Playing Career
In 2001, Alcaraz-Cuellar went to an open tryout with the San Diego Flash of the USL A-League. The team was impressed enough to offer him a contract and he spent the 2001 season in San Diego. In San Diego, Alcaraz-Culler quickly established himself as a starter that provided him with a productive debut season where he recorded six goals and tallied 3 assists. The Flash folded at the end of the season and he moved to the Portland Timbers in 2002. Under the managemnet of Bobby Howe, he was deployed as a playmaker for the Timbers. His first prosperous season came in 2003, where he helped the Timbers record the club’s third straight winning season including an impressive four-game winning streak. He set the single-season record for assists at nine. In the 2004 season, Alcaraz-Cuellar contributed by leading the offense with 10 assists that culminated with the Timbers finishing first in the Western Conference, with a record total of 57 points that claimed the league’s Regular Season Championship. However, they were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by their long-standing rival, the Seattle Sounders. Once the season reached to a conclusion, he was awarded the Assist Leader Statistical award and received All-League honors. In 2005, the Timbers continued their winning ways and finished the year with their fifth straight winning season. Alcaraz-Cuellar managed to re-set the club’s record for assists in a single season, recording 12 assists which placed him to first in the league in assists for the second straight season, becoming the first player in league history to win the honor twice. . He also earned a second All-League selection.
His contract expired in 2007 and when the Timbers did not express an interest in signing him, which resulted in Alcaraz-Cueller to sign a contract with Cascadian rivals the Seattle Sounders after Adrian Hanauer, owner of the Sounders, and Brian Schmetzer, drove to Portland to ask him to sign with Seattle. He selected the number 77 because the number 7 jersey was worn by Leighton O'Brien. In his debut season with the Sounders, he managed to contribute two goals and eight assists, which tied him for second in the league. Alcaraz-Cuellar helped his team win the double by claiming the USL First Division Commissioner's Cup, and his first career USL First Division Championship. When the USL Sounders were prompted to the Major Soccer League at the end of the 2008 season, Alcaraz-Cuellar's contract was not renewed by the club; making him a free agent.
Read more about this topic: Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar
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