After bouncing from Cyprus to Belgium and back to Cyprus, Shane O’Neill is heading to England to play in the country’s fourth tier.
O’Neill will join League Two club Cambridge United on loan from Cypriot club Apollon Limassol until the end of the 2015-16 season.
O’Neill had reportedly signed a two-year deal with Belgian club Royal Mouscron-Peruwelz in August, but has since returned to Cyprus within a few months without playing a single game for RMP.
The 22-year-old defender was signed by the Colorado Rapids as a Homegrown Player in 2012 after joining the MLS team’s youth system in 2009.
O’Neill has been a member of the U.S. Under-23 Men’s National Team setup, but was left off the roster for the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament in 2015 due to his club refusing to release him. Irish-born, O’Neill has yet to be cap-tied to the U.S.
What do you think of O’Neill’s move to Cambridge United? Expect him to play for Cambridge United? Think he will feature for the U.S. U-23s in the playoff match against Colombia for a place in the Olympics?
Share your thoughts below.
I don’t know guys, I watched his games with the U-23s and he is just not very good. He is all brute force and no distribution skills. He was pretty good at last ditch defending and throwing his body around to block shots, but this was only after he had been beaten elsewhere and was in frantic recovery. He only seemed capable of sending long balls up to the forwards and was rarely able to complete a connecting pass to the midfielders or forwards on the ground. He never looked to play a calm ball out of the back that might spring a counter and was only punting the ball as far as he could. I think the style of play has passed him by. He would have been a perfectly fine defender 10 years ago, but the expectations for a top quality defender seem to have surpassed his skill set. I’m not surprised by this news at all.
I dont agree. ONeill can distribute the ball. He was a defensive midfielder most of his life. And he did well for the U23s. He was the captain and the coach said he was one of their best players. Something is indeed up with him though. Was benched in Colorado since playing with the U23s and then couldnt get a game in Belgium or Cyprus.
I thought he looked very mediocre during that tournament in France. He killed many counter opportunities with his long ball clearances and never looked to play a quick pass to spring counter. It was all kick and chance from him. Pretty frustrating when we had Morris, Keiswetter, and Green available up top to pressure teams on the counter. Shane never looked like he was attempting to find them. That’s why I give his distribution skills a thumbs down. The coach only called him MVP bc he was a shot blocking maniac in that tourney, but what wasn’t mentioned was he was often recovering from being beat or covering from another defender who was beat. Other than last ditch tackling/blocking, I thought his overall game was poor.
Cambridge is a lovely city. Hopefully he gets some playing time but, even if he doesn’t, there are certainly far worse places to live.
“Shane O’Neill joins fourth-tier English club Cambridge United”
This is so disappointing, that a player who use to represent the U-23 would rather go to a fourth tier team than come to MLS. Even NASL is better than where he is now
MLS is way better than League Two but I don’t think NASL is.
He and Juan Agudelo must have the same agent.
“After bouncing from Cyrus to Belgium and back to Cyprus” He dated Miley Cyrus or what?
an absolute joke.
Sounds like a Traffic Sports situation all over again….
That was my first thought as well.
From my understanding, the quality of League Two in England is essentially an amatuer league, no?
What the hell is going on with this kid? He went from the original Matt Miazga in MLS to the English fourth tier? I was originally somewhat excited to hear that he’d moved to Europe. Now, I don’t know what to make of it. Who is his agent and why is he so poor at finding this kid a good place to play?
Maybe he should have stayed in MLS!
He’s one relegation away from pub league.
He’s not as good as Miazga.