The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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■ The NCAA appeals committee struck down a two-year ban on conducting official visits that coincide with home basketball games.
■ The infractions committee was ordered to reconsider its scholarshipreduction penalty (one scholarship per year for four years).
■ The initial penalties stemmed from infractions involving former assistant coach Darryl Labarrie and coach Josh Pastner’s former friend, Ron Bell.
Atlanta United striker Josef Martinez is healthy and participating in training, and the expectation is he will be available to start the team’s first game, against Alajuelense in the Champions League on April 6.
Team Vice President Carlos Bocanegra on Friday provided the update about the key player, saying, “He’s been working hard. It’s been a long road, physically and mentally, on top of a COVID year.”
Martinez suffered a season-ending knee injury in the first league game of the 2020 season at Nashville. He underwent surgery to repair a torn ACL in March.
Before that, Martinez arguably was one of the greatest finishers in MLS history, with 77 goals in 83 games.
Bocanegra said the team doesn’t expect Martinez to play like a 30-goal scorer April 6. But after watching during the team’s first training sessions, Bocanegra said “his movement, shooting and tackling with teammates, he looks like the old Josef.”
Martinez may be limited in some training sessions, Bocanegra said, as a precaution that the team uses with any player returning from injury.
Atlanta United may try to sign two more players, Bocanegra said Friday.
Bocanegra declined to confirm if the team has signed centerback Lautaro Giannetti, or if centerback is a position that the club wants to strengthen. The team has two centerbacks, Miles Robinson and Anton Walkes, who have experience in MLS because it lent Fernando Meza to Defensa y Justicia and Franco Escobar to Newell’s Old Boys. Both clubs are in Argentina. The other centerbacks on the roster are Homegrown signings George Campbell and Efrain Morales. The team has yet to sign draft pick Josh Bauer, a centerback from New Hampshire.
Bocanegra said manager Gabriel Heinze has had a lot of input in the signings thus far.
“All roster decisions he was aware of and had input in,” Bocanegra said. “The collaboration going forward was good.”
Players signed include fullbacks Mikey Ambrose and Ronald Hernandez; midfielders Machop Chol (Homegrown), Franco Ibarra and Santiago Sosa; and strikers Lisandro Lopez and Erick Torres.
Meantime, it’s not clear whether the three Atlanta United players called up by the U.S. U23 national team will participate in the Olympic qualifying games being held in Guadalajara, Mexico, in March.
Miles Robinson, Brooks Lennon and George Bello may not be able to participate because the quarantining process upon reentering the U.S. could prohibit them from preparing for Atlanta United’s Champions League game against Alajuelense on April 6 in Costa Rica.
The U.S. will play Costa Rica on March 18 at Jalisco Stadium, the Dominican Republic on March
21 at Akron Stadium and Mexico on March 24 at Jalisco Stadium. If the U.S. advances out of its group, the semifinals are scheduled to be played March 25 and the finals March 30.
“I don’t know how that quarantine process will work out,” Bocanegra said. “It’s not looking great.”