It feels like its been a long, long off season for the New England Revolution. And maybe it has been, considering their early exit from the playoffs last October against DC United, after backing into the playoffs with high expectations. But preseason has begun for New England, the Revolution headed out west to Mesa, Arizona again to participate in the yearly pre-season Desert Diamond cup, before starting the regular season March 6 against Houston.
Offseason moves: as for off season roster moves, we shouldn’t expect too much from the front office. The real significant move to date was loaning in defender Sambinha, whose full name is Mamadu Samba Cande, from the Revs affiliate in Portugal, Sporting Clube de Portugal (SCP) for the 2016 season, finally taking advantage of their partnership they signed in 2014. Sambinha, who is only 24, is a Portuguese national, but choose to represent Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony. He joined SCP from third division club Dezembro in 2013, but only able to play on their B team, having never been able to make the senior squad. So playing for New England in MLS will be the best competition he will go up against to date.
From the draft: The Revs also acquired players through the draft. Their first round pick was defender Jordan McCrary from University of North Carolina. Jordan started all 86 games he appeared in for the Tar Heels, being a 4 year starter. He was also a member of the USA U-15, U-17, U-18 and U-20 squads. He will help give the Revs some depth on defense, something that the team was short on last season. Also, being a first round pick, hopefull Jordan can turn to a first team member in the future.
Another player drafted in the 2nd round was forward Michael Gamble, from Wake Forest. In his college career he scored 24 goals and provided 20 assists in 4 years of playing action for the Demon Deacons.
Last player selected in the draft for New England was forward Femi Hollinger-Janzen from Indiana University. Femi in four years at Indiana scored 22 goals and 8 assists in 88 career games, and was a member of the 2012 national champions in college soccer as a freshman.
Future moves? Last week team president Brian Billelo hinted at 2 international signings, one of them being a Designated Player (DP). We now know one of them is Sambinha from Portugal on loan, but the DP wasn’t been revealed yet. It’s been hinted that the team wants to wait until the player is with the team before making the announcement, most likely waiting for all the visa paper work to be approved and cleared up. There has been a few players that fans have speculated, like 34 year old Portuguese defender Ricardo Costa, but his advanced age plus playing on turf just wouldn’t make sense. So we all must wait and be patient.
Jermaine Jones?? The issue with Jermaine Jones is yet to be resolved. Some dirty laundry has been aired publically over the contract New England has offered JJ, taking to twitter and publically calling the offer “a joke”. Last season was not a very good year for him, not so much for his dip in form, but more with his sports hernia. He just wasn’t healthy all year, plus the constant call ups and minutes played for the US national team while New England was trying to make a playoff push didn’t help out. At 34 years old, playing on turf which we all know older players don’t like or refuse to play on, plus his 6 game suspension to start the new season all doesn’t help JJ case for a better offer. In fact, he has admitted his suspension has prevented him from signing with German teams who would like to sign him. FIFA rules says suspensions apply across leagues, and MLS commissioner already rejected his appeal last month. It is well known that Jermaine would like a multi-year deal so he doesn’t have to moving his family, and still has his sights set for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.