{"id":27617,"date":"2014-09-03T01:20:42","date_gmt":"2014-09-03T05:20:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=27617"},"modified":"2014-09-03T01:20:42","modified_gmt":"2014-09-03T05:20:42","slug":"asl-roswess-makes-good-in-pro-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=27617","title":{"rendered":"ASL: Roswess Makes Good in Pro Debut"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

Western Mass winger Chris Roswess celebrated his first pro goal on Saturday with a well-practiced backflip. (Photo credit: David Henry\/sweetdogphotos.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

LUDLOW, Mass. \u2013 In many respects, Chris Roswess couldn\u2019t have asked for a better entrance into the world of professional soccer.<\/p>\n

Barely seven minutes after hearing the distinct screech of the opening whistle in his pro debut for Western Mass last Saturday, the 25-year-old scored the first goal of his career in a 1-1 draw versus Mass United FC, and celebrated it with a well-rehearsed\u00a0backflip.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh my God, it felt unbelievable,\u201d Roswess said after the match, \u201cand this was my first professional game, so it was definitely good to get a goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

To those who\u2019ve supported the Western Mass outfit, it was only appropriate that the former UMass winger would be the first to score in the Lusitanos\u2019 first American Soccer League match.<\/p>\n

After starring at Amherst from 2008-11, the West Springfield, Mass. native featured with the Western Mass PDL side in 2012. Using his trademark speed and canny runs, Roswess brought the Lusitano Stadium faithful off its seats countless times over the course of that summer.<\/p>\n

Once the organization decided to field a team in the newly-formed ASL earlier this year, it came as no surprise that one of the players on coach Federico Molinari\u2019s radar was none other than his former charge. Following a successful tryout, Roswess immediately made a\u00a0favorable impression by scoring\u00a0and assisting\u00a0in a 13-0 romp of Greater Lowell United in a preseason friendly.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0week later, Roswess returned to the scoresheet\u00a0in the club’s opener proper\u00a0when he\u00a0darted to the near post, where he poked through a pass from Luke Perry to open the scoring. To Molinari, it was a scene he was sure that he had witnessed before.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what we practiced,\u201d Molinari said. \u201cI always tell Chris to go near post because he\u2019s fast, and he can anticipate, and you can see, in the first half, he had at least three (chances).\u201d<\/p>\n

But the Lusitanos\u2019 coach doesn\u2019t just view Roswess as a scorer, per se. Rather, the Lusitanos\u2019 coach sees Roswess as a tireless two-way player who uses his pace to pitch in defensively.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s doing a lot for the team,\u201d Molinari said after Saturday\u2019s match, \u201cbecause he\u2019s not just going forward, he\u2019s our first defender, because he defends, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Roswess\u2019 goal was quickly cancelled out by an own goal a minute later, the affable attacker could only bask in the glow of what will go down as an unforgettable night, especially with the nearby Our Lady of Fatima Parish feast coinciding with the club\u2019s season opener.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels great, yeah, I mean I\u2019ve always dreamt to play professionally and this was my first game, so it was definitely a good feeling,\u201d Roswess said. \u201c(Plus) we have the festa<\/em> going on right behind us, and we had a good crowd today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Western Mass winger Chris Roswess made his pro debut a memorable one in Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Mass United. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"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":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27617"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27617"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27619,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27617\/revisions\/27619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}