I was using google to see if I could find the date and got the following hit on ussoccer. The link has today's date and the headline "Klinsmann Calls 25 Players for January Training Camp with Friendly and World Cup Qualifying on Horizon", but no content. Perhaps the roster will be released today? Gotta be this week.
#TBT: January 4, 1996 - 19 years ago, Frank Stapleton was named the #NERevs' first Head Coach. pic.twitter.com/KgOzSNe0b2— New England Revolution (@NERevolution) January 8, 2015 Not sure why this hit my timeline today, but thought I would share.
Ah, Big Frank! The man who was on his way to the US from Ireland to see about a coaching gig at a camp on the Cape, but he happened to be on the same flight as then-GM Brian O'Donovan. The poor bastard had no idea what he'd gotten himself into. 19 years later, plus ça change and all that...
That hiring looks entirely reasonable in contrast to the hiring of O'Donovan himself. What in the world convinced Kraft to make the Celtic Sojourn host his man? The fact that he had an accent?
Don't you know? All guys with accents are infinitely more qualified to run a soccer team than someone who talks like they should be on the 6 o'clock news. Why do you think I learned how to speak and write Scottish, Scouse, Geordie and East Anglian. Now all I gotta do is phase 2, lining up a job running a team! Seriously, O'Donovan's role as "GM" was far different than it would be today or the traditional role in North American sports. He was more of a business manager or operational manager than anything else. Negotiating contracts were done 100% by the league, and the coach was the one who engineered trades. The problem with that is that the current manger also becomes the "director of player personnel." That was a problem in 1998, when wRongen decided he'd rather go to the World Cup than to coach his team through the middle of the season. They should have sacked him then, but with no one above him who knew the game, they would have shot themselves in the foot even more than they did.
Jerry finally makes a contribution to the Revs! http://www.foxsports.com/soccer/sto...up-players-010815?cmpid=tsmfb:fscom:foxsoccer
$81K isn't bad, so in the scenario where you get paid $2,800 each day a player is on official national team duty before and during the World Cup, so that's $81K for 29 days where he would have just sat on the bench?
#USMNT Roster Forwards: Akindele, Dempsey, Morales, Wondolowski, Wood, Zardes— U.S. Soccer Men's National Team (@USMNT) January 9, 2015 #USMNT Roster Midfielders: Bradley, Diskerud, Flores, Gil, Ibarra, Nguyen, Pelosi, Serna, Shea, Trapp— U.S. Soccer Men's National Team (@USMNT) January 9, 2015 #USMNT Roster Defenders: Besler, Birnbaum, Dean, Evans, Jones, Kitchen, O’Neill, Sorto— U.S. Soccer Men's National Team (@USMNT) January 9, 2015 #USMNT Training Camp Roster Goalkeepers: Alex Bono, Sean Johnson, Jon Kempin, Nick Rimando— U.S. Soccer Men's National Team (@USMNT) January 9, 2015 🇺🇸 #NERevs @LeeNguyen24 & @Jermainejunior to take part in #USMNT Camp starting January 12. http://t.co/gjx5RYvl64 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/W7ACiifMmT— New England Revolution (@NERevolution) January 9, 2015
Like Fagundez (Uruguay U20s), both Jones and Nguyen will miss the start of #NERevs camp while on NT duty, join up in midst of preseason.— Jeff Lemieux (@jeff_lemieux) January 9, 2015
I've been a skeptic throughout 2014, but when I heard Hamid picked up a knock, I was hoping that Shuttleworth might get a "let's see what you can do" call. Was also hoping for Farrell, if only to see if Juergen sees what many of us see - his potential as a CB.
Those goalkeeper picks are a head scratcher. A college keeper and Kempin, who's barely sniffed time at Sporting KC so far. Do either of them show more promise than someone like MacMath who's still only 23? I'd like to see Bobby get a call, but at 28 I doubt he's gonna get a look unless he has a totally dominant season. Edit: A point from the USMNT website I hadn't considered: Alex Bono, Dean, Flores, Gil, Jon Kempin, Julio Morales, O’Neill, Marc Pelosi, Serna, Sorto, Trapp and Bobby Wood would all be age-eligible to compete at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio. Some of these picks may have been made with the Olympics in mind. Particularly the GK's.
The real head-scratcher for me is Rimando. I've been a big fan of his and he's been a good soldier for the USNT, but at his age he shouldn't be getting minutes (or a roster spot) at the expense of anyone who could be a factor in the near or distant future.
You need some veterans there to show these guys what it's like to a part of the NT. Rimando will leader and role model for those three young GKs. Rimando is a great locker room guy too, he's a good veteran presence in general, field position aside.
Klinsmann mentioned recently that a big part of this January camp will be to focus on players in the pool for the Olympic team (U-23). I think nearly all of the picks were made with the Olympics in mind (outside of the veterans, who I imagine are there to add a veteran leadership presence. Plus the Olympic team allows for three over-23 players)
Agreed. Rimando is really a no brainer. Big fan of the guy and what he brings to the table with the NT.
This is brilliant. You have to admire a website that isn't afraid to poke fun at itself. http://www.mlssoccer.com/sideline/n...n-borg-videotaped-arm-wrestling-co-worker-ove Especially the final line.
I do not want to hijack or clutter the draft thread, but I was wondering why MLS does not have a similar draft policy as the NHL and MLB regarding drafting players and then the player remaining in college? I think changing to this type of policy would be good for both MLS and the players. Here is a sketch of the plan. Draft a player (unaffiliated with an academy) at any time after high school and you hold his rights for two years. If he signs with your team inside of two years, then the process ends. If the player does not sign then his rights are available in the draft again. This seems much more like a "discovery" process to me than the current usage of "discovery" on active, current pros. This would probably result in more rounds for the draft, but that is OK. Celebrate the first two or three rounds as they do today, but then the other rounds get less attention. Perhaps, an unsigned, but drafted player could participate in practices/games with the USL team affiliated with the MLS team that drafted them? Both the player and the organization would learn more about each other. Regarding GA players, I propose a change to the GA program. Instead of the league signing players to GA contracts before the draft and teams drafting said GA players, a player gets drafted by a team and the team can name him as a GA player and the player and team would get all of the benefits of that program. This could be a negotiating carrot for the teams when trying to sign a player. Each team can sign one GA a year or carry an open GA spot to the next draft where they could have two. Perhaps GA spots could become commodities that could be traded? I am not a big fan of the draft, but I cannot see it going anywhere for a while due to the large number of players and low number of MLS teams and academies. This sort of draft might be less glamorous, but is potentially more useful especially if the college game changes and becomes a better development environment than it currently is.
MLS announces 2014 club and executive awards winners. Athletic Training Staff of the Year presented by Mueller Sports Medicine – New England Revolution