In addition to the major news of fan favorite Martim Galvão’s signing, the Boys in Gold added another pair of midfielders this morning. In addition, defender Oumar Ballo will not be joining the team due to a visa issue. I liked Ballo as a player, though I wouldn’t consider him an irreplaceable piece, especially with the other quality defensive talent NSC has added.
Charlie Dennis
Dennis is a 6-2, 190-pounder from Brighton, England, who played two years at Shorter University outside Atlanta before finishing his college career at Palm Beach Atlantic. In two years at PBA, he played in 33 games, notching 15 goals and nine assists. As a senior, he went the full 90 just once (though in college, the eased restrictions on substitution make that less troublesome). The team went 14-2-2 during his senior season, falling in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, and went 13-5 during his junior year.
Dennis also played for South Georgia Tormenta FC in the PDL last Summer, appearing in all 14 games with production of three goals (on 41 shots) and three assists. Against NSC U-23, he took one shot in 57 minutes in a 4-3 loss, went 77 minutes and took six shots in a 2-0 win, and recorded an assist and four shots in 79 minutes of a 2-2 draw.
Here’s the highlight reel in two parts:
Despite being a taller guy, he shows good technical ability and ball skills to dribble around opponents. He’s not the fastest in a pure straight-line race – though he appears to be one of the faster guys who’ll be on this team – but his first two steps have impressive burst (especially while controlling the ball), allowing him to get by defenders and pop out of tight areas by playing himself into space and popping past them.
He whips some pretty impressive balls from the wing or shooting from the top of the box, including on free kicks. The ball seems to jump off his left foot, too, even though there are others on the team who have a bit more power. He’s also a threat in the air due to his size – and he looks like a monster in some of his highlights. The caliber of competition will be better in USL, but with some added strength that can be a major asset to his game.
At just 22 (and not turning 23 until very late in the USL season) he’s a high-potential prospect for the future. He has the strength and skill to play central midfield, but I could also see him on either wing, either serving crosses from the left or inverting on the right to shoot for himself.
Ramone Howell
Howell is a Jamaican Youth International who arrives from a four-year career at Valparaiso University in Indiana (if you ask my sister who used to live in Valpo, it is “just outside Chicago.” It is not.). At 5-11, 170 and 22 years old, he’s a young guy and while not tiny, not big, either.
In 16 appearances for Valparaiso, he took 27 shots – third on the team ,and tied for third with 10 on goal – but only scored one goal. He had – by a wide margin – the lowest shooting percentage of any non-zero player on the team. In fact, shooting a lot and not scoring much emerges as a theme when you dig further into previous years: 34 shots, 11 on goal, two goals as a freshman; 42 shots, only eight on goal, one score as a sophomore; 33 shots, 14 on goal, three scores as a junior. However, he’s a timely scorer, with four out of his seven career tallies game-winners. The Crusaders finished 8-9-1 on the year (a pretty standard result during his four years, with a high mark of 10-5-4 when he was a junior).
Howell played two years in the PDL, with the Des Moines Menace in both 2016 and 2017. He appeared in nine of 14 regular-season games this year, notching just 359 minutes (40 minutes per showing), but put in two goals on ten shots. He scored in the Menace’s playoff win against the Michigan Bucks, as well, though they were beaten in the second round by Thunder Bay Chill. The previous year, he played in seven games, tking only one shot.
To the highlights (which consist entirely of one play):
As you can see, he’s helping build from the back, he manages to beat a player 1v1, then gets a nice ball forward to make a run onto it, and finishes the give-and-go. Doesn’t tell us a ton about him – though does demonstrate some really good tools to work with. I would bank on him being a defensively-minded guy who can still get box-to-box, especially since the college stats seem to indicate he has improvements to make offensively.
Club and Country 