=104/edition=191276/matches/match=30975/report.html
In S.A., played for Ikapa Sporting:
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/report?id=230680&cc=5901
And Wits University:
http://tripatlas.com/Bidvest_Wits
And FC Kapstadt:
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:tMzzybAiq7UJ:www.fckapstadt.co.za/index.php%3Fpage%3Ddownloads%26subPage%3Dpictures%26action%3DListImages%26image_galleryId%3D33+%22vorgen+less%22&cd=41&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
Also, Vasco de Gama and S.A. Hellenic FC.
In US, played for Indiana Blast:
http://www.rhinossoccer.com/matches.php?id=193
Luc Harrington – F/D
Pic and brief bio:
http://www.miamifc.com/player.php?id=49&osCsid=&seasid=3&tseasid=1
Slightly longer bio:
http://www.miamifc.com/article_info.php?articles_id=16&language=en
Lucas Rodriguez – Mid
Recently played indoor (scroll to bottom):
http://www.kcsoccerdome.com/kings/index.php#announcement
2009 PDL Stats:
http://www.uslsoccer.com/teams/2009/22339.html#STATS
Steffen Vroom – F
College pic, bio and stats:
http://www.depaulbluedemons.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=15600&ATCLID=1290870
Was at MLS Combine:
http://www.tribalfootball.com/seattle-sounders-cast-eye-over-depaul%E2%80%99s-vroom-507871
Ian Sarachan – Mid
College pic and bio:
http://www.uicflames.com/sports/m-soccer/mtt/sarachan_ian00.html
Senior stats:
http://www.uicflames.com/auto_pdf/p_hotos/s_chools/ilch/sports/m-soccer/auto_pdf/cumulativestatistics09
Does charity work:
http://sportingsmiles.org/
Chris Saunders – F
Was with Rochester, didn’t play:
http://www.rhinossoccer.com/player.php?id=283
Keido Pour – F
Bio w/pic:
http://www.liberiansoccer.com/Boys'%20Soccer-Metro-Player-of-the-Year2003212.htm
Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keido_Pour
Israel Sesay – F/M
Cleveland bio and stats:
http://clevelandcitystars.com/israel-sesay
Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Sesay
L.A. Pic and bio:
http://la.galaxy.mlsnet.com/players/bio.jsp?player=sesay_i&playerId=ses059326&statType=current&team=t106
Gents-
I found this article on DiVeronica’s blog in Rochester. He covers the Rhinos. I see a lot of similarities with his take on the finances of the league and what we are seeing here in Minnesota. If you are outside of Portland, Vancouver, Montreal or Carolina you are going to see some extremely small budgets and lots of new unproven players trying to make a mark.
It may give you a little bit of respite when looking at what we currently have on the team signed, and where other teams are at. Four team will probably run clear from the league, but the other teams will be sitting pretty in 2010 and hopefully into a sustainable future.
http://blogs.democratandchronicle.com/devo/2010/03/10/why-remaking-the-rhinos-made-cents/