Tuesday’s odds and ends
By Jeff Carlisle · May 27, 2008
Yes, it’s been a busy day, with Peguero Jean Philippe being let go, and Rolando Fonseca participating in training, but here are some other tidbits from Tuesday’s practice.
– Fonseca may be 33 (he’ll be 34 in a couple of weeks), but his quality jumps right out at you. Granted, that was only in finishing drills, and I’ll wait until I’ve seen him a few more times before I give an opinion on whether he should be signed, but it was clear he was a cut above the other players out there in his movement and shooting. Whether he has the legs to last a 90 minute MLS game is another matter.
– Kei Kamara is leaving today for WC qualifying with Sierra Leone. True, it’s not a surprise, but Kamara had mentioned after last Thursday’s game with Houston that he wasn’t sure he was going. Doyle confirmed today that he is. That said, I was talking to Yallop afterward, and he mentioned that there was a chance Kamara could be back early. As it stands now, Sierra Leone will play four games in the next three weeks starting June 1, with the last match away to South Africa on June 21. That’s an absolute killer for the Quakes if Kamara is gone the whole time.
– Jovan Kirovski and Ryan Johnson are already being paired up in scrimmages and finishing drills, so it looks like Yallop is trying to establish as much chemistry as possible before this weekend’s game against Real Salt Lake.
– Wondering why Frank Yallop was in a suit on Thursday, instead of his usual windbreaker? Turns out Doyle swung a deal with a local haberdashery, and that the entire team has been outfitted. When I asked Yallop if it was his new good luck charm, he said, “It might be now.”
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Any sense of how the roster would change (Ayres demoted to Dev?, someone cut? who?, some sort of trade?) if we signed Fonseca?
Ayres is on the 6-week injured reserve list, so he isn’t counting as a rostered player, developmental or otherwise right now. I’m guessing that when he returns, he will assume developmental status.
I looked over at the ussoccer site to check the lineup for the game today, and Josh Wolff was listed as being out of contract. Do you think we could and should try to make him an offer? He might make for a good tandem up top with Kamara or Johnson.
Okay, I’m going to act like a girl here, but it IS on topic, per last paragraph:
Yes, in fact, I did notice Frank in the suit. Yowza, gotta love them manly footballers in spiffy duds, a la EPL managers (Chris Coleman, especially, boy I missed him during Fulham broadcasts).
This concludes our brief fashion-watch update. We return you now to our regularly scheduled, roster-based speculation and commentary….
Pairing RJ with Kirovski isn’t a surprise to me. I hope that Jovan still has what we need.
If we do sign Fonseca, I suspect that Frank will cut a forward, and that’s likely to be either Cunliffe or Glinton. I think that Frank likes Glinton, so . . .
Or they could do something else too. It will be interesting to say the least.
- Mark