Union sign striker Agorsor
The Union won the rights to striker Chris Agorsor in a weighted lottery conducted by MLS this afternoon.
Union sign striker Agorsor
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
The Union won the rights to striker Chris Agorsor in a weighted lottery conducted by MLS this afternoon.
Here's what I've been able to find out so far about the 21-year-old native of Severn, Md. (near Baltimore).
Agorsor won both the Gatorade and NSCAA High School Player of the Year awards in 2008. He played for the prestigious Baltimore Bays youth club, and had offers to play in Europe but turned them down to play college soccer at Virginia.
Here is Agorsor's bio from Virginia's athletic department website.
After scoring four goals in his first seven games for the Cavaliers, Agorsor suffered a serious knee injury. He was able to recover, and went to Europe for trials with a few different clubs. Agorsor's family is from Ghana, and he has dual American and Ghanaian citizenship, so he was able to work out with multiple teams across the continent.
One of those clubs was reportedly Manchester United, though work permit issues restricted how much Agorsor could do there.
None of those trials worked out, though, so Agorsor came back to the United States. He was one of the six mystery trialsts at the Union's preseason training camp in Wayne, having been invited by Union assistant coach John Hackworth.
Although there was definite mutual interest between Agorsor and the Union, actually getting the deal done was not so easy. Because Agorsor had never played in MLS before, his rights were assigned through a weighted lottery process.
As many (or as few) clubs as want to in the league can enter the lottery. The early word was that only three clubs put in for Agorsor's rights, and the Union later confirmed that report. Portland and Vancouver were the other clubs involved. According to the Union's Twitter feed, Philadelphia had a 96.3 percent chance of winning the lottery.
Once clubs declare their interest in a lottery, the weighing is done as follows. A club's record from the previous season and the order of the MLS allocation standings are combined in a large saucepan with a pound of ground beef, some tomato sauce, one diced tomato, one chopped-up onion and a few garlic cloves.
In other words, it's not a very transparent process. The odds for player lotteries are published, but it's not all that clear how the odds are created.
Will Agorsor satisfy Union fans' hunger more than a good pasta bolognese? We'll have to wait until the season starts next month to find out.
[Hat tips to a lot of people who had already done the research on Agorsor: Craig Stouffer, Charles Boehm, Soccer America and The Brotherly Game's Scott Kessler.]
Happy Bob,
For a "speaker of the truth" your comments are suppositions, not truth. So far, not one of your comments has come to pass. Why don't you wait and see, before posting on this board? As far as baseball being a "real" sport, all sports are real. Time for you to get real.- The web page stats don't separate the haters, right Jon? HappyBob is actually helping Philly Union coverage on philly.com. He seems to be learning quite a bit about the sport while he's at it.
I say, bring it, Bob. Just don't forget to make the check out to The Bernadine Center in Chester, PA. kthx.— buzzkiller23 
I'm hoping the kid does well. Remember, Charlie Davies almost died, and would obviously never play again after his car accident. Now, he's on loan with DC United. Agorsor is close to full fitness, and if he can get back to form, he will be a solid addition to a club that is looking more and more like a playoff contender.
Please stop feeding HappyBob's trolling. He posts in every Union article to make himself feel superior and to cause trouble. Simply push the "Report Abuse" button and stop egging him on. That's the only truth about Bob. He wants to cause issues. Let him do it somewhere else.- I can live with the haters. Especially if they actually start talking like they pay attention to the sport. Someone is going to ask whether Agorsor is a power forward or a small forward at some point, right?
- While I can applaud this signing of a scorer, the Union's primary problem is defending and marking men in front of its own goal. It is much more difficult to score when other teams consistently score first and go into a defensive shell, while playing counter-attack. The Union's success will rely on its ability to keep the ball out of its own net, and also not getting silly red-cards.— RunningTheBases
- The acquisition of experienced goalkeeper Mondragon and fellow Colombian Valdes will go a LONG way to solidifying the backline. The Union has done a good job this off season in clearing out some of the less able team members who, lest we forget, mostly came from the Expansion draft. We've kept the core but improved the rest of the squad. If we can get another experienced striker I think we'll have a solid team and every chance of making the playoffs in 2011 — geess
- I hope this kid fully recovers from that knee injury and can prove to be a wonderful catch for the Union.— Ski Fast
- Earl - I believe the reason the odds were so stacked is because a few weeks ago there was another lottery for a GA goalie from UCLA. Both Vancouver and Portland participated, which resulted in them losing . . . for the sake of another term . . . ping pong balls. The Union were one of the few teams that passed which further increased their share. Next time a youth player comes thru and requires a special lottery, The Union will be at the back of the line again and will be the ones with the minimal odds.
P.S. HappyBob knows what a striker is . . . there's hope for you yet HappyBob!— shane-56 - This is generally accurate. Union did not participate in the Cody Arnoux lottery (which was actually last week, IIRC), and since they were very high in the allocation order, they would have a very, very good chance, even if more teams had participated yesterday.
As far as Argorsor is concerned, he was a very promising young scorer before the injury, which almost cost him his leg. I'm not sure if he'll stick at striker, or if he'll wind up as a winger, but he's apparently shown the team enough in his trial that they're committing to him.— HazmatCorntail 
I don't get how the Union had a 96.3 chance with two other teams in it? Weighted is one thing but this seems like the other teams have more of a chance to hit the megemillions then earn his right........— Earl J- This comment has been deleted.— HappyBob
- Bob knows the soccer lingo! Go Bob! — buzzkiller23
- Who said he can't play/score? Comment makes no sense Bob. Better luck next time — fcphillyboy9
- Hello Happy Bob,
Regarding your comment about Agorsor not being a scorer, here is a portion of his bio from Virginia's athletic department website that you somehow missed;
"After scoring four goals in his first seven games for the Cavaliers. . . "
Glad you're back-- did you get box seats for the season? - This comment has been deleted. — HappyBob
- Bob, just because you refer to your right hand as a human being, doesn't actually make it one. — HazmatCorntail
- Think you'll ever just give up and stop commenting since the Union aren't going away? What benefit is there to you in trolling Union articles? — fcphillyboy9
- Thanks for the comments, all. As I noted above, the lottery process is very murky so it's hard to get those details sometimes.
- Hearing that the other reasons for being assigned via lottery are that he was targeted by an MLS scout rather than a Union scout and because his college class hasn't graduated yet but he didn't go through the draft process.— matt rogers
- recently had a lenghly tryout with man u,,,and didn;t pan out because work permits so he should be decent— dirksydirk
- Agorsor had to go through the lottery process because he had been offered a Generation Adidas contract by MLS a few years ago and he turned it down.— matt rogers
- Or I guess even scab isn't right.— p
- The headline reads funny if you don't realize it's a soccer story. "Union signs striker." Makes me think "SCAB!"— p
Reach Jonathan at jtannenwald@phillynews.com or 215-854-2330.
