Does anyone have any idea who will be on the team? I know that the powers that be are usually quiet about these sorts of things, but I have no idea who is going to play this year. Also with the folding of Miami and Tampa Bay of the MLS, should the Pats go after any of the players left after the dispersal draft or allocation draft. Heck, even Raul Diaz Arce is availabe. Who knows if he can still score, but he could help the attendance at the games. People at least have heard of him. Not that I am suggesting that the Pats spend their money on old players, a name player now and then would not hurt.

You know, if there is one thing I really dislike about the Pat's, is their secrecy concerning their players. Am I missing something? Is that something other teams do?

Well the Pat's once tried to bring in a big name, but IIRC it backfired on them. Some guy who was really big in the Mexican League was signed by the Pat's, but he never played a single game. The guys name was (I think) Tita, who at the time was supposedly like one of the leading scorers in the Mexican league. Personally, I never heard of the guy before he was signed, then again this was around the time I was barely beginning to pay attention to the beautiful game. Anyways, the signing made very little press here in EP, but in Juarez it seemed like it was a huge deal. I remember one newspaper article in particular, it had him in a Pat's kit juggling the ball around. In fact, this particular article is hung up at the Pat's office at their training facility. IIRC, the most I saw him do at the games I went to was sign autographs. He seemed rather arrogant, like he was too good to be playing with the Pats.

So anyways, regardless of what happened with "Tita", I think I agree with Rob, a name player every now and then wouldn't hurt. As far as what the make up of the team will be this upcoming season, you guess is as good as mine.

You're asking about the makeup of the team, yet there has not even been a word about a tryout, let alone the naming of a coach.

Other teams (like Hampton Roads/Rage) have already conducted tryouts (up to a week long in DECEMBER) and others have announced and already invited players (Atlanta/Hampton Roads) to other tryouts in January and February.

And others (Rage etc.)have already invited players to preseason training. Not to mention many (Rochester/Richmond/Atlanta etc.) have signed nearly their entire rosters.

The only team that's sort of active yet as "secretive" as EP is Hampton Roads which has had one tryout, has another scheduled in a week or two and has hired a coach, yet has not made a single announcement about signing any player...not one.

EP won't return phone calls, answer email or answer personal letters to the owner.

Pretty damn scarey in my opinion. But some of the other teams are not much more communicative, even with players they've invited to tryouts.

I should mention that the Pat's seem to have barely released their schedule for the Upcoming season to the press. The schedule finally appeared in this morning's El Paso Times.

As for the Pat's secrecy, they really are pissing me off. I too have tried contacting the team, with no luck. I really hope that we hear from the team soon.

So far, the make up of the team is really up in the air, especially with the news of the loans of Omar Mora, Jose Lomeli and Luis Macias to C.D. Zapateca. I thought that maybe our star, Mark Rowland would of been loaned out to someone in Mexico.

One thing that I wondered about last season was if there was a huge risk of losing Mark Rowland to another team or MLS. Well with the contraction of the Fusion and Tampa Bay, I think it might of delayed it by a little bit.

I believe that regardless of whoever ends up being the coach, we will probably see a roster similar to last year. We will see a number of native El Pasoans playing along with a number of experienced Latin players.

I'll keep my eyes and ears open to see when tryouts are.

I'm not sure it's secrecy as much as it's that Mitch Doblado and Diana Cervantes are the only ones in the office. With Mitch trying to keep the Pats out there in civic circles and serving on all sorts of boards and selling the advertising, it means he just ain't around or just flat can't take the time.

Heard there are a couple of finalists for head coach. As for the team -- ?Quien Sabe?