Yes, "call-up" might be the wrong term but its as close as its going to get. Well this is where I am going with my line of questions. Why does Tampa have the Portland Phoenix connection if its only to teach the PDL coaches to do it the "Rowdies-way" (whatever that is). If the PDL players aren't turning around the next season (or after the season) and signing with the Rowdies, why do it? A PR move?
And I don't know that they are or aren't. In (affiliated) minor-league baseball, the parent club (which pays some of the bills) appoints the manager and coaching staff and can instill the big-league club's way of doing things on the players so that they get indoctrinated on their way up the ladder. I've not seen a relationship like that in lower-level American soccer yet, unless it's been a situation where one umbrella ownership group owned both, say, a D2 or D3 team and a PDL team. Of dubious value. I have no idea.
Replacing Mike Pepper? Or is going to be a two person booth crew now with Derek doing PBP and Mike doing commentary? Either way, Darek is a solid soccer guy. Hopefully this means more Rowdies talk in the morning on WDAE.
Is he a soccer guy? I have no knowledge of this, but if he is, that's great. And I would imagine you'd look for those corollary benefits of having a guy from a local all-sports station doing your games.
The move may have had something to do with Pepper getting promoted to program director of the new FM all-sports station.
Makes perfect sense. Good for him! I'm looking forward to listening to this new station and hoping that they'll cover the Rowdies as regularly as they will the other sports teams here in Tampa Bay.
That is highly unlikely. First, it is soccer. Second, it is minor league soccer. Even if the Rowdies were a MLS team, it would be hard to crack local sports talk radio. Consider that the Tampa Bay Storm draw much bigger crowds than the Rowdies and will probably also be ignored.
I have thought that Tampa Bay was underserved in the sports radio segment. Except for 620, most of the other AM sports stations have pathetically weak signals. Having a FM option will create competition with WDAE and create options for all the local teams. The Storm do have their games broadcast (not sure if it is the complete schedule, though). I would be happy for a one hour weekly show on one of the stations for starters.
Rowdies sell Yoshitake to a club in Hong Kong and affiliate of his former club in Japan. http://rowdiessoccer.com/index.php?id=52&newsid=2961 I hope that the offer was good enough to break up the chemistry of a team hitting its stride.
If Rowdies start a downward spiral, this will be the tipping point. I hope they manage to figure out some way to keep winning.
And the 2012 Rowdies aren't the 1970s Ajax. But to the Rowdies, Yoshitake was quite possibly their best player and the difference on this team. Hopefully this team is better than most of us think and don't need to rely on Yoshitake as much.
Very rare is the one player who can be the difference. You were reacting as if they just lost the only good player they had. Insane.
He is tied for leading scorer and no one works harder than Yoshi. He isn't the only good player, but he was a major reason for why we have the results we have so far this year. Just hope everyone else keeps doing what they do and that we keep getting goals from others, as we did tonight.
And he was becoming/became a crowd favorite. Another way to sell "ya'll come back, now, ya hear?" tickets.
If you're going to be a fan of a soccer team (or any team, really, but the timing and circumstances of it in soccer are kind of unique), especially at the second division level, well, these are the types of things you are going to have to get used to. And MLS teams transfer their very good players, too. And college teams lose their players, too. And life goes on.
Kenn, most of us get the cold hard economics of American soccer and second division soccer in particular. I for one don't begrudge the management of cashing in on a player, even a top player, if given a chance. You of all people should admit that very few second division players are in that much demand though. I think some transparency in the front office might help us fans get on board with this move. Eight games left in a promising season and you cut loose your top scorer? You better have more to say than we wish him all the best in his new venture. If the team doesn't win it all, you leave yourself open to incredible second guessing by the supporters. If only they had kept Yoshi, we would have done better, and so on. This team doesn't need that kind of situation to happen. Obviously, I don't know the circumstances of the move, so all I can do is speculate. If the move was initiated by Yoshi for family reasons or he is able to get one last good payday before his career is over, then great. Tell us that. Tell us that the Rowdies care about their players and didn't want to stand in his way. Reassure us that you believe we have the horses to make it to the title. Get with the Mob and tape a video 'greeting card' wishing Yoshi well and thanking him for his service. If there was a fee involved then announce that the club was compensated and will look to reinvest that in another player. If this was simply a situaion of the Rowdies cashing in on a player that had value. Then tell us that! We got X amount of dollars for him and we are proud to have players that are in demand. We understand that this was not the best time for the club to do this, but we had an offer that could not be refused. The soccer world is very used to this happening even at top flight clubs. I welcome the day that the Rowdies and the rest of the NASL are very much part of world soccer economics, but so far, we are kind of on our own island. MLS doesn't buy our players, most that move to other countries move on free transfers. If this has changed, then they might want to let us know. Because unless they do, it leaves them wide open to uninformed attacks from people (including me).
Well, I did read the press release again. There is some implication that the club financially benefitted from the move. Nestor vaguely states something about this move makes it possible to keep the rest of our team together. Standard boilerplate stuff heard around the world. We have to sell a diamond to keep the rest of our jewels in place. No problem here. I even understand some reasons they don't want to announce a fee. It would just be nice if they did.
If they sold on players at a profit on a regular basis, not only would I be ok with it, I would think they were smart businessmen. My primary objection was I figured this was another, we are just dumping salary or getting a case of Gatorade in return. Second division clubs in America haven't proven to savvy in these types of things. I will never begrudge the club making a buck.
Rowdies sign Silverback's castoff Raphael Cox. http://www.rowdiessoccer.com/index.php?id=52&newsid=3065 He had been a regular for Atlanta since joining them for the 2011 season until Wynalda took over the team. Within a match he went from starter to sub and then hasn't played since early July. Atlanta terminated his contract Friday and the Rowdies picked him up. Not sure what he brings. He was a starter on a bad team. When the bad team started signing new players to improve, he was cast aside. Depth on the bench I would think, nothing more.