2015 Signings Round-Up

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The weather is still frightful which means the pre-season has been delayed a bit. There hasn’t been a ton to talk about in the recent weeks, so let’s take a moment to recap a bunch of player signings within the last month or so.

line_up

Kevin Kerr Returns
(Link)
Not much to say about this one other than we’re glad to see the official announcement that Kerr is back. There were some whispers and then silence which got us worried. Kerr is a solid midfielder who joins other returning players in what we hope will be the strong core of the team.

The Hounds sign another defender in Drew Russell
(Link)
Russell is a 24 year old, second year pro following coach Steffens from Charlotte. Being a defender there’s not a whole lot of stats to look up on him, and he didn’t get a lot of playing time last year, so it’s tough to say how good he is. From what I’ve seen on his Youtube highlights from his PDL days he seems like a calm central defender who has a good sense on how to get the ball up field. Also, even though he didn’t get much playing time last season, Steffens seems pretty high on him. We’ll see if he’s able to move into a more full time role, and maybe allow Flunder to move back to an outside position.

Fejiro Okiomah joins the team along with PDL stars Anthony Virgara and Ryan Hulings
(Link)
Okiomah is another 24 year old central defender with more or less the same build as Russell. And also like Russell he has a history with coach Steffens- playing in all 26 games for Charlotte during the 2013 season. Okiomah has been part of some stout defenses over the years. Hopefully he can reproduce some of that with the Hounds. Again as a defender I don’t really have stats to wow you with, but apparently he does have quite the vertical leap. It wouldn’t be surprising to see a Arena – Okiomah – Russell – Flunder back line at the start of the season.

Virgara is a stand out from the Riverhounds inaugural PDL season last year. That said I don’t know much about him and don’t recall how he played in his short stint with the first team at the end of last season. He’s young and another midfielder which we never have enough of. It’ll be interesting to see how he pans out with the first team over the course of an entire season.

Hulings is a name that we’ve seen on the depth chart the last year or two but we’ve never really seen in action. It’s not often you get down to the third keeper. He played with the PDL team last year and I’ve heard some good rumblings about him. Again though I haven’t personally seen him play so no idea how he’ll do. At this time he’s the second keeper announced by the team. If that hold true we’ll probably get a good chance to see what he’s got at some point this season.

Rob Vincent signs an extension, and the Hounds bring Kene Eze into the fold
(Link)

Not much to say about Vincent that isn’t already known. One of the few players to appear in every game last season- we like him and are happy to see him locked up for another two years. He’s shown some nice offensive spark from time to time. Hopefully Steffens can refine him into a great attacking midfielder.

Eze is a young forward (holy crap!) out of Rutgers. Drafted by Toronto FC in 2014, it doesn’t look like he made the final cut and ended up in the PDL last year. He had a good career at Rutgers and by all accounts is a pretty fast guy. As one of the few strikers on the team we should see quite a bit of him, and with luck see him put balls in the back of the net. First person to work an Eazy-E rap into a song for Eze gets a cookie.

South Africa returns to the Hounds with Matshidiso “Lebo” Moloto
(Link)
A.K.A. Tsunami apparently. The 100th 24 year old midfielder on the roster is an attacking midfielder hailing South Africa. Moloto came to the US in 2009 and proceeded to have a very successful college career at Lindsey Wilson College. Moloto was drafted by the Seattle Sounders in 2013 but according to Wikipedia decided to continue his schooling. Moloto returned to South Africa in 2014, and now returns state side with the Riverhounds in 2015. There isn’t a whole lot of video out there of Moloto, but there is quite the buzz coming out of the Riverhounds FO about him. Hopefully he lives up to the hype. It’ll be a lot of fun to sing Shosholoza once again (you newer folks should read up on it).

Two Yet-To-Be-Officially-Announced Players
Finally, thanks to Twitter we have two more players joining the squad who haven’t been officially announced by the team- Max Touloute and Nicky Kolarac.


The “Haitian Sensation” Max Touloute is a, you guessed it, 24 year old forward (another one!) coming to the Riverhounds from the Missouri Comets indoor soccer team. Last summer he played for the PDL side Reading United. Touloute also played in the Icelandic league in 2012 and 2013, scoring 11 goals in 32 appearances. I don’t have a lot on Touloute, but if a defender like Arena is high on the guy, he must be pretty good. I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do and if can pull off Blue Steel.

Media day selfies is probably a good sign you’re on the team.
Kolarac is a local guy hailing from Imperial and playing collegiate soccer at Saint Francis University. If the one website I stumbled on is correct he even played for Riverhounds youth partner Century United back in the day. Out of the gate he’s already got big points in my book. Kolarac is a 23 year old forward (winger to be exact) who played on the 2014 USL PDL champions Michigan Bucks, netting 3 assists and 1 goal in 13 appearances. I’m not sure what his college stats are but his highlight video (which you can find on Youtube) shows he has the ability to pick the corners with an accurate shot. As probably the least experienced (professionally) forward on the roster Kolarac will probably have to fight for play time, but if he can become a super sub able to pick apart a tired D late in the game, he could be a very good asset to the team.

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Hopefully the weather allows for the preseason to start soon so we can see all the new guys in action. With less than a month to go the roster is finally looking fairly fleshed out. So what do we have? A lot of young, supposedly fast players without a ton of experience. Pretty much the polar opposite of last seasons signings. Steffens had a good amount of success in Charlotte coaching guys like this. Hopefully he can replicate that here. That said I think the midfield looks pretty good. There is room for a little more depth in pure defenders and strikers, and probably another GK for good measure depending on what’s going on with Blum. I’ve heard rumors there may be as many as two more signings to be announced. The season is quickly approaching while the pre-season is getting shorter. If they’re going to bring in more players hopefully it’s soon so they can gel with the rest of the squad.

*Impatiently waits for the season to start*

#UNLEASH

ISAVesty

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