Ngwenya won MLS Cup with Dynamo in 2007
The opening stage of Major League Soccer’s first-of-its-kind re-entry draft didn’t have much excitement, but D.C. United did take advantage by selecting modestly priced forward Joseph Ngwenya, whose contract option for 2011 had not been exercised by the Houston Dynamo.
Ngwenya, a 29-year-old Zimbabwe native who made $72,000 last year, had his best MLS season in 2007, when he scored nine goals in all competitions and helped the Dynamo capture the 2007 MLS Cup.
The former Coastal Carolina product spent the next two seasons trying to latch on in Europe, most notably with Antalyaspor in Turkey, before returning to MLS in 2010, where he scored one goal in 12 MLS games.
“[Ngwenya] is another piece — what I think is a very good piece,” United coach Ben Olsen told the D.C. United website. “We expect Joe to be a very effective player for us. Saying that, we’re not done — not by a long shot. We still have some things that we want to add, but you don’t get all of those pieces in the first two weeks.”
With the values of the players available in Stage 1 of the re-entry draft predetermined by their previous contracts, only D.C. United and Columbus, which nabbed low-priced Kansas City defender Aaron Hohlbein, opted to choose players. The other 16 MLS clubs passed. More activity is expected in Stage 2 next week when clubs can negotiate directly with players.
