2023 comment: I don’t think I ever published this one – notice there is no #10. But I thought in terms of history it would be worst posting it now.
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You will notice I don’t have any current college player, like Jamie Watson, listed. These players, while obviously legit reserve candidates, have to be drafted and are… well.. obvious.
| Top Ten: Trialists or Trainees Who Would Make Good Reserves | ||
| 1 | Mike Mariscalo | 2003 5th Round Pick out of Butler. This kid just had a certain something about him, a bit of game that caught the eye. Would have won the developmental spot in 03 ahead of Andy Rosenband if not for an Achilles injury during preseason. |
| 2 | Mike Tranchilla | 2003 4th Round pick out of Creighton. Goal poacher who didn’t do a lot of other stuff. Still might be a guy who could develop. Scored a TON of goals in college. |
| 3 | James Koler | Early thirties Brazilian forward with US passport. Formally of Sao Palo. A thirty year old is not often thought of as a player to develop, but he has some game and would make a nice insurance forward to have around. |
| 4 | Jonathan Steal | 18 year old Irish kid forward/midfielder. Intriguing prospect. Not being an American makes it hard for him to catch on, but nice player. |
| 5 | Mandi Urbas | German-American midfielder played with Landon Donovan was here about half a season. What a pretty player, he had silky smooth skills but just never got his mental understanding up to snuff. Maybe the language barrier was a problem. He would have been worth keeping around to see if he could learn some tactics. |
| 6 | Birch Wylie | Former PDL defender of the year, gave a short run in A-League before moving back to Dallas to be with a his family and “get a real job.” Still a quality left back out of SW Missouri State. |
| 7 | Todd Brown | Kid from Arlington-Martin who scored a ton of goals as a sophomore to lead his team to State then ran into personal problems and never really played again. Came to Burn training a couple times over the next year or two, but never played at a high organized level. This is a kid with fantastic raw talent who never got back on track. |
| 8 | Lourenzo Andrade | Andrade is the forward lighting it up for DFW Tornado and leading the PDL in scoring. He is a bit of a head case, being the one who got in a fight with Jamie Watson, but still he is showing something and might be worth looking at. |
| 9 | Kenny Cooper | Yes I know he is with Man U. The point is that he was the kind of player a reserve team could have made room for. It would have given the Burn a shot at a nice younger player who slipped though the MLS cracks as there was no system in place to hold onto a kid like this. |
| 10 | / | / |