USL Feature
Thursday, February 2, 2012
After being named a Division III All-American for Williams College in 2010, Charlie Romero took the chance to make a name for himself and get a chance to turn professional when he came to the 2012 USL PRO Combine presented by Umbro, held at IMG Academies last weekend. We caught up with him to talk about his experience, and what his future might hold.
USLSoccer.com: What was your experience at the Combine like?
ROMERO: My first impression was everything was very well run, well executed and well organized. I didn’t attend any other combines just because I had heard that this was the one that would have been most beneficial to attend just because all of the coaches were there, it had the best facilities and the talent was supposed to be the best one relative to other combines, so when I got accepted it was a no-brainer to go to the USL PRO Combine ahead of some of the other ones.
On the weekend, it was pretty nerve-wracking. You only have so many opportunities to showcase your abilities to these coaches and I just tried, when I was out there, to make every moment count and not take any plays off, and I guess it paid off.
USLSoccer.com: You were on Team Geometra, and it looked like you had a pretty good squad and some pretty good chemistry, especially going forward. What was that like to be part of?
ROMERO: Our coaches (FC Jax Destroyers Aidan Davison and Orange County Blue Star’s Jon Spencer) on the first day really emphasized the important of not trying to play outside your comfort zone and to really focus on playing within a normal team concept, and that would end up benefitting everyone more than 11 people trying to stand out on their own, so we didn’t try to take on people, we looked to make the easy pass, keep possession.
It was nice, because everyone was looking for each other, people were unselfish and I think that’s why we had a pretty good weekend. We went 2-1, we controlled the first and the last game, the middle game we kind of got away from it a little bit, but for a random group of guys that had never played together before, we jelled pretty nicely in two days. It was definitely exciting to be a part of a team that really bought into the concepts of the coaches that quickly.
USLSoccer.com: I’m guessing the highlight for you was probably the final game where you were able to score four goals?
ROMERO: Actually, the first game I was kicking myself because I almost had a volley right away, I had a couple of headers that I got on the end of that I just missed, so going into Sunday I knew that I had played fine, but as a striker everything is about scoring, and I knew I wanted to at least score one goal before I left to show the scouts I could finish.
Things just opened up a bit, maybe because people were tired, but I found some space in-between defenders and my teammates really had some nice assists, a couple of the goals I scored were really unselfish plays by my teammates and I was just in the right position at the right time. I really didn’t think too much of it while I was playing because a couple of the finishes were just getting on the other end of crosses, but I realized after I scored my fourth goal that it was pretty cool, that I had a pretty good game, so I was happy with that.
USLSoccer.com: What’s the biggest thing you took away from the weekend?
ROMERO: I guess to not be nervous when you’re playing in this type of environment, where there are a lot of people watching you. I think in the last game I was doing some of the stuff I was doing in college, which was taking defenders on, trying to get in behind, whereas in the first couple of games I was more trying not to lose the ball and try and keep possession, maybe play a little more conservatively, and I think that ultimately you want to show these coaches the best version of yourself, and if that’s taking people on, or dribbling and going at people, or shooting from distance then that’s what you’ve got to do. When you don’t hesitate and don’t hold anything back, that’s when you’re going to play your best.
USLSoccer.com: Have you heard from any of the teams yet?
ROMERO: Yes, I’ve heard from a few of the USL teams, I don’t think I should say which ones, but I’ve got to decide which combines or preseason’s I’m going to attend in the next few [weeks], so I’ve got to figure out the timing and see which situations make sense for me. It was nice going down there and having a good weekend, and that’s pretty much what I was hoping for, that I would hear from some teams so I guess you could call the weekend a success from that standpoint.