November NASL News
With the LA Galaxy capturing the MLS crown on Sunday, the NSC Minnesota Stars the NASL title last month and Orlando City SC the USL PRO championship late last summer, the U.S. and Canadian professional men’s outdoor soccer season is now at an end for 2011. But the offseason is always a busy time, and several NASL teams have made changes in the last several weeks.
FC Tampa Bay Signs Scott
The Florida club announced the signing of defender Daniel Scott to a two-year contract. Scott, 26, joined FC Tampa Bay in late August after playing for the PDL Kitsap Pumas the last two seasons. The 6’1″ native of Hawaii won the PDL championship this year with the Pumas before joining FC Tampa Bay and won 2011 All Western Conference honors in the PDL. Scott has previously played for the Seattle Sounders reserves and attended Gonzaga University.
Eddies Sign Hatchi
FC Edmonton signed French defender/midfielder Kevin Hatchi to a one-year contract for the 2012 season. Hatchi, 30, started last season with the Montreal Impact before being released in midseason, playing in eight matches with the Impact and scoring one goal. Hatchi has also played professionally in France as well as in Belgium, South Korea, Cyprus and Romania after starting his career in 1997 in the Auxerre youth system. Hatchi expressed his delight in coming to Edmonton saying, “I am happy to be coming to play for FC Edmonton. I look forward to helping the club write a new page in their history books. I would like to thank FC Edmonton and my agents at NTL Sports Management for giving me this opportunity to be part of this club and great city.”
“Hatchi is the big, strong, two-footed centre back we’ve been looking for,” said director of soccer operations Joe Petrone. “Signing the veteran professional will allow us to develop young players like Paul Hamilton, Niko Saler, Antonio Rago and Justin Farenik.”
It was also announced that former FC Edmonton assistant coach Hans Schrijver has returned to the club following his season with JEF United in Japan. Schrijver was initially involved with the FC Edmonton team in 2010, helping coach the team through a series of eight exhibition games in preparation for the 2011 season, but followed then-FC Edmonton headman Dwight Lodeweges to Japan for the 2011 season. Schrijver, 52, coached the Dutch U-20 national team between 2006 and 2010 and was an assistant at Dutch club FC Groningen between 1998 and 2005.
San Antonio Scorpions Hold Maryland Tryouts
The expansion San Antonio Scorpions will be holding a tryout on December 3 at the Maryland SoccerPlex, with a follow up invitation-only camp slated for December 17-18. Former MLS coach Tim Hankinson, the headman of the Scorpions, has a certain type of player he will be looking for.
“We want to play a fast, aggressive style of football and we will be looking for players who can do that,” Hankinson said of the evaluation process. “We will be looking for players that can control the ball individually and make plays on their own.” Hankinson added, “We have seen a lot of good talent over the past two tryouts and we expect to see more of that in Maryland. We are going to evaluate all the players and see if we can find some future Scorpions.”
The Scorpions held previous tryout camps in late October at the Casa Grande Sports World in Arizona, and in early November at their home STAR Soccer Complex. The Scorpions will also hold tryouts for players between the ages of 19-22 at their complex on December 15-16 and have an open tryout for players of all ages there on January 28.
Jonathan Fana Returning to Islanders
Dominican Republic international Jonathan Fana will be returning to the Puerto Rico Islanders for next season. Fana led the Islanders with 12 goals in 2011, 3rd best in the NASL, and was voted Islanders’ 2011 Player of the Year by the coaching staff, fans and his teammates. The Islanders finished second to the Carolina RailHawks in the NASL regular season standings.
“The signing of Faña is very important to the club. He is a proven goal scorer in the NASL, and has won over the respect of the front office, coaching staff, players and fans. This is the first step towards building a championship team in the 2012 season,” said Andres Guillemard, president of the Puerto Rico Islanders.
Atlanta Silverbacks Make Roster Changes
Newly appointed Silverbacks’ head coach Alex Pineda Chacon is excited about his first opportunity to run a club. In a recent interview on the NASL website, Chacon, who was an assistant coach in Atlanta last season, stated, “As you’ve seen in the last few weeks, we’ve made decisions on several players already, so we’ve begun to put this thing together for next season. We will continue to evaluate the talent that we have, and also use our contacts in the U.S. and in other countries to bring in additional players. The combines will be important and will give us an opportunity to get an extended look at a lot of new guys. The important thing is finding the right players for our system. We have room for new players, but they can’t be just good players, they need to be excellent. We need players who are ready to play and have the ability to complement our current players and raise the level of the team. If we can create strong competition at each position and have the players pushing each other to get better, it will help us get a lot of good results. The bottom line is that we want players who can make a difference and help us win now.”
The Silverbacks struggled in their first year in the NASL following a two-year hiatus, but the upside of last season’s disappointing results was that the Silverbacks did discover several young players who made the grade at the D2 level. Following Chacon’s appointment earlier this month, the Silverbacks exercised the contractual options on nine players from the 2011 club for next season. Those who will return to Atlanta include captain Lucas Paulini, forward Matt Horth, midfielders Ciaran O’Brien, Raphael Cox and Fernando Gonzalez, along with defenders Willie Hunt, Shane Moroney, Patrick Roberston and Kohei Matsushita. Rookie Horth led the Silverbacks with eight goals in 2011.
Silverbacks’ Director of Soccer Rodrigo Rios will head player combines in December, January and February as the club looks to add new talent. Robertson’s signing derived from a combine prior to last season.
Comments are closed.
keep the news coming BQ. I really appreciate dropping by for a read.
This was Gerry’s article, not mine. Thank Gerry for all the hard work.
Great stuff as always Gerry. It’s nice to have offseason news for D2 that doesn’t completely revolve around whether or not there will actually be a league or a season. Business as usual news is a welcome sight! Also great to know Fana will be appearing at Lockhart again next year offering the Ultras and Flight 19 the opportunity for some great tifo!
I can’t wait and see who the Stars sign.
Anyone thinking all will be quiet on the minor league soccer front this off-season is kidding themselves. Something is always around the corner. And there is still that vote in Feb. I do worry about Traffic. Of the two, I do feel better about the NASL than WPS. But just slightly.
And it is a crime that the NASL and USL can’t work together. Instead they will probably end up destroying each other. The USSF really needs to step up.
Also disappointed to hear nothing from Commish Downs this MLS Cup weekend about some type of relationship with MLS. Even though he promised in some interviews that they were working on something. To me, a relationship with MLS is vital to D2. Which ever league(NASL/USL-Pro) “buddies” up with MLS more, will probably be the one to survive.
@Dave Disappointing? Not sure what you want the Comish to say that he hasn’t said already. They have been working with MLS and continue to do so. This is a very complicated equation. It doesn’t just get done over night. I think at this point and time it’s quite appropriate for the NASL to lay low until they have something concrete to announce. The NASL doesn’t want to anger US Soccer or MLS either by saying things that could rock the boat. Especially since you are the small boat in the bay negotiating with the big freighter. There is always politics involved in these things and one must be cautious.
I’m trying to follow up on this but I was told that MLS did state at MLS Cup that that they are working towards a more formal relationship with D2 for the 2012 season. Read what you want to into that one but it’s totally vague and doesn’t tell you anymore than what David Downs has said.
@BQ
Why should NASL be worried about “rocking the boat”? If they have the credentials, they should be moving forward full steam, as they (Wellman/Davidson) have always postured NASL.
If there are issues, then laying low instead of full disclosure is not the honest way to go.
Politically, both FIFA and USSF want a strong D2 league. Can that not happen with NASL bearing the torch?
BQ, sorry if I missed it, but have you reported anything about USSF stance on ownership and requiring teams owned by Traffic to find new ownership groups before the D2 league will be allowed to continue? Have the ownership requirements changed at all for the 2012 season? Thanks.
@miacfan, lots has happened but no changes in regard to your questions.
@Bart – They should move forward full steam on all NASL only related items, which I think we have seen based on team andl eague activities. You’re trying to chastise them for not being more public on discussions they are still in progress of with an entirely separate entity, and under the circumstances of the other entity being the “lead dog” in the matter. You’re such a hater Bart that you rush to berate without even thinking things through. If Downs started blabbing all about whatever discussions the league was having with MLS, and then Garber turned around and said, “You know what, that seemed pretty unprofessional to me, and I think we’re going to forego continuing these discussions” you would have been all over Downs for not keeping his mouth shut and ruining things. BQ is absolutely right – they are handling this exactly the way they should be – by keeping it under wraps for the most part until there is actually something material to announce.
@BQ – Have you heard any talk about the four markets Aaron Davidson mentioned (on Ultras Alive this week) as possible expansion sites for NASL?
@Strikers Return, No I haven’t.
I know of someone who claimed they would have an MISL team up and running here in the Twin Cities this year. I didn’t hold my breath. Turns out he only held the first rights to a team in the Twin Cities and the ownership group never came together they way he had said. It wasn’t a big surprise to me. It still might happen – someday. But it might not either.
In many cases it may mean someone who doesn’t have enough money to own a team themselves is interested in becoming part of an ownership group. Sometimes thats almost more difficult than finding one owner who can really make it happen. I’m not saying I don’t trust Davidson. With the non disclosure agreement it shows they are interested. It’s just that anyone can say there is interest but actually making that happen is worlds away from actually launching a team.
I do agree with Davidson in what he said about ownership groups or persons having a minimum of the $23 Million. Davidson has stated that pretty much from day one and I think you could find instances where he told me that in interviews. But if an owner is going to be in this for the long term and they are losing between 750K and 1.5 Mill a year, than someone worth $23 Million isn’t going to last too many years.
@ Strikers Return
You are correct in that Downs should keep his big fat mouth shut. His comments in New York about WPS proves that. For a media guy, he lacks a lot of insight.