In the first season of the Stars, Joe came out of retirement to back up Louis Crayton who had, if I remember correctly, just finished a stint with DC United. He had some local connections to the Liberian community which is how he latched on with the Stars. Anyway, near the end of the first half of the first game of the season in Vancouver, Louis tore his ACL trying to clear the ball. Joe came in and that was that.

JJE- told it very nicely.

Crayton tried to juke around an attacking forward at the top of the 18 and kicked the ball while being slide tackled and tore the ACL.

It was a disaster...and exactly the type of move that got him cut from DC United.

It was sad, but man was it a weird blessing to have Papa Joe back.

I spent some time this AM trying to find the video highlights of the match, but I was unsuccessful. It looks like the Whitecaps no longer have it on their You Tube channel. The one thing I will never forget about that match is the poor camera work when Joe was getting ready to come in. He was bending over to stretch out and the cameraman was right behind him zooming in on his butt. I will never forget the collective, "Hmm, there is Joe's butt" while watching the match at the Sweety.

Always check IMS:
Crayton's injury happens right around 0:58.

IMSoccer News

I still contend that the Whitecap player was off-sides on their second goal. Makes me angry...

On the Miami Ultra's show Monday night with Ray Hudson as a guest, host Pieter Brown, who I find to usually be very accurate with his information, reported that Martin Nunez is another casualty of the budget cuts with the Strikers and will not be returning. Instead he will be signed by the Minnesota Stars. We will see...

He might not want to come up, we gave him a pretty hard time last year in game one vs the Strikers early in the season. I remember him waving his finger at us on the east side after scoring the goal to tie it up against us late in the game. I'm not going to say which finger it was he was waving.

He is a strong player and at least he did not drop on all fours, lift his leg and pee on us like another player who later joined our team after playing for California. We all came to love him as one of our own once he scored a few goals for our team.

Since I am still in combine research condition:

Martin Nunez - F/M - 5'6 - 160 - 25
Wiki page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Nu%C3%B1ez

Strikers pic and bio
http://www.strikers.com/index.php?id=23&playerID=82

Video hilites
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U12sfCTQ9S8

Video interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sSx2Po9qG4&feature=related

2011 NASL stats (#14)
http://www.nasl.com/index.php?id=291

Feature article
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/10/13/2452903/new-life-for-nunez-with-fort-lauderdale.html

FB page
http://www.facebook.com/martineduardo.nunez#!/profile.php?id=18713965

"This should quiet the worrywarts who were sweating all the player signing announcements by other clubs" hopes

That little old jersey collector

Me

"For a player to ask for a transfer has opened everybody's eyebrows." - Bobby Robson, then managing Ipswich Town.

I'm doing an interview with Manny this afternoon and will address this amongst other roster questions.

From a twitter account I see there is a player from Italy trying out can you comfirm if this is so!