Thursday, January 14, 2016

Dwyer and Leroux Finally Together, Rangers Fill Out Coaching Staff

A couple bits of news from yesterday that I didn't get to.

First, the Dwyer family is officially together. Since Dom Dwyer and Sydney Leroux got married both have talked about wanting to play in the same city so that they could actually be together. Last year Leroux tried to get herself traded to FC Kansas City from the Seattle Reign so that she could be with her husband. At the time there was a rumor that a deal was done but the Reign went shopping further and ended up trading Leroux to the Western New York Flash instead.

The inability to get Leroux to KC last season combined with the announcement that Orlando City would be adding a women's team in 2016, the Orlando Pride, brought back the rumors of Dwyer to Orlando as the expansion side would try to get Leroux to help with a trade for Dwyer. Instead it was announced yesterday that FC Kansas City had worked out a three team trade with the Houston Dash and the Flash to bring the Dwyer family together. Kansas City. First Kansas City sent their first round pick, the eighth pick and an international spot to Houston in exchange for forwards Tiffany McCarty and Jessica McDonald. FCKC then turned around and sent McDonald and a second round pick in 2017 to Western New York for Leroux.

This trade is big for FCKC as it gives the club a marquee forward who can hopefully replace the goal production that KC is losing with Amy Rodriguez sitting out the 2016 season. Just leaving the big hole in midfield where Lauren Holiday played. It's also big for Sporting KC fans as it should put an end for the time being to rumors of Dwyer's departure from Kansas City. With Leroux in town with him the two should be set, at least for a little bit.

Rangers Fill Out Coaching Staff

In news from the USL, the Swope Park Rangers filled out the rest of their coaching staff yesterday as well. The Rangers announced the addition of Nikola Popovic as an assistant coach and Alec Dufty as the club's goalkeeping coach. Popovic comes to Kansas City from Portugal where he was an assistant coach with the Benfica B side. He's spent most of his coaching career in Portugal with one side trip to Bulgaria in between stops.

Dufty joins the club not only as a goalkeeping coach for the Rangers, but also as a goalkeeping coach for the academy team as well. Dufty has plenty of experience in the US lower divisions playing for Toronto FC II and AC St. Louis. Dufty has also had a cup of tea with multiple MLS teams, New York, Houston, and Chicago. Dufty also has experience coaching as an assistant at Florida Gulf Coast University. 

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