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Whitecaps acquire Nguyen via lottery

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Lee Nguyen's search for a stable club situation will be taking him to Vancouver.

The Vancouver Whitecaps acquired Nguyen via a weighted lottery on Thursday. The Whitecaps were the odds-on favorite to acquire the 25-year-old attacker. The other teams who entered the lottery were Real Salt Lake, Toronto FC, the Houston Dynamo, FC Dallas and the Los Angeles Galaxy.

As a result of winning the lottery for Nguyen, Vancouver is not allowed to parktake in any other player lotteries during the 2012 season.

How do you see Nguyen faring in Vancouver? Happy to see him land to the Whitecaps? Have any good Nguyen puns?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. He had been dominating the V league. I have followed it a little bit and his stats were good before falling out of favor last season due to contract. I believe he and Le Cong Vinh are 2 of the highest profile players in the V league. He tried to come back to MLS last year and was shafted….there are some articles about that situation on the net….also he has been training with Arsenal in the offseason from what I have read….

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  2. Look for Nguyen to get back onto the national team picture, I really hope. As for Japanese players I have stated this many times on soccer sites, the J League and MLS share the same odd schedule of March-Nov soccer and are the same age. Japan has better technical ability but not size, MLS has good size but lacks technical ability. They should have a pre-season tourney between the 2 leagues and some sort of loan/training agreements. i think it would benefit both leagues!

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  3. Vancouver is really garnering my interest with all these players of Asian decent. I too would also like to see some Filipino and Japanese players in the league.

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  4. Man, this will be fun to watch. Consider the possibilities:

    A. He’s at the same level as he was when he left for Europe–in which case he’s on the level of a high first round draft pick–say something like Nagbe. That’s not shabby, but it’s not going to make Vancouver an instant power.
    B. He’s regressed after multiple years of very subpar competition in Vancouver. The game has passed him by and he can’t adjust to being a role player versus being a rock star.
    C. His spells in Europe and Vietnam improved his confidence and game, and he’ll be a difference maker in MLS (and play his way back into the US set up, which needs creative Klinsy type players)
    All seem possible, and no one knows what will happen.

    Add to that large, ethnically diverse crowds invested in his success (more than just as Caps fans) and this is one of the more interesting MLS developments in the last couple of years.

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  5. Is he even any good? Yeah I get that he’s a former USMNTer, but he has been plying his trade in Vietnam the last few years…not exactly a great league there…

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  6. Why?
    Why is that “fundamentally wrong?” Are you labouring under the impression that free enterprise is always right, because it would have to be for single-entity to be “fundamentally wrong.”

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  7. There’s something fundamentally wrong with the setup of a league when the players are owend by the league and a team acquires a player by a “lottery”. The single entity system of MLS must go.

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  8. Yeah, I know, but that’s the best one can do from the Filipino national team. Now basketball, that’s another matter (well, in a height challenged manner, anyway). I was mostly joking, but I’d give them a run on the Vancouver reserves, just for the heck of it.

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  9. Lee Young-Pyo is a HUGE draw for the Korean community in Vancouver.
    If Tan can develop, there is no bigger Asian community in Vancouver than Chinese.
    With Lee Nguyen’s superstar status in the Vietnam league, there is no doubt the Vietnamese community will also be a pretty good draw.
    As for my fellow Filipinos, Phil Younghusband actually trialed with the Galaxy 3-4 years ago. He’s a bit better than his brother James. Though they played pretty well vs. the Galaxy, not sure either can really cut it in the MLS.

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  10. This rocks for Vancouver. Fan support was good in the first season, but it may be even better in year two. It’s got a huge Asian community, and the roster now has on it:

    1. A Korean International back
    2. A Chinese striker (Long Tan) who looks promising
    3. A Vietnamese American midfielder

    All they need now are players from Japan and the Philippines (I recommend one of the YoungHusband brothers who grew up in the Chelsea Academy)and they will have all of their Asian bases covered!

    Joking aside, I think the club is very smart to acquire good players that also appeal to their community. I don’t think there is another team in MLS that has gone this far in this regard. I’m a Sounders fan but I will admit that I’m pulling for the Caps to do well

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  11. Nguyen lands with the best team for him & one of the teams with the biggest need in the end. There is going to be one hell of an interested Asian community surrounding Vancouver next year… Excited to see where Nguyen is in terms of quality nowadays.

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  12. So, the lottery odds were reset. I guess I owe DCU an apology for sitting this one out. There’s a good chance that the next year will bring a better lottery prospect. Of course, United will probably pass anyway…..

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