I guess I just think that if, by chance, we do get newcomers to the forum wanting to read about SPR, a 2017 season thread is more inviting than a big 12-page "catch-all" thread.
It's a real shame more people didn't turn out for the Rangers game vs Portland last night. The weather was perfect (no rain) and the game was very entertaining. Last year's Western division champs deserve more support than having less than 150 people in the stands.
No rain, but the threat of storms was there which probably scared people off. I had soccer practice indoors to coach, midweek games are always tough, especially so for a "second" team.
I fully expected this team to struggle mightily during the first half of the season, what with 10 or so teenagers. I've been pleasantly surprised. Hernandez and Rugova look like impact players at this level. Wan Kuzain is tidy on the ball. Selbol is explosive as heck, but his decision making is just dreadful.
Yea, I figured the storms in the area probably scared a lot of people off and mid week games are tough even for MLS clubs. But, with USL streaming the game, I can understand some people not coming out. Just thought there would be more than 125 or so people there.
I think we definitely got the better deal with the exchange of last year's players. Tomas Granitto, who played for SPR last year, now playing for Portland didn't have much of an impact on the game. But, Kharlton Belmar, who played for Portland last year, scored the winning goal and was giving Portland fits all game long.
EPB had a coupe of bain farts early on and then took a knock and went off at the half. Not too bad otherwise. Storm looked very confident, moved well, and made some good passes. He was in and around the box a couple of times and could have shot, but passed off both times. He kind of reminds me of a right footed Sinovic.
What is it now, almost half of the clubs in MLS have teenagers in their regular rotations. I believe that after the success he had in Portugal, this is a use him or lose him year for SKC and EPB. The fact that he is stumbling through SPR games right now is disappointing. I put it entirely down to leaving for the U's. Quite hopeful he gets fully healthy and into gear soon, and plays well for SPR and then gets games with SKC.
Looks like Storm was tearing it up for SPR tonight. Every highlight included him making some incisive passes as well as the assist on the 2nd goal. Very promising.
I watched him carefully last night at the game. He did some good stuff and his assist on the 2nd goal was a thing of beauty. However, he is still a work in progress. What the highlights didn't show is some of the bad passes and coverage mistakes that led to give-aways. I thought Pasher overall did a much better job on the left side. The best defensive plays of the night came from both Palmer-Brown and Didic. Granted, Vancouver did not have a very potent offense, but those two guys dominated the back line.
http://newsok.com/article/5558393 Does this make a move to Omaha more likely? I think so. Ideally, I'd love for our "mysterious" U23 team to join the PDL as the Swope Park Rangers to keep that name alive.
Care to elaborate on "what you've heard"? Lot of directions to go from there ... was it already "likely" to happen? Is a move to D3 more likely? Is another market "more likely"? If USL gives the MLS2 teams a choice of D3 or different market, what do you think (or have you heard) is SKC's likely path forward. Or is this entire article a fabrication (#fakenews)?
Wouldn't blame them for that ... it seems to be working well from a player development standpoint. I wouldn't mind going D3 and letting players like Little, Lindsay, Kuzain, Hernandez get more time ... instead of players like Musa, Doyle, Moloto get time. And then when players like Didic, Pasher and Oliveria outgrow D3 ... you loan them out to D2 on an individual basis prior to getting MLS minutes.
In terms of development and getting minutes for fringe players, they have to be happy with the operational side. i'm sure they would prefer to get 3000 to games, but considering that they basically paid nothing for the stadium, the threshold for profitability has got to be lower than locating the team in another city and building or renting a stadium. I doubt there is much that USL can legally do as they paid their way into the league. If we start developing big-name prospects, and people become more in tune to the talent pipeline, it could start to draw more. Imagine if we had signed Sargent, and then sold him for millions to a big Euro club, before he really broke in with SKC. Something like that nearly happened with EPB. I get the sense that people will eventually start to pay more attention.
https://www.sportingkc.com/post/2017/08/07/truman-night-swope-soccer-village?autoplay=true Watch, and be blown away.
Hell, might as well play a test game up in Omaha and have a William Jennings Bryan night. Cover some bases.
So Swope Park beat Phoenix on Sunday after their game Saturday was halted at half time due to weather. With Sacramento unsettling 1 see Real Monarchs, SPR was scheduled to host. The USL and Sacramento have both come out with announcements that the game was moved to Sacramento due to ‘challenges’ with SPR’s field. SPR was apparently caught by surprise about this and have since come out with an announcement of their own saying that they are hosting