Steven Sandor
edits and writes at The 11
Ottawa NASL franchise turns to fans for team name
FC Ottawa? Ottawa United? Capital City FC? SC PMO?
Canadian soccer supporters have until Dec. 16 to submit their names of choice for the new Ottawa NASL franchise, which is set to kick off in 2014. The Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group, which owns both the new NASL franchise and the Canadian Football League expansion team which is also set for a 2014 debut, has launched its own name-the-teams contest.
Impact gets a bonus draft pick because SKC wanted to avoid waiver process
Sporting Kansas City decided against playing poker on Friday — and the Montreal Impact got a second-round draft pick out of it.
On Wednesday, the Impact announced it got SKC’s second-round pick in the SuperDraft in exchange for defender Josh Gardner. For the Impact, it’s a bonus pick; the club had made Gardner available for Friday’s Re-Entry Draft. It didn’t want Gardner back.
Had SKC been able to snatch Gardner in the Re-Entry Draft, it could have snatched the American defender for nothing other than a contract. The Impact would have received nothing.
But, obviously, the Sporting Kansas City brass felt that there was a chance that Gardner, who had a base salary of just over US$54,000 last season, would not fall to them in the Re-Entry Draft, even though history has shown us that Stage 1 of this process usually has general managers saying “pass” rather than wading into the pool.
Herdman: Tough times ahead for women’s soccer in Canada
It’s reality-check time for women’s soccer in Canada.
Fresh off a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics and the news that the Canadian Soccer Association will fund 16 slots in a new American women’s pro league, it would be easy for followers of the women’s national team to be giddy about the future.
But women’s national-team coach John Herdman isn’t so sure. Instead or rosy prognostications about women’s soccer in Canada, he said it’s time for us to lower our expectations, as time has come for the program to take a few lumps.
“We’re going to take a couple of steps back before we go forward again,” said Herdman.
Edson Edward becomes an Eddie
Canadian fullback Edson Edward has inked a deal with FC Edmonton, thanks to a little help from his friend.
The Ottawa native, who can play both on the left and right sides, was a regular in the Puerto Rico Islanders’ lineup in 2012, and his mix of size and speed enamoured the FCE front office. Before coming to NASL, Edward was part of the FC Dallas set-up. In two seasons in Texas, Edward didn’t get much of a chance to show his stuff to the first-team fans. He only had five minutes of MLS action in two years with the Hoops.
But he showed very well with the Islanders in 2012, and logged 1550 minutes.
Canadian MLS teams put nine players up for grabs
As it stands, nine players from the three Canadian MLS teams will be on offer in Friday’s MLS Re-Entry Draft.
Teams have until Thursday to come up with new deals with the players they have made available, so there is a small chance that some of these players could come off the list. But the word “small” has to emphasized. Since the Re-Entry Draft process was introduced in the 2010 season, it has been rare to see an out-of-contract player or a player whose option wasn’t picked up taken in Stage 1 of the Re-Entry Draft process.
That’s because a team would have to pick up the option price of the contract, and a lot of these options weren’t picked up because these players were deemed too expensive to bring back. In a case of an out-of-contract player, the team would have to make a “bona fide” offer, which means a comparable salary to the 2012 number.
