Atlanta Football

Vancouver Whitecaps have been dealt a major blow with the news that their captain Jay DeMerit will be missing first-team football for up to 8 months after suffering a ruptured Achilles tendon. Coach Martin Rennie is expected to announce a new captain for the team over the next few days. There have been suggestions that the coach will be naming an interim captain until the return of DeMerit. Rennie said that there are a couple of leaders within the dressing room, but he is not expected to name a single player to remain as the interim captain.

He has said that there is a good possibility that players will shuffle the armband before the return of their permanent captain. Kenny Miller was the captain of the team in the absence of DeMerit during pre-season. He was also the captain of the team during the weekend match, in which DeMerit was forced to come off due to injury. From Aston Villa and Bolton Wanderers midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker has also been spoken of as a candidate for the captaincy. Signing for the club in the summer, Reo-Coker has said that he would be glad to accept the role.

Alain Rochat has also been captain of the team on previous occasions.

“There’s no real announcement of a captain. We’ve got two or three very good leaders within our locker room, veteran players within our locker room. A couple of different people will wear the armband and they’ll all be leaders in the locker room. Tomorrow, most likely Kenny [Miller] will continue with it, but it will just be a case of working it that way,” said Rennie. “I haven’t come here to say I’m a match winner or a [Lionel] Messi. I’ve always been a team player,” said Nigel Reo-Coker, who was signed on a free transfer.

The Chicago Fire manager Frank Klopas has said that no player in the team is guaranteed a starting position. His comments came in the wake of the match against Vancouver Whitecaps. Chicago Fire were taking on Vancouver Whitecaps in the Carolina Challenge Cup finale. Despite having several stars like Sherjill MacDonald, Fire were unable to make any inroads into the Vancouver Whitecaps defence. They badly needed a goal in order to get back into the match after conceding the first goal. In order to try and get the equaliser, Klopas made the surprising change by taking off the designated player – Sherjill MacDonald – and bringing on the veteran striker Maicon Santos.

However, this decision proved to be the catalyst for Fire to equalise the match. Santos scored a spectacular goal that helped Chicago win the title. After the match, Klopas said that he had to take off MacDonald because he felt that he was not contributing enough in the match. He has said that Santos is a different player to MacDonald because he can hold the ball. It ultimately proved to be the difference in Chicago winning the title. Chicago have strengthened in several areas of the pitch, while the competition for MacDonald is also intense now.

“I felt that with Mac, we didn’t get him involved in the game and we were not able to find him. With Maicon it was different. He can hold it. He’s got very good feet. His timing is good and even [Chris Rolfe] was a little bit better. He got more into the game. The field is going to decide who starts and who plays. The depth is good, the competition is very good. And there are different characteristics of players that depending on what we need, we can bring guys in who make a difference like [Santos] did,” said Klopas.

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After a two-year absence, men’s professional soccer returns to Atlanta on Saturday night. Local fans hope that this time, it is here to stay.

The Atlanta Silverbacks kick off the 2011 season with big goals in mind — both on the field and in the front office — as they play host to the NSC Minnesota Stars at 7:30 p.m. in Doraville.

The Silverbacks men will play in a new league — the North American Soccer League — and will field a brand new squad at the team’s stadium, located just north of Spaghetti Junction off I-85.

The Silverbacks believe the changes will help provide the base for an enduring and successful future — one that includes playing at the highest levels.

“Our goal is to be an MLS franchise, eventually,” Silverbacks public relations manager Neal Malone said on Thursday (Major League Soccer is the top professional division in the United States). “We know that (jumping up to the MLS) is not going to happen over the next year or two. But it is certainly one of our longer-term goals.”