Costa Rican U-23 Brandon Poltronieri on trial
By BRIAN LEWIS
Among the new faces at Red Bulls practice today were Venezuelan defender Gabriel Cichero, Honduran striker George Welcome and Costa Rican defensive midfielder Brandon Poltronieri Mendez; and sporting director Jeff Agoos spoke about all of them as well as other topics.
Some of the info that came out was: They’re confident Cichero can play centrally or at left fullback, they were well aware of New England’s discovery claim on Welcome and are second on the list, and they’ve got a young left-footed Costa Rican Under-23 National Team player trying out as well.
On Cichero, whom the Red Bulls are taking on a six-month loan with a one-year team option, and likely an option to purchase after the 2009 season:
“We have an interest in Gabriel for anywhere from a six-to-18-month contract and the terms we’re still negotiating. With any player you bring on loan typically there’s an option to buy; I’d be very surprised if there’s not an option to buy on this one as well.’’
“Obviously he’s a top defender, young, left-footed, good in the air, good distributing out of the back. Tick off all of the boxes we’re looking for a defender to have, he has just about every one of those.’’
“I can see him playing in central defense or on the left.’’
On Welcome, the 23-year-old striker who scored to beat the U.S. in the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying final, and was capped with the full Honduran National Team:
“I think he was in with New England a few months ago. They put in a discovery on him. We obviously knew this going in. It’s very similar to the Lider Marmol situation, but we wanted to take a look. We have a short time to look at some possible forwards. We wanted to look and see where he was, including a couple of other forwards we’re looking at.’’
“We have had discussions with them. They have issues they have to resolve on their end to determine how much interest they have in George. We know if we want to sign him we have to go through New England…or force New England to have to sign him.’’
On Poltronieri, a 22-year-old who was playing with Brujas FC:
“He’s more of a midfielder, a holding mid; and my guess is he’d be more in line of a developmental contact than anything.’’
Brujas means witches, or sorcerers. I like the jam, but I really love the team logo.
On the availability status of the newcomers“Again, we’re at the mercy of immigration and where their respective ITC resides. We’re pursuing the process as fast as we can.”
On Jimenez being further along in the process, by virtue of the former Tecos defender being married to an American:
“I believe because of the green card he’d be ahead of the others. But we still have to get his ITC and that would be dependent on the Mexican federation releasing it. We don’t have any issues, (but) you never know.’’
“You can’t request a card until the transfer window opens tomorrow. We’re still working through the contract with the league and Diego, then we’ll request it tomorrow.’’
In other news, the Red Bulls will scrimmage United Soccer Leagues Second Division side, the Harrisburg City Islanders, at Giants Stadium tomorrow at noon. That’s the team they loaned Danny Cepero to. Makes for a nice looksee so they can judge first-hand how their young goalkeeper is developing. The scrimmage will have three 30-minute periods, so expect waves of subs. I’m still on baseball all-star duty, but I’ll try to provide an update….