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American Soccer Notes: Cosmos add three more players, FC Tucson breaks ground on stadium, and more

GorskieMaurerCalderonetoCosmos (NewYorkCosmos)

By DAN KARELL

The start of their season is still more than three months away, but the New York Cosmos have continued to add talent and depth to their roster.

On Friday, the club announced that they had signed three new players; defender Hunter Gorskie, and goalkeepers Jimmy Maurer and Chad Calderone.

Gorskie, 22, recently finished his senior season at Stanford, where he was named second-team All Pac-12, as well as being the team’s captain. Maurer, 24, spent last season in Chile with Universidad de Concepcion after two years with the Atlanta Silverbacks, and Calderone, 32, has most recently played for New York Pancyprian-Freedoms of the Cosmopolitan Soccer League in New York City.

The NASL club currently have 14 players on their roster, while their website states the final total will be between 25-30 players.

Here are some more stories to check out around the nation:

FC TUCSON BREAKS GROUND ON NEW FACILITY

Ahead of their 2013 USL-PDL season, FC Tucson has achieved an unlikely status, becoming one of the first clubs in the fourth tier of United States soccer to have their own stadium.

Fans arrived on Thursday to join in and watch the groundbreaking of a nearly 2,000 seat stadium on the Kino Sports Complex in Tucson. The stadium should be finished by November 2013, and will include an overhang to help shade fans from the sun as well as other improvements to the complex where the team and it’s youth squads train.

“We finally have a proper home for youth soccer in Southern Arizona,” FC Tucson managing member Greg Foster said. “And it’s youth soccer, adult/amateur soccer and professional soccer. We have a great place to play and a great place to showcase soccer as a spectator event.”

Founded in 2010, FC Tucson was Arizona’s first soccer franchise, which has now been joined by Phoenix FC in USL-Pro and the Phoenix Del Sol and Tucson Soccer Academy in the WPSL.

KANSAS CITY ATHLETICS WITHDRAW FROM U.S. OPEN CUP

Last Sunday, the amateur soccer side Kansas City Athletics defeated Michigan team Dearborn Stars 1-0 to earn qualification into the U.S. Open Cup.

Following the match, the Stars protested the decision to the U.S. Open Cup organizers due to the narrow length of the field in Kansas City, KS, and won the protest, forcing a replay match. Due to logistics and short notice, the Kansas City club were forced to withdraw from the competition, though they have made their thoughts on the matter known to the public.

According to Kansas City-based website Down by the Byline, there were numerous issues with the protest by Dearborn in the first place, including that it was submitted past the deadline, and that no one protested the size of the field (62 yards as opposed to the minimum 65) before the match started, including the referees.

“We have proven three ways why the protest should be over turned, they refuse to acknowledge that fact,” Athletics general manager and coach Kyle Perkins said. “We don’t agree, and won’t play in a game that shouldn’t be played.”

CHARLOTTE EAGLES SIGN HERRERA

Following two seasons back in his native Colombia, Jorge Herrera has returned to his old digs with the Charlotte Eagles.

The USL-PRO franchise announced on Friday that they had added Herrera to their roster following approval from U.S. Soccer. The 32-year-old played 102 matches for the Eagles over seven seasons, and was a first team All USL member between 2008-2011.

Herrera has been playing the last two years with Atletico Huila, who currently sit in the middle of Colombia’s top professional soccer league. The Colombian is expected to be in the starting lineup when the Eagles play the Pittsburgh Riverhounds on Friday.

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What do you make of these reports? Like the Cosmos signings? Excited that more teams will get their own stadiums? Do you believe KC Athletics’ side of the story?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. what I like about the NASL is that the teams feel more like clubs. They have more autonomy. They are allowed to go out and sign players. There isn’t this allocation, draft, discovery claim, salary cap BS.

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  2. My wife’s from Brazil. When I’m in Brazil to visit and when we get down to the business of talking football, my father in law aways asks me how the Cosmos are doing. He was a fan back in the days of Pele and Beckenbauer. I dont have the heart to tell him they haven’t play a competitive match in almost thirty years. He doesnt know the league went under. Point is he can’t name a single MLS club not even the LA Galaxy or Red Bulls, but he asks me every visit about the Cosmos, even without playing they still are American soccers only Global brand. If we want to build MLS into a more global brand and fan base MLS needs the Cosmos and their swagger. It’s just like the NY Yankees you either love them or hate them.

    Vai Corinthians!!!! Chupa Porcos!!

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  3. Forza!!! Tucson FC!!!

    The new stadium will be nice. I was surprised how many people showed up for the groundbreaking!. Tucson is at a little higher altitude than Phoenix, so we are a bit cooler (if you call 100-107 cool) than the average 108+ phoenix averages over the summer. Plus we got Monsoons!! These are the warm wet air masses that come from the Gulf that cool SE Arizona during July,August& September. We get more rain than LA!! I live about 35 miles East of Tucson in the foothills of the Chiracahua (@4500′)and it sinks into the 70’s here at night during the summer so it’s easier to sleep at night without AC.

    If you plan the soccer games well and time your games to be in the early evening or at tnight, it can be quite enjoyable..

    Tucson used to be Baseball country, but it abandoned Tucson for Phoenix. Tucson was lucky to attract an A league Baseball team last year to use the Tucson Electric Park, where once we had a triple (AAA) team and the Diamondbacks as a permanent winter team. All gone.

    Now Tucson has embraced Soccer. With a large Hispanic and young, healthy living population, it’s a good fit. The Tucson Cactus Cup has extended to include a slew of MLS friendlies and even a few International friendlies. There are rumors that Tucson has been approaching the USSF to have an USMNT friendly here (instead of Phx), perhaps at the newly renovated Wilcat Stadium (48000+)

    Tucson even has a cool name for it’s supporters, The Cactus Pricks. The scarf is so cool I was offered around 40 pounds for it when I took in an EPL game in London this winter. I wouldn’t sell it though, as its a first edition!!!

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  4. Why would any US soccer fan bash another team trying to stand up by themselves? Sure, they have a history, but their history includes being the most notable US team to ever see the field, during a time when soccer was more popular than it is now (based on attendance). And yes, I know MLS is on better footing and with better infrastructure around.

    I for one hope the Cosmos succeeds. The more teams around, the better. And it’d be nice to see the Cosmos take the field again.

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    • You do know that the Cosmos maimed soccer here? They were the reason for the collapse, and why we still are struggling for relevance.

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      • that is BS. i hate NY teams but that is some BS. they were not the reason for the collapse. they were ONE team. they were a PART of it, but they weren’t the only reason. come on now

      • No, they didn’t “maim soccer here.”

        They were not the reason for the NASL’s collapse — they were the reason anybody even took notice of the league…and they set the stage for the growth that’s come in US soccer ever since.

        I don’t know if you were alive and following the sport then, but everything changed after Pele came. I lived the before and the after as a kid, who saw the explosion of interest in the game. None of it would have happened without the Cosmos — at least, not then. They advanced the game here by 20 years.

      • for MLS homers it would be. They don’t want a strong second tier because they think it will be threat to their MLS.

        I hear this all the time form MLS homers.

        What happens if tier 2 becomes popular. stadiums get built, fans show up etc? Then fans, players, media will be asking about promotion/relegation system.

        MLS homers hate this idea. They fear it because they know it will be successful. So, they take every chance they can get to denigrate NASL or lower tier soccer leagues.

  5. why would these guys want to play for a defunct team, that would be semi-pro at best when it starts when they could be playing in MLS?

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    • Wow. There’s so many misstatements in just one sentence.

      Not a defunct team. Won’t be semi-pro when they start playing later this year,; and none of these guys could be playing in MLS.

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  6. All i know about the cosmo’s gk signing Maurer is that the Rapids had him on trial of a while and a lot people were surprised/dissapointed when they signed irwin instead. Looking back no one feels the same way anymore, Irwin is playing very well, but Maurer might also be a good prospect.

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      • Why does this team sign players? They don’t play any games. All they do is remind everyone of their overrated history playing fake soccer with washed up players in a league that failed. MLS doesn’t need this garbage, it’s already far more successful than NASL ever was.

      • you need to calm it down with the NASL hate. there is a great documentary on Netflix on the Cosmos, you should watch it. gives a much bigger perspective of the Cosmos and their incredible story.

        Steve Ross and the Ertegun brother’s did something incredible back then and it is not overrated. Unfortunately Ross and Warner were not doing so hot around the time Pele retired. They no longer had the capital to spend on the Cosmos to keep the excitement going. After awhile, Warner sold off the subsidiary that ran the Cosmos. Chinaglia ended up buying it.

        Chinaglia did not have the money to keep that team afloat. And frankly, Chinaglia was not well-liked within the Cosmos organization.

        Anyway, the documentary is pretty awesome. I use to think the Cosmos were just a fun story, but it was more than that. And Steve Ross is the man.

      • The fact is that league failed and didn’t do anything to help US soccer, which was a fringe sport by the mid-1980s. Plus, Pele only played about 50 games for the Cosmos. What’s the big deal? I don’t get it and I’m sick of hearing about it.

        Plus, I’m tired of the pictures of new players posing in the city. They’re going to play at Hofstra. Have you ever been to Hofstra? It’s at least 45 minutes to an hour from the city and the campus is literally split in half by a suburban highway. Seriously, there’s a bridge that goes over the highway that’s one of the hotspots on campus. That’s where they’re going to play.

      • i disagree it did nothing to help US Soccer. and you’ll see why if you watch the documentary. Steve Ross, and the Cosmos, helped FIFA consider the idea of having a World Cup in the States.

        again, i said the same thing as you until i decided i should research the topic so i actually know what im hating on. and when i did, i found out they were actually pretty cool.

      • Actually the previous regime, the ones actually brougth back the name and team, were the ones making outlandish statements and cramming the Cosmos down everyone’s throats. The “new” owners have been pretty subdued and have taken small steps. It helped that Paul Kemsley, who was the guy behind the talk, resigned. I don’t think they are really interested in a move to MLS right now according to EriK Stover. The did release those stadium renderings in Jan. but that’s all they were.

      • They’ve got more history than most MLS teams. Look at how well the sounders have started. I’d rather have a team with a brand and some history than more plastic teams like the Red Bulls or teams with fake stupid names like FC Dallas

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