Up and down the lineup

Midfield

Notable returnees: Nazmi Albadawi, Leo Osaki, Ty Shipalane

Notable additions: Mark Anderson, Austin da Luz, Neil Hlavaty, Chris Nurse

Notable departures: Jun Marques Davidson, Enzo Martinez, Danny Barrera

As in years past, the RailHawks’ positional strength starts in the midfield. Hlavaty assumes the mantle of holding midfielder, where he is joined by Chris Nurse, his former teammate in Edmonton now embarking on his second stint with the RailHawks, and Leo Osaki.

Carolina’s attacking midfield options are perennially plentiful. Anderson joins Shipalane, now beginning his fifth season in Carolina, and Nazmi Albadawi, who enjoyed a breakout debut with the RailHawks last year. Da Luz returns to Carolina after a year with Orlando City and hopes to figure into the starting rotation, but a broken foot suffered during a preseason scrimmage at Charleston will delay the start of his season until perhaps May.

Gone are many of the speedy attacking midfielders who thrived on the roomy WakeMed Soccer Stadium pitch, including Cesar Elizondo, Enzo and Alex Martinez, and Danny Barrera. However, Shipalane believes other attributes on this squad compensate for that loss of pace.

“It’s similar to 2013 when we had Brian Shriver, Zack Schilawski and me out there,” Shipalane says. “We were very energetic then. Now we have players who don’t have as much pace as those guys but they’re more effective in the way they pass the ball and keep more possession than the other team, which will help us.”

Forward

Notable returnees: Nacho Novo

Notable additions: Simone Bracalello, Wells Thompson

Notable departures: Zack Schilawski, Daniel Jackson, Aaron King

The RailHawks’ forward options are far more limited. Nacho Novo returns after joining the team late last season, and the 36-year-old Spaniard figures to be the team’s primary striker. Bracalello and Thompson, a converted midfielder, provide some pace up front.

Relying on preseason indicators is sometimes an unreliable proposition. However, over the RailHawks’ five preseason scrimmages, the team’s roster players accounted for a total of three goals scored.

However, Clarke claims that his team possesses sufficient scoring punch.

“We expect Nacho to score goals, that’s his job,” Clarke begins. “We expect Shipalane to score goals, more than he did last year. Mark Anderson can score goals. Wells Thompson is a good player who has been in MLS long time. I believe we have a lot of players who can score goals. I also feel that we’ve added the ability to score goals from distance with the likes of Bracalello, Hlavaty and Anderson. That’s a different look of us.”

Defense

Notable returnees: Kupono Low, Connor Tobin, Daniel Scott

Notable additions: Mamadou “Futty” Danso, Wes Knight, Blake Wagner

Notable departures: Jordan Graye

For several seasons the RailHawks have labored under an inconsistent backline defense. However, there are early indications that 2015 might buck that ignominious trend. Carolina did not surrender a goal in four of the team’s five preseason scrimmages, with three of those clean sheets coming against pro opponents.

Danso looks to anchor the RailHawks’ new-look back line. The 6-foot-3 center back possesses pace and strength and has been long coveted by Clarke.

“We needed a true center back who is athletic and strong and aggressive,” Clarke says, “and Futty is a name who was there from the start.”

Danso says the defensive changes are both personnel and tactical.

“We don’t want to play a trap game. We want to have a good defensive shape. We attack in numbers and we defend in numbers.”

Knight, returning from ACL and microfracture knee surgery in late 2013 while playing for FC Edmonton, aims to be the team’s latest starting right back. Wagner provides both depth at left back and an additional left-wing option at midfield. [Center back Austen King was recently loaned to Louisville City FC of USL.]

Goalkeeper

Notable additions: Hunter Gilstrap, Brian Sylvestre

Notable departures: Akira Fitzgerald, Scott Goodwin

The goalkeeping positioning is completely revamped. Gone are starting goalkeeper Akira Fitzgerald, who signed with NYCFC in MLS. Scott Goodwin, last year’s capable backup and U.S. Open Cup hero, is now a member of Louisville City.

In their place is the veteran Gilstrap and Brian Sylvestre, the youngest player on the roster. The 6-foot-4 Sylvestre, a Vancouver Whitecaps Academy product, has impressed coaches during preseason. Indeed, Clarke says the goalkeeping situation is “competitive,” and he hasn’t decided on a starter for the opening match.

Five to watch

Mark Anderson

Mark Anderson comes to Carolina after three seasons with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. The 26-year-old midfielder enjoyed an MVP-caliber debut in 2012, when he scored a team-leading 11 goals plus four assists. Injuries derailed his 2013 campaign, but he returned to form last year with six goals and two assists for the Strikers, which advanced to the NASL Championship final.

After spending the offseason training in Germany, Anderson eschewed other NASL suitors to sign with the RailHawks.

“I want the team to do well,” Anderson says. “I’d rather have a less successful year and the team progress than be the standout player and finish at the bottom of the league.”

The England-born Anderson says he was wooed to Carolina by RailHawks manager Colin Clarke, who played top-flight football in England, and RailHawks assistant coach Sam Stockley, who had a 14-year English football playing career. Anderson says their backgrounds, along with Scottish assistant coach Greg Shields, carry over into the RailHawks’ team environment.

“I would say this club is run more like a European club,” Anderson says. “There’s a good system, good respect in the locker room. We can have a joke about, and it’s not all serious. The training is a lot more European. We’re not all running around, and there’s a reason behind everything.

“All the stuff I’m used to back home is implemented here, and it’s comforting to me."

Mamadou ‘Futty’ Danso

Futty Danso stills rides his bicycle to practice. Although his affinity for bikes was sharpened during his playing days with the Portland Timbers, Danso says it originated as a child in his native Gambia.

“If you have a bike it’s like you have a car in Gambia,” Danso says with a chuckle.

Coming to Carolina is a homecoming of sorts for Futty Danso. The 6-foot-3-inch, 31-year-old defender immigrated to North Carolina around 2006 to play originally soccer for North Carolina Wesleyan College in Rocky Mount. Danso was a starter for the 2008 RailHawks U23 team that snagged a shock win in a friendly against venerable England pro club Burnley.

Danso spent the last four years in Major League Soccer, mostly with the Timbers. However, Danso returns to North Carolina each offseason to visit his “second family” in Rocky Mount, usually on his way to and from visits to Gambia.

“[Rocky Mount is] like my home away home in America.”

Danso has long been a RailHawks hopeful, going back to when Martin Rennie was manager. Over the years, Danso remained in touch with RailHawks assistant coach Dewan Bader, Danso’s ex-U23 manager.

“Even when I was playing in MLS, Carolina is a team that would sometimes approach me at the end of the season and let me know they wanted me if I ever wanted to come home to play.”

Neil Hlavaty

As the latest entry to the lineage of Carolina RailHawks holding midfielders, newcomer Neil Hlavaty still winces when he recalls past battles against the likes of Amir Lowery, Chris Nurse and Jun Marques Davidson.

“I enjoyed playing against all those guys,” Hlavaty says. “It was always nice suiting up against them. Well, maybe not Amir – he was a little harsher than everyone else.”

Hlavaty’s first professional team in 2008 was the Cleveland City Stars under eventual RailHawks manager Martin Rennie. After a year playing abroad, Hlavaty spent the next four seasons in the NASL, first with the Minnesota Stars before two years with FC Edmonton.

While trying to decide where he wanted to play this year, initial talks with other NASL clubs eventually segued into productive conversations with the RailHawks, initiated by Carolina defender Connor Tobin, one of Hlavaty’s friends and former teammate in Minnesota.

“I always loved playing here and I loved the area,” Hlavaty says. “I’ve never played in the South and that had a lot to do with [me coming here]. I’m not old, but I wanted to get some of the turf out of my legs from the past two years, and I wanted to play where it’s great conditions.”

The RailHawks’ style of play also won over the 28-year-old Hlavaty.

Nacho Novo

At age 36 most soccer players have reached, or at least begun eyeballing, retirement. The Carolina RailHawks have other plans for Nacho Novo. As the marquee name of the team’s small cast of strikers, the RailHawks are looking for Novo to spearhead Carolina’s scoring attack.

It’s been a busy offseason for Novo. He married his girlfriend of 11 years in February. In January, he made overseas headlines after lambasting the board of directors for Glasgow Rangers, his former longtime club in Scotland, for sundry indignities after he backed a fans’ group opposed to the current Rangers regime.

However, Novo was on the RailHawks’ training ground the first week of March, looking to build on the eight appearances and three goals he notched after joining the RailHawks late in the 2014 season.

Tiyi Shipalane

This year will be Ty Shipalane’s fifth season as a member of the Carolina RailHawks, the most in club history behind the ageless Kupono Low. And Shipalane says his 2011 sabbatical, when he returned to his native South Africa to rediscover his joy for soccer, is a distant memory.

“I’m having too much joy now, as a matter of fact,” Shipalane says. “I’m passionate about soccer and passionate about this team.”

Shipalane’s maturation from former super-sub to talisman to team veteran – he turns 30 year old this October – has unfolded on the WakeMed Soccer Park pitch, to the delight of RailHawks partisans.

He remains one of the most potent offensive threats in the league. And his youthful exuberance is now colored with the perspective of experience.