It’s hard not to look at Crew SC’s signing of Norwegian center back Nicolai Naess and wonder if he's being brought in to eventually replace the team’s 32-year-old captain, Michael Parkhurst.
Naess is 23 and, as coach Gregg Berhalter said, is a “similar mold as Michael.” The two are of similar size — Naess is 6 feet, 181 pounds and Parkhurst is 5-11, 165 — and they play a similar style.
"This player (Naess) fits the passer profile, and in our eyes he has the physicality as well,” Berhalter said. “But predominately he’s a good passer.