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Red Bulls waive Kassel, Hot

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Photo by Howard C. Smith/ISIphotos.com

In the end, there just wasn't room on the New York Red Bulls' roster for a pair of young, untested players who happened to come through the team's academy to continue their development.

The Red Bulls waived midfielder Matt Kassel and defender Sacir Hot, both Homegrown Players, on Friday. Both played sparingly in their rookie seasons in 2011, with the bevy of experienced and international players ahead of them on the depth chart proving to hamper their development and integration with the first team.

"Unfortunately, with the talent on our squad, we cannot guarantee that Sacir and Matt will play in first team matches," Red Bulls sporting director Erik Soler said in a statement. "They are both young players who need more games and we will help them find positive situations where they can succeed and develop."

Instead of opting to seek loans for the players or attempting to cultivate their games even further, the Red Bulls cut them loose, signifying the latest piece of evidence that young, domestic talent will have a hard time breaking through in the organization under the current regime.  

What do you think of the club's decision to give up on Kassel and Hot?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. players are going to be reluctant to sign to homegrown contracts before college. i bet both hot and kassel wished they were still eligible in the ncaa. theyre screwed.

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  2. Solli has been consistent at the very least and all while playing out of position. And he still is considered one of the top rbs in the league.

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  3. It’s complete BS. No room on the roster? Nonsense. They have a half-dozen or more open slots now. Salary cap issues? Also, not the case, since these are Homegrown players. If they wanted to work things out in terms of getting these guys playing time, they could have loaned them out.

    This only makes sense if they’ve given up on the players and/or don’t want to pay them. What sucks for these two players is no team will offer them as much to sign.

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  4. I dont think Ossington’s implication was intended for playing but rather the educational side of things.

    Your implication that he regrets it hints that he WONT be able to find another landing spot.

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  5. If the two of them didn’t count against the cap and weren’t taking up senior roster spots as home grown players then this is really strange. Two homegrown, and very promising, players dropped.

    NY better be preparing to make a good signing otherwise this just seems dumb.

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  6. I should have said players returning from Europe but it was a joke to sign Nielsen, Ballouchy blows, Marquez has been a disaster, Taninio is a injury liability, Solli should just become a DJ, if they sign Ballack I will cry and worst of all NY wants Stephen Ireland and were willing to pay 9 million until it got rejected.

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  7. Yeah I agree it would be a big investment but it is nice to wish.

    I understand FIFA prob wouldnt like it but look at Spain and Germany their developemental teams play in the lower leagues and you could pitch it to them as a that but just a different name. But then again f*ck FIFA

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  8. From what I’ve heard, Red Bull Academy coaches would also sit players when college scouts are in attendance. They don’t want colleges taking their talent/investment.

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  9. Thats why people are mad, that money will go straight to foreign veterans who used to be worth the money but will instead waste roster spots while sitting on the injured reserves. You want to win something keep a consitent roster instead of blowing it every year because it doesnt work. Look at LA, RSL, and to an extent SEA. They built well balanced franchises and they are the cream of the crop. Maybe if you didnt spend 600,000 of allocation money on Conde you wouldnt have to scrap for money while discouriging players from signing future HGP contracts

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  10. This is outrageous. Don’t they both have GA contracts and not count against the cap? If they couldn’t get playing time at RBNY, they should be *loaned out* not waived.

    This is really very, very outrageous, and the team will have hell to pay with the supporters for this.

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  11. Long term I think you have a good idea. I don’t know if MLS franchises have the cash now to run another set of teams on top of themselves, but if they could, I think having a bigger pool of reservists getting regular games in the minors would be superior to the MLS reserve system in and of itself, as well as the competition between reserve teams and the minors. The salaries are probably similar and the tickets sales, etc. from minor league games defrays the cost of having the team.

    One thing, though, FIFA probably wouldn’t allow the US minors to be exactly like the MLB minors where you can potentially go up and down and up and down…..two-teams-a-year rule would apply.

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  12. Which “garbage Europeans” are you referring to — Lindere, Solli, Henry, Taino? Nobody GM is perfect (and certainly Soler has been far from it); but, these Europeans have been at least good if not excellent. I would certainly take another Lindpere over having Kassel and Hot.

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  13. My caveat would be that I don’t necessarily buy MLS coaches know what they’re doing on identifying young talent. Houston had Navas Cobo and Dixon who looked good in flashes last year, this year Soto looks interesting in preseason. But because of the “my goal is to win championships” mentality you bring up, I think coaches are leery of giving out first team time to homegrown-type players…..because it would often mean admitting some senior player is not earning their paycheck, the perception of risking their own paycheck on a reserve, etc. It’s then a catch-22 potential where you barely get senior looks and then they cut you because they can’t see how you fit into the senior side.

    That being said, on a basic level, yes, it is sink or swim.

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  14. The Red Bulls are getting $70000 in allocation cash for waiving Kassel and Hot. In a league with a salary cap, sometimes these decisions have to be made. Besides, they clearly were never going to make the first team and the coaching staff is impressed by the trialists we’ve had this year so far.

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  15. I don’t understand the teams that talk a big game about growing the roster from within with youth academies but in fact are so impatient to win now they crowd them out by signing foreign vets. One or the other, choose a path. It’s like listening to Chelsea talk about a sustainable operation cranking out players for the first team, yet most of them go on loan (for lack of playing time) then get sold.

    See this is why I like having the college system in addition to the pros and the academies – it provides an opportunity for all these guys to actually play soccer. Not train at soccer, not sit on a bench, but actually play. And it’s not going to go away until all these players have a place to actually play. For a couple top prospects, yeah it makes sense to go pro (here or abroad) – but only if you’re playing.

    Ossington Mental – by the name I assume you’re from Toronto. If you sign a professional contract (or hire an agent), you forfeit your remaining status as an amateur and thus your NCAA eligibility. So they can’t go back any play college ball. It would be interesting if soccer went the route of the NHL – NHL teams can draft college hockey players, they retain their rights when they want to go pro but can keep playing college hockey until then. What if going forward, as the MLS team academies crank out more and more of the talent, that these guys can go play college ball (and actually play) part of the year while getting an education (which most will need for their livelihood sooner or later) and the teams retain their MLS rights? Actually I suppose it’s kinda like that now.

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  16. Exactly, the PR is why this was a bad idea. They should not have waived them, rather found loan situations to at least make it appear as if they’re trying to nurture young players.

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  17. I’m not a Rafa fan at all, and not all their veterans are great, but if you look at the roster it’s like, how will Hot or Kassel play? I think they’re being done a favor.

    This also means that they probably think their other potential reservists are better, or more deserving of this year’s development opportunity. I don’t necessarily think MLS teams are great at identifying whom to integrate with the first team, but let’s be real if this is Europe or Mexico, at their ages, you get a look, and if you don’t impress, you’re loaned or flushed depending on your value. People like Rooney are pro at 16. When I hear people saying people need more time, it’s like, people abroad have years of career by then….how many years has Adu been playing? They get a pro setting and sink or swim.

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  18. The MLS should put minor league affiliates in the NASL so these type of players can actually get a full season instead of rotting on the bench and playing 10 reserve league games. Should have stayed in college

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  19. Its not the league rules. They dont count against the cap since they are home grown but NY cut them to get allocation for not filling all the spots to pay their garbage Europeans

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  20. Playing games – even at a lower league (i.e., Charleston Battery, Rhinos, etc) – could be of great benefit for these two players.

    I do agree though that RB could have mislead these two players and that is not what young talent needs to hear – unless they were told up front that there was a possibility they would not make the final roster.

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  21. Disgusted by this. Not only because RB management is a joke but that because of this leagues roster rules and wage budget they had to pull the trigger to let these two go. I’ll be honest that I haven’t seen either one play much so I can’t claim they were going to be the next best thing but it sets a precedent that is ugly for the team and MLS. Good luck trying to sign the next homegrown player and convince him to not go abroad or continue on with college.

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  22. I don’t get this either. The kids weren’t signed with the idea of them getting first team play any time soon. I thought the idea was for them to be on the team, play reserve games, and grow into a role on the team over the course of a few years. So this means either that management decided they don’t have the potential to fill a role, or that the idea of keeping young homegrown players around and grooming them into first or even second team players wont work. If it is the later, then this may not be a NYRB only problem.

    Come to think of it, besides Najar, Agudelo and Fagundez, are there any home grown players that are making a consistent impact on their teams? (Notably, each of these guys came to the U.S. from another country.) Maybe the league is not set up properly for the teams to sign and groom 18 year old American kids into real pros. There aren’t many reserve league games to play in. If MLS doesn’t do something to get these kids more games, the “homegrown player” idea may just be empty hype.

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  23. Very odd to release two players that qualify as off the roster. And Kassel was a kid they chased for years right? Sure seems like they are angling to use those empty spots to pay for their foreign signings with that allocation money (which is an amazingly short sighted rule). Too bad, but on the plus side perhaps both guys can play at a lower division and get the time they need…then work their way back up to the big leagues.

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  24. ^^This. How are these guys going to develop if they have no games? Neither of them could make our bench, especially now that we’ve got Palsson, Borajo, etc.

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  25. Yeah but they’re not winning championships and they seem to be going backwards in terms of developing young talented players. Some of the best American talent (Jozy Altidore, Tim Howard, Michael Bradley) come out of this team. Now? It looks like Agudelo has to leave if he’s going to get PT. Will this team start ANY American player this year?

    Maybe Kassel and Hott just didn’t develop as players. But frankly, it’s not like they’re being replaced by other young Americans. And believe it or not, one of the goals with MLS is to develop talent for the USN program. That’s a stated goal and that’s part of the reason USSF provided startup support for MLS.

    Finally, are you saying that there’s this killer player out there that NYRB is going to sign for $64k? That’s a pittance (especially for the NY area).

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  26. As homegrown players, don’t Kessel and Hot fill roster spots 21-30 and not count against the salary cap, according to MLS roster rules?

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  27. Mark My Words

    This will be a continuing trend with the lack of games for these young prospects. If they are never in game shape, or being able to prove themselves in games. The Reserve league needs to expand to a minimum of 20 games!

    …..the Colombia dry will run out sooner or later

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  28. I take back everything I ever said about being very upset with the Chicago Fire for how the front office is run. I’m now just praising all that is good that we are not the NYRB.

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  29. Seems strange to give up on two very young players, both of whom were considered to be first round talent if either had entered the draft. I also didn’t think NY had enough players on their roster that they could afford to let go of cheap young talent. After all, wasn’t a lot of their problem last year depth?

    Does anyone know if other MLS teams are allowed to sign them now? I mean, Hot was in an olympic team camp not too too long ago if I’m not mistaken.

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  30. you know, the red bulls goal isn’t to develop american players, it’s to win championships, and if they have to drop a collectively useless $64,000 worth of players to do so, then I’m fine with it. Everyone understands the risks when you turn pro, especially at such a young age. You don’t produce, you leave, just like any other job.

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  31. ugh. just ugh. Strange indeed. If these players are good young affordable homegrown talent.. which Soler and Backe have to admit they are, else they’d be contradicting themselves after signing them last year, not to mention brushing off the club’s own youth system… aren’t they good enough for depth at least? If one or both of these guys latch on somewhere else and prove they were right for believing in themselves, and the problem was simply RB management never did… then Soler and Backe should be next to go.

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  32. I wonder if this will make it difficult in the future for the Red Bulls to sign academy players when they don’t give two of the ones they signed much of a shot with the pro team.

    As a parent, it’s hard to justify giving up college soccer and the education and scholarship that comes with it, to sign with a team that casts prospects aside after one season.

    Hopefully Kassell and Hot get picked up elsewhere and are able to further their careers and, barring that, are able to finish college on MLS’ dime.

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  33. The way the red bulls are run disgusts me dropping Americans left and right and signing homegrowns only to release them. These guys are #2 and #3 homegrowns let go.. Also if I recall hot had trials in the bundesliga and was showing well before he signed with RBNY

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  34. Saw this coming. Still makes no sense. Either loan them out or…..I guess don’t sign them in the first place. Just keep them in the development academy–Hot, at least. What’s the point of signing and then dumping your own player? Hot could have been sold, at least. NY makes some odd decisions. It’s lack of commitment to young American players is troubling to say the least.

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