The start of the season grows near. All the players are finally in Wichita, living, becoming acquainted with the city and training camp has started. I finally was able to get my first look at a full practice yesterday during the team’s afternoon training session. I have been waiting to write my second player introduction until I was able to witness the new players I was less familiar with play. After watching a scrimmage heavy two hour training session I immediately knew the player I wanted to introduce.
Your player intro for today is a man his teammates call ‘TJ’. The 6’2” 190lb frame of Tijani Ayegbusi is supported by a pair of massively muscular legs that are actually quite nimble. Tijani is not a rampant goal scorer by any means. He is however a fantastic defender with qualities not usually found with a man of his stature. He is patient on the ball and never pressures a move unless there is help and time for his intended target to control and make a decision. During the team’s scrimmages he almost toys with some of the new boys trying to take the ball off of him. He pulls the ball back with ease and redirects his motion out of trouble and into space beautifully. His intentions on the pitch are always to feed his teammates and protect his goalkeeper. As I mentioned he doesn’t look to score much but having a force as solid like TJ at the back gives the other players on the pitch the freedom to press forward and attack.
Season Prediction: Tijani will be the team’s enforcer. He will rarely get muscled off the ball and is a decent distributor of the ball. Attacking runs from TJ will be few but his relief support on failed jaunts forward by others will be unmatched. When TJ does score expect the arena to go wild. He might nick two or three this campaign and it will be an exciting event when he does, for the fans and the other Wings players. Tijani is sure to be a crowd favorite and I’m positive he will embrace our city and the fans that come out to see him.
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