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Archive for February 24th, 2010

Roster Cut-Down Approaching: RSL’s Numbers

Feb 24

Posted by kirsoccer in Preseason | 7 Comments

March 1st is typically roster cut-down day in Major League Soccer.  It’s a bit unclear how this will play out with the ongoing labor dispute, but since the league is taking a “business as usual” approach, and putting the ball in the players court, I’m assuming that we’ll see a number of cuts made when RSL returns from Casa Grande, Arizona this weekend.

This doesn’t mean that RSL won’t have some “trialists” on-board, but if there are any players currently under contract that aren’t part of the plans (El Khalifi, etc.) then they will likely be waived after this weekend.

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RSL’s International Spots

Feb 24

Posted by kirsoccer in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

With the trade for Luis Gil including Real Salt Lake sending an international slot to Kansas City, there has been a lot of confusion over this issue.  Here is some information:

The “old” system in Major League Soccer had 3 Senior International spots, and 5 Youth International spots.  These spots could be traded either on a permanent or temporary basis.  Real Salt Lake traded away 1 of these Senior International spot, and 1 of the Youth International spot for Adolpho Gregorio, and Jeff Stewart.  Unfortunately these were permanent trade, and were done at a time when these spots were less valuable.

Since then the league has done away with the youth and senior designations, and each team just has 8 international spots with RSL having 6 due to the 2 trades.  RSL currently has 5 international players on the roster: Morales, Olave, Espindola, Gonzalez, and El Khalifi.  However, with El Khalifi not currently in camp with the team it looks like his return is not likely.  So this will leave RSL with 2 of the 6 spots open before this trade.

I have verified that the trade for Gil includes an international spot for this season only.  So this would leave RSL with 1 spot for this season should they be interested in bringing in an international player, and their full complement of 6 will be at their disposal after this season.

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