It will definitely be interesting to see where the goals can come from. I'm hoping that the Cal FC guys that Wynalda brought in will pick up the slack and that we pick up another striker with the money they made from Horth.
Charleston was mentioned as a target for the preseason. Orlando is another possibility, I suppose Chattanooga FC is in play as well. As far as MLS/Intl friendlies go, we should expect one of each in the July/August window.
That's a good point. I was assuming that they had him under an option. Going back through old Silverbacks news articles didn't indicate if they signed him to a multi-year contract when they exercised his option in 2012.
I want more signings! I notice that there is an NASL combine at the first of Feb. How does that work? Assume there's a player that dominates and every NASL team wants him. Is it just an open bidding war?
From Atlanta's perspective, based on our poor record last season, I hope there is some pre-established draft order. But my guess is, it's just an open bidding process. If a guy does well, he may get a multiple offers.
Maybe we skip the NASL combine and send a few scouts over to the African Cup of Nations and pull a few players off that Togo squad. There's less gunfire here.
My sources say we were a close second in the Balotelli sweepstakes. Milan just outbid us as the European transfer window shut. And by my souces, I mean my imagination following a whiskey-filled lunch.
Is the potential sale of the Silverbacks holding up any new signings? Or is it normal for us to try to operate with a 8 man roster? I know its early, but jeez. I've had to look at Horth signing away on the Silverabacks homepage now for weeks. I'd like some positive news.
There we go. Spend a little money. http://www.atlantasilverbacks.com/pro/news/Silverbacks-Add-Trio-To-Roster I think Willis looks like a pretty good prospect. Big phyiscal kid. Played well at times last year. Cruz is one of the Cal FC boys that helped turn our season around. Good to have him back for a full season - or whatever this spring season is. I don't know much about Bloom. But he's a body and we need a few more of those. I'm pretty confident in our scouting now and if they like him, I like him. Anyone seen this guy before? He played at Berry.
The ASFC red n' black attack pre-season path of destruction begins mid-March apparently. Our unfortunate adversaries are UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham a.k.a. "The Blazers"). These poor clowns will stumble into the jungle on Saturday, March 16th for their scheduled beatdown at 2pm. Be there, be loud, show no mercy.
I've watched a few pre-season games against college teams in the past two years. I'd say that the Silverbacks were made to look like clowns on a number of occasions too. At that time I was willing to put the blame on the heavy pre-season legs.
This is their mascot, "Blaze The Dragon". So they are obviously big time stoners, lol. Not that there's anything wrong with that of course. But we should have no problem dispensing with them, since they will likely be completely baked when they pile out of their smoke filled team bus. They'll be like hippies in a mosh pit at a hardcore show.
Atlanta re-signs defenders Beto Navarro and Mike Randolph. From the team website....... http://www.atlantasilverbacks.com/pro/news/Navarro,-Randolph-Return-in-2013
So the only new signings up to this point are Mark Bloom and Richie Menjivar? The rest are just re-signed players. We need to get at least 2-3 quality new signings to compete this season.
Compete? I was just hoping for more inane halftime activities and a couple new long, drawn out fan contests.
No offense to Bloom, but I'm not sure he's pushing for a starting spot on the backline. He's a squad player. Menjivar, however, I think contributes and gets into the starting 11. We can't be done at forward. I expect we'll add some talent there. At least I hope. We've done nothing to make up for that Horth-sized hole up front.