Offseason Notebook: Panos and Greenville
Breaking down the Oakland Roots’ star addition and the state of the Greenville Triumph
Welcome back to the Offseason Notebook! Before we dig in, make sure to check out Backheeled, where I’ve got a breakdown of youth development across the USL Championship. Next up: way-too-early power rankings to kick off 2025.
Without further ado, let’s get to it.
Panos to Oakland
The Oakland Roots had a problem. With Memo Diaz gone, they were devoid of creativity on the right side. Their midfield wasn’t exactly a wellspring of chances in the first place; Oakland got shut out in seven of their last nine matches to end the 2024 season.
What to do? In signing Panos Armenakas, the Roots have added one of the USL’s most exciting creators, filled a major gap in their team, and considerably raised their ceiling for the year to come.
Armenakas is comfortable as a proper No. 10, but he’s most often been used as a right winger with the freedom to cut inside in the USL. No matter where Gavin Glinton deploys Armenakas - my money is on “right half space guy” in a 3-4-3 - he’s built to address the Roots’ biggest need.
What stands out is the 26-year-old’s ability to drive offense from multiple levels. In comparison to Oakland’s central midfielders and wingers from last year, it becomes clear just how unique Armenakas is. With 2.6 chances created and 0.22 expected assists per game, the former Australia youth international immediately becomes the Roots’ best final-third creator. At the same time, he’s terrific at dropping low for touches and spraying a whole range of passes; his long passing numbers and total completions are akin to a classic tempo-setter like Rafael Baca.
When Armenakas takes a touch, no matter where it comes, the defense has to take note. Oakland simply didn’t have a player of that caliber last season. As solid as Baca was after joining up from Monterey or as magnetic as someone like Camden Riley could look in bursts, the gravity wasn’t there. That’s no longer the case.
Consider this play, with Armenakas having tucked into the right half space in what’s a 3-2-4-1 attacking shape. If Glinton sticks to the basic formation he preferred last year, Armenakas will be taking most of his touches in similar scenarios.
In this case, the star midfielder is. working off another No. 10, doubling up on the opposing defense. When that fellow creator receives on the drop, Armenakas deftly advances into a now-open gap in zone 14. He dribbles, keeps his head up, and left-foots an absolute peach of a curler into the bottom corner from there. It’s terrific soccer, and it highlights how Armenakas can take over a game while still serving as part of an overarching formational system.
Here, Armenakas’ side is building out under duress. The new Oakland man receives on the sideline and shrugs off a closing defender, and his bounce pass diverts the press just enough to open up an angle through which to advance upfield.
As his Phoenix side pushes ahead, Armenakas dekes out a defender when he receives the ball anew. Now in space, he has options. Rather than try a risky through ball between multiple foes or make a simple sideways pass to the nearest teammate, Armenakas drives a centering cutback toward an open Emil Cuello in the pocket. It’s that skip-pass vision that sets Armenakas apart, and here it results in a hockey assist of sorts that gives Rising a penalty.
Expect to see more of that inspiration in the East Bay. With Abdi Mohamed just having signed, it seems that Oakland have already figured out who they want to fly past Armenakas on the overlap as wel. Mohamed, who ranked in the 91st percentile for crossing accuracy and the 70th for touches in the opposing box last season, has the skill and audacity to put defenses in jail on the right side.
There’s still the question of the other attacking midfield spot. Oakland has a number of out-and-out wingers on the roster, and whether they go that route or try and find another Armenakas-esque creator in the market will be a key question as the preseason marches on. No matter the answer, it’s clear that Oakland means business. In adding Panos Armenakas, the Roots have taken a massive leap forward for 2025.
Greenville glow-up
Though the Greenville Triumph have retained about two-thirds of their minutes played from last season, they’re going to be a different club in 2025. This was a strong team in 2024, too, of course. Greenville finished 16 points clear of the playoff cut line and posted a plus-11 goal difference in league play.
In League One, however, sustained success often begets change. The best players in the division inevitably move up the pyramid, and that means consistent winners like Greenville are caught in a cycle of re-loading and finding new talent. With Lyam MacKinnon assuredly off to greener pastures, the Triumph have refreshed themselves in style.
The additions so far have come all over the pitch. Ropapa Mensah and Chevone Marsh, two star forwards previously with Chattanooga, are the headliners. Additions like Michael Gonzalez and Griffin Tomas showed off huge skill in USL Championship cameos last year and are high-upside signings at a bare minimum. Zane Bubb didn’t play much in Tampa Bay but has the college bona fides to project as a rock-solid central defender.
When you have a player like MacKinnon, it’s easy for tactical tenets to fall by the wayside. Greenville mostly avoided that trap. Yes, having a one-man offense inverted onto your left wing is a luxury, but the Triumph staff didn’t let it become their crutch.
In that vein, the new additions have been chosen to service Rick Wright’s flexible 4-2-3-1ish look, a shape that can bend into a back three on the ball and morph as needed in the press.
I’ve got Sebastian Velasquez prohibitively mapped as the starting right winger above, but the thing about Greenville is that they (1) rotate in the attacking midfield line with regularity and (2) belie traditional formational monikers given their on-ball flexibility. We saw it in the playoffs with Pascal Corvino starting ahead of Velasquez and serving as the tucked-in right-sider, flexing the Triumph into something like a 3-2-2-3.
The return of that alignment isn’t a given. Unless Tomas - who sometimes played as an inverted right winger in his college days but has been a left back as a pro - switches sides, this team doesn’t have a nailed-down right back. The glut of attacking talent added so far gives Greenville a wealth of options, but the division of minutes and ensuing tactical style is difficult to divine.
Of course, that’s a good problem to have. No matter how the rotation shakes out, it’s almost assured that Mensah and Marsh will continue to operate as a potent duo, just like they did in Tennessee.
The 6’1” Mensah and 5’3” Marsh are the textbook definition of a big-little pair on paper, but the stereotypical assumptions don’t really capture their relationship. Yes, the former is obviously more of an aerial threat, but the latter is just as likely to push forward, lead the line, and buy space for his partner.
Defensively, the former Chattanooga stars know how to operate alongside one another. While Mensah’s final third re-gains dropped in 2024, he ranked in the 80th percentile with 0.69 per match in 2023. That number was even higher in 2021 in the Championship, when Mensah posted 0.94 takeaways per match in the attacking zone. Marsh hasn’t quite met those highs, but he and his ex-Red Wolves partner clearly have chemistry together with and without the ball.
They’ll be fed by Michael Gonzalez, who’s been listed as a forward by the Triumph but mainly played on the right wing during his rookie season in Monterey. Little used during the early portion of the 2024 campaign, Gonzalez began to earn starts after Monterey made a coaching change and quickly impressed because of his guile on the ball.
I’ve provisionally mapped Gonzalez on the left - he played a handful of minutes there in the Championship - but you could feasibly see the 24-year-old filling any role across Greenville’s attacking band. That blend of get-to-the-endline sizzle and in-box instinct makes Gonzalez an enticing attacking option.
Behind all the new offensive weapons, Greenville has mostly left their midfield untouched. That’s a good thing. The mix of Chapa Herrera, Evan Lee, and Carlos Anguiano arguably represented the Triumph’s best position group in 2024, and there’s no reason they won’t excel in the year to come unless injuries hit especially hard.
Rookie signee Ivan Agyaakwah could make noise in the pivot, offering up a more defensive-minded mien to complement the technicians elsewhere on the roster. A Furman alum, Agyaakwah will feel right at home with the Triumph, and he’s got the versatility to operate as a No. 6 or central defender. Whether the skills immediately translate from the college level up to League One remains an open question, but the signing seems astute for the upside alone.
There needn’t be an immediate burden on Agyaakwah because of the Zane Bubb signing at the back. As mentioned, Bubb didn’t get a whole lot of time in Tampa Bay after graduating from UCF, but he’s got a prototypical frame and impresses on tape thanks to a sneaky high skill level.
The Triumph aren’t hellbent on dominating the game with slow and considerate possession, but they’ve traditionally deployed central defenders with patience on the ball. Daniel Wu and Brandon Fricke, for instance, completed more than 52 passes per match last season and ranked in the top quarter of League One center backs in terms of pass completion rate. Bubb’s college record implies that he can fit that bill.
So, what’s the overall takeaway? Greenville has reloaded in a major way and diversified across the attacking line. The players the Triumph have brought in - Mensah, Marsh, Gonzalez, Bubb - can all fit within Rick Wright’s system, but they bring unique tics that will allow Greenville to keep on evolving. League One looks formidable across the board heading into 2025, yet the Triumph have positioned themselves to make a leap even in that hyper-competitive atmosphere.
Final Thoughts
In other news this week…
Las Vegas’ squad-building strategy is fascinating, especially in comparison to the rest of the USL. I genuinely like the talent the Lights have added - just look at Patrick Leal’s Next Pro numbers! - but it’s undeniably that they’ve gone very young and very light on Championship experience outside of Night Pickering. There’s more to be done, but Las Vegas is clearly planting their flag in the youth sector.
The full back moves from Rhode Island and Birmingham caught my eye over that weekend. I frankly thought Stephen Turnbull was playing at an all-USL level to start 2024, and his transfer to the Legion solidifies their most obvious gap. Rhode Island, meanwhile, added Dani Rovira to fill that hole. Rovira was a teammate of Marc Ybarra and Albert Dikwa in Pittsburgh, and he’s very solid even if he fell out of favor to a degree in 2024. The question now? Does Rovira start, or is the “Frank Nodarse at wing back” experiment a permanent fixture.
If you like dumb action movies, watch Den of Thieves on Max qnd the go see the sequel in theaters. I’d die for Gerard Butler.
David Lynch’s passing hit me like a ton of bricks last week. Detail-oriented readers and USL Show listeners might recall that I watched Twin Peaks for the first time last year; I actually ran through The Return twice over. Lynch had such a uniquely insightful perspective on middle America, and while he’s famous for oddball abstraction, it’s the undercurrent of earnest empathy that made his work so special. RIP to one of the best to ever do it.
That’s all, folks. See you soon!