So for those that missed it, word out of the Wizards first preseason practice is that Matt Marquess has retired from professional soccer. Marquess was drafted by the Wizards in the 3rd round of the 2008 MLS Superdraft, the 39th pick. In his two years in the league, Marquess played in 6 league games, starting 5 of them and made one playoff appearance. Most of those appearances came in his rookie year when he appeared in 5 straight league games, starting 4 in the month of August. He was the Wizards last sub, coming on in the 77th minute of their 2-0 loss to Columbus that ended the Wizards run in the 2008 MLS playoffs. Marquess' lone league appearance this past year was the final game of the season, where he played 85 minutes. The game didn't go too well for Marquess as he gave up a PK for one of DC's goals and was out jumped by an injured Julius James on DC's second goal.
Counting those appearances with his 3 appearances in the US Open Cup over two seasons (all 3 of which went to extra time, two to PKs), Marquess appeared in 10 professional games for the Wizards for a total of 839 minutes. He had more success with the Swope Park Rangers, where in the 2008 season he started all 9 games he played in in the reserve league, scoring one goal and assisting on another. In the 2009 season, without a reserve league, Marquess appeared in all 12 of the Rangers games, scoring 3 goals over the course of the exhibition season the Rangers played. Good luck to Marquess in his future endevors away from KC and Major League Soccer.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
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2 comments:
Not to imply that Marquess was great (he was not), he showed just as much in his limited time on the field as Leathers or Meyers. I dont know if there are other factors involved, but the fact that MLS drives players like this out of the game with super-low salaries (Marquess made half of what Leathers makes, who makes about half of what Meyers makes) is a deteriment to the league.
Through two full seasons, he showed about as much potential as two other very similar players (age and position-wise) on the field, but because of draft position and rookie contracts, he is not given the opportunity to succeed and progress while others are.
I really hope the players union is fighting for the players on the low end of the scale in the CBA, without good young American players the league goes nowhere.
they play the same position except that Marquess was a left side only player and was behind both Harrington and Besler for the playing time, Leathers and Myers are both fighting for right back spot where KC really has no one.
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