U.S. Under-23 national team defender Greg Garza's search for a club team has led him to Mexico, where he recently secured a Mexican passport and is now beginning a trial with Mexican First Division side Club Tijuana.
A former youth player with Portuguese powerhouse Sporting Lisbon, Garza has been searching for a new club since leaving Portuguese second division side Estoril Praia earlier this year. He was recommended to Club Tijuana by midfielder Joey Corona, who played with Garza in the recent Under-23 national team camp in Germany.
Garza will spend a week on trial with Club Tijuana, who is preparing for the Mexican Clausura season.
I think Gregory Garza is an awesome player…..
GaGa
Um, yeah? Elsewhere in Mexico, for starters.
Wow Garza had a nice performance during the U20 qualifying in Guatemala. It is nice to have another Young American playing in the Mexican League but it more disappointing losing another young player to other league instead of doing everything we can to bring or keep our young talent in the MLS. Plus now Mexican Federation will have a chance to keep an eye on another Mexican/American player and try to steal away from the USNMT. Especially since he already apply for his Mexican Passport. “He recently secured a Mexican passport”
So were all the other kids, on both teams, even the impressive ones!
Perhaps because this is a news story about his trial with a Mexican club?
This is a big deal for Garza, who can and has played left back. Ding. Important yet?
I seem to remember a lot of folks expressing some disappointment with Greg Garza during the Torneo de las Americas (Nov 2010) one year ago. Hope they were wrong…or that for Greg, it was just one of those weeks when the soccer gods just aren’t lovin’ ya. Best of luck to you, Greg Garza!
Nt impressed with his defending? Could that have something to do with the fact that he was a 19-year old kid when you saw him play?
nah
Let’s be honest, other than acheiving having a lot of US soccer trackers knowing his name, he has done little.
May turn out to be as big as Brandon Manzonelli or Dany Szetela.
Lots of talk about Agboss and Garza from Traffic Sports, but nothing about Tony Taylor, who actually has played a lot in Portugal and is now a starter for the best team in Liga Honra.
Good for him, id like to see him ply his trade here in mls though. US has some potentially solid fullbacks coming up, Lichaj, Daniel Williams, chandler, Garza, fabian johnson, and dont forget sean cunningham.
I don’t think there is any chance Garza ever sniffs the national team, or even makes the Olympic roster. Sure he’s a LB but he’s not particularly great at anything. I wasn’t particularly impressed by his speed or his defending.
There are a few things that are interesting about this:
– trial not training
– Corona recommended him
– Edgar Castillo recently joined Tijuana, so they could potentially have two American LBs
Garza is very technical with the ball. He is a considerable upgrade in attack coming from the full back position to anything we have at the national level as he is a natural left-sided winger that happens to play a solid left back. He was the starting left back for his portuguese youth team that won their championships two years running. He played well under Rongens formation and played well against a liverpool team in the off season while on trial. For some reason I believe many of the teams that were trying him were unimpressed with the amount of first team action or the lack there of. In any event, at his age, he is best suited playing regular minutes every weekend.
Comparable to playing in MLS with a larger paycheck. Not horrible… Could get noticed elsewhere through this move.
Is a trial for a youth national team player newsworthy?
Yes.
I was going to ask, as I thought he was another client of HumanTraffic.
Ehh, is this really newsworthy?
If he was training in a top 6 Euro league than I can see but Club Tijuana. Really?
Yep, another victim of Traffic Sports. But he’s free of them, has had a few trials over the past few months and hopefully can catch on somewhere.
I’ve always liked this player, but he got into a bad club situation, and that can really derail a career.
He was one of the few U-20s who performed admirably in the CONCACAF championship in Guatemala earlier this year. He had good pace, a good engine, a nice cross, and defended well.
I hope he catches on at Tijuana and earns playing time.