Thomopson to Join the Jamaican National Team for Copa America
I completely forgot Jamaica was in the Copa America this year. Fortunately for Ryan Thompson Jamaica didn’t forget about him. For the second time this year, and probably not the last, Thompson will be joining the Reggae Boyz to represent his country on the international stage. As always we’re extremely excited for Thompson and wish him all the luck in the world. The downside is he’s going to end up missing a lot of USL action. The Copa America runs from June 11th to July 4th. A month usually isn’t bad, but this year it leads right into the CONCACAF Gold Cup (July 7th – 26th). We’re expecting Thompson to be called up for that tournament as well. Even if Jamaica makes an early exit after the group stage of the Copa America it’s only 2.5 weeks between that game and their first Gold Cup match. I would imagine Thompson will stay with the Reggae Boyz during that time instead of bouncing back and forth. Per the Hounds website he’ll be leaving after the 5/30 game against Harrisburg. That means he’ll miss the follow matches-
St Louis FC
@ Charlotte Independence
FC Montreal
@ Rochester Rhinos
NYRB II
@ Toronto II
@ FC Montreal
Louisville City FC
@ Harrisburg City Islanders
He might be back by the last game depending how Jamaica does in the Gold Cup. Worst case for us (or best case for Jamaica) is 9 missed games, or 1/3 of the season. That’s a lot of work for Hulings and/or Brown and could really make or break the USL season. Fortunately that’s not too scary of a schedule. Four games against three MLS 2 teams (two of which aren’t very good), plus Charlotte. It’s going to be quite an interesting stretch of games.
All that said, again we’re really excited for Thompson and it’s kind of an awesome problem for the Hounds to have. Our selfishness aside when it comes to the USL standings, I’m looking forward to seeing Thompson on the big stage.
Hounds sign Serbian Midfielder Boris Zivanovic
I thought we were done with signings this year, especially at midfield, but it looks like the Hounds won’t be satisfied until they hit the roster cap. Today the Hounds announced the signing of Boris Zivanovic for the remainder of the season. He’s spend a number of years in the Serbian and Hungary leagues. Most recently he played in the Hungarian first division (Nemzeti Bajnoksag I) for Budapest Honved FC. He scored 3 goals in 12 league appearances in 2013-14. The Hounds have a ton of midfielders so we’ll see where Zivanovic fits in (possibly as soon as this weekend). It makes me wonder if Steffens is going to have some of them play defense full time, or perhaps we’re going to lose some of the younger guys to the PDL team (like Kyei, who was also mentioned in the announcement as going to the PDL squad). Time will tell, but in the mean time welcome Boris! Check out some highlights below-
#UNLEASH
