Roster Moves, Toronto Pre Game, CCL

By: jon | August 14th, 2009

A busy day at Offside HQ, and whole boat load of stuff to talk about. Strap in.

- First and foremost, roster moves. The long rumored, and now finally finalized move for David Habaruguira, defender from Anderlecht in the Netherlands. He had throughly impressed Tom Soehn, enough that he had this to say,

“He is pretty versatile, pretty polished,” Soehn said. “His trial was one of the better ones we’ve ever seen; he got better every day.”

I would venture to say that Haba (for short hand purposes) will be put right to work, most likely as cover in Champions League, at least on away matches. I liked this move, because if Soehn is this impressed, we should be in for something decent.

-DC traded Houston a conditional 3rd round pick 2012 (THE FUUUUUTURE) for defender Julius James. A right back by trade, James was traded to Houston in the DeRosario trade. I remember at the time thinking “To be the counterweight in this move, this guy had better be good”. Reports seem to say that even at 25, he’s still pretty raw tactically, and has gotten by on physical attributes alone. Here are some Youtube clips:

Oops, nevermind. It appears the Toronto fans are in love with themselves, and like to take video from the stands showing how original their songs are. So, no luck on showing real game footage.
Having cover at RB is never a bad thing, especially with the congestion we have coming up.

-Ange N’Silu, my boy, has been put on the disabled list, which puts him out of action for at least 6 league games. This move is also known as, “We don’t know what to do with you yet. Maybe you’ll figure it out during practices”. Unlikely. As soon as I bought his practice jersey, it was over.

-As for injury news and suspensions, I give you the Goffster:
*Midfielder-forward Chris Pontius (quadriceps) will not play in Toronto or Honduras. Midfielder-forward Santino Quaranta (hamstring) says he is fine and defender Bryan Namoff (hamstring) is listed as probable. The only other player on the injured list is Boyzzz Khumalo (wrist).
*Midfielder Ben Olsen is suspended for the Toronto game (yellow cards) and midfielder Fred will miss the Marathon match (red card)

-Two additional trialists are in town, with both Tiyi Shipalane from the Harrisburg City Islanders and Adam Smarte with the team. My guess is that they’ll see if Smarte could replace N’Silu. If not, they may keep Ange, otherwise, it’ll be curtains.

- All of the CCL games will be televised, with games with on FSC or Telefutura. So, that’s good.

Any questions?