Soccer will soon be heating up the Iowa Corridor's winter for a second season of the MASL at the US Cellular. Following a rocky 0-7 start in the club's debut season, the second half saw key roster additions push Cedar Rapids to a respectable second half of the season and a 5-15 finish. Highlights of last season included a thrilling home win over an excellent Syracuse Silver Knights squad at home, and a gutsy come-from-behind road victory in Detroit. The team rode that momentum into a successful summer season with Cedar Rapids Rampage United in the PLA, where they qualified for one of the outdoor league's four playoff spots. Here is our second annual take on the season and the good, the bad, and the ugly in store this coming season...
The Good
Hewerton Moreira - After proving himself a capable man manager during the Rampage United season, reigning MASL assist king Hewerton gets the nod as player-coach for the indoor squad. A Brazilian national indoor team man, Hewerton has brought a number of Brazilian's on board to give this season's roster a bit of samba seasoning. However, it isn't attacking talent he brought from Brazil, but savvy veteran defenders Jonatan Santos (from San Diego Sockers) and Pablo Da Silva (from Milwaukee Wave) and a very promising young goalkeeper in Rainer Hauss (Kapinos having moved to Ontario Fury). Moreira has played under some of the best coaches in the game, including two who have won the league's Coach of the Year award, Keith Tozer (father of Rampage SC's Alex Tozer) and Mark Pulisic (father of USMNT wunderkind Christian Pulisic). Jeff Kraft did his job in building a roster that could compete and played with heart. He had done this successfully elsewhere before, and built winners. Hewerton is a logical replacement to get to that next step, with his prominent profile in today's indoor game.
Roster Additions - Besides the aforementioned Brazilian trio, USANIST's Joshio Sandoval of the Chicago Mustangs also provides more help for a defense that was probably the weak link in last year's team. Former South African national team man and Milwaukee Wave veteran midfielder Jonathan Greenfield should provide some set-up play for Gurson, Hewerton, and new forward Derek Huffman. The highest profile addition on offense is undoubtedly Hewerton's former teammate on a championship Detroit Ignition side, Jamar Beasley. Beasley is a former league Rookie of the Year (w/ Kansas City Comets) and league MVP (w/ Detroit), as well as a member of the US Soccer Futsal team at the Futsal World Cup. In outdoor soccer, Beasley was the first high school player ever to jump directly to MLS with the New England Revolution (landing a feature story in Sports Illustrated), and later starred for the Chicago Fire in the early 2000s. Beasley was a force as recently as 2015 with the Ontario Fury, where he scored a hat-trick in their first round MASL playoff match. If Hewerton, Gurson, Beasley, and Greenfield all work at rounding into form, and Patrick Kelly, Bobby Hurwitz, and Derek Huffman put in the workmanlike hustle that they have shown they are capable of, the Rampage could be an exciting offense to watch this year.
The Bad
The Schedule - Not that there aren't a great variety of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday matches, but that the difficulty level will be even higher this year. Milwaukee has reinforced their team with some of Detroit's best players, St. Louis played very well in the second half of last season under new owner-coach Tony Glavin, Harrisburg Heat will be improved after some upgrades, the Florida Tropics look solid on paper, and of course the reigning champion and indoor dynasty Baltimore Blast are now on the schedule, visiting in January. It will be an even tougher sophomore schedule.
The Ugly
Sophomore slump in attendance? - Hopefully it was a combination of being a preseason match, still nice weather outside, and some market saturation with these two international matches, but the attendance the first game is worrisome. For a franchise that had some very nice crowds around 3k in their debut season, a crowd in the hundreds (even during pre-season) was a little worrisome for some fans. We won't panic yet, but the Rampage front office and ownership are going to need to market their butts off these next couple weeks. Be at events, get pocket schedules out all over, "GAME DAY!" signs out all over town on home dates, get media appearances, social appearances, civic appearances, AYSO/youth soccer, advertising (especially lots on the US Cellular Center boards for the thousands on I-380 and downtown to see every day), etc. and not let Cedar Rapids forget for even a day that there is a soccer season around the corner. It would be a shame with all the work that has gone in to the on-field product. And fans, do your part and spread the word!
Players OUT:
Alex Megson (Tacoma Stars)
Jayme Kapinos (Ontario Fury)
Joey Kapinos (Ontario Fury)
Corey Adamson (St. Louis Ambush)
Chile Farias (retired)
Armando Tello (Florida Tropics)
Elmo Neto (Harrisburg Heat)
Players IN:
Jamar Beasley (Ontario Fury)
Jonatan Santos (San Diego Sockers)
Pablo Da Silva (Milwaukee Wave)
Jonathan Greenfield (Milwaukee Wave)
Joshio Sandoval (Chicago Mustangs)
Rainer Hauss (Chicago Mustangs)
Angel Curiel (Monterrey Flash)
Phibo Arriaga (Seattle Impact)
Kyle Neisen (Rookie)
Derek Huffman (Rookie)
Brett Petricek (Rookie)
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