Here is our roster at year end sorted by games played. Changes are coming, who will stay, who will be cut? Here are gone thoughts: Nicht, Janicki, Rugg, McKinney, Cuevas, Dawson. There will be others.... I would love to keep Steinberger and Richards but doubt we can. 23 D Franco, Marco 27/27 5 D Norales , Erick 25/25 7 M Smart, Don 25/11 9 F Brown, Brian 24/15 17 M Stojkov, Dragan 21/18 6 M Mares, Dylan 21/17 4 M Ring, Brad 21/16 19 F Wojcik, Wojciech 21/13 22 M Steinberger, Zach 21/11 24 G Nicht, Kristian 20/20 16 D Miller, Cory 20/19 27 M Pineda, Victor 20/17 12 D Janicki, Greg 20/16 99 F Rugg, Charlie 19/13 18 D Hyland, Kyle 18/17 14 F Lacroix, Duke 18/7 15 M Keller, Daniel 16/11 21 M Richards, Dane 15/13 3 D Frías, Jaime 12/12 20 M Peña, Sergio 12/10 10 M Ceballos, Marvin 12/6 1 G Cardona, Keith 10/10 2 D McKinney, Judson 2/1 29 M Cuevas, Daniel 1/0 8 M Kleberson , 1/0 35 G Dawson, Jon 0/0
This is just what I hope for, not necessarily what I think will happen (I have no idea what will happen). Stay: (S=starter B=bench) Norales(S) Smart(S/B) Stojkov(S/B) Mares(S) Steinberger(S) Miller(B) Hyland(B) Lacroix(S/B) Pena(S) Ceballos(S/B) Neutral: Franco Brown Ring Richards Cardona Keller Dawson Gone: Wojcik Nicht Pineda Janicki Rugg Frias McKinney (I didn't even know he was on the roster for most of the season) Cuevas (too short) Kleberson (too expensive for his age)
Nicht is gone. Not a surprise, and not necessarily a bad thing given the decline in his play this past year, but it's still sad to see the club's first player go.
So, Tim Hankinson (most recently coaching in the Jamaican league) is in as coach, with Regan staying on as assistant, and Erick Norales is apparently gone. On the whole, I don't think the day qualifies as a net positive. Has anyone heard anything about Mares' contract status? I know he was released last winter, and then re-signed, but I know nothing about the term of the contract. Mares is, in my view, the closes thing Indy has to a must-retain guy at this point, especially with Norales gone. It's early days yet, and I'm sure there are things happening that are not publicly known, but from an outside perspective the offseason hasn't started particularly well.
Here is my thoughts.... Top priority to retain: 23 D Franco, Marco 7 M Smart, Don 9 F Brown, Brian 6 M Mares, Dylan 22 M Steinberger, Zach (on loan) 16 D Miller, Cory 18 D Hyland, Kyle 14 F Lacroix, Duke 21 M Richards, Dane (on loan) 1 G Cardona, Keith Maybe keep 17 M Stojkov, Dragan 4 M Ring, Brad 27 M Pineda, Victor 15 M Keller, Daniel 3 D Frías, Jaime
Confirmed Staying: Greg Janicki Marco Franco Cory Miller Dylan Mares Dragan Stojkov Don Smart Wojciech Wojcik Duke Lacroix
Most important: Mares. After a decent but unspectacular first season in 2014, he made himself indispensable last year. The fact that he's a local guy only adds to his importance to the team. Most surprising: Woj. My daughter will be thrilled, as he, unaccountably, was one of her favorite players last year. But he really didn't contribute much. He's still young, showed a few moments of good hold-up play, and could continue to develop, but I certainly would not have identified his retention as a priority. Also pleased to see Miller and Smart returning. And Lacroix has exciting potential.
And the article on the Indy Eleven home page says that the club declined to exercise an option to keep Norales. All I can say is, I don't get it, unless it was a really expensive option (which it might have been). Other options that the club declined: Ceballos, Cuevas, Dawson, Nicht, McKinney, Pineda, and Kleberson. Hyland's contract has lapsed, and the article says nothing about continuing negotiations (unlike Ring and Cardona), but I hope he comes back. He's a solid NASL player and is unlikely to be terribly expensive. I wouldn't want him to start every game, but he'd be a nice option to have.
Agreed. And Nicht and Norales probably weren't cheap either (although well short of Kleberson's level). There ought to be money available.
Rather unfortunate the two cornerstones of the club (Nicht and Kleberson) are gone already, but their quality of play wasn't good enough for a team that, as far as I'm concerned, was spinning their wheels aimlessly in their first two years. Will the Eleven go forward, or somehow actually go back, in 2016? Who knows, but hopefully the changes will help the team out.
All depends on what we do this off-season. We're going to have to make a lot of key signings as I look at the players confirmed back, and I really only would feel comfortable with Lacroix, Mares, and Miller starting (Arguably Janicki too). We should have a good chunk of change available with some large contracts departing, this is an absolutely crucial off-season imo.
Especially considering how Ottawa came in the same year as us and they are further along. I actually was thinking we'd be below Jacksonville this season and the Eleven would finish eleventh, given the horrid defense and weak offensive play they had during much of the Fall season. Even with 3 new clubs coming in, a finish of 9th or lower again would be unacceptable to me. If we want people to take this club seriously, especially with thoughts of MLS promotion, the club needs to make these improvements.
The club doesn't announce the details of contracts, so I don't know. I've seen estimates that his pay was somewhere around 20 percent of the club's payroll.
I'm not yet sold on Hankinson as coach, but one thing that he does have that the club has lacked so far is experience with succeeding at the NASL level. Peter doesn't have it, Sommer certainly didn't have it, Regan doesn't have it, and that lack of understanding showed in the squad that Indy assembled in each of the first two years.
FWIW, I saw Lance Laing said he's leaving FC Edmonton and said he had offers from other NASL clubs, MLS clubs, and USL. I would hope we made an offer to him, this is a guy who had 8 goals and 7 assists last season, for a club that struggles with the attacking half of the field he could be a big addition.
Just listened to Peter's interview on last weekend's Soccer Saturday. Apparently, we have a new player signed already, from within the NASL; he should be announced within the next couple of days.
Lance Laing please.... But probably not. I'm sure someone is going to give him a substantial contract.
I see LA Galaxy declined to exercise its option for Charlie Rugg for next year. What a disappointment Rugg turned out to be. In the fall of 2014, he seemed like an incisive attacker, albeit one lacking a finishing touch. This past year, nothing. He started off seeming annoyed that he was at Indy rather than in LA; now, he won't be with either.
I havn't seen a complete list of NASL free agents but the two names I'm most curious to see land are Lance Liang & Ricardo Alves. With Norales now gone, Alves would be a significant acquisition.