{"id":39905,"date":"2015-12-16T20:27:54","date_gmt":"2015-12-17T01:27:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=39905"},"modified":"2015-12-16T20:35:47","modified_gmt":"2015-12-17T01:35:47","slug":"pdl-molinari-re-takes-reins-for-pioneers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=39905","title":{"rendered":"PDL: Molinari Re-Takes Reins for Pioneers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo

Photo credit: Western Mass Pioneers<\/p><\/div>\n

A familiar face will be back in the technical area for the Western Mass Pioneers once the 2016 PDL season kicks off in May.<\/p>\n

Federico Molinari, who coached the Pioneers from 2012-2014, is returning to the helm after guiding former ASL outfit Western Mass Pro Soccer to the title game in 2015.<\/p>\n

Molinari succeeds former Pioneers head coach and longtime assistant Dennis Gomes, who will remain on Molinari’s staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very excited to rejoin the Pioneers,\u201d Molinari said in a club release on Wednesday. \u201cWe have a lot of work to do to bring in players that want to improve their game and get results on the field.”<\/p>\n

Gomes, who’s served as Molinari’s top lieutenant for a number of years, is supportive of the move. <\/p>\n

“I look forward to help develop future professional soccer players this season with Federico,” Gomes said in a club release on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Molinari, who also played for the Pioneers in 2003, as well as 2006 through 2010, will be tasked with turning around a young team that finished at the bottom of the PDL’s Northeast Division in 2015.<\/p>\n

With a number of new faces on the roster, the 2015 Pioneers ended the season on five points with a 1-11-2 record. Their fifth place finish precluded them from entering the 2016 U.S. Open Cup tournament.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Molinari is eager to make improvements. The club will be holding tryouts on Jan. 9 at Soccer City in Wilbraham, Mass. in the hopes of bolstering its squad for the upcoming season.<\/p>\n

“We are hoping to get a good turnout and maybe identify some guys that can help us this year,\u201d Pioneers general manager Greg Kolodziey said in a club release on Wednesday. \u201cWe just got back from the USL league meetings finalizing the schedule and getting ready for the 2016 season. We need to have a good team this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similarly, Molinari is aiming high when it comes to his expectations for the upcoming PDL season. <\/p>\n

“Our goal is to make the playoffs,” Molinari said, “and to qualify for the 2017 U.S. Open Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Federico Molinari will resume his duties as Pioneers coach after a season-long stint in the ASL. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[84],"tags":[1206,892,1294],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Molinari-1.png?fit=600%2C417","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39905"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39905"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39912,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39905\/revisions\/39912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}