Preseason is officially under way, and so begins the long, slow burn toward first kick. The games will start coming fast and furious soon enough, but in the meantime you can catch all the other news and updates from MLS training camps below. And for the entire preseason schedule, click here.
MANNING THE MICS
For all you radio junkies out there, WFAN has announced its broadcast team for New York City FC's inaugural MLS season:
Former Georgetown University play-by-play man Tom Kolker and ex-Rutgers University women's soccer coach Glen Crooks will be handling play-by-play and color commentating duties on the English side of the broadcast, while Roberto Abramovitz will call the games in Spanish.
OUT FOR A SPIN
Leave it to the gregarious Kei Kamara to add a bit of fun to your boring old spin class. From his Instagram:
Crew SC fans can only hope the trio brings that sort of agility and coordination to the field when the regular season gets underway.
NEW GK COACH IN HOUSTON
Paul Rogers is leaving as the US women’s national team goalkeeper coach to take the same position with the Houston Dynamo, the club announced Thursday.
Rogers replaces Phil Hughes, who couldn’t fulfill his position with the Dynamo due to personal reasons, according to a team release.
Rogers has been with the USWNT since March 2009 and helped lead the US to a gold medal at the 2012 Olympic Games and a second-place finish at the 2010 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Rogers’ duties with the women’s national team also included scouting and video analysis.
“I want to thank Owen and the Houston Dynamo for this fantastic opportunity,” Rogers said in a team release. “These are exciting times for Major League Soccer and I'm looking forward to getting on the training pitch with Tyler [Deric], Joe [Willis], Michael [Lisch] and the rest of the group.”
Rogers also served as goalkeeper coach for the Canada Women’s National Team in 2008, helping them to a runner-up finish in CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying and the team’s first appearance in the Olympics, where they reached the quarterfinals. Rogers worked on the professional level as an assistant and goalkeeper coach with St. Louis Athletica of Women’s Professional Soccer in 2009 and 2010, and collegiately with Florida State University, the University of Louisville and Tulane University prior to that.
GRUENEBAUM HANGS 'EM UP, HEADS HOME
Nine-year MLS veteran goalkeeper Andy Gruenebaum has opted to call time on his playing career, with the announcement Thursday that he will be re-joining Sporting Kansas City, this time as a color commentator for the SKCTV network for the 2015 season. He will also serve as a Sporting Club Network Liaison for youth soccer initiatives, helping develop a youth soccer curriculum for the Sporting Club Network and its 59 affiliate clubs.
Gruenebaum, 32, was selected by the San Jose Earthquakes in Stage One of the 2014 Re-Entry Draft after having his option declined by Sporting, but did not join up with the team for preseason. He spent the first eight years of his MLS career with the Columbus Crew before moving to his hometown club for the 2014. Gruenebaum finishes his MLS career with 91 appearances in regular-season play and a 1.27 goals against average.
RAPIDS' DP HUNT
The Colorado Rapids are hunting for a big-name foreign acquisition to bolster their strike force, but the process has hit a few bumps in the road, according to a Denver Post report.
Though Rapids officials are not giving much away in their public remarks, the Post's Mark Kiszla and Daniel Boniface say that the Mile High Club have been tracking Fulham FC striker Hugo Rodallega and Chivas Guadalajara's Marco Fabian as possible candidates for Colorado's second Designated Player signing. The Rapids made Panamanian forward Gabriel Torres their first-ever DP signing in 2013.
Head coach Pablo Mastroeni and sporting director Padraig Smith stress that there is no set timetable for this process, which Mastroeni suggests will take into account the player's impact both on the field and at the box office.
"Does he have that kind of ability to attract people that would like to come in and watch soccer for the first time?" said Mastroeni. "So there’s a lot of different components that go into it, but first and foremost is to help the team on the field."
BONO'S CANADIAN ADVENTURE
Generation adidas goalkeeper Alex Bono missed the MLS SuperDraft while in camp with the US national team, but after he did not make the trip to Chile for Wednesday's friendly, he headed up to Toronto to join TFC, who selected him with the No. 6 pick in the draft.
Not a bad way to adjust from college soccer to the pro level, huh?
"I used that as a translation from college to the professionals," Bono told reporters on Wednesday. It's a big jump to the professionals. It really gave me a perspective on the way those guys live and the way their training habits are, and I'm going to bring that here."
Watch the full interview here.
SETTING THE RIGHT TONE
New York City may have made news Thursday by announcing the new club president, but they also picked up a slightly more under-the-radar acquisition in music supervisor DJ Mode:
DC'S NEW FACES
A couple of new faces joined D.C. United training camp in Bradenton, Florida, this morning: Finnish midfielder Markus Halsti (who has signed with the club) and Irish defender Sean St. Ledger (who has not). Try to guess which one's which:
