Vancouver Whitecaps’ busy close season shows no signs of abating.
The latest transaction has seen a possible further addition to the Caps squad, with 25 year old American attacking midfielder Lee Nguyen being acquired by the team after a MLS weighted lottery this morning.
The deal sees Nguyen become a Major League Soccer player at the third attempt, but the consensus is that it won't end up being as a Whitecaps player.
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As we covered on <a href="http://www.canadiansoccernews.com/content.php?2536-Whitecaps-Pass-On-Re-Entry-Draft-As-Needs-Become-Clear" target="_blank">Monday</a>, the remaining gaps in the Whitecaps’ squad are now very apparent, after all the recent comings and goings, and midfield is still one of the problem areas.
Although a former American international, Nguyen is not exactly going to be a household name to those in the States, never mind in Vancouver, having been playing the last three years in the Vietnamese V-League.
He comes to MLS with a promising background as a youth player, having won an American national championship at Under 18 level, along with countless local and state-wide championships whilst growing up in Texas.
Nguyen has represented the US at youth, Under 23 and full international levels, winning all three of his full caps in 2007.
2005 saw Nguyen represent his country at the FIFA World Youth Championships and he was named ‘National Boy Soccer Player Of The Year’.
His talents and potential saw him attract an offer from MLS, but he declined and headed off to university to become an Indiana Hoosier on a scholarship, winning two ‘Freshman Of The Year’ awards in the process.
The stay at college was brief and Nguyen made the move to Holland in 2006 to join PSV Eindhoven after impressing Guus Hiddink. He failed to win a first team spot and made only one appearance for the Dutch giants before being transferred to Danish club Randers FC in the 2008 January transfer window.
One year, 22 appearances and no goals later, Nguyen was again off to pastures new, this time to Vietnam, where he has played for Hoàng Anh Gia Lai and Becamex Bình Dương.
14 goals in 29 appearances is a pretty nice record, but the standard of play and opposition is a complete mystery to us, so we have no real gauge as to how this would transfer into a league like MLS.
We’d never heard of the guy until this lottery was announced on December 7th, but his career stats certainly give the impression that Vancouver have acquired someone who was an exciting young talent who hasn’t lived up to his full potential or produced the goods at the top senior level yet.
Nguyen now has the chance to rebuild both his domestic and international careers with Vancouver. That is if they want to keep him and if the player even wants to come to Canada.
AFTN's feeling is that the Whitecaps are likely to trade him away to one of the Texas clubs.
A deal to move back to his home state with FC Dallas fell through last year. They may want another crack at him.
There is always the chance that AFTN's dreams could come true and we can trade him to Houston with A.N. Other and land Adam Moffat.
If they decide to keep him, Nguyen could prove to be a key cog for the Caps and another marketing boost.
He is a player who not only scores goals, but provides a bucketload of assists as well, and we were badly missing that last season.
You don't win all those plaudits throughout your career without being a good player. Vancouver may bring out the best of him.
There are some concerns around Nguyen that we should look at.
Why has he been playing in the Vietnamese league and what kind of level is that? Can he turn it on at the top level, when he hasn’t so far in his career.
And why has he been a free agent since June? Holding out for a move back home or just that no one wanted him?
A goalscorer is a goalscorer, but then, so was Mustapha Jarju in Belgium.
On paper he looks like an exciting acquisition, that can add a dangerous attacking quality to the team.
As we know only too well here in Vancouver, football isn’t player on paper.
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