April 19, 2007 Toronto FC interview with Marvell Wynne (from Globe and Mail)
POSTED ON: 19/04/07
Wynne sees trade to Toronto as a victory
LARRY MILLSON
From Friday's Globe and Mail
TORONTO — Marvell Wynne's father, also named Marvell, played Major League Baseball for eight seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres and Chicago Cubs.
The younger Marvell liked soccer, but also tried baseball. Uncle Charlie convinced him that it was best that he not follow in his father's footsteps and instead should stay with soccer.
"First it was T-ball, you hit the ball off a tee and it was fun," Wynne said yesterday at BMO Field, where he worked out with his new team, Toronto FC. "Then you go to the [next level] and they throw it kind of slow. Then the curveball came, where it looks like it's going to hit you right on the face and then it dips down and makes a strike. So I said, I quit."
He had just met Uncle Charlie, baseball vernacular for a curveball, and that is all he needed to know.
It was a good choice. Wynne, 20, was attending the University of California, Los Angeles when he was the first player taken in the 2006 Major League Soccer draft by the New York team now known as the Red Bulls. The coach there was Mo Johnston, and he had traded up so he could draft Wynne.
After a trade that stunned him this week, he is back with Johnston, who now coaches Toronto FC.
Wynne, a swift right back, was joined by two other new players yesterday at BMO Field. They are left back Kevin Goldthwaite and striker Danny Dichio. It has been a busy week for Johnston.
It is not certain whether Dichio will have his visa in time to play the next game, Wednesday in Kansas City against the Wizards.
Johnston traded midfielder Richard Mulrooney to the Houston Dynamo for Goldthwaite and also received a first-round draft choice in 2008. He sent New York a first-round draft choice in 2008 and a partial allocation for Wynne.
With the arrival of Dichio, striker Conor Casey, who did not play much because of injury, was sent to his hometown Colorado Rapids for allocation money, a third-round draft pick and the rights to striker Riley O'Neill of Campbell River, B.C., who was the 36th pick in the supplemental draft in January and is on trial with St. Pauli in Germany.
Mulrooney, who was acquired in a trade with FC Dallas, was not well situated in Toronto because his wife has a good job in the United States that she could not duplicate in Toronto.
Dichio's wife, Claire, also is part of the reason he decided to join the MLS from Preston North End in England. She is from Huntington, N.Y., and Dichio said yesterday that the intention was to eventually return to her home country.
Wynne had been the starting right back for most of last season. He has speed and athleticism, but acknowledges that he needs work on the technical part of his game. Hunter Freeman started the Red Bulls' most recent game, a 3-0 victory over Dallas, with Wynne put on the bench by coach Bruce Arena.
"Bruce didn't like my performance in the opener against Columbus," Wynne said. "He said he was going to give Hunter a try. Hunter took the spot, then several days later we signed [Colombian striker Juan Pablo] Angel, and Bruce took me into his office and said, 'I do not have good news for you, you have been traded.' "
As surprising as the move was, Wynne said: "I can't take it personally. This is a business and I am just a product of the business. I realize that, but still it is a little blow knowing that the coach just threw me away for someone else in a straight trade.
"But I really am excited to be here in Toronto and back with Mo. I know he's going to like me and I know he's going to give me a good chance."
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