Nasl 2015 Pre-Season Power Rankings By Alexander L gago
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NASL 2015 Pre-Season Power Rankings By Alexander L Gago February 26, 2015 Ranking teams in February, what? – way too soon? Our insatiable appetite for soccer drives us here. It’s the only thing that keeps us going. With the end of the 2014 North American Soccer League (NASL) season after the San Antonio Scorpions raised the NASL championship trophy on November 15, each club has been busy preparing for 2015. 11 clubs are competing to win the 2015 NASL Championship to include the expansion team out of Jacksonville, Florida. This is about who is the best team in the NASL at this pre-season point, and then a subsequent ranking of the next-best teams. In order to achieve our rankings, we compiled data from NASL transaction wire reports to formulate our rankings. We calculated where each team finished in the 2014 season, what new signings have taken place during the off season, who exercised their options, a club mentality towards spring training, and collaborated with our NASL expert staff to formulate our ranking. We will look at that and reflect back on where each team stands heading into Week 1 of the NASL 2015 season for a fun reminder that soccer remains the craziest, most unpredictable sport in the world. This is about which team ranks first and last. Still, not everyone will be satisfied with our team’s position, so feel free to throw eggs and barbs at this NASL scribe in the commentary below. We will begin with last year’s champion, the San Antonio Scorpions. RANK 1  The Scorpions are still the best team in the NASL. It was true in late November, it was true in early 2015, and it is true now. It’s tempting to call the defending champs San Antonio Scorpions the odds-on favorite to repeat. The San Antonio Scorpions won the 2014 NASL championship in impressive fashion, with a perfect bicycle-kick goal of the ages by resigned Rafael Castillo and now San Antonio Scorpion legend. As spring training intensifies, the Scorpions are focused on defending their NASL Championship by signing two former Colombian youth internationals, 6’1” Eduar Zea, and winger Cristian Palomegais. Both are powerful, fast and young, who have played in South America. According to head coach, Alen Marcina, the team’s mindset, mentality and soccer philosophy has not changed. Currently the Scorpions are training in San Antonio for the preseason.
RANK 2  Minnesota United FC was one of NASL’s hottest teams during the 2014 season. They finished the year higher than most folks expected, though, and getting to the playoffs is very impressive for the team who lead the league with 47 goals. This is also a team with strong coaching and talent on offense with the resigning of NASL 2014 top scorer Christian Ramirez, the 2014 NASL Golden boot winner, and Miguel Ibarra, who was called up to the United States National Team; and with the signing of Brazilian central midfielder Ibson to the 2015 season. The club is currently training in Casa Grande, Arizona. Once finished with their camp in Arizona. The team will be heading to Brazil as part of a pre-season trip in March. We believe player speed is the name of this game, combined with established talent surrounded by core players training in Brazil is a winning pre-season training formula.
RANK 3  It’s hard not to be a New York fan and not like these Cosmos, as the offense looks impressive with the signing of mega-legend Raul in their classic tradition of signing big-time vintage international superstars. The Cosmos added a new dimension to their attack with the signing of Raul, who was a star at Real Madrid, where he debuted at 17, the youngest pro to ever play for that club. He led them to six La Liga titles in 16 years. The question remains, is there enough gas left in the tank for Raul at the ripe age of 37, right? The club is on an eight-week training program that included international games versus clubs in South China, Hong Kong and against domestic Southern California clubs.
RANK 4  Carolina looked like a freight train out of control to begin the season in 2014, but has remained a high-power locamotive engine fixer-upper of late. The Railhawks missed the playoffs, finishing fifth at three points behind the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. The Railhawks enter the 2015 season with numerous notable signings. But, they have yet to sign their leading 2014 goal scorer, Zack Schilawski. Zack scored nine goals, finishing third overall in NASL top leading goal scorers. Signing Zack to a multi-year deal could be the key to a deep playoff run for the Railhawks in 2015. Currently the clubs training schedule has Carolina playing against lower level clubs and a second division club from South Korean club Seoul E-Land FC (South Korea) on March 8th.
RANK 5  2015 begins with members of the soccer media – myself included – thinking the Tampa Bay Rowdies could be the dark horse contender to win the 2015 NASL championship. The Rowdies begin their quest by reattempting to bring back the glory days of the 2012 NASL Soccer Championship with a new coach, Thomas Rongen, several key signings and a dedicated ownership group. The lack of defense for the most part of 2014, with the most allowed goals by any NASL (50), tied with the Atlanta Silverbacks for dead last. The Rowdies have gone out and signed proven NASL defenders for the upcoming 2015 season to sure up the defense. The group consists of midfielders Marquez Fernandez and Jeff Michaud, defender Zac Portillos and goalkeeper Chris Glodack. The Rowdies added a dynamic attacker to the roster mix with the signing of 29-year-old Zak Boggs. For the first time in modern club history, the team is headed overseas for pre-season training to Portugal to better prepare for the coming season. The Rowdies are in a rebuilding year with a new coach and new players. The Rowdies will open the 2015 season against the 2014 Soccer Bowl Champions San Antonio Scorpions in San Antonio on April 4, 2015.
RANK 6  Not sold on the Fury here, but I’m not sold on any of the Candian teams at this moment. Ulitmalty, this judgment is more about upside. The defense looks imroproved compared to their first 2014 year debute whith several new defensive players signing, which include Irish defender Colin Falvey and former Fort Lauderdale Strikers defender Rafael Alves. The Fury re-signed their 2014 leading goal scorer for the club, Oliver; yes he came back like Gage in “Pet Cemantry” after being buried in the 2014 standings in the number eight position. The Fury have made technical player adjustments but have gotten a late start to pre season training. As most NASL clubs have looked to train overseas with competivte teams or in Arizona with other NASL clubs. The Fury have choosen to train in an armory and have not put together a cohesive pre-season ‘touches on bowl’ training stratgey compared to other NASL clubs who are already competing.
RANK 7  Mixed reviews for the Eddies at this stage of the game. Thus, they stand pat in our Power Rankings. With a roster that features a large returning contingent from last season’s squad, that narrowly missed out on a playoff berth after a strong fall season of play. This year’s roster will also debut a handful of new faces, national and former MLS player Sainey Nyassi, goalkeeper Matt Van Oekel and Iceland’s Oskar Hauksson. All three players are expected to help push this year’s team to the playoffs. NASL Gold Gloves winner John Smits is still under contract for 2015. More emphasis should focus training overseas for pre-season camp to better prepare for the coming season like several of the NASL clubs are doing. The Eddies’ home season opener is on April 12 versus the Carolina Railhawks, at 2:00 p.m. MT at Clarke Field.
RANK 8  For all of the chatter about the Jacksonville Armada, the club launched its Armada with 12 new signings during the pre-season, the most out of all of the NASL clubs. Understandably, so arming an Armada takes careful planning. Armada FC dropped anchor in front of a raucous and North American Soccer League pre-season record crowd of nearly 14,000. The Armada FC took down Major League Soccer's Philadelphia Union, 3-1, in their inaugural match at EverBank Field in Jacksonville. If that’s any indication of the future we should see fleet closer to capturing the NASL title in 2015. The club trains in Jacksonville Florida and has no plans to train overseas.
RANK 9  2014’s most surprising club, the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, are now sporting famous retired Brazilian international soccer super star, Ronaldo, who recently became part owner, boosting on ESPN his return to soccer to play for the Strikers. The club surprised everyone by reaching the final Soccer Bowl championship game using their raw talent of players coming together at the right time, exceeding everyone’s expectation, including those in the local South Florida media. Not signing the number two scorer in the NASL for 2014, Fafa Picault with 12 goals, could prove to backfire on the club. Most teams try to keep their core championship players and not dismantle a club. Rebuilding will take time. The Strikers hired a new coach, Marcelo Naveleff, to rebuild their roster and is currently training in South Florida; rebuilding as club is not an easy task after a championship showing by the club in 2014. It is for all these reason and with much pain that we rank the Strikers in our 2015 pre-season power rankings near the bottom.
RANK 10  So Indy Eleven finished second-to-last in the 2014 NASL standings. It’s nothing to be proud of and there is not much news coming out of the Indy Eleven camp, other than spring training in the Arizona with the same core set of players from 2014. Indy Eleven have exercised to resign most of their core players. They also signed Honduran midfielder Sergio Peña, and his countryman Osman Melgares, along with forward Wojciech Wojcik. The club is currently training in Casa Grande, Arizona for the upcoming season.
RANK 11 
It was a long, dysfunctional, frustrating year for the Atlanta Silverbacks 2014 was a disappointment on and off the field as the Silverbacks finished dead last with 23 points in the standings. This is not what they had hoped for when they hired head coach Eric Wynalda, but when the Silverbacks decided not to renew Eric’s contract, first year coach Gary Smith took charge and has wasted no time getting to the task at hand by signing Shaka Bangura and former Dutch youth international Hans Denissen, who join Jaime Chavez and Matt Horth as part of his building the club process. However, a poor 2014 finish has fans feeling less than optimistic about rebuilding anything at this point, and they should be. Silverback players are just now showing up for camp where most NASL clubs are already training and have played with international and North American clubs. It’s for all these reasons is why we rank the Silverbacks dead last. The Silverbacks open the NASL Spring Season on April 4 against the Indy Eleven, at Atlanta Silverbacks Park. Directory: wordpress -> wp-content -> uploads uploads -> Samsung signs beckham as london 2012 uploads -> A comparative Study of Perceived Managerial and Leadership Effectiveness within Asian and Western European Countries uploads -> Victim participation in criminal procedures uploads -> Bury st edmunds hockey club uploads -> Professor rona s beattie and dr david bamaung glasgow caledonian university email for corresponding author uploads -> Best Offensive Players: qb #19 keenan reynolds, N, ’16. Lg #57 E. K. Binns, N, ’16 uploads -> Smart Supervision Research Partner Orientation Course fy13 and fy14 Grantees September 29- october 1, 2015/San Antonio, tx uploads -> Autonomous Control for a Reliable Internet of Services (across) uploads -> Shafi Goldwasser Download 20.79 Kb. Share with your friends:
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