GM Encouraged By Newest Additions
While there might be some concern that RSL hasn't done enough to replace the players it lost from last season's playoff team, general manager Garth Lagerwey said he's confident the team has made some good moves in advance of the season-opener at Seattle on March 28.
"We still have work to do," he said from training camp in South Carolina, "but things are going well."
Specifically, RSL let go strikers Fabian Espindola and Kenny Deuchar and midfielders Dema Kovalenko and Nathan Sturgis in the offseason. But it has added striker Luis Miguel Escalada, as well as veteran midfielder Ned Grabavoy and draft picks Jean Alexandre and Raphael Cox, both of whom have signed senior roster contracts.
"So we feel like our midfield is pretty strong," Lagerwey said.
Lagerwey said Escalada is potentially a "good complement" to Yura Movsisyan and Robbie Findley up top -- Escalada is under contract, but must continue to prove he's worth a higher salary that will kick in if the team picks up an option in his contract next month -- while Grabavoy is a "younger and quicker" version of Kovalenko, with a similar mentality and slightly more defensive mindset.
Alexandre is "more durable and more athletic" than the often injured Sturgis, with a "higher ceiling" -- though Lagerwey was quick to note that Alexandre is not yet a player of the same caliber as Sturgis. And Cox has impressed the coaches despite being just a fourth-round draft pick, potentially providing the left-sided midfielder for which they have been searching.
"It's unfair to put a lot of pressure on a rookie like he's going to play all the time," Lagerwey said. But "if a fourth-round drat pick is good enough to make your team, you're liking it."
Now, RSL just needs to prove it can be consistent. Lagerwey noted that the team reached the playoffs last season without winning two games in a row. "The thing we have to prove is that we can be consistently good," he said. RSL gets another chance to set a tone on that score on Wednesday, when it plays its second game of the Carolina Challenge Cup against the host team from Charleston, after whipping D.C. United 3-0 last weekend to improve to 4-1-1 in the preseason.
"We still have work to do," he said from training camp in South Carolina, "but things are going well."
Specifically, RSL let go strikers Fabian Espindola and Kenny Deuchar and midfielders Dema Kovalenko and Nathan Sturgis in the offseason. But it has added striker Luis Miguel Escalada, as well as veteran midfielder Ned Grabavoy and draft picks Jean Alexandre and Raphael Cox, both of whom have signed senior roster contracts.
"So we feel like our midfield is pretty strong," Lagerwey said.
Lagerwey said Escalada is potentially a "good complement" to Yura Movsisyan and Robbie Findley up top -- Escalada is under contract, but must continue to prove he's worth a higher salary that will kick in if the team picks up an option in his contract next month -- while Grabavoy is a "younger and quicker" version of Kovalenko, with a similar mentality and slightly more defensive mindset.
Alexandre is "more durable and more athletic" than the often injured Sturgis, with a "higher ceiling" -- though Lagerwey was quick to note that Alexandre is not yet a player of the same caliber as Sturgis. And Cox has impressed the coaches despite being just a fourth-round draft pick, potentially providing the left-sided midfielder for which they have been searching.
"It's unfair to put a lot of pressure on a rookie like he's going to play all the time," Lagerwey said. But "if a fourth-round drat pick is good enough to make your team, you're liking it."
Now, RSL just needs to prove it can be consistent. Lagerwey noted that the team reached the playoffs last season without winning two games in a row. "The thing we have to prove is that we can be consistently good," he said. RSL gets another chance to set a tone on that score on Wednesday, when it plays its second game of the Carolina Challenge Cup against the host team from Charleston, after whipping D.C. United 3-0 last weekend to improve to 4-1-1 in the preseason.
posted by www.sltrib.com @ 9:33 AM |
1 Comments:
I suppose you could argue that RSL let Sturgis go by not protecting him in the expansion draft, but technically, Seattle took him. RSL would have kept him (I think) if this hadn't been an expansion year.
I know, every year is an expansion year, but still.
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