Some thoughts on the Legion’s roster moves

The Legion has made its initial offseason roster announcements. Things started off with the revelation that 18-year-old goalkeeper Fernando Delgado has been permanently transferred from Real Monarchs of MLS Next Pro. Delgado, you may recall, was one of several emergency keepers the team used this past season an appeared in 3 games in all, two in league play and one on the Open Cup. He was between the posts for the embarrassing 0-3 home loss to Memphis 901 (hardy his fault) and for the 1-0 away win over The Miami FC. He was also the keeper for the wild 4-6 Open Cup loss in Tampa. Apparently that was enough to get him a full-time position, although it looks like he will be the #3 keeper on the squad…

That is because the following day the Three Sparks made its second roster announcement, listing returning and leaving players. 13 players are returning to the team, including both Matt van Oekel and Trevor Spangenberg. MVO not hanging up his cleats and going into coaching full-time was a little surprising. He is, as far as we can tell, the oldest active player in the USL Championship at 38 years, 2 months and 14 days as of this writing. That’s in stark contrast to Delgado, who was the youngest ever keeper in the league when he first played at the tender age of 15.

The full list of returning players is as follows:

Matt Van Oekel
Trevor Spangenberg
Phanuel Kavita
Ramiz Hamouda
Dawson McCartney
Jacob Rufe
A.J. Paterson
Moses Mensah
Kobe Hernandez-Foster
Matthew Corcoran
Enzo Martinez
Tyler Pasher
Preston Tabort Etaka

The Legion youth movement remains, then. Ramiz Hamouda, the 3^rd-youngest player in the league last year, has been scouted by Werder Bremen of the German Bundesliga but at 16 can’t yet be transferred. Matthew Corcoran is still on the roster but I would not be shocked at all if he is gone in the January transfer window. He did have a truncated 2024 season due to injury (torn labrum) but is still a very marketable talent.

The other 9 names are all great retentions and should form the core of a competitive squad for 2025.

5 players have been officially released:

Alex Crognale
Mikey Lopez
Diba Nwegbo
Prosper Kasim
Stefano Pinho

In Diba’s case that was again not surprising as there have been rumors of his potential move to the Bulgarian top flight, specifically to Hebar Pazardzhik, who are currently dead last in that league.

The end of Mikey’s tenure at the Legion was pretty much heralded by his Achilles tear in January. He missed the entire season. Even so, it’s a shame to see one the originals come to the end of his time. And that’s even more the case for Prosper Kasim, who saw his playing time drastically reduced this year. But his name will be forever written into Legion history and not just for the team’s first-ever goal.

Stefano is perhaps a surprise if only for a reason we will get to in a moment. Alex being done was not, however. He is a solid defender and can be relied for spectacular goals on occasion. But that is possibly outweighed by the fact that he is a foul machine and a card magnet. On top of that, he may well be moving on to further his other interests, most importantly Bitcoin investment.

Two players are at the end of their loans to the Legion: Derek Dodson and Miguel Perez. Apologies to St. Louis FC fans, but Miggy was a big disappointment. He is not a loss. Derek deserves playing time with Minnesota United and leaves something of a hole. He will be missed.

The Legion roster announcement ends with a rather cryptic note that players on the 2024 roster not specifically mentioned will get updates later on. There are in fact 6 players who meet that criterion. 3 of them are goalkeepers (Jonathan Philpot, Brock Marlow and Owen Jack) used variously in emergency conditions. Not a shocker there.

The other 3 are Finn Calloway, Rida Zouhir and Darwin Matheus. Local boy Finn has committed to the University of Kentucky, although I am not sure if that means he will be available for the early part of 2025 or not. Rida Zouhir was with the Legion on loan from CF Montreal of MLS. He had a rough start but came along late in the season. Montreal declined to exercise his contract option which makes him a free agent. Will he be back on a permanent deal? Perhaps.

Lastly we have Darwin. He joined the Legion late in the year and played in 6 games, scoring once and logging 1 assist. He joined the team with some degree of fanfare and the implication here that his contract was only through the end of 2024 rather clashes with expectations. Under renegotiation, perhaps?

Back to Stefano’s absence: without him the team currently has no obvious target striker. Granted he was not exactly the greatest goal producer. Which means he has to be replaced with a superior option and hopefully soon. Darwin returning would not be a true replacement; he’s more of a winger. But we need players in that role too.

And one more slot the Legion has needed to fill for quite some time is a central attacking midfielder who is a strong distributor. The Three Sparks have, to be honest, not possessed such a player since Bruno Lapa was let go. Speaking of whom, he is now without a club since the demise of Memphis 901…