Rusty Pierce

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rusty Pierce
Personal information
Full name	Rusty Pierce
Date of birth	July 24, 1979 (age 27)
Place of birth	The Woodlands, Texas, USA
Height	5'10
Playing position	defender
Club information
Current club	Columbus Crew
Number	4
Youth clubs
1997-99	UNC-Greensboro
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2000-04 2005 2006–	New England Revolution Real Salt Lake Columbus Crew	101 (0) 15 (0) 18 (0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 4 December, 2006. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 4 December, 2006. * Appearances (Goals)

Rusty Pierce (born July 24, 1979 in The Woodlands, Texas) is an American soccer defender who currently plays for the Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer.

Pierce played college soccer at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro from 1997 to 1999, appearing in 51 games during his time there. Following his junior season, Pierce signed a Project-40 contract with MLS, entering the 2000 MLS SuperDraft, where he was selected 14th overall by the New England Revolution.

As a rookie, Pierce quickly earned a place in the Revolution starting lineup with his tenacious defending, and finished the season second on the team in minutes played, having started in 29 of the team's 32 games. Pierce remained a constant in the New England backline for the next four years when healthy, although injuries limited his playing time in the 2002 and 2004 seasons.

Following the 2004 season, Pierce's impending free agency led the Revolution to leave him unprotected for the 2004 MLS Expansion Draft, where he was selected in the eighth round by Real Salt Lake. After the 2005 season, his rights were traded to the Crew. With Salt Lake in 2005 and the Crew in 2006, Pierce played around half of all games during the season.

As of the end of the 2006 season, Pierce had played more league games without scoring than any other MLS player except Brandon Prideaux of D.C. United.^[1]

Pierce has played for United States national team at a number of youth levels, but is currently uncapped at the senior level.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ "Nick Garcia hits the net", Climbing the Ladder, July 1, 2006, retrieved December 4, 2006.

[edit] See also

• List of current MLS players

Columbus Crew - Current Squad
2 Hejduk | 4 Pierce | 5 Moss | 6 González | 7 Thomas | 8 Oughton | 9 Garey | 10 Ngwenya | 11 Grabavoy | 12 Gaven | 13 Burch | 14 Marshall | 16 Kamara | 17 Szetela | 20 Ward | 23 Hendrickson | 24 Zayner | 25 Virtuoso | 28 Gruenebaum | 31 Gaudette | — Herron | — Hesmer | — O'Rourke | — Rogers | Coach: Schmid