As Nikolas Dyhr, City SC’s offseason acquisition at left back, came up through the Danish club system, he was, in soccer parlance, a No. 10 — an attacking central midfielder, one of the most important players on the field.
And then, when he hit the under-19 level, he was moved to left back. He was not thrilled.
“It was (not enjoyable),†he said. “I hated it. I was the top scorer from under-18, scored 20 goals in 18 games, so I didn’t understand why. But I could see my teammates were really, really good players, so I can see now it was a good thing to do as a left back.
“In the beginning, it was terrible because I wanted to be the No. 10 and the goal scorer, but then it went well and I did well and I was called up to the first team. And I think if I wasn’t the left back at the time, I wouldn’t have been selected to the first team.â€
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Left back has been very good to Dyhr (pronounced Dyur — there’s no I sound, which he says is easy for Danes though firsthand experience has shown is not so easy for Americans), leading him all the way to America. City SC went out on the transfer market in the offseason and signed Dyhr from FC Midtjylland in Denmark to strengthen a position that has seen a number of players rotate through it in its first season-plus. Dyhr got a late start with the club, signing with the team just a week before the start of training camp and then missing the Florida portion of camp while waiting for his work visa to come through. He made his first start Saturday against D.C. United, playing 57 minutes before coming out as the staff continues to build his minutes.
“It was an amazing feeling,†Dyhr said of his first start. “It didn’t go as I hoped, but it was nice to get my first start.â€
Anthony Markanich has held down the left back position since being acquired from Colorado in the summer transfer window last season. He followed in the footsteps of John Nelson and Kyle Hiebert, a converted center back. With Dyhr apparently ready to go 90 minutes, the competition is on.
City SC got yet another tie in Dyhr’s debut, and he felt responsible for D.C. United’s second goal, as Jared Stroud get behind him and crossed the ball to Christian Benteke in front of the net for a goal that put D.C. ahead.
“That second goal was not what I like,†he said, “but sometimes mistakes happen. So that’s how the learning process is now. New team, new country, new culture, so there’s lots of things to learn and have to adapt to. But it’s getting a lot better.â€
“Nikolas gets good minutes under his belt,†said City SC coach Bradley Carnell. “Those are very important for him, and now it’s a nice competition at left back. ... He’s progressing in a good way.â€
Dyhr is only 22, so he’s a relative newcomer when it comes to playing left back, and that was a learning process for him as well, and it took him a while to get used to it.
“I was the guy who took the ball and did all the skills and the fun stuff,†he said, “but (at left back) I didn’t get the ball in the middle so I had to defend and just run up and down so it was a big difference for me in the beginning.
“I like to go forward, and I also like to defend now. In the beginning, I hated to defend, but now I think it’s fun.â€
But those skills going forward and getting into the attack are among the things that made Dyhr attractive to City SC.
“We like attacking outside backs,†Carnell said. “It helps us in our game model because we’re not a defend-the-box kind of team, we’re a forward-defending counter-pressing team, so the more bodies we have up the field, the smaller distance there is to counter-press and win the ball back straight away.â€
Dyhr grew up in Horsens, the seventh-largest city in Denmark. His father played team handball but coached the soccer team of Nikolas and his older brother. (“He knew it was better for me to play soccer, so it was that way. I just wanted to play soccer,†he said.) Because of his brother, Dyhr regularly played with older boys, something that accelerated his development.
“I got matched with bigger guys and got better and better,†he said.
He made his debut with Denmark’s under-16 team in 2017 and also played for the U-17, U-18, U-19 and U-21 teams. (He has yet to be called in by the full national team.) He spent most of his time as a pro in Denmark playing with Midtjylland, one of the stronger teams in Denmark, winning the league title once and the Danish Cup twice during his time there.
But Midtjylland plays in a stadium that seats a little over 12,000, and when City SC sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel came calling and Dyhr saw what crowds look like at CityPark, it got his attention.
“My agent told me about ºüÀêÊÓƵ and then I looked at it. It looks amazing with the fans, how they did last year, it looks so great,†he said. “I’m very happy; I’m pleased to be here.
“The fans are crazy. It’s a little bit different from European football. Here it’s more like a party. In Denmark, you have the away fans and the home crowd and they’re cheering at each other, but here, it’s more like a party.â€
And of course, the whole country is bigger. Denmark is about the size of the state of Maryland.
“It’s big,†he said. “In Denmark, you would take a bus to the opposite side and it’s like three hours in a bus. Here, you can’t take a bus. It’s amazing. I didn’t know it was so big here, but I can see it now.â€
The country is big; the adaptation is big. City SC is hoping for big things from Dyhr.