A soccer mystery is being solved before our eyes here in San Diego.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re seeing why Manu Duah was taken first by San Diego FC in Major League Soccer\u2019s draft.<\/p>\n
Duah, in his lone college season at UC Santa Barbara, showed rare athleticism plus comfort with the ball.<\/p>\n
The mystery was this: would the West African and Southern Californian\u2019s total game translate onto the MLS pitch and thus flesh out why San Diego FC\u2019s Tyler Heaps and Mikey Varas chose Duah first \u2014 despite the defensive midfielder not landing on All-Big West Conference teams with UC Santa Barbara.<\/p>\n
The answer is yes. Duah belongs in MLS..<\/p>\n
A recent surge in playing time has revealed Duah, who turned 20 last month, as more fluid than many MLS players. That\u2019s an exciting starting point, especially for a 6-foot-4 athlete.<\/p>\n
Also, his ball skills are holding up. That wasn\u2019t assured.<\/p>\n
Duah seems a quick study, too. The Ghana native, who attended high school near Santa Barbara, has made an apt transition to center back, playing the full 90 there in SDFC\u2019s past two matches, each one against a second-place MLS squad.<\/p>\n
The thin-slice judgment, off merely two-and-a-half MLS matches, is this:<\/p>\n
Duah has a fair chance to evolve into a very good MLS player in his early 20s.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll praise to him,\u201d team captain Jeppe Tverskov, an MLS All-Star at defensive midfielder, said of Duah. \u201cHe\u2019s been amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The track record of collegians drafted into MLS isn\u2019t great. Indeed, when Varas gave Duah his first big chance, starting him June 28 at Dallas, he looked raw.<\/p>\n
Argentine midfielder Luciano Acosta showed the rookie that MLS is far more punitive than Big West competition. When Duah tried to close him out, the 5-foot-3 Acosta darted away with a lateral burst. The ease with which Acosta evaded him made Duah look awkward and gangly. Then Acosta finished with a 22-yard strike for a goal, causing Duah to drop his head. (Thankfully for him, an offside penalty nixed that result.)<\/p>\n
Dallas dealt Duah a second harsh lesson, hounding him at midfield.<\/p>\n
Panicked, Duah kicked the ball backward \u2014 a blind pass that went to Dallas\u2019 top forward, who turned it into a tying goal.<\/p>\n
Three weeks later, Varas gave him another start. Only Duah wasn\u2019t at defensive midfielder.<\/p>\n
He was at center back.<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t perfect that night, allowing an own goal of an unlucky carom.<\/p>\n
But it was a much better showing than three weeks earlier. And after reviewing that 1-1 outing against Vancouver, Varas rewarded him with a second consecutive start, Saturday, against Nashville. Again, he was at center back. This time, improving upon his success against Vancouver, Duah helped SDFC to a 1-0 victory. The shutout was the team\u2019s first in eight matches.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we found his position, first of all,\u201d said Tverskov. \u201cHe\u2019s doing very good at center back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Varas, speaking after the Vancouver match, said Duah\u2019s potential as a center back is \u201creally high\u201d.<\/p>\n
On the back line, his ball skills differentiate him. He has dribbled past pressing forwards and midfielders, leading breakouts.<\/p>\n
The team\u2019s build-up game should be enhanced, in time, by the former defensive midfielder\u2019s ball skills. Where Duah has attempted three take-ons in both starts there, SDFC veteran center back Christopher McVey \u2014 a very good player \u2014 attempted more than one take-on just once this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cManu has been a midfielder most of his life, but he\u2019s got a good frame, he\u2019s fast, and he\u2019s got a good technical ability,\u201d Varas said. \u201cSo, what he brings is, he brings the ability to carry the ball, to make really brave line breaking passes, but then he has the physical attributes to help us defend the space in behind, in transition. And he\u2019s still learning the principles a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Duah, who played center back in the June 7th exhibition against Club America, said his new position isn\u2019t much different from playing center midfielder. But he quipped that he sometimes dribbles too much because he forgets he\u2019s at center back.<\/p>\n
Where\u2019s this going?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s far too soon to know. SDFC is in first place in part due to its veteran tandem of center backs McVey and McNair.<\/p>\n
Duah is a rookie with a lot to learn.<\/p>\n
As the games become more important, rookies often stay on the bench.<\/p>\n
But this month, Duah has shown bursts of rare potential. Such as when he ran down a player to thwart a counterattack. Or when he used his height and springy legs to head away a back-post crosser. Or when he dribbled through traffic in his own penalty box.<\/p>\n
On the day he was drafted, Duah said he was eager to learn. He flashed a broad grin when asked about SDFC star wing Hirving \u201cChucky\u201d Lozano. Referring to Lozano\u2019s career\u2014 which has taken the Mexican star to a World Cup and Italy\u2019s top league \u2014 Duah said he \u201cwanted to be able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Originally Published: July 27, 2025 at 5:11 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A soccer mystery is being solved before our eyes here in San Diego. We\u2019re seeing why Manu Duah…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":98036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1370,3549,15520,7264,221,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-98035","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-san-diego-fc","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-soccer","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114928040317525281","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}