Johnny Menyongar is first player to sign with NSC Minnesota Stars pro soccer team

YES! A midfielder/forward we need.

Now that's a good first pick.

This is splendid.

The aging former media hack for the former club is heartened that his Tiny Ticket nickname has survived these 10 years. An excellent signing.

*Like* button pressed! Welcome home!

I love Johnny. It's good signing, but I'm not sure it's a good first signing. I was hoping for something a little higher profile--not AC St. Louis high profile, but something big nonetheless.

Is Johnny really the guy we can build a winning team around.

Are they obligated to build the team around the first signing?

I like this news a lot. I was genuinely surprised.

Johnny's a pretty well-known name in Minnesota soccer, and many people were disappointed when he left. He's perhaps not a cornerstone for the team performance-wise, though he was the Rochester MVP the last two seasons. He is, however, a great first signing: a fan favorite returning home. There hadn't really been many early indications of him signing here--no Favre-esque courting period--so this is a nice shot of enthusiasm surrounding this new, building team.

(Ok, I'm sounding like Rookie now... must temper enthusiasm somehow... uh, that crest is gonna look awful on Johnny. Yeah, that's it.)

JM is 30 years old and coming off ACL surgery, but he is as close as anyone at this level to being a classic No. 10 -- a play-maker who can score. His production from that position was sorely missed by the Thunder, and they never recovered after he left for Rochester. Hopefully the knee injury doesn't limit his trademark quickness and deceptiveness in tight spaces.

He was always best when he played in the middle as a playmaker. For some reason, Buzz always played him at forward, though.

This is a great signing. I wonder if we'll see someone like Melvin Tarley come back. For all the bad knocks Tarley gets, I think he actually paired up well with Menyongar.

I think it is an excellent signing.

Admittedly, this is not the nationally known signing that would have brought extra ink from the traditional media.

However, from a fan and league insider standpoint, it is an excellent signing. We have gone out and acquired one of the best players in Division 2 soccer, a player we lost due to the Thunder's inability to sign him in 2005 due to budget restraints.

We have sent a signal to the veteran players of Division 2. In the late 90's through the early '00s, the Thunder used to sign many of the best A-League players from other Division 2 teams to fill gaps in the roster; i.e. Kevin Anderson, Kalin Bankov, C.W. Raines, Mike Gentile, Jakob Fenger, Hugo Llamas, Marco Ferruzzi and others. These are the kind of players you can build a team around without having to worry that they will be lured away by MLS. These "tweeners" excel in Division 2, but only occupy the bench in MLS at a low salary.

In the mid-00's the Thunder lost the financial ability to sign these players. They became the team that lost their best players to other Division 2 teams. By signing Johnny, we signal to that type of player and his agent that we are willing to pony up the kind of money necessary to bring them here.

This will also help to energize the Liberian fanbase in the state again. Johnny is popular in the community.

As for signing someone to build a team around, well...frankly, it's an extremely poor concept to proceed from.

Soccer, especially in the pros, is too big a game to attempt this. This is not like basketball, where signing a Kareem Abdul Jabbar as the Bucks did or a Shaq being signed by Miami can vault a team from the bottom to respectability.

You can build a team around a playing style or coaching philosophy or a strategic approach. You can build around a core of players, arbitrarily around 6 or 7 to a dozen or so. But to attempt to build a team around one player? Suicide.

So now, the question becomes, "Can Johnny be one of those players we can build around?" In my opinion, the answer is, emphatically, "Yes!"

His ability (aside from his injury, we'll just have to see about that) is unquestioned. The fact that he returned to the Twin Cities during every off-season with the Rhinos and played in various tournaments with other Thunder players means he will have much more familiarity with his most likely prospective teammates than any other signing.

Again, aside from last year's injury, he has been very durable over his career, seldom missing games due to injury.

If we are able to sign most of the Thunder players who spent their time this past off-season practicing at the NSC, he'll serve as a replacement for the loss of Ricardo Sanchez. For, while Sanchez was the best free kick specialist in the league last year, his goalscoring during the run of play was not remarkable at all. Johnny should pick up Sanchez's scoring output, and add some speed and versatility to the team.

So, except for the mass media aspect, I think he was a GREAT signing.

"And I think that if bullsear were to inherit the United States Bullion Depository and it's contents at Fort Knox, he would bitch about the building's architecture" asserts

That little old jersey collector

Me

"As for signing someone to build a team around, well...frankly, it's an extremely poor concept to proceed from."

Well said. Of course no matter who the team is, you build your team around the first player signed purely because they are the first player signed. However, in this game of 11 players, even if we picked up Wayne Rooney, you can't build a team around him or any one player. It certainly helps to shape the team, but doesn't dictate who you pick up. Also, even at MLS level, there is not enough talent or money from any team to go find exactly the right players to compliment your star.

It's a good first signing and lets leave it at that and see what comes next.

As to Andy's comment, Johnny M. is best played as a withdrawn forward. He's not exactly a play maker, and he is an attacker but not in the true sense of a forward. He certainly is not a digger of the ball falling back to help the d. So the team will need to figure out how to utilize him with the other players they sign.

I'm pretty sure Rochester did play him as a forward last year. So in that sense you would probably want a target man up front with him trailing.

I think the biggest thing with Johnny M, which I wrote in my brief report at IMS yesterday, is that he has big play capabilities and you never know when he will pull the trigger. He takes innocuous situations, suddenly makes a move or two and unleashes a shot.

Sign Tarley and I'm really going to look forward to the Open Cup this year.

ansu toure's career seems to have taken a bit of a downturn, but he has got some impressive upside. anybody see him back in minnesota?

He's starting for the Whitecaps.

I did like his form in Rochester. He pestered us to no end every time we played them. Hope the ACL injury isn't too much of a concern.

The board has made an EXCELLENT case for Johnny, so I'll withdraw my misgivings. uhclem, I hadn't thought about his ties to the Liberian community, which I know is much larger than people think it is, and that prospect really excites me. You also make some really good points about his role on the team.

I guess I was just being skeptical because I had ACSTL's first signing stuck in my head.

Johnny is a great player, and it'll be great to see who they get to play with him.

Ansu - I think he is playing for Montreal (or Vancouver?), he scored in their recent match against Seattle.

there is a kid who reminds me a lot of menyongar. he was playing D2 (newberry college, or something like that) for most of his career but played his senior year at furman, where he did ok but didn't light the place up. in between his junior and senior years, he tore up the PDL for mississippi brilla and had me convinced. the mls scouting reports don't like him, but I think he can be another Johnny Menyongar. I don't think he has a pro contract.

Debola Ogunseye is the name. Furman listed him at 5'6 but my guess is more 5' 3 of 5'4. I think he really needs to get a long hard look at the "USL1" level