Lee Nguyen: Waived former Whitecaps winger has something to prove

He arrived via lottery and left, three months later, via the waiver wire. Saturday, at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., winger Lee Nguyen will face his former, er, pre-season teammates, as the New England Revolution host the Vancouver Whitecaps.

“Any player who got cut or waived, they’ve always got a chip on their shoulder,” said Nguyen, a 25-year-old Texan who, as a one-time U.S. international, was placed in a lottery when he decided to return home from playing in Vietnam in December. “I’m just going to play my normal game, as I always do, and try to help my teammates win this game. It will be just like any other game. It will be fun.”

When the Whitecaps waived Nguyen (pronounced “win”) on March 1, coach Martin Rennie said it came down to having too many similar attacking players.

Among the midfielders Rennie had signed were Davide Chiumiento, Michael Nanchoff and Russell Teibert — off of whom are 5-7 or 5-8.

Players raved about Nguyen’s ball skills in pre-season and he could rival Chiumiento for his impact in small-sided games, but word was he’d be lost at times on the full field.

Still, the Whitecaps managed to wrestle a conditional draft pick out of Salt Lake in April for the rights to their second-round draft pick, Chris Estridge, so it seemed strange that they couldn’t get anything for Nguyen, who started his professional career under Guus Hiddink at PSV Eindhoven.

Two weeks before being waived, Nguyen made headlines by using a homophobic slur in a tweet to teammate Brad Knighton — one he quickly apologized for — and the midfielder admitted he’ll never know if that played a role.

“It’s tough to say,” he said. “You never want to assume that’s the reason why, but I don’t really know. “It was a little shocking because I thought I had a good preseason, but it’s just how it goes sometimes. The coach didn’t see me in his plans, he gave me an opportunity to find another team and it worked out for me.  I knew a few of the guys here and they’ve made it an easy transition,” he said. “Personally, it’s going good. I’m playing and gelling with the team nicely. “We’re nine games in and the team is close to where we want to be,” Nguyen said. “A couple of our games could have gone either way, if we were a little luckier. Vancouver’s going to come here and be tactically sound and we’ve just got to be smart. It’s about us playing our game and breaking their press.”

Nguyen is happy to be closer to his family and friends in Dallas, and he’s settled in with New England. He’s started seven of nine games and picked up one assist for the 3-6-0 Revs.

The Revs are coming off a 2-1 loss at Salt Lake and are 2-1-0 at home.

 

via Lee Nguyen: Waived former Whitecaps winger has something to prove.