Collegiate Times

Image: 2012-10-23 21:24:30

The reason why the CAA is able to obtain so many international players is because the international players are unbiased towards universities trying to recruit them.

“You go over to an international player, they don’t know the difference between Virginia Tech, JMU, etc.,” Brizendine said. “They don’t know the difference so you can get that player. But if you go up to northern Virginia, they know the difference between Maryland, UVa, and Tech.”

Men’s college soccer coaches are taking advantage of their anonymity in foreign countries to lure in some talented players from all over the world.

Tech is very much like teams from the CAA in terms of program recognition, and therefore the result of this ban on international players being lifted is going to bring some major changes to the team’s performance.

Those inside the Tech men’s soccer program know exactly how important international players are to be successful.

“Our best player that has ever come through here was an international, Patrick Nyarko,” Brizendine said.

Nyarko, who is currently a forward for the Chicago Fire, was the key to Virginia Tech’s run to their first ever Final Four appearance back in 2007.

Brizendine was an assistant coach at the time Nyarko played at Tech, but emphasizes how important one player like him can be to a team.

“(Nyarko) would score and then we would defend really hard with the other guys,” Brizendine said. “If you look at last season (2011), we lost every game by one goal, besides Maryland. We didn’t have a special goal scorer. If Nyarko had played for us, we would have gone to the NCAA tournament that year because he would score.”

The pool of talented players overseas is vast. Teams like Tech can make up for its inability to recruit the top American prospects by finding those one or two players from other countries.

Current Tech forward David Clemens is excited for his team to finally get back to where it once was and knows how significant those international players will play to getting the team back.

“It will be really nice to have that advantage back by having those players that have a little more experience overseas,” Clemens said. “I am sure they will be quality players and it will definitely lift our squad.”

With the end of this ban, the Tech program will finally begin to step back out into the national spotlight.

“It really is going to open up a whole new world for us,” Brizendine said.

Continue Reading:  « Previous12

A version of this article appeared in the Oct 24 issue of the Collegiate Times.