Steven Sandor's Blog, page 4

Orange crush: Syracuse alumni Thomas and Murrell will reunite in Winnipeg with Valour FC

When Jordan Murrell takes the field for his first Valour FC training session, me might feel right at home. That’s because he’ll be lining up next to Skylar Thomas.

Murrell, whose signing was announced by Valour FC on Tuesday, will likely combine with Thomas to anchor the team’s defence. The two have a long friendship. They met at a U-18 national-team camp in Costa Rica, and then spent four years together at Syracuse University.

“To be reunited with one of my close friends is great,” said Murrell, who spent the last four seasons, in the USL, in Real Salt Lake’s system, then with the Pittsburgh Riverhounds and finally Reno 1868.

Also unveiled Tuesday was Glenn Muenkat, a Canadian midfielder who had played in the youth system at Kaiserslautern.

Both players worked with Valour FC coach Rob Gale in various tiers of the Canadian national team’s youth system.

Muenkat recalled working with Gale at an U-23 camp. “He taught me so many things in that short span,” he said.

Murrell admitted he’s never been to Winnipeg, but is looking forward to be able to play in front of Canadian fans, and more chances to perform in front of friends and family. He said that he’s a fan of Gale’s footballing philosophy, and that was the big selling point for him to make the decision to sign with Valour FC.

And, while Murrell is thankful for the chance to come back home, he had nothing but kind words to say about the American teams for which he’s played.

“I enjoyed every minute I played in the USL,” he said. “I am thankful for the opportunities that those teams gave me.”

Di Chiara, Thompson make their moves home to York 9

One of the goals of the Canadian Premier League was to give opportunities to Canadians playing in Europe — and then fallen off the radars of fans back home — the chance to repatriate themselves.

York 9’s two latest signings are perfect examples of the sort of bring-them-back efforts we’ll see from CanPL teams as they prep for the nascent league’s inaugural season.

York 9 announced Monday evening that it had signed Jamaica-born, Brampton, Ont.-raised defender Roger Thompson and midfielder Joseph Di Chiara, who left Canada for the Russia’s top division when he was only a teenager, and then had a sniff with the Canadian national side.

Both had what would best be termed slivers of opportunities with the Canadian youth program. Di Chiara made some waves on the Canadian soccer scene seven years ago, as the very notion of a teen from the Greater Toronto Area attracting the interest of Kryliya Sovetov in the Russian top flight, was, well, a story too good to ignore.

“It’s very difficult getting used to the Russian style, it’s a very strong, very physical game,” Di Chiara said to me back in 2011. For more of that interview, click HERE.

Since then, he’s played in Hungary, Kazakhstan and Lithuania; and he has had several stints in League1 Ontario over the previous four years. So, he’s familiar with York 9’s staff, not only coach Jim Brennan, but assistant Carmine Isacco, who had worked with Vaughan Azzurri, the club at which Di Chiara spent most of his time in L1O with.

Thompson has played in Finland, Sweden and Germany; his most notable stop came in 2015-16, when he played for Trelleborg of the Swedish league and helped the team gain promotion from the third tier to the second tier of that country’s professional ladder. He’s  expected to be a big presence in the middle of the back line, a tall, powerful player who will win a lot of aerial battles but can also move the ball with his feet.

 

TFC is “set for 2019,” so new GM Curtis will be given time to learn the ropes

Ali Curtis won’t be asked to make major changes to Toronto FC ahead of the 2019 season; his challenge will come as TFC may need to make in-season tweaks, and then help set up the team for 2020.

Curtis was announced as Toronto FC’s new general manager on Thursday. He replaces the outgoing Tim Bezbatchenko, who got permission before Christmas from TFC to entertain a job opportunity with the Columbus Crew. On Boxing Day, the Reds knew Bezbatchenko would be heading home to Ohio to helm the Crew.

With the MLS Superdraft imminent, and the Reds already having made a big signing in defender Laurent Ciman, the team is flying towards the 2019 campaign. The club has 25 players on the roster.

So, Curtis, who helmed the New York Red Bulls to a Supporters’ Shield and another Eastern Conference winning season before mutually agreeing to part ways with that club in 2017, will be given time to learn the ropes. He won’t be expected to make an earth-shattering decisions right away.

“I don’t think there’s a whole lot of work to be done in that standpoint,” said Manning, who added that Curtis will be given four to six months to step back and assess what can be improved with the Reds.

“He’s not coming into a bare cupboard. We’re set for 2019.”

Coach Greg Vanney said, despite the team missing the playoffs in 2018, that TFC is “not a team in transition.” The mission in the off-season was to add “subtle pieces” which will hopefully put the team back on the path it was on in 2017, when it won the league championship and participated in its second MLS Cup match in a row.

Unlike previous Toronto FC management searches, which were painfully long, this decision was made quickly. As soon as Manning knew Bezbatchenko was out the door, he talked with coach Greg Vanney.

“We talked about moving forward and who we thought could lead our soccer operations and Ali was at the top of both of our lists.”

Curtis was brought into Toronto on Monday.

“While we certainly will miss Tim, we wanted to get the best guy out there,” said Manning.

Curtis said that TFC represents a “great organization, great community great people.”

You can argue that the timing of Bezbatchenko’s departure wasn’t optimal. But the truth is, there is no right time when it comes to MLS’s obscenely short off-season. This is a league where player transactions are made  just hours after the MLS Cup is presented. There is less than three months between the end of one season and the first kick of the next. Put in the draft, training camps, and the time off is just a matter of weeks.

 

Fury granted right to play in USL in 2019; sanction up for review again in 2020

The sabres were rattle. The verbal jabs were launched. But there will be no grand escalation of hostilities between the Ottawa Fury and CONCACAF.

The team announced Friday that it has been notified that CONCACAF will indeed sanction the team to play in the USL, after initial indications were that the regional body was going to block the team’s re-entry into the U.S. based league.

The team confirmed that the sanction is for 2019 only and that “future sanctioning will indeed be reviewed.”

“Now that we’re sanctioned by CONCACAF, the U.S. Soccer Federation and Canada Soccer to play in USL Championship in 2019, we will accelerate preparations for the 2019 season,” said Mark Goudie, president and CEO of the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG) in a release issued Friday. “Too much negative energy has already been expended on this. I hope that we (starting with me) can now get back to supporting Canadian soccer and each other, regardless of what level or pitch we play on or badge we wear… except for the two-hour period we might play against each other, of course.”

The team will play its third USL season; it moved to USL after spending three years in the now-on-hiatus NASL. The team had been involved in discussions with the Canadian Premier League, but made the decision earlier in 2018 that it would remain in USL rather than join seven other clubs in the new Canadian first division. Canada Soccer greenlighted the decision to remain in USL, but the Fury went public when it received notification that CONCACAF would not allow the move, stating there was no longer an exceptional circumstance that would allow the Fury to play in an American league. The Fury’s stay-in-USL stance was backed by the three Canadian MLS clubs.

Earlier this week, the Fury announced plans to challenge CONCACAF in the Court of Arbitration for Sport. With news that CONCACAF has revered course, the CAS push is now off.

But there is word some damage has been done. Sources have indicated to The 11 that at least one player who had been in talks with the Fury has signed with another club.

CONCACAF issued the following statement: “Concacaf understands that Ottawa Fury FC has withdrawn its unnecessary application to CAS for provisional measures. As we had made clear to the club prior to its commencement of its complaint to CAS, our official process began on December 17, when Concacaf received the application from the CSA seeking Concacaf’s authorization for the club to participate in the USL 2019 season only.  That very same day, we explained to the club that we were expediting the request and that we expected to conclude the review and decision-making process imminently. Ottawa Fury FC’s filing with CAS and their extensive public relations campaign was a needless and misinformed distraction during this process.  Although Concacaf, the CSA and USSF have given their respective authorizations, before the club may participate in the USL for the 2019 season, the Ottawa Fury FC still is required to obtain authorization from FIFA under the clear mandate of FIFA Article 73.”

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Furlano joins the L1O movement at York 9

It’s still early in the “announcement of signings” process, but York 9 looks to be putting together an all-star team of League1 Ontario products.

On Friday, the club announced the signing of Canadian defender Steven Furlano, who was with the TFC Academy system before playing in L1O with Alliance United.

“We’ve watched him for a while as he’s played here in the region,” said York 9 Director of Soccer and Coach Jim Brennan in a release issued by the club. “He’s explosive and he likes to get forward with his great touch. For a young player like him it’s about getting him into a pro environment where he can test himself and grow as a player.”

While he’s listed as a defender, he has some pretty gaudy goal-scoring numbers. In 16 L1O matches last year, he found the net nine times, including a Sept. 15 hat trick in a 3-0 win over ProStars FC.

Furlano joins forwards and fellow L1O alumni Austin Ricci and Simon Adjei on the York 9 roster.

The Canadian Premier League purchased League1 Ontario earlier in 2018.

See you in Switzerland: Fury to take sanctioning case to Court of Arbitration for Sport

The Ottawa Fury is taking its case against CONCACAF to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland. The question is, how quickly can the case be heard?

The club announced Wednesday that is appealing for relief from the CAS. The team was informed last week that CONCACAF would not greenlight the Fury’s application to remain in the USL.  CONCACAF claimed that, with the formation of the new Canadian Premier League, there were no longer exceptional circumstances that would allow the organization to sanction a Canada-based club in a U.S. based league.

The USL is regarded as Division-2 in North America. The Canadian Premier League is recognized as Division-1 by Canada Soccer, even though club budgets are only a fraction of what the lowest spending MLS team would lay out.

In July, the Fury made the decision to not join the new Canadian Premier League, even though the club had been at the negotiating table. The club later stated it was supportive of the CanPL as a whole, but wanted to remain in the USL, where it would be the lone Canadian team in that league’s top tier for 2019.

But, with the USL competition format  (and home-opener schedule) already announced, the Fury is up against it. So, it is asking the CAS to hear its case as quickly as possible.

“We are on the clock,” said Mark Goudie, President and CEO of the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG) in a release. “In the current situation, only four weeks before the scheduled start of training camp, Fury FC is unable to sign players or sell tickets because of the uncertainty surrounding the team’s future. We need a rapid resolution to the dispute and that’s what the CAS was established to provide.”

According to the CAS schedule, it is hearing a case on Dec. 20 — Amadou Diakite vs. the Confederation Africaine de Football —the doesn’t have anything on the docket until January 9. Of course, the Christmas break complicates things.

The CAS is the one vehicle FIFA recognizes to resolve disputes within the international soccer sphere. Organizations that go to CAS don’t run the risk of placing their federations in jeopardy of breaking FIFA’s government-interference rules.

Canada Soccer approved the Fury’s application to play in USL for 2019. The club says it has U.S. Soccer’s approval to cross the border and play in an American league, but Canada Soccer says it has yet to receive confirmation of that from the USSF.

As a legal challenge has now been made, the Fury said it will offer no more comments on the situation until the case is heard.

CAS hearings are not open to the public.

Canada Soccer enters the Nike age

So what should the Alphonso Davies shoes be named? Should we be able to buy Sincy12 gear?

OK, that’s getting a bit ahead of ourselves. Davies and Christine Sinclair don’t have shoe deals with Nike, yet. But Canada Soccer confirmed that the sportswear giant will take over as the official kit and equipment suppliers for the national team beginning in January 2019.

Umbro Canada had been the national teams’ kit supplier since January, 2011, when it replaced Adidas. Umbro’s Canadian division survived bankruptcy proceedings in 2015.

But there’s no doubt Nike has a far greater reach than Umbro could provide — and far slicker marketing campaigns, to boot. While Umbro tended to lean on the classic Englishness of the company, Nike pushes itself as being plugged into the zeitgeist. And it’s amazing how Nike’s merchandise can transcend the sports for which they were intended. It’s a very local example, but my wife doesn’t follow basketball at all — but she know that my son’s big wish was a pair of Kyrie 4 sneakers. Jordan, a basketball brand, is making apparel for Paris St-Germain.  Nike’s marketing lingo becomes the language of a generation.

“This watershed moment for Canada Soccer is further proof that Canada is a leading soccer nation,” said Canada Soccer president Steven Reed in a release. “This new agreement provides recognition of the accelerated advancement of the sport in our country that has been fuelled by our successful hosting of major international competitions including the most recent record-setting FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015 from coast to coast.”

Hey, can longstanding Canadian soccer pundits get shoe deals?

Ottawa Fury not backing down, but will players, agents take chances on a team with an uncertain future?

The Ottawa Fury is putting on a very brave front. The team has got notice that an application to play in USL for 2019 won’t be approved by CONCACAF.

Still, on Friday, the USL released its home-opener schedule — and there was the Fury, to open at home April 6 against Nashville. Mark Goudie, president of the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group, says that it’s still full steam ahead for the new season. Go to the Fury’s website, and you can still buy season tickets.

But the clock is ticking. 

The team currently has 10 players on its roster. It says that there will be more signings to come. But, here’s the question: if you’re a player or agent, do you sign the contract with the Fury’s position up in the air? Or do you hold off and wait to see how things play out, and entertain other offers in the meantime?

So far, what I am hearing from agents and players is that they’d hold off. And this is where it gets tricky for the Fury. In January, we’re going to see a surge in signings in both USL and the Canadian Premier League. And, with each day the Fury has to sit on the sidelines and not be active in the market, the team’s chances of having a competitive roster dwindles.

One agent put it bluntly: “Of course, I would caution against signing there —  especially if my client had other options — until it is known what will occur.”

Another agent admitted to being taken by surprise by the whole sanctioning issue. “I suspect it get resolved, but I’ll be looking for other options soon if not.”

But another consultant, agent and manager said he wasn’t surprised — and his perception is the Fury would have known at some point a sanctioning body was going to step in and force them away from a U.S. based league; the question was when this was going to happen.

He says, though, that if CONCACAF wants the Fury out of USL, it should separate all Canadian teams out of that league’s ladder, whether it be the top tier, its new Division-3 entity or the PDL. In his mind, if Ottawa is pushed out, so should TFCII, Thunder Bay, Foothills FC, TSS FC Rovers, Victoria Highlanders and WSA Winnipeg.

“If you ban one  team, you ban ALL Canadian teams,” he says.

Time not on their side

Let’s say that some kind of agreement to keep the Fury in the USL can be made; the longer it takes, the better the chance the Fury can’t put together a roster to compete in the league’s Eastern Conference. You could have a situation where the team enters the season with a roster that’s put together with Band-Aids. So, even if the team plays, the damage is done if the losses pile up.

And if the team doesn’t play, if OSEG has to shut off the lights, the players walk away, correct? Well, it might not be that easy, says an agent.

He says his position is that  “any contract signed —or soon to be signed— would require OSEG to be liable for full payment.”  If he had a client who had put pen to ink on a deal, he and the player would then search elsewhere if the Fury went dark; but, in the agent’s mind, OSEG would be liable for any difference plus damages. Why? Because the club pledged it would field a USL team, and did not do so.

Basically, it’s like this; the agent’s opinion is that if the Fury was offering contracts before the sanctioning was complete, it’s OSEG’s risk.

Of course, that gets back to the issue of how long the Fury could expect to wait before it had to start the signing process, or else run the risk of being forced to settle for a roster that had last place written all over it. Remember that CONCACAF didn’t reject the Fury’s application; the regional body warned it would not approve the application once it got there. The actual application wasn’t on CONCACAF’s desk, yet. So, that gives an idea of how long the sanctioning process takes. Is it fair to ask the Fury to not sign players in the meantime? Really, right from the beginning the club was caught between a rock and a hard place.

Another question

If the goal is to make the Ottawa Fury compliant with FIFA rules, what about other FIFA rules that North American leagues may not be following to the letter?

If there’s a way to describe what I’m hearing, I’d use the 2012 Olympic women’s soccer semifinal as the analogy. Think back to the game; Canadians were befuddled when the game turned on a six-second call. Canadian keeper Erin McLeod was called for holding the ball for six seconds, and the resulting free kick led to the American equalizer. The Americans eventually won the game.

Canadians weren’t outraged that referee Christina Pedersen made a wrong call; the six-second rule exists, no doubt about it. No, what they were angry about is that the referee decided to enforce a rule that, in the day-to-day world of international soccer, is never enforced. In the minds of Canadians, Pedersen picked her spot.

Likewise with CONCACAF. Agents have told me there are many FIFA mandates which are flouted by North American leagues, from issues in contract paperwork to team options on players. CONCACAF hasn’t demanded that American youth teams be paid solidarity money.

So, like the Pedersen call, to them it feels like CONCACAF has picked its spot.

MLS playoff revamp: The good, the bad and the ugly

The good news: MLS is revamping its playoff system.

The bad news: MLS is revamping its playoff system.

On Monday, the league unveiled a new 14-team expanded playoff, which will be quicker to complete than the old 12-team system. Confused? It wouldn’t be MLS if you weren’t, right?

In each conference, seven teams will make the postseason. How can an odd number of teams work, you ask? MLS magic, I answer. The top team in the conference gets a first round bye. The other six teams play seeded, one-off match-ups (no two-legged series). No. 7 at No. 2, No. 6 at No. 3 and, you guessed it, No. 5 at No. 4.

The No. 1 seed then plays the lowest surviving seed, right? No. Because that would make perfect sense. MLS playoff systems do not make perfect sense. Not in the past, present or future. The No. 1 team is guaranteed to face the winner of the 4-5 game. The winners of the 2-7 and 3-6 matchups will see each other in the conference semifinal.

How does this all take less time to play than the current (well, now former) playoff system? MLS has eliminated the two-legged playoffs.

No more two-legged home-and-home series! This is where the league deserves some applause. Two-legged playoffs make sense if teams are simply drawn together or are of similar standing. But when teams play a full regular season, the higher seeds have earned the right to have home-field advantages, dontcha think?

In MLS, though, it hadn’t been this way till, well, next season. In the past, two-legged playoffs have been great equalizers, as the higher seed really had no advantage over the lower seed. And what’s the point of finishing 10 points higher in the standings, when it all evens out in the playoffs?

In fact, upsets have been so common in MLS, that it’s not really appropriate to use the word “upsets” to describe them. According to the league, when teams met in a two-legged playoff series, the higher seed won just 55 per cent of the time.

The league understood that, in a seeded playoff, home-field advantages needed to be emphasized. Changes had to be made.

And, as a byproduct of turning two-legged ties into one-offs, the league will shorten its playoff schedule. No more MLS Cups in December. The season should now be done in early November. The league pledges that, even with the compressed schedule, it will be able to honour FIFA’s October and November international breaks.

Now, to the bad — 14 teams making the playoffs.

The more teams you allow to make the playoffs, the more you devalue your regular season, especially the early months of the season. As it was, MLS games played in March, April and May already meant very little. Why? Teams understood that if they got hot in the second half of the season, if they could tweak things, they could still make the playoffs. Easily.

And this window only gets larger, the margin for error is greater, when the number of teams that make the post-season is expanded.

Really, outside of the diehards, what selling point is there to an MLS match played in April, even amongst rivals? Does it have any real bearing on the playoffs or the season as a whole? No, those who will watch will be seeing two teams still trying to figure things out, likely using some players or systems that will be flushed away by the summer.  The more you expand the playoffs, the more you devalue the regular season; it’s a difficult balance.

So, really, the format change is a mixed bag.

But I can’t wait to see what MLS has planned for its next playoff reimagining.

Maybe playoff games in Madrid! Too soon?

Farago and Sacramento make their homecomings official, sign with Valour FC

Valour FC announced the signing of two local players Friday; keeper Tyson Farago and midfielder Dylan Sacramento.

Both have played for coach Rob Gale in different levels of youth soccer.

“He’s always asking you to express yourself on the field, he’s not holding anyone back,” said Sacramento, who was with TFC Academy, before going to York University and transferring to Florida Gulf Coast University. “It’s pretty easy to play for a coach like that. That allows you to be able to do your thing out there.”

Sacramento recently played with Vaughan Azzurri of League1 Ontario.

Farago played for FC Edmonton and, after the NASL went on hiatus, went to St. Patrick’s of the League of Ireland.

There’s one intangible, outside of shot-stopping, that Farago provides — and that’s his boot. There was only one other goalkeeper I’d seen in NASL who could hammer a ball close to anything Farago could (Atlanta’s Daniel Illyes) muster, and I’d still give Farago the edge. He can deliver a ball from his box to nearly the top of the opponent’s penalty area. So, if Valour FC coach Rob Gale wants to immediately put the opposition under pressure, Farago can deliver the kick that basically rams the ball down the centre backs’ throats.

It was joked about more than a few times that Farago should simply go for the opposition net off a goal kick.

Farago is thrilled to be able to play at home.

“I’ve already had dreams of it,” said Farago. “Ever since I knew the team was coming around, it was something I had in the back of my head, something I tried to make happen. It’s really surreal now that I’m going to get the opportunity to step on the field.”