Heartland FCD was the runners up in the 2009 African Champions League

Buzz,

Why do think he will move Ugo to RB? How tall is Ugo. Aziz is a slight 5′11”, that doesn’t seem like a CB. SH says he can play all 4 spots. Can he play RB for us?

Just curious.

Why? Why?
There are so many YOUNG ghanaian players who are so talented and all he could find is some 29 yr. old geezer?

I really want to see how this will work.

Agree with Ragnar, he seems more like a RB to me.

Ragner, I just had in my brain this guy was a CB. You may be correct that he is a RB. I’ll do more research.

There are so many YOUNG, talented ghanaian players. Why sign a 29 yr. old geezer?

This is sad.

Good point, Ragnar.

And with him playing right mid for Heartland recently, that makes me think he might be able to cross the ball better than Ugo.

Maybe this means pressure on Harris?

Lots of possibilities:

Jair-Davies-John-Uho with Ansah at right mid

Jair-John-Ugo-Ansah

Jair-John-Ansah-Ugo

Maybe even Ansah in Hernandez’s spot if he doesn’t come back.

Saying why sign this guy when there are a bunch of young ghanaians is ridiculous. Does anyone care that Jair is 31? No because he gets the job done

And I think Jair will play left wing this year, according do what Hyndman said. I believe Pearce has more defensive skills than he.

I liked Ansah, but IMO it won’t change our targets in the Draft. I think we still need a backup RB (with pick #21, like Rice) and 2 midfielders (with #5 and #6), that could be Tchani and Stahl.

Bruno – good point!

So….

Jeff
Jair-David-Dax-Harris
Hernandez
Heath-John-Ugo-Ansah
Dario

This assumes Van Den Berg is traded.

But we still need a proven (or more ready than Peri) forward, too.

IMO, we go forward and midfield at #5 & 6. Tchani and Akpan are the main targets. I’d love to see Bone, but that wont happen.

BTW, this does change our targets if we’re looking at a package to trade up earlier into the draft. Buzz suggested something about packaging one of the 1st rounders and VdB to move up for Okpare. with this signing, that’s not likely.

MLS really needs to scout Africa more thoroughly. There’s plenty of talent (cheap talent) on the Continent. The league has made inroads into Central & South America for obvious reasons, but it shouldn’t forget about places like Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria & South Africa.

Late 20s is peak for a defender. Not a bad idea to have a player in that age.

i agree that this still doesn’t change our angle in the draft. there’s more talent at MF and FWD IMO than at the defensive back. tchani and bunbury is my hope for the picks…if ever so lucky.

as far as ansah, i would probably prefer him at RB so we can move heath @ LM. i think he can do more damage at that position if DVB leaves.

Historically, the late 20s is the peak for all footballers.

This trade seems to fit the idea the SH has had about having position flexibility across the team, instead of being in the horrible spot we were for the first half of the year, when we stuck Pablo on central defense because we had no other options. Ewww…that was just plain awful to watch.

I agree that this signing probably does not alter our draft strategy. While there are always exceptions, in general, you take the very best talent no matter what the position, because it takes a 20-22 year old kid quite a while to be MLS ready. This is especially true now that they dumped the reserve teams and shortened the rosters (which was really bad for US soccer).

Maybe its just me, but i’m not that excited about Heath Pearce @ left mid. I’d much rather see an attacking player there like Brek Shea or Jair.

Why do people get mad about a signing based upon age alone, before they’ve seen him play? Especially when the player is only 29, and a fringe NT player (9 caps) for a respectable country! This team has plenty of youth, and will add more in the draft.

Seems to me FCD needed more depth in the backline, and I hope Aziz works out.

Now they just need to sign a 2nd striker, and draft some MF backup/projects.

As long as the guy is still athletic, then you really don’t need to look at his age. I’d MUCH rather have a guy who is 29 vs. 21 as a defender. As it was previously stated, this age is when players usually peak mentally, and our defense needs some composed smart players. As long as the guy is fit and has some wheels (which based on SH’s latest pickup’s, they all have been), this should be a good move.

Not quite sure about Heath moving up to mid though… I like his composure in the back, and he doesn’t seem to be a great attacking player….

Lloks like a good addition, although his resume is interesting, he’s barely stayed in one place more than a season or two.

Personally I wouldn’t move Pearce to LMF, if we feel the need to move someone from the existing roster there then i’d move Benitez as based on what I saw last season he offers more than Pearce going forward and Pearce is better defensively. Altough, unless Ansah is an improvement on the back for that played so well at the end of last season I’d stick with things as they were, with another off-season’s worth of continuity the 4 should be a strong unit

One question came to my mind right now: Is he right-footed or left-footed?

It changes everything, because if he is left-footed he won’t be able to play right-back.

As for the Draft, I don’t expect Schellas getting another young forward. I think he is working on trading VDB for a mature forward (a worth one), and if he can’t get one, VDB will continue here. I believe he will look to add senior players from the draft (like Stalh) and another midfielder (Tchani IMO) to cover the place André Rocha and Richetti will left.

I doubt if he was either left-footed or otherwise it is a problem, he wouldn’t be playing on the right side of midfield for the No. 2 team in Nigeria recently.

[...] Ansah is the new right back FCD signed from Heartland FC in Nigeria.  He’s a member of the Ghana National Team.  He can also play [...]

[...] major change is the signing of Aziz Ansah.  Ansah joins FCD from Hearthland FC in Nigeria and is a member of the Ghana National Team.  He [...]