It’s been a busy offseason for the Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC, with ten players joining a group that includes last season’s USL Championship Most Valuable Player, Hadji Barry. The Switchbacks will open the regular season at Weidner Field on March 12th against reigning champions Orange County SC, with tickets available HERE.
“We went after guys that were on playoff teams in other cities and were leaders on those teams or guys that at least had a big role in those teams throughout the year,” said Switchbacks Head Coach and General Manager Brendan Burke. “We have two [new players] lined up for the summer, but that will be about it. We’re just excited and feel like there’s been a cultural shift this offseason. The experience level across the locker room has shot up significantly and it’s pushing the guys that were here to a whole new level. It has to be said that Hadji [Barry], and [Matt] Mahoney, and [Zach] Zandi, and Michee [Ngalina] have come back in and are finding a new level because they knew that the standard is going up and their fitness levels and commitment levels have been phenomenal. It’s been a really good blend of guys so far.”
Here’s what Burke had to say when asked about each new member of the Switchbacks.
Jeff Caldwell and Christian Herrera (GK’s) “Jeff has been what we hoped so far – and so has Christian. I feel like we have a couple upgrades at goalkeeper now, which is never easy at one position. Jeff almost won Goalkeeper of the Year last year on a not-so-good team, and he really carried his weight and then some. He also has some good natural leadership skills and is going to help us a lot.”
Macauley ‘Macca’ King (DF) “His engine is phenomenal. He can get up and down with the best of them and he adds goals off set-pieces. He scored against us a couple times last season – off set pieces alone. He has so many good qualities and for me he’s in that upper echelon of outside backs in our league. He was another guy that we made a big effort to get, and we actually had to initiate a trade to get. Macauley hasn’t played that much through preseason because of an injury, but he’s just starting to come back from that now.”
Dennis Erdmann (DF) “Dennis has played in massive clubs. Some of it was second and third division in Germany, but you’re still talking about 25,000-30,000 seat venues in some cases and clubs that are globally recognizable like Schalke, like Hansa Rostock, like 1860 Munich. We’re excited to get Dennis and so much of it is about his experience level.”
Yesin van der Pluijm (MF) “He’s out of a really long line of really productive Championship players that have come out of Young Harris [College], and he was the next-one-up. He was an All-American for them and he ticked every box – he’s got size, he’s got technical ability, he’s very intelligent and he picks things up quickly. And if you’re going to add young players, you want them to have a good pedigree and he’s certainly had that with his upbringing in Holland. He’s going to have a fight on his hands to get minutes this year, but I think he knows that and he’s certainly been close to what we expected so far, but he’s really going to have to push based on other guys [that have been brought in].”
Cam Lindley (MF) “He’s another guy with a good leadership role after coming out of a winning environment in San Antonio and certainly an environment with an edge and a unique playing style. He’s going to add a lot of value this year to our group.”
Issa Rayyan (MF) “Issa is a player we worked with in Philadelphia’s academy. He was a winger coming through the system before he went to Duke where he was the ACC Freshman of the Year. He has really good attacking qualities and over the last year or two he’s been slowly converting into a right back. We had him play for us in Bethlehem in his first year out of Duke and he fit right in with the senior pros. It’s just been a matter of staying healthy, so he has to work on building up his body, because when he’s healthy and available he’s good enough to start on most teams in the [USL] Championship.”
Elvis Amoh (FW) “He’s been arguably our best player to this point [in preseason]. Maybe he’s hit his form earlier than everyone else, but he’s been in great rhythm in terms of holding up play and being able to connect play – and he’s also getting a goal every time he steps on the field. Elvis is a combination of size, pace and good feet, which is hard to find at this level. He’s certainly had days this preseason where we’ve said ‘wow – he really does bring all those things.’”
Malik Johnson (FW) “Malik is probably the fastest guy on our team so far, based on what we’ve seen from our data-tracking, and that says something. But we actually didn’t go after Malik just for his speed – we went after him because of his feet and his technical ability in tight spaces. He was in the top three in the league last year in take-ons and attacking dribble action. He’s a guy that if he finds any sort of isolation, he can break you down pretty consistently. And with him either popping up inside Michee [Ngalina] or underneath Hadji [Barry] or opposite Michee, it becomes tougher for teams to focus on Hadji or Michee.”
Kharlton Belmar (FW) “He adds good depth. I’m glad he scored this weekend and I’m hopeful we can get him back to where he was a couple years ago with Swope Park [Rangers] where he was contributing double-digit goals off the wing. He’s playing a little more centrally now than he did back then, and I do think there’s a little bit of a resurrection there if things go well. The output hadn’t been there the last few years, but you could argue the same thing with Hadji before he came [to the Switchbacks].”
