Offseason Notebook: Tejada spotlight and free agents
Takeaways from the USL Championship Final, plus a look at key players hitting the market
It’s the end of the men’s calendar for 2024, so The Back Four moniker is going into hibernation. Welcome in to this winter’s first Offseason Notebook! In the meantime, hit up Backheeled if you need a deep-dive recap into the USL Championship Final.
This’ll be a shorter edition with the lack of news and upcoming holiday, but let’s get to it.
Juan Tejada, Guy of the Round
Juan Tejada was, on the face of it, an unlikely hero in the USL Championship Final. Between stops in Tampa Bay, Indy, and now Colorado Springs, Tejada has gone six seasons straight without starting a majority of his team’s games. He hasn’t contributed to double-digit goals since his rookie year with the Rowdies in 2019. Those numbers, however, belie the undeniable impact Juan Tejada brings to the table.
Indeed, the 27-year-old brings a sort of energy that’s harder to quantify, and it was the standout reason the Switchbacks won a title.
In a terrific postgame profile, Nicholas Murray spoke to Tejada to examine how a player with only two goals and 12 starts in the regular season could make the difference. The Panamanian forward cited his mentality, the trust of James Chambers and the Colorado Springs staff, and the emotion he brings to the “super sub” role; all of that was apparent in the final.
Tejada ended up with six recoveries, two takeaways, and four duels across 77 minutes, and he made every challenge count. When his team lost possession, Tejada did a terrific job at closing down and rushing Rhode Island out of their preferred possessive patterns.
That’s the case in the clip, where Colorado Springs tries a long ball with their wingers high. Though the pass doesn’t connect, there’s still a knockdown to contest. When the ball comes loose, Tejada wastes no time in closing to midfielder Clay Holstad. His effort forces an errant pass that ends up out of play; Colorado Springs is suddenly ensconced in the attacking half.
In the final, Rhode Island didn’t produce a single chance on the fastbreak, and that exact sort of play from the No. 10 - something we saw all match long - was a primary reason why. Meanwhile, Colorado Springs carved out four shots of their own on the break, amounting to 0.8 xG. Even on the opposite side of the ball Tejada was vital.
Across the two frames here, you see Tejada (1) chest down a high-lofted clearance and then (2) cut to the left sideline after controlling the ball. His ability to find space and execute on a technical level shouldn’t be overlooked right off the bat.
That dribble accomplishes two things at once: it relieves the immediate defensive pressure on Tejada to mitigate turnover risk, and it draws two RIFC players out. Both midfielder Marc Ybarra and center back Grant Stoneman close to the No. 10 as he drifts.
The result? Tejada can play in Jairo Henriquez, who has a two-on-two with Ronaldo Damus against the remnant of the back line.
You don’t see Tejada’s pass here, but his ability to beat Stoneman and locate Henriquez was critical to the move. It’s Henriquez that claims the glory in the end with an insane strike, but none of it is possible sans Tejada.
That’s Juan Tejada in a nutshell. He’s constantly doing the dirty work that allows flashier teammates to take the limelight, and he’s happy to do so.
With the entire USL watching on Saturday afternoon, Tejada’s subtler gifts emerged for all to see on the national stage. It’s a deserved moment for one of the league’s most consistent players - and the Colorado Springs organization that trusted him to come up big.
Free Agent Spotlight, Part I
As first-wave roster announcements roll on, I’ll be spotlighting a handful of players that might not immediately stand out as star targets. Some of these players were strong in 2024 but don’t necessarily score goals or drops jaws; others were hamstrung by limited roles or otherwise adverse team contexts.
Want more? Check out the full transfer tracker.
We’ll start with one of my favorite midfielders on the market, ex-Detroit City man James Murphy. Now entering his seventh USL season, Murphy started 28 games for Le Rouge and missed just two matches all year. He figured to be a building block for 2025 but instead had his option declined.
What you love about Murphy is the mix of defensive effort and overall intelligence. Few No. 6s in the Championship are as heady as the 27-year-old, and few bring the unapologetic grit that led him to earn a whopping 13 yellow cards. Still, you’ll take the fouls; Murphy didn’t ever earn a second yellow in 2024, and his physicality was always well-applied.
That’s apparent above. With opposing Indy about to break through lightning-fast attacker Maalique Foster, Murphy reads the situation splendidly. He steps to Foster to prevent an immediate in-cut, but he doesn’t lunge; it’s a bad situation to fly into a tackle.
As Foster advances, Murphy sticks to the carrier as best as possible. By minimizing the separation, the midfielder can deny a cut inside once more in the final third. Finally, the tackle is on, and Murphy regains.
That’s the exact sort of play you get from James Murphy time and again. I’m keeping the blurbs short here, but I also can’t say enough about Murphy’s angle-changing movement at the base of the midfield in build. Top player, one that’s deeply underappreciated.
Elsewhere, I hinted at Diogo Pacheco’s prowess in discussing FC Tulsa last week, but I want double down. Pacheco was solidly in the “very good” camp in his Championship debut campaign, but he showed off the tools of someone with potential to break out.
In terms of both chances created (1.3 per 90 minutes) and dribble attempts (2.9), Pacheco rated out on the cusp of the top third of the USL. There’s a baseline of super solid production there, and it came amidst an FC Tula team that tended to be defense-first and offensively rudderless.
If you’re a savvy team that needs a self-starting sparkplug on the wing, Pacheco can be your guy.
Conor Donovan featured in my USL Top 50 list this year, and it’s a bit of a surprise that as-of-yet manager-less Sacramento let him walk. There’s an argument to make that the 28-year-old center back has maybe lost a step, but that fundamentally understands why he’s so good in the first place.
Donovan is elite at sitting in the middle of a back three and dominating the space around him. That manifested in the form of 3.4 aerial wins per 90 minutes on a very solid 60% win rate. The defender also completed 1.3 tackles per game despite being the straight man in the central role of Sacramento’s defense.
If you want a defender that’s going to initiate play, get adventurous on the dribble, and flex his athleticism while rotating wide, then you might not be in the market for Donovan. If you need a dominant, classical presence in the middle - and basically every back-three team in the USL does - then Conor Donovan can be that piece.
Jonathan Ricketts is another great shout out of Sacramento, a player that was given far less time than Donovan. Some of that gap came down to injury troubles, but Ricketts was too often used as a late-game sub despite coming off a scintillating 2023 with Rio Grande Valley.
Versatility and all-round completeness are hallmarks of Ricketts’ game. With the Republic, he earned minutes as a forward and on both flanks as a wing back. There’s technique aplenty - the 27-year-old was entrusted with 71 touches per game in his final season as a Toro - mixed with exceptional size by the standard of his wide position.
You get a sense for that skillset here. In this case, Ricketts is operating as the right wing back in Sacramento’s 3-4-3. The play shown above begins with a long ball from the back that targets an advancing Ricketts in the channel.
Ricketts’ run is timed such that he has already rounded the opposing wing back, and his inside-tucking move to contest the header draws yet another defender. The result? An open lane for striker Trevor Amann to run into behind Ricketts.
Take a step back. How many other wide players in the USL can operate as a target wing back? Ricketts won 8.4 headers per match with the Republic - the best mark of any Championship player at his position - on a 62% win rate. Yes, some of the credit owes to his deployment as an attacker in chasing-the-game situations, but that’s a wildly dominant stat line even considering the context.
As the play continues, Amann fields the flicked-on header and keeps drifting to further bend the defense. Noting this, Ricketts doesn’t just hew to the sideline like a standard overlapping full back would. Instead, he cuts inside toward the open gap, where he’ll end up becoming a passing target for Amann.
That’s instinct you can’t teach, and it makes Jonathan Ricketts special. Players with legitimate jack-of-all-trades status are hard to come by in the USL. Players that fit that bill and provide all-league upside in the process are rarer still. Ricketts can be that level of contributor in the right situation.
We’ll end on one more West Coast star, Tristan Trager. In his last two seasons between Charleston and Monterey, Trager has contributed 13 goals in about 2,700 minutes while variously playing as a winger or striker. That clip would’ve put him eighth in the USL in scoring this season if we’re prorating.
If Trager stays fit, he’s one of the most vivacious and exciting attacking players out there. It’s hard to find a forward that can carve out space on the counter and beat opponents with speed in transition, but that’s a real strength of the 25-year-old’s game. In some ways, he has the skillset of a burgeoning “Cal Jennings” type.
Monterey tried to hand Trager the keys to the No. 9 spot, and he rewarded them with an elite 0.6 goals per game even amidst availability issues and the club’s coaching change. Whoever lets Tristan Trager cook in a similar manner in 2025 will reap the rewards.
Final Thoughts
In other news this week…
Not to beg, but…if you’re a team, agent, or player that likes this analysis, letting me know about signings ahead of time is extremely useful. Turning announcements into articles or video packages is a lot of work, and advanced notice helps. We all know there isn’t much media attention on roster news in the USL, so give an assist out the guy that’ll provide it.
Go join Bluesky, where I dove into Eric Quill’s system after the FC Dallas exit news and am regularly posting offseason roster check-in charts.
It’s easy to overlook USL press releases about new executive hires, but this chunk from the recent Brett Luy announcement caught my eye:
The smart read here is Jagermeister Cup expansion - inclusive of the USL Championship - rather than pro-rel. There’s lots of smoke around that change coming for 2025, with regional pods and all that jazz between the divisions. Luy seems a natural candidate to help lead the charge.
That’s all, folks. See you soon!
Cover Photo Credit: Colorado Springs Switchbacks