By AVI CREDITOR
After Major League Soccer's roster compliance deadline came and passed, the Philadelphia Union had filled just 22 of a maximum of 30 roster spots. Peter Nowak assured reporters on Wednesday that while the club is under the salary cap and the roster is not yet complete, one of last season's fixtures in the starting lineup will not be returning to the club in 2011.
The Union and MLS did not exercise the option to purchase Michael Orozco Fiscal, who was on loan to Philadelphia for one year from San Luis. His loan expired on Jan. 1, and the one-time United States national team defender is still property of the Mexican club, though the Union never made mention of his buy-option not being exercised.
"The overall confusion about that is because everybody forgot what the status of Michael Orozco Fiscal was last year," Nowak said on a conference call from Greece. "He was on a one-year loan with an option to buy, and we did not execrise that option. There's nothing much to say on how and what. It was a simple process at the end of the year."
With Orozco Fiscal not in the team's plans, the Union's defensive corps is down to five members: Danny Califf, Jordan Harvey, Carlos Valdes, Juan Diego Gonzalez and Sheanon Williams.
"The roster is still not complete, but we needed to provide the necessary information to Major League Soccer," Nowak said. "We are under the cap and under the restrictions of Major League Soccer."
The Union signed rookie goalkeeper Thorne Holder and local product Ryan Richter ahead of Tuesday's compliance deadline, and another potential addition to the roster could be rookie Levi Houapeu, the team's third-round pick in January's SuperDraft.
Houapeu, an attacking player out of UMBC, has been training and playing with the team in Greece and throughout the preseason, and Nowak said that the team and him have not yet agreed to contract terms though talks are on-going.
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What do you think about Orozco's contract not being purchased? Who do you hope to see the Union sign?
Share your thoughts below.
Totally unprofessional from a managerial perspective, and this folks is why you don’t have your coach also be your GM, it is strange though considering that your managing owner is a former GM.
Pre-season camp, training and playing friendlies, in Greece.
No one was picked. If you have a draft and no one gets picked, does it count?
To me the interesting question is: the MLs season starts in two weeks. What the hell is Nowak doing in Greece? Are the Union training, or off this week?
Where is reentry draft???
In retrospect, he was a decent left back for us at the Olympics. He just got a bad rap for a red card.
Of course, all the players had their up and down moments at the Olympics– except maybe Parkhurst.
First, I’ve never been a huge fan of Peter Nowak. He may have been and probably still is the best option available, but I don’t like his personality and question many of his personnel descisions (Califf, Seitz, Stahl, whoever has played RB for us).
However, I find it interesting that nobody has mentioned the possibility of Amobi Okugo moving to center back. Still, it makes you scratch your head about the release of Salina, who could have been at least a wing back. I feel that Nowak doesn’t respect Backs enough…unless we bring in a DP of the defense, which he has alluded to very vaguely in the past.
Somehow I get the impression Peter Nowak is not an easy person to work for. Almost as if the guy has a serious attitude problem. If true, I would hate to work for the guy. I hope I’m wrong.
He’s not registered with San Luis for the Clausura, so he can’t play in Mexico’s Primera until the fall season.
Someone familiar with MLS rules can let us know if he could go somewhere else in the league, assuming agreement between all parties with an interest(the player, San Luis, and the MLS team).
It would be too bad for if he had no chance to play for quite a while.
Really not happy with a few of Nowak’s comments here.
In particular this one: “Why do we need to announce it? He’s back in Mexico, end of story.” Well, I guess you don’t really need to announce it if you don’t want to, Peter, but Orozco Fiscal is a decent player who played almost every game for us last season. After dancing around the issue of whether he would be back or not for the past few months, it shows real contempt for the fans to dismiss those wondering about what the status is.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m completely stoked for the new season to start, and I’ll make my judgments about the team once we see it on the field. However, there have been a number of seriously questionable moves so far this offseason, and Nowak has been nothing if not surly and standoffish when asked about almost anything. I’d be lying if I wasn’t a little concerned.
Ahhhh perspective.
I love Nowak’s attitude. He knows this game from the inside out, and he is the type of coach that you can place some trust in.He treated Adu like a kid when he acted like one and everyone wanted his head for it. Now it seems as though he has been redeemed by all of Adu’s coaches since.
Ouch that is quite a high salary..
This is all good stuff. Hah
as a philly fan, nowak drives me crazy…. If you go to the brotherly game blog, they posted tweets from roger Torres as far back as thursday or friday wishing MOF best wishes and such….. 22 people rostered at this point is ridiculous!
I really like Nowak as a coach. But if you look at Philly’s personnel decisions in year one and how many of those players were retained…yech! Okay–you don’t expect most of the expansion draft players to have long careers in MLS. But this team is almost (but not quite) starting over).
Any rumors on Defenders that maybe on their way in? Nowak keeps claiming that the roster is not finished but there doesn’t seem to be any blips on the radar from a fan’s perspecive.
Nowak’s non-explanation of Orozco Fiscal’s departure is clearly untrue. Nowak suggests that the loan expired January 1, end of story. But as others have pointed out, both he and Hackworth are on record after that date saying they were committed to bring him to Philly to stay, he was training with the Union for most of the preseason, and they even published an article on their website as recently as February 11 strongly suggesting that all parties expected him to be back in 2011. So what happened? Was the buy-out option too expensive for a team that lists only 22 players on the roster and must be well under the salary cap? Doubtful, since the price should have been in the contract from the beginning. Was there some kind of falling out between Orozco Fiscal and the coaching staff? Who knows? The only thing that’s clear is, something has been deliberately left unsaid. And for the record, he may not have been the best defender in MLS last year but he was a hard worker who started 29 games last year, and he will be greatly missed by this fan, as surely by others as well.
I have a feeling this is not over…perhaps a negotiating tactic to bring his price down or sort $ for a new loan.
Perhaps he was in camp because they also thought he would ask to be released from his contract after the option to buy wasn’t made, and then he could come to Philly on a free. Saying he wasn’t good enough to spend 500k on, but on a free he is, kind of situation. I thought he was decent, but not that impressive overall. Then again, playing with Califf as a partner would hinder the top defenders in the world…zing.
I wonder if price did have something to do with it since he was making $250k last year.. The Union could probably get someone just as good or a bit better for that price. Still, I will miss Fiscal’s work rate..
I’m only confused by Nowak’s remarks because Orozco has been training with the team since January. He makes it seem like the option wasn’t picked up and on the first of the year he was off the team and that is that. Orozco was here in PA training and was with the team in Florida. Heck, the Union’s website had a story about him and the contract negotiations. I’m assuming that the Union thought the initial buyout was too expensive and San Luis wouldn’t bring the price down. Overall though it is a strange interview by Nowak that really doesn’t answer anything.
Even if they are going with a 3-5-2, it’s still pretty concerning that we only have five defenders on the roster…
It sounds like Nowak wasn’t Fiscally responsible.
You shouldve said the Fiscal Year is over
Weird, he seemed to be a bright spot for Philly.
+1
Or they are going with a 3-5-2 and don’t need as many defenders. I’m quite curious to see how the roster shapes up with the back line.
Yeah this surprises me; always thought he was pretty solid. Maybe his salary demands where too high?
So it’s not a Fiscal Year?
Disappointing. His buyout clause must of been expensive for them to not go for it.. Thought he performed decently last season and Philly need defensive depth.
I was wondering about this because I remember Orozco not being signed completely and never heard of him getting signed on lately. I think its an odd move by Philly, but it seems like Nowak feels like he is fine with the defenders he has or is planning to add one more that would complete his defense. Hopefully Orozco finds a good home somewhere else in MLS or in Mexico.