Posting player news prompted me to check when last year's pre-season thread was made and it was about this time. So... first! Returning Nobody confirmed? In Traffic Sports USA Out Tiyi Shipalane Etienne Barbara Selby Wellman
Re: 2011 Pre-Season Thread Crew signs Heinemann. Really enjoyed him in his time at Carolina, I hope he does well in MLS. Returning Nobody confirmed? In Traffic Sports USA Out Tiyi Shipalane (South Africa) Etienne Barbara (Malta?) Selby Wellman Tom Heinemann (to Columbus Crew)
Re: 2011 Pre-Season Thread speaking to some of the guys at spirits makes me think that a lot of the guys were not a fan of how things were done and were not expecting to be back in 2011.
Re: 2011 Pre-Season Thread Returning Nobody confirmed? In Traffic Sports USA Out Tiyi Shipalane (South Africa) Etienne Barbara (Malta?) Selby Wellman Tom Heinemann (to Columbus Crew) Daniel Woolard (to DC United)
Re: 2011 Pre-Season Thread No news on the new ownership... But I did find the twitter account for Sam Stockley, a 33 year old English defender who has bounced around in lower leagues in England and most recently played in Hungary. He signed with Telford United, a team in Conference North, in January but he also has tryouts lined up in US with FC New York and us. This article makes it seem like he's chosen FCNY: But he tweeted yesterday he was on his way to Carolina. I wonder if he played in tonight's scrimmage. His wikipedia entry makes it sound like he has an eye on coaching so this could be another part-time player/assistant coach deals we've done before, especially since he's had to "retire" because of injuries before. http://twitter.com/samstockley25/
Re: 2011 Pre-Season Thread I believe he did for part of the night, but I confess I'm not 100% sure. (I heard his name mentioned, but I kinda suck at faces.)
Re: 2011 Pre-Season Thread I don't really like seeing rumored players/trialists on the other side of 30... Excited about Touray though, I keep forgetting about him.
Re: 2011 Pre-Season Thread In principle I agree; in practice, the ones Martin finds tend to be pretty solid. Yeah, he looked in fine form last night. (I continue to believe that if we ever see a RailHawk in the World Cup, it's gonna be Sainey - he's already able to pull his own weight on a pro team, albeit not as a first-stringer, and he's not even old enough to drink.)
Re: 2011 Pre-Season Thread I'm hearing lots of rumblings (even before the post in the other thread) that Curt Johnson (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/curt-johnson/24/133/980) is lined up to be our next President/GM. I'm very excited about this given his history with the Raleigh Flyers, Richmond Kickers, Kansas City Wizards, and Carolina Hurricanes. Plus he has real long term ties to the Triangle. If i were a bookie i'd stop taking bets at this point.
Re: 2011 Pre-Season Thread Returning Nobody confirmed? In Traffic Sports USA Out Tiyi Shipalane (South Africa) Etienne Barbara (Malta?) Selby Wellman Tom Heinemann (to Columbus Crew) Daniel Woolard (to DC United) Daniel Paladini (to Chicago Fire) Caleb Norkus Caleb was wearing CASL Elite gray tonight; it's a damn shame to see him switching to USASA play.
Re: 2011 Pre-Season Thread Well, this will be a transitional year (moreso than most) for D2/D3 as MLS adds 150 players this season. When you that the entire NASL will total 200-220 players (8x25-27), that's a pretty significant one-year affect.
Re: 2011 Pre-Season Thread www.indyweek.com/triangleoffense/archives/2011/01/22/us-soccer-deals-serious-blow-to-carolina-railhawks-and-new-league crazy. so it looks like wellman would not let the railhawks name pass over to the new owners. had heard rumors but nothing concrete like in this story. that is insane.
Re: 2011 Pre-Season Thread Thanks for the link. So, with two and a half months or so to go before the season, there's no lease for the facility, no communication with the community, and possibly no name? Maybe I'll just hibernate for a while and see how it all turns out... I will feel very little connection to the team after a name change though, sadly. If Wellman is unwilling to let go of the name... that seems to indicate to me that there is either some bad blood between him and Traffic now, or he has some inclination to perhaps return, maybe as a D3 team if D2 doesn't work out... or both?
Re: 2011 Pre-Season Thread I was shocked when I heard that USSF pulled the sanctioning for NASL. While I appreciate the need to have standards in place for D2 soccer in this country, the expectation for a brand new league to meet the set standards in Year 1 is extremely unreasonable. As has been pointed out before, if MLS had had to meet these same standards to get sanctioning, they never would have made it. The USSF has to realize that the product needs to be put on the field before investors would put any big money into it. So why not let it grow and slowly apply the standards over a period of 3 to 5 years? The USSF could have adopted a more fostering approach to these individuals that are trying to build a solid bridge between MLS and the wilds of lower division soccer. Instead they’ve cut them off at the knees, which is really too bad for the owners, the fans, and the future of soccer. (Unless, of course, the reality of it is that NASL is a lot more frakked up then the public has been lead to believe.)
Re: 2011 Pre-Season Thread Throughout the last year or so, through this whole process of wondering what the league would look like, whether there'd be a league, etc., I've generally felt in the dark - as though there were things going on with USSF and the league that were really important, that we just didn't know about. The relevant discussion boards have been rife with speculation from fans, but nobody seems to know what's really going on. From my perspective now, the message to the prospective soccer investor is: unless you're willing and able to buy into MLS, don't bother. The message to the US soccer fan is similar - willing to support an MLS team, good idea. Lower divisions? Just don't get too attached. Look at poor St. Louis, and Austin, and now, maybe the whole NASL not having a league?
Re: 2011 Pre-Season Thread the whole situation is a joke I can't wait to cheer for Carolina FC or some other lame, generic name
Re: 2011 Pre-Season Thread If Wellman forces a rebrand, I hope for a name with as much personality as this one. Ideally I'd like one with some history to it; if there aren't trademark problems left over from the A-League days, I think Carolina Flyers would be a good pick.
Re: 2011 Pre-Season Thread Based on what I know/have heard...I think more of the blame here resides with NASL, not with USSF. USSF has been very clear what they expect, and NASL can't seem get their house in order to meet itq. When one of the original spokespersons for NASL (Selby Wellman) pulls out of the league entirely and refuses to to sell on the trademark with his team as he parachutes out, you've got to believe there's a lot of internal stuff going on inside NASL. If they really want to grow soccer in this country, they'll play at D3 this year and figure out how to meet the requirements for next year. If they are just on a big ego trip, then we're all probably screwed.
Re: 2011 Pre-Season Thread I agree. If you really want to get the league going for the long haul then it really doesn't matter if you are D2 or D3. Hopefully they re-think the D2 or bust and go with what they have got so that they do not have to play an un-sanctioned season. To the casual fans, it wouldn't really matter but to be out of the US Open Cup (is that correct?) would sort of suck. http://www.indyweek.com/triangleoff...elby-wellman-expect-at-least-10-teams-in-nasl went back and read this old article and got a chuckle out of it. going from someone that wanted to "make soccer history" to pulling out of the team and pulling the team name with him...he could not have been further from the truth.