Some Soccer News for Jan 24, 2017

It's Day 24 of 2017.


Great news: Clint Dempsey medically cleared to begin preseason training with Seattle Sounders!!

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Three signings for Minnesota United today:

• Starting with 25 year old Finnish defensive midfielder Rasmus Schuller from Hacken in Sweden. He has 14 caps for his national team.

• Also signed MLS journeyman defender (can play all 4 spots across the backline) Jermaine Taylor from Portland Timbers. He has 84 international caps for Jamaica.

• And finally they re-signed 28 year old Venezuelan attacking midfielder Bernardo Anor who was with Minnesota in NASL last season on a loan deal from Sporting Kansas City.

• This puts the team at 21 players officially, and 2016 NASL rostered player Ismaila Jome is expected to be announced at any time taking them to 22.

• That leaves 6 spots still open: They only have 1 goalkeeper (who is injured,) so they will need 2 more of those, leaving only 3 places available. Meaning ALL THREE need to be impact players.

And here we have the full MNUFC training camp roster:

• G: Alec Ferrell, Marco Carducci (trialist), Sammy Ndjock (preseason invitee), Charlie Lyon (trialist)

• D: Francisco Calvo, Tiago Calvano (preseason invitee), Justin Davis, Vadim Demidov, Thomas de Villardi, Joe Greenspan, Ismaila Jome, Brent Kallman, Lance Laing (preseason invitee), Jermaine Taylor, Kevin Venegas, Andrew Tinari (trialist)

• M: Bernardo Anor, Raul Gonzalez (trialist), Ibson, Miguel Ibarra, Duke LaCroix (trialist), Collin Martin, Mohammed Saeid, Rasmus Schüller, Eugene Starikov (trialist), Tanner Thompson, Johan Venegas, Collen Warner

• F: Abu Danladi, David Goldsmith (trialist), Femi Hollinger-Janzen, Christian Ramirez

6 names of interest on that roster: 3 NASL Minn United 2016 players, Sammy Ndjock, Tiago Calvano and Lance Laing. Plus 3 others:

• Marco Carducci - 20 yr old keeper from Vancouver Whitecaps brought in by coach Rovde.

• Duke LaCroix - 23 yr old from Indy Eleven who killed MN last year and was one of the leagues best.

• Eugene (aka Yevgeni) Starikov - 28 yr old Russian Ukrainian-American who at one time was given a shot in a USMNT training camp. At Chornomorets in Ukraine last year.

First Loons preseason game is a week from today - Tue Jan 31 v New England Revolution.

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Some fascinating players in training camps around MLS:

• Oguchi Onyewu is in preseason camp with Philadelphia Union.

• Gale Agbossomounde is in preseason camp with Seattle Sounders.

• And Freddy Adu is in preseason camp with Portland Timbers.

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Tyrone Mears has been shipped from Seattle to Atlanta. No details have come to light yet. But that is a solid starting right fullback.

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What does Jack Black think about the guitar playing of Tom Morrello?

how FUCKING cute iz jack?

A video posted by NINJA (@zef_alien) on Jan 22, 2017 at 5:07pm PST

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A deeper dive on the CONCACAF Champions League changes that were announced yesterday - what does it really mean? By Brian Straus of Sports Illustrated.

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American Terrence Boyd has left Liepzeig on a transfer deal to Darmstadt.

• And don't forget that Torsten Frings is the coach!

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American Gedion Zelalem has signed a new contract with Arsenal and then loaned to VVV Venlo in Netherlands 2nd division.



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