Some summer news has crawled out from the Terrapin soccer offices…
Count Potomac (Md.) Churchill forward Kevin Dansky as the 10th – yes, 10th – addition to Sasho Cirovski’s top-rated recruiting class for the class of 2009. Collegesoccernews.com ranks the group of incoming Terps as a five-star class, and Dansky is no scrub himself. The late addition scored 26 goals this season for Churchill en route to honors as the Gazette’s Player of the Year for the Washington Metropolitan area. I watched him play Alex Lee and Magruder in a losing effort during last year’s epic 4A West Final, and he’s certainly a talented player with a nose for the goal.
Hopefully, some of you got a chance to read this week’s print story on Matt Oduaran’s trials with the Nigerian U-20 National Team. As noted in the article, Matt wasn’t able to get in contact with me before the story went to print. Well, considering my luck, it’s no surprise Matt got back to me via email just hours after deadline. Here’s the good stuff:
On when he heard about his invitation:
“When I first found out about my call up, I was actually taking a nap before class and I got a call from one of my coaches telling me about an invitation to the tournament in Malaysia, that had later been canceled because of swine flu. Then I was told to come to the training camp in Abuja, Nigeria as soon as possible by the coach after the tournament was canceled so I can begin training with the team. ”
On his day-to-day:
“Training is pretty rigorous, actually… [We] get on the bus by 7:30 because that is when it leaves, no matter what. Then we train for 3 hours in heat that is probably 100 degrees. Then we come back and eat and have 2 hours to rest, then we train again at 4 for another 3 hours or we have a match in the evening. Then we just do it again the next day.”
On the competition:
“The training and matches are very physical and fast and pretty technical as well, with players just as athletic as you are so you have to be prepared physically and mentally. The team and coaches have a different mentality about everything because they are relied upon to win at any cost because the country expects it.”
On possibly missing Maryland soccer:
“If I make the team, it would definitely be one of my greatest soccer achievements because of the magnitude of this event and how much is expected of a team to win this World Cup. But it would also be very difficult knowing that I may miss some of my season at Maryland because the event is during our college season.”
Jonas Shaffer is The Diamondback’s men’s soccer beat writer. He can be reached at shaffer@umdbk.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/jonas_shaffer.