Official: Union Alumni, Where Are They Now?

J.T. Noone was a second half sub and played 14 minutes last night for the City Islanders in their 1-0 home opener victory over the Rochester Rhinos. It was nice to finally see soccer on the island again after two postponed home openers!

Below is a video of J.T. warming up prior to the match:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoiY5kNNmSE"]YouTube - J.T Noone warming up prior to the 2011 home opener against the Rhinos[/ame]

 

http://www.milenio.com/node/716477

It looks like Tigres (Jonathan Bornstein's team) scheduled Michael Orozco Fiscal to join them for a trial but he did not attend (no reason given for him not attending). He really seems to be in limbo since returning to San Luis.

Michael Orozco is another player that have as option, and he does some weeks even he was invited by the team so that he was integrated to the practices, but finally he could not attend the training.

"They had offered it us, the intention was that came to be tested, that it to see the technician, but do not there was the times", added.


Here is the original article regarding his trial.

http://www.milenio.com/node/705200

 

I have a feeling Orozco is going to end up back with us.

 

why? we don't need him. He wasn't that solid on defense. He got the one goal against TFC that won everyone over, but I think we're set with what we have. Plus, he asks for way too much money than we have cap space for if we want to talk about getting help on attack.

 

You make great points, but it's just a feeling. He seemed to get on well here and Nowak likes him. They were also really committed to getting him back. They also never gave anyone else 16.

 

Andrew Jacobson just scored his first goal for Dallas tonight.

 

Paunovic wore #16 in the last reserve match. Just sayin.

 

Well there you go, guess he won't be back.

 

Assuming that his contract with San Luis expire this summer (do not know if it does expire but he is wrapping up his fourth year with the team this summer) and thus would not cost a transfer fee and his loan status does not preclude him from going into the allocation process (which seems to be the case), MOF would at least provide a versatile depth defender who could be used at any position on the backline and even played some DM last season. As of now, those 1st team options are:

* Gonzalez - who made the 1st team bench for the first time all season against Toronto. Besides his $193K comp (which essentially matches MOF's $200K comp from last season), Gonzalez is limited in terms of only being able to play CB (just like Valdes and Califf ahead of him) in the team's 4-2-2-2 and takes up an international spot.

* M. Farfan and G. Farfan - the midfielders both have shown well in the attacking outside back role but it remains to be seen if they can consistently play shutdown defense in that role. Oduro certainly gave M. Farfan some challenges in the Chicago game.

Assuming the comp is the same and there is no transfer fee (or it is minimal) involved, MOF represents a more versatile use of $$ than Gonzalez does for the stretch drive - plus it frees up an international roster spot if the team wanted to bolster the midfield or forward ranks.

 

I don't know why we'd pick up a player who hasn't seen action since last September/October over a player that was brought in and took over his place along Califf in the backline for the rest of the season. There will most likely be better and probably cheaper options out there once the window opens, if they really want to bolster the defense. If anything, I see the Union using his rights as trade bait to a team with a hole-ier defense.

 

If Gonzalez was the starting CB when Philly went on its best defensive run late last season (i.e. shutouts over Chicago and Chivas, win over NY), I would agree but the backline during that stretch was Williams - RB, Califf - CB, MOF - CB and Harvey - LB while Gonzalez was either injured or an unused sub (when Gonzalez started with Califf at CB - MOF played RB, Harvey plyed LB - Arrieta hit the bench. When Gonzalez then left the starting line-up - MOF moved to CB and Williams played RB). When Gonzalez did play, I thought that he was average - decent in the air, OK on the ball. Gonzalez missed the entire pre-season in 2011, has only played in the reserve games and Reading game, only has been an available sub for 1 game this season so he has not played that much more than MOF. I do not want to bash Gonzalez as he only played 7 games in which to prove himself but it does not seem as if he is in the team's plans too much, he makes a lot of $$ for a reserve, he is on the wrong side of 30 and is limited in terms of positions that he can play.

MOF made his fair share of mistakes last season - as did Califf and Harvey and they have certainly played better with a better goalie. MOF's rights certainly could be valuable to another team and Philly could be content enough with its existing roster to just want to acquire assets like allocation $ and draft picks to further bolster its depth. If I had $200K allocated from the cap to ensure that I had a serviceable CB depth option and could get a younger more versatile player who could play RB/LB/DM at the same $ comp assuming no transfer fee issues, I would take MOF over Gonzalez - sounds like you would go with Gonzalez.

 

I only know that Gonzalez left a game with a huge knot on his head from a collision. I assume he suffered from concussion symptoms, which is why he missed the rest of the year. MOF would be a huge cap hit to cover a spot just in case of an injury. Yea he's about the same as Gonzalez, but we kinda got stuck with that one. I don't need we need to worry about flexibility at CB/RB/LB/DM right now.

 

I think Zman is operating under the assumption that Gonzalez's deal is likely a 1 year guaranteed so he can be cut mid-season (roughly around the time he was signed) and MOF would be replacing him on the roster and in terms of the budget. I doubt he's arguing for carrying both Gonzalez and MOF as (expensive) backups.

As good as our backline has been, I think it's a reasonable question if placing MOF at LB (over Harvey) might make it better.

 

I would assume the player wouldn't sign a contract if it ended in the middle of a season. My bet that it was a year and a half minimum. I don't think the team would cut someone mid-season for another player of same cost who won't have a starting role on the squad. Also, like i said before, I'd rather have a player that has been playing, if only in reserve matches, than someone who's not even really attached to a team right now.


I think Harvey has more than locked down his position for the year. I don't think you find a more solid LB in the league so far this season.

 

There have been a number of MLS players signed in the middle of one season and released in the middle of the next one as they sign a 1 year deal - July 1 is typically a date by which these players are released.

In terms of a player not playing at a competitive level, it seemingly did not stop the team from signing Veljko Paunovic who retired at the end of 2008 from Partizan Belgrade and has just played indoor soccer on the Spanish senior circuit with Atletico Madrid since his outdoor retirement.

I agree with your assessment of Harvey - quite frankly, all 4 of the Union's starting backline as well as Mondragon would be at or near the top of their respective positional rankings this season.

 

Ok, I honestly didn't know, so you've got me there. However, I'm sure you're quite as aware as I am that the Union going after Paunovic has more to do with filling a hole in a troubled offense, with a player leaving for the Gold Cup, and the window not currently being open. Signing MOF for the hell of having an old flame where there isn't an open starting spot for him to step in at his salary doesn't make much sense.

 

Would MOF's salary be less if we signed him outright once he is off contract than what it cost us to have him on loan?

I'm not very savvy on the money side of it all, how much of his salary last year (if any) went to San Luis, and would having him on contract instead of on loan affect his salary cap hit to the Union?

As always, many thanks for you guys who put in the effort to understand all of the salary cap and roster issues, the stuff is way over my head.

 

His salary would be whatever he can get from MLS which would likely be in the same range that he made last year ($150K salary - $200K guaranteed comp) - he may be slightly discounted no given the dilemma that he has had in 2011. With loans deals, the team (or league in the case of MLS) that takes the player on loan is typically picking up some/all of the contracted salary $ so that the team making the loan gets to save the cash (it is not always 100% of the salary being picked up by the team acquiring the loan player - for example, Freddy Adu's annual salary with Benfica likely outweighs the $ being paid by his Turkish 2nd division team, Rizespor, for which he plays).

It is all speculation as to any option of MOF rejoining the team but if he were to be acquired - there are several advantages such as:

* does not use an international roster spot
* does not require a discovery claim as a returning player

Since those spots and claims are limited in terms of how the team can use them and the team does not have much availability in either one of them as of now, an MOF acquisition would help on that front - especially if the team does not plan to use those cap $ to bolster its midfield via acquisition later this season. The roster thread has the current availability of international roster spots, discovery claims, etc. which can be found at this link:

https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showpost.php?p=22299439&postcount=1

 

They're looking at a forward that hasn't played in a couple of years... At least MOF has some history with the team. I'm not as certain that they will bring him back now, but I can see the advantages to doing it. I'd certainly take MOF at $200k over DMB at almost double.

 

As we reported on Sunday, MOF is on trial with Pachuca.

http://www.brotherlygame.com/2011/6/7/2212397/michael-orozco-fiscal-on-trial-with-pachuca + http://www.brotherlygame.com/2011/6...union-defender-michael-orozco-fiscal-on-trial

 

Thought it was cool that J.T. Noone gave props to PPL Park.
http://blog.pennlive.com/upper90/2011/06/get_to_know_city_islander_jt_n.html

 

Must have been a calm day, otherwise the wind would have knocked him over and hurt him.