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Red Bulls Update: on visas, George Welcome and the other new faces

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Good afternoon folks. There were plenty of unfamiliar faces at Red Bulls practice today, and plenty going on with the club, so here is a rundown of some of the happenings today and the latest with the club (including more on the George Welcome situation).

The four players the Red Bulls are expected to sign (Jorge Rojas, Juan Pietravallo, Gabriel Cichero and Diego Jimenez) were all at training but their status for Saturday’s match against the Galaxy is still in doubt. The club is going through visa processing and as of right now none of the players are cleared to play.

Red Bulls head coach Juan Carlos Osorio plans on using Rojas in a playmaking role, taking advantage of the veteran’s vision and passing ability to fill a void that has been empty since Amado Guevara left after the 2006 season. He looked sharp in practice and can definitely pass the ball well. He said he feels comfortable playing as a No. 10 and I think that’s where you will see him play for the most part.

George Welcome trained with the team today and the club did confirm that it has the second discovery spot on Welcome (as SBI told you last week, New England has the first discovery option).

So why won’t this situation be the same as the messy Lider Marmol situation? Once the Red Bulls decide to make an offer to Welcome New England will be approached by MLS to make an offer. The Revs would then either have to make Welcome an offer or pass on the player, which would put the Red Bulls in the driver’s seat.

New England making an offer doesn’t look like a guaranteed thing, so there is a chance the Red Bulls could land Welcome, assuming they want to sign him. He looked good in training as a holding forward, though he did look a bit slow, probably rusty from all his recent travels.

Gabriel Cichero’s deal to join the Red Bulls is done as far as the clubs are concerned, but Cichero’s compensation is still being sorted out. It doesn’t look like it will be a problem though as it is clear that Cichero forced Deportivo Italia to make the loan happen. The deal is for the remainder of the season, with an option for a second season as well as an option to buy (which is a requirement of any loan deal involving MLS teams.)

My first impressions of Cichero are that he’s big, composed, good on the ball and a very good passer out of the back (I’ve seen one session and feel comfortable saying he’s already a beter passer out of the back than any other Red Bulls defender-and no, I don’t count Dave Van Den Bergh as a defender.)

Juan Pietravallo is one tough customer and I think he’s an upgrade at defensive midfielder. I don’t think he’s as athletic as Seth Stammler, but he’s a better passer and better on the ball. He and Stammler could form a nice partnership in front of the defense, either in a 3-4-1-2 or 4-2-3-1. Pietravallo is a good passer and gets forward well. I don’t think he’ll have a tough time adjusting to MLS.

As far as visas go, Diego Jimenez appears to be the player most likely to have his clearance to play first. He is slated to be the team’s option at left back in a three and a four-man defense.

The Oscar Echeverry saga continued on Monday as he looked pretty awful in training. There is something definitely wrong with him physically because he appears to be laboring badly whenever he tries to run. If I hadn’t seen him look very good in pre-season I would say he’s just a horrendous player. I think he’s injured and trying to play through it. He doesn’t even try to make cuts, which is a key part of his game when healthy, and I think I only saw him reach anything close to top speed on one occasion.

So what will the team do? I think Echeverry will either be waived or put on injured reserve to clear the roster spot. It doesn’t really matter which oe the team does since his contract is guaranteed for the rest of the year (unless he signed the waiver to push back his guaranteee date, which I haven’t heard).

So what sort of starting lineup will we see when all players are ready to go? Here is one possible lineup:

————–Angel—————Richards——————

————————-Rojas——————————–

Van Den Bergh————————————Sassano

—————Pietravallo—-Stammler——————-

Jimenez—————Cichero———————Parke

————————Conway—————————-

And lastly, the Red Bulls will face the Harrisburg City Islanders of USL-2 in a scrimmage at Giants Stadium on Tuesday. Harrisburg City is the club of Red Bulls goalkeeper Danny Cepero, who has enjoyed a strong season on loan with the Islanders. I will be at the match and will provide a running commentary from it.

That’s all for now. Feel free to share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. I find it hard to believe that the Revs would give up their discovery claim for nothing (especially with RB waiting in the wings). They have an open roster spot and cap room – at worst they could sign him and shop him around the league – at best, he could help them since they don’t really have a holding forward.

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  2. Is Reyna thinking of retiring anytime soon? He looked extremely sluggish in a friendly I saw earlier this year. I’d like to see an additional DP open up at least next season. Is the league ever going to allow more DPs?

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  3. until welcome is signed, i say play with angel up top and use a 4-man defense… once freeman goes to beijing, use the 3-man back line hopefully with welcome and angel up top.

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  4. If all goes well with these players, the NYRB could move up to as high as fifth place.:)

    Seriously, these players don’t seem like they would provide dramatic improvement. When are NYRB going to make a big name quality signing? Oh, that’s right, I keep forgetting about Reyna. As someone has already said, if he had any decency he would retire now so his team could salvage something from this season.

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  5. Ives, thanks for the great post as always. hopefully we can get this paperwork cleared up and half our starting team won’t look and kick the ball like little kids compared to the good teams (sort of kidding, sort of not). With all due respect Ives, and I haven’t been to the practices, but Sassano? Starting? Doesn’t impress me, maybe I’m missing something.

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  6. Say what you want, but I’d hate to see Reyna go out like this. Ives, what’s the target date for his return and do you think he’s guaranteed to start?

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  7. I think Sassano sits and Reyna takes his spot. Should Reyna’s “non-season ending but out until the playoffs” injury ever heals.

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  8. If Renya is back and healthy, I would imagine he would take Stammlers spot. Stammler would then become the super sub, coming in in the 70th every game or so for Renya.

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  9. A simple check would show the name of the city is ‘Harrisburg’ the team is the ‘City Islanders’ in reference to the name of the island on the Susquehanna River, City Island.

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  10. looking at Ives new line up….. Reyna is good as gone….he should just retire now and give us a DP spot……..

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  11. I was also wondering when the scrimmage is going to be held, and if it will be open to the public. Wouldn’t mind heading down to Giants Stadium if fans are allowed to.

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  12. 3 things I don’t understand:

    1. Jimenez couldn’t hack it in the Mexican 2nd tier and just jumps right in and starts

    2. Stammler is viewed as an automatic starter; yeah I know you all love him and he tries hard but his passing is often atrocious; his best role is super sub; if Pietrovallo is better play him, and use two center backs, which leads me to …

    3. Parke is one of the few decent players on this team, playing in his natural position, and now you’re gonna move him

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  13. Great post Ives. On an unrelated note, Peruvian press says Solano is heading to the Galaxy. Any word on that? Was NY ever in the mix?

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  14. Ives,

    George Welcome still belongs to Arsenal from Islas de la Bahia a 2nd division Honduran league team, I know he wont be able to join NYRB on a free transfer so what will happen with him? as far as im concernec MLS does not pay transfer fee’s.

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  15. Steve Nicol said on the WSD program last week that the Revs had no interest in signing Welcome, so if the Red Bulls are interested in signing him we may not see a repeat of the Marmol situation.

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  16. You can argue Borman has been our most consistant. He went on that streak and got 2 goals in 2 games, yeah?

    He needs to develop a little, but he’s a solid option from the bench IMO.

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  17. I know Osorio like the possibility of Freeman as a right winger in the pre-season but I’m not sure that’s the case now. He can cross the ball well but I think Sassano’s defensive qualities give him the edge over an out-of-form Freeman in Osorio’s eyes. Now, if Freeman regains his top form then I can certainly see him starting in that right mid role in a 3-4-1-2.

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  18. Thanks for all the updates on the Red Bulls. What’s the story with Hunter Freeman? He’s a player that was scouted for the Olympic team and now he can’t even crack THIS starting lineup.

    And am I wrong or is Danleigh Borman too inconsistent to be a starter?

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  19. In other news, Beasley is out for the Rangers at least three weeks with hamstring injury. So he will miss the Champion’s League qualifier.

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  20. Guys, since it’s just a scrimmage, and not an actual game, I don’t think the new guys need to have any kind of clearance. I’m pretty sure the purpose of scheduling this match was to get these guys some game action.

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  21. They have two free slots (Jozy and Ubiparipovic downgrade, which replaced Mesa). A third slot would come free if the team dumps Echeverry, meaning at least one player would have to be let go. I think we’ll see a few players leave.

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  22. RedBulls Fans nightmare –

    (Said in the Boogie Man voice)

    “I represent the Chicago Fire. We’ve put Discovery claims on….”

    :O)

    Man, I couldn’t resist the urge. Hopefully it will workout well for you guys. We want no excuses when we whip your asses in Chicago with these new players at the end of the season.

    ;O)

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  23. With Parke on the right at the back three will Freeman get more time at right mid where you saw Sassano or is Sassano outplaying him?

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  24. Thanks Ives. I’m glad you do the practice reports.

    To bring in the four / five players… how many players do the NYRB have to let go?

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  25. Great great post Ives! Thanks for the NY News.

    So how’s Sassano looking? Do you think he’s doing enough to deserve a starting spot on the right?

    Also, if we sign George Welcome, would you put him up front and replace Sassano with Richards?

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  26. Good, two upgrades over a healthy Reyna then in Rojas and the Argentine. Nice to hear. Not hard to do.

    If the bigfoot/loch ness type player that does the small things, which fans don’t get or comprehend because we are to dumb comes back, then at least it will be with the water bottles at the end of the bench.

    Encouraging either way.

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