It's Friday and as a nice little gift to us, the front office has given us a finalized roster, revealing that Terukazu Tanaka, Leone Cruz, Emiliano Bonfigli, and Diogo de Almeida have officially joined the club. The four join Enzo Martinez, Sebastian Velasquez, Jonny Steele, Lalo Fernandez, and Nico Muñiz in having joined the club since the start of the new year, the two former players, of course, coming through the SuperDraft.
It's always nice when little mysteries are solved, but we're still left saddled with the big mystery: Who, come first kick, will have a green card? The moderately well-documented problem of our six international slots comes up again and again, and we're now at nine internationals (Cruz being the lone exception of the four players we've just added), leaving us at 150 percent of capacity.
Have faith: The great Garth Lagerwey (who, you will remember, has a law degree from the none-too-shabby Georgetown — one of the ten most selective law schools in the nation) should have this down without any trouble. If the man can navigate legal proceedings, court cases, supreme court rulings, local code and more — why, I don't think we have much of anything to worry about. It's one thing to have trust in the administration at the club. It's another entirely when that trust has been strengthened through a transformation of the club.
So while we don't have the answers yet, I suspect we'll have them soon. Citizenship and these pesky cards (green, not red or yellow, thankfully) is a tricky game and it's one that's not particularly conducted out in the open. As such, exercising even just the slightest amount of patience will go miles.
So what's our depth look like now? Quite good, I'd say. We've hit that magical 26 mark — the one Garth has indicated will be our stopping point — and the squad's starting to come together. With eight days left until the first home match, that's none too soon.
We can also definitively say now who won some of those battles:
In Tanaka v. Laing v. Diogo de Almeida v. Casal, a match-up in which there were always going to be two winners,Terukazu Tanaka and Diogo de Almeida take the win and proceed into the squad. Diogo de Almeida's young and raw but seen as a real prodigious talent, while Terukazu Tanaka is surely being brought in to challenge Tony Beltran for a spot on the right side and, when the inevitable injuries starting coming to bear, making the requisite appearances. Tanaka is brought in as a vaguely like-for-like replacement for the inimitable Robbie Russell.
In Leone Cruz v. Carlos Salcedo, Leone Cruz, a player the club's been eyeing for over a year, has joined, while the homegrown Carlos Salcedo has been deemed not as of yet ready. It will be hoped that Salcedo, who apparently took the fight to the wire, can spend time developing his game and eventually return to the club, though what the game holds for him at this point is still unknown.
Emiliano Bonfigli, a man standing on his own, comes in after winning a lengthy battle with the roster's international slot situation. A player pegged to be a promising, talented striker with, as they say, "a huge upside." This is perhaps better than describing him as having a huge backside, unless he is particularly adept at scoring with it.
In sharp contrast to our 2011 draft picks, four of the six we made have joined the club for the 2012 season. One of the six, forward Oliver Kupe, is yet to arrive, as he's finishing his education (good for him!), and defender Benjamin Ubierna departed for a chance elsewhere.
To really make the grade, these boys will have to make the pitch, and they'll have to look good once they do. If one thing's to come from this draft, it's a shocking change in depth from the last one.
'Til tomorrow, when I'll preview our final Desert Diamond Cup match.
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