Wednesday May 12, 2004
Lynx sniper ready for kicks
By MIKE KOREEN -- Toronto Sun
When new Toronto Lynx forward John Barry Nusum touched down in this city last month, the native of Bermuda probably felt like hustling back to the Bermuda Triangle.
Disappearing from the face of the earth might have been better than braving the cold in Toronto.
Fortunately for the Lynx, soccer is a summer sport. Otherwise, the Bermuda national team player wouldn't have signed a two-year deal with the A-League club.
"April was horrible," said Nusum, who led the A-League's Atlanta Silverbacks with seven goals last season. "I couldn't take it ... I've just got to get out of here in the winter months."
But soaking up the rays yesterday at Lynx media day, the personable Nusum, 23, looked right at home. He scored his first goal of the year in the team's third game of a recently completed season-opening four-game trip, giving Nusum a jolt of confidence heading into the home opener Sunday against the Rochester Raging Rhinos at Etobicoke Centennial Stadium.
Nusum, one of 12 new players on the Lynx (1-3), should give the team some much-needed offence after Toronto was 15th in the 19-team league in scoring last season.
"When he's fully fit, there's no reason he can't be one of the top players in the league," first-year Lynx coach Duncan Wilde said.
Nusum, one of the higher-paid players (about $5,000 a month) on a team with a player budget of $280,000, will get a look at perhaps the league's top spending club on Sunday. Expected to join Major League Soccer in the next few years, the Rhinos are believed to have a player budget of $500,000 US.
BIG BUDGET
They purchased the rights to Lynx star goalie Theo Zagar in a package worth about $20,000 Cdn during the off-season. But Toronto's smaller budget doesn't stop Wilde from setting lofty goals.
"Sometimes winning ugly is acceptable, but we're not trying to do that," he said. "We're trying to play with some quality and trying to bring an exciting team to town. It may take us the better part of the season to do that, but we think we've got the players to do it."
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