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Taylor Twellman

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Taylor Twellman
Taylor Twellman
Personal information
Full name Taylor Timothy Twellman
Height 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Position(s) Striker
Team information
Current team
 New England Revolution
Number 20
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 12 June 2007

Taylor Timothy Twellman (born February 29, 1980 in Minneapolis, Minnesota)[1] is a U.S. soccer player. Twellman currently plays striker for the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer.

Youth

Taylor was raised in the American soccer hotbed of St. Louis and attended annual powerhouse Saint Louis University High School. Twellman's father Tim played soccer for the Minnesota Kicks, Tulsa Roughnecks, and Chicago Sting of the North American Soccer League. His brother James Twellman, a defender, played with the San Jose Earthquakes reserves in 2005. He was also the recipient of the inaugural Keough Awards for outstanding male soccer player from the St. Louis area in 2004. His grandfather is former Major Leaguer Jim Delsing, who played ten seasons in the Major Leagues with six different teams (Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees, St. Louis Browns, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City, and the A's). His uncle is also notorious golfer Jay Delsing.

Twellman attended Saint Louis University High School and was a letterman in American football, basketball, soccer, and baseball. Playing shortstop, he batted .450 as a junior and .517 as a senior, earning a contract offer from the Kansas City Royals. He graduated from SLUH in 1998 with a 3.5 grade-point average but instead elected to attend the University of Maryland on an athletic scholarship playing soccer rather than turn professional as a baseball player.[2]

College

Twellman attended the University of Maryland, for whom he played in 1998 and 1999; in 1998 Twellman was named a second-team All American for the squad, and in his sophomore 1999 season he finished as a runner-up for both the Hermann Trophy and the MAC Player of the Year Award. After only two seasons with the Terrapins, Twellman left college to turn professional.

Pro career

Germany

In 2000, Twellman signed with German Bundesliga (First Division) club 1860 Munich. However, after an unsuccessful two years with the team, for whom he never played above the reserve level, Twellman returned to the U.S. when he was drafted second overall by the New England Revolution in the 2002 MLS SuperDraft.

MLS

In Twellman's first season in MLS, he established himself as one of the most dangerous players in the league, finishing second in the league in goals scored (23), first in overall points (52), and was runner-up to Carlos Ruiz for MLS MVP, despite starting the season as a backup for Mamadou Diallo and Wolde Harris. In the 2003 season, despite being beset by a number of injuries, Twellman finished tied for first in the league in goals scored with 15, again with Ruiz. His production went down in 2004, as he ended up with just nine goals. But 2005 saw Twellman back to his old form, as he won both the Major League Soccer MVP Award and MLS Golden Boot, finishing the regular season with 17 goals. He was also named to the MLS Best XI, as he was in 2002.

Twellman was the target of transfer talk when Odd Grenland B.K. of Norway reportedly made a $1.2 million bid for him, which MLS rejected. In February 2007, New England announced they had signed Twellman to a four year contract, reportedly worth $300,000 per year.[3]

In 2007, Twellman won his first title with the Revolution: the US Open Cup, a season in which he finished third in MLS in goals scored. The Revolution also won the Eastern Conference title, with Twellman scoring a spectacular bicycle kick against the Chicago Fire to secure the Revs' spot in the 2007 MLS Cup. Twellman scored the opening goal of the 2007 MLS Cup against Houston Dynamo. However, this would be New England's only goal as they would go on to lose their third straight MLS Cup by a score of 2-1.[4]

In January 2008, English Championship team Preston North End had a bid totalling $2.5 million rejected for the striker, against the player's wishes. It remains to be seen whether or not PNE will renew their interest.[5]

National team

In addition to success in MLS, Twellman has begun to establish himself for the U.S. national team. He made international headways at the 1999 World Youth Championship, scoring four goals. Twellman has since graduated to the senior national team (making his first appearance for the team on November 17, 2002 against El Salvador). Twellman struggled to score his first international goal, having several apparent goals waved off for offside infractions, before finally scoring against Panama in a World Cup qualifier October 12, 2005. He began to improve his chances for a spot on the 2006 World Cup team with a hat trick against Norway in a friendly on January 29, 2006 (only the ninth in US National Team history). However, as the selection process for the 23-man World Cup roster came around, Twellman was not on the list.

International goals

# Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1. 12 October, 2005 Gillette Stadium, Massachusetts, United States  Panama 1-0 2-0 WCQ
2. 29 January, 2006 Home Depot Center, California, United States  Norway 0-0 5-0 Friendly
3. 29 January, 2006 Home Depot Center, California, United States  Norway 1-0 5-0 Friendly
4. 29 January, 2006 Home Depot Center, California, United States  Norway 2-0 5-0 Friendly
5. 10 February, 2006 AT&T Park, California, United States  Japan 3-0 3-2 Friendly
6. 12 June, 2007 Gillette Stadium, Massachusetts, United States  El Salvador 3-0 4-0 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup

Titles

Club Titles

National Team

Career stats

New England Revolution

Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2002||rowspan="7"|New England Revolution||rowspan="7"|Major League Soccer||28||23||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||28||23 |- |2003||22||15||1||1||2||1||25||17 |- |2004||23||9||1||0||colspan="2"|-||24||9 |- |2005||25||17||1||0||colspan="2"|-||26||17 |- |2006||32||11||2||1||2||0||36||12 |- |2007||26||16||4||4||colspan="2"|-||30||20 |- |2008|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 3156||91||9||6||4||1||169||98 Template:Football player statistics 5156||91||9||6||4||1||169||98 |}

See also

References

  1. ^ ESPN SoccerNet Bio, ESPN, retrieved 2007-11-09 {{citation}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  2. ^ Rosewater, Amy (2002-08-01), Twinkle returns for Twellman, USA Today, retrieved 2007-11-09 {{citation}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  3. ^ Revs' Taylor Twellman signs contract extension, MLS, 2007-02-12, retrieved 2007-11-09 {{citation}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  4. ^ Dynamo beat Revolution 2-1 to repeat as MLS champions, Fox Sports, 2007-11-18, retrieved 2007-11-18 {{citation}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  5. ^ Twellman Vents About Preston Approach, The Washington Post, 2008-1-18, retrieved 2008-01-30 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
Preceded by Major League Soccer MVP Award
2005 		Succeeded by
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