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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. Austin DeLuz has been cut by DC & Salt Lake since RBNY traded him. The only place he’s playing regularly is on EA Sports. He’s not even as good as Blake Camp. Get a grip, baby!

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  2. As of this moment, I hate the Red Bulls. I hope they disappoint again and fire Hans Backe, which is a sorry excuse for a coach. Why not loan the kids to another club? Backe also got rid of a lot of American players last year, who are now playing regularly with other teams, like Austin Da Luz. The fact is someone who thinks Juan Agudelo and DeRosario are not good enough to play for the Red Bulls but Rafa Marquez is must be an imbecile.

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  3. DCU has had 6 academy players on their roster at one point or another. 2 of those players (Hamid and Najar) are starters and key players for 2 years now (longer with Najar). Ethan White was a starter for much of last year.

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  4. And a lot of pros who leave school early continue to take classes and finish their degrees. Especially true in soccer since it doesn’t pay all that much.

    In fact, I remember reading about at least one player who signed a USL contract straight out of high school while enrolling in college full-time. Apparently he figured that, because of the summer schedule, it wouldn’t take much more time away from classes than playing for his college team would have.

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  5. I don’t agree with RBNY’s move, but you can’t say their business model won’t work when RBNY has produced the best player from the Homegrown rule in Agudelo. I am hoping that now the academy has younger teams they are hoping to accelerate the process of grooming the academy players so they become more refined products at 22 years old like academies players in other parts of the world.

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  6. Poppy cock! I know everything there is to know about everything and I KNOW these kids were the future of American soccer! And I know! I’m a lawyer! And thus a genius! You know nothing! I know everything!

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  7. For the record, I’ve seen both these guys play about a dozen times each. They’re nothing special. The ceiling on Kassel is to be a Seth Stammler type player & for Hot, a Tim Regan type. RBNY fans have this fantasy that the Academy will churn out great talents. What actually happens is that most players who show great promise early peter out. Same thing with minor league baseball. The Mets had a guy 10 years ago at A-ball named Ross Van Peebles who blew everyone away. He never made it. The two best players to come throgh the Academy are Agudelo & Chizarde. Of the two, Agudelo has more talent but has absolutely no idea of what he is doing on the field. He tries to dribble past everyone & makes bad plays. Georgi has a little less natural skills, but actually has an idea of what he’s doing. I wish the Red Bulls were developing more young players who could contribute to the 1st team, but trust me, if you’re going to get worked up over soemthing, neither Kassel otr sacir Hot is worth the effort.And I have nothing against them. They’re seemingly both nice kids. They’re just not that good.

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  8. I’ve been to a couple of reserve matches. They are a joke and are not good preparation for actually playing in MLS. I, too, would rather see some sort of system that enables these players to play in a more competitive environment.

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  9. Please tell me you are joking. Soler/Backe are the laughing stock of MLS and the most underachieving duo in MLS history. They have spent more than any other team in the league during their short tenure, and the result is a team in free fall, a complete lack of chemistry on the field, a coach that has no respect in the locker room, and player personnel decisions that are laughable. Soler/Backe have never, and can never, achieve the kind of success that LA and Bruce Arena have achieved in LA. No comparison. In the end, the knowledgeable fans in NY/NJ will express their opinion on the competence of Soler/Backe not on these blogs, but by their attendance at games. Does anybody want to bet that the stands at that beautiful will not be even more empty this season? I know for a fact NYRB ticket sales staff would not make that bet! Will get uglier is year. IK Start all over again. Thank God there is no relegation in MLS…

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  10. I think this organization is uniformed. They are in an entity of their own with their decisions on many things. It’s obvious they don’t care about the development of soccer, or it’s fans by allowing Backe and Soler to continue to make bone-head decisions. Call Alex a fairweather, uniformed fan if you want, but perhaps he has had it with this organization over the years as have many others, and doesn’t want to support such insanity any further.

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  11. Spot on analysis. Just plain dumb or puzzling at best. Feel for the two kids and also find this a step back for the academy system for MLS. Red Bulls don’t believe in developing American talent. Their business model won’t work in the long run, when teams like RSL, LA, and others are moving players into the first team from the academy. Hope those two kids move on to other situations that work for them.

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  12. you’re rediculous… not renewing for hot and kassel? riddle me this, where is Ching, Daluz, and Garcia? i bet you never even had ST to begin with… good riddance you fairweather, uniformed fan.

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  13. And you saw them play how many times? If you based your decisions about players on one or two times playing they all would be under the gun for sucking! Tim Ream had a sophomore slump last year, Marquez was awful and you have the audacity to say these two players weren’t worthwhile. It’s fans like you and Soler And Hans that have made my decision easy this year. I AM NOT RENEWING MY SEASON TICKETS!!!

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  14. While I would like to see the team develop more US & local talent, U have to say that I’ve seen both these guys play & I’m not impressed. Hot makes terrible decisions of fthe ball & Kassel is slow & is poor at tracking back on D. The question isn’t why they cut them, but why they signed them in the 1st place.

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  15. No, the league need more foreign approaches. Why have a bunch of teams with the same style? An influx of ideas will help grow the league. I like what managers like Backe, Winter, Pareja, and Rennie are doing.

    This forces managers like Arena and Schmid to step it up…and they have.

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  16. Baloney…Marquez was great in the midfield, which is where he fits in MLS. Paalson is cover for Tainio, who has looked good also. 3 good 2-way players in the middle.

    Ireland would be a perfect fit in Central Midfield no matter the cost.

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  17. Are you serious…Lindpere is the only one that stands out…Henry for what he is being paid should shut the hell up more and play…the other two are average at best for being ‘internationals’, they are nothing special…in the end NYRB failed even though they outspent other teams 2-1, 3-1 even 4-1…they got handidly beat by the gaLAxy who are in the same spending spree…

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  18. Backe should had left last season…he is worthless…I have never being so anti a club who its run not like how this old fart runs that organization…

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  19. lol…this team under that inept of a head coach is incredible…US talent yup don’t need you…I don’t need to build I want to build a championship with spoil old Europeans…weak and stupid and dangerous of the development of the game in this country…cause that’s what MLS is for isnt it guys? In the end its an American league and even the Canadian teams have more Americans in them…pathetic..

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  20. obviously

    so now they just have to come up with the money for college that they already had before the Red Bulls rearranged their plans

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  21. Maybe not a genius, but unorthodox. The league needs more type like him to shake things up. Like him or not, this roster is light years ahead of where they were a few years back.

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  22. The bar is raising….He might be next if he doesn’t start improving. He had a lot of opportunity last year and will get even more looks this year.

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  23. Like I said, they could offset some of the expense with ticket sales, just like minors try to be self-sufficient now anyway (with varying success). It might even help if a better breed of player was in town because it was more of a developmental league situation as opposed to a competing, lesser league.

    And they don’t necessarily have to own the teams outright, they could just be affiliates like in MLB. You could just link up NY with Rochester, so to speak, who would have its own ownership. Maybe NY throws in a little.

    It’s not so much that FIFA wouldn’t like it as that you’d have to handle it like in Spain, where they pretty much dedicate you to a squad in the summer, and if they move you from Barca B to the first team side you’re stuck there for the balance of the year. You just can’t do the MLB thing and call up an injury replacement for two weeks then bust them back down to Peoria.

    That’s the one plus to the reserve setup is that FIFA lets English and American teams and the like shift players from first team to reserve games and back, but I think that’s because it’s treated like a different competition by the same team.

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