If Louisville City FC is to take the top spot in the USL’s Eastern Conference next year, the boys in purple will again have to overcome another talented New York Red Bulls II squad.
The Red Bulls didn’t carry much of their roster over from 2015, their inaugural season, to 2016. But a number of familiar faces will return in 2017 from a roster that accumulated a league-record 69 points in 30 regular-season games before also winning the USL Cup Playoffs.
Options were exercised on USL Defender of the Year Aaron Long, as well as Vincent Bezecourt, who scored six goals, and Junior Flemmings, a Jamaican youth international who made the USL 20 Under 20 list over the summer.
Others set to return for defending champion New York are David Najem, Aaron Long, Tim Schmoll and Florian Valot.
The side figures to gain more pieces after the Major League Soccer SuperDraft in January.
Kickers return Jane
A player with close ties to Louisville should return to Slugger Field next year, again as a member of the Richmond Kickers. The club announced this week that midfielder Sunny Jane, a Trinity High School graduate and fomer all-state selection, will play a second season with the Kickers.
Jane, splitting time between Richmond and the Lesotho National Team, made 27 USL appearances. He scored five goals and added an assist after previously playing for the Wilmington Hammerheads.
Newcomers to St. Louis
LouCity rival Saint Louis FC agreed to contracts with midfielder Octavio Guzman, defender Wesley Charpie, and midfielder Mats Bjurman, concluding what general manager Jeremy Alumbaugh called “a very productive month.”
Guzman stands out in the group having starred for Saint Louis’ new coach, Preki, at Sacramento Republic FC. This season, under different leadership, he scored a pair of goals and Republic FC finished atop the Western Conference after 30 regular-season games.
Coaching carousel
The USL runner-up Swope Park Rangers, who made a run to win the Western Conference half of the playoff bracket, will have new leadership in 2017.
Assistant coach Nikola Popovic earned the promotion to head coach, succeeding Marc Dos Santos, who joined the San Francisco Deltas after this year’s campaign. Popovic is a dual citizen of Serbia and Portugal, according to the USL, who speaks five languages fluently and holds a UEFA Pro coaching license, the highest rank available.
Also in the Western Conference, expansion club Reno 1868 FC has tapped Ian Russell, who twice won MLS Cups as a player, as its first head coach. Russell spent the last eight years with the San Jose Earthquakes.
