A native of Germany, Werner Dong played soccer as a midfielder for the Dons in 1979. Prior to USF, he had played in 1976 for Hanover 96, and for DFB Pokal; in 1977, he played for Hannover 96 II and for 2.Bundesliga.
At every position the Dons are two or even three players deep, which is quite a luxury, but also quite a problem. There will be players sitting on the Dons bench who would be stars on most every other college squad. One of these players is Glen Van Straatum, a sophomore midfielder from Surinam. Like the other players, Van Straatum was a superstar in his own country, being the captain of the Surinam Junior National team. However the hardworking midfielder's talents are being lost in the Dons player shuffle. Not only does Van Straatum have to fight for a starting position, but he also has to fight some of the freshman such as Werner Drong of West Germany, Stanislau Musilek of Czechoslovakia, or Jo Bergsvand of West Germany for the precious little playing time the reserves get. Finding playing time for all his players will be Steve Negoesco's biggest problem this year. However Negoesco also is upset because some of his starters showed up for practice this year out of shape. "I don't understand it," complained Negoesco, "These guys know they have a job to do and they come to school not ready. They have to have more pride than that (TheFoghorn)."
