2025 Breakdown
We're kicking off year two of Stormwatch912 as Tormenta is set to open up the 2025 campaign when the host Richmond Friday night in Statesboro. It'll the be the only "independent professional soccer match in the United States that day," meaning the eyes of U.S. soccer fans will be on Statesboro.
Tormenta is coming off a frankly disappointing year that saw them finish 10th, going 4-10-8 (W-L-D) in the regular season and winless in eight Jagermeister Cup games. (Tormenta did get two extra points from winning two penalty shootouts, but that doesn't truly count as a win.) The lone bright spot for Tormenta was their run to the Round of 32 in the US Open Cup before falling in the final minute to Charleston 3-2.
Despite the 2024 season not going according to plan, Tormenta Manager Ian Cameron said he learned a lot from the season.
"Last year was a long year. It was a trudge of a year and we didn't get a lot of joy in terms of top performances that we loved the product that we were putting out there. And you know during the course of the season you can't change the dynamics too much," he said, citing perseverance as the biggest thing he and his staff took from last season.
"In the back end of the year you're left with some scar tissue on 'we lost a wee bit of belief in that system of play, a little loss of belief in the characters we had in the locker room. Is that what the community needs?'"
After the year, Cameron said they tried to separate themselves from the year and assess what they'd done in the past to have success and what needed to be done over the off-season to get back to the success that Tormenta has experienced previously.
"Let's attract some of those people we know will add on and off the field and then lets go back to the DNA of what this club really stands for. I think we've done a nice job of that in the off-season," he said.
"But in the middle of last season when you're looking at a group that can control games but can't win games and just don't have that edge and take two-nil leads multiple times and then lose it, that strips away the credibility of everybody a little bit. So we've learned from that the best we can and the plan is to not let that happen again and are a front foot team again and we think we can be," Cameron said.
Remember when songs would have the lead singer would just interrupt a song and say "break it down" and then you'd get a cool drum solo or something like that? That was fun and we need to get back to that.
Until that time you're stuck with me attempting to break down Tormenta's roster.
Goalkeepers:
Tormenta overhauled its roster after last year, bringing back only six players while retooling. They shocked pretty much everyone across the league when they announced the signing of goalkeeper Austin Pack from Charlotte. Pack has been among the best in the league, winning the 2023 League One Goalkeeper of the Year award and prevented 3.6 goals above average last season with the Independence. He'll replace the duo of Ford Parker and Drew Romig who manned the net in 2024.
In fact, John Morrissey of @USLTactics called Pack "the best goalie in League One history" and a "transformative addition," in his 10,000 word League One preview.
"It's not easy to get one of the best performers in USL1. It costs money. Do they want to come to our market or do they want to move to the Championship? But Austin's put his faith in us. We have a plan for him. We know where we ant to get him to by the end of the year so that next year he's the starting goalkeeper for one of the top Championship sides," Cameron said.
Backing up Pack will be Sam Jones who has worked extremely hard to work his way up to earn the opportunity as the number two goalkeeper for South Georgia.
"You've got a young man who's been in our academy and bided his time, been in USL2, bided his time and being a third goalkeeper last year, out of contract and earned his way into a contract and then emerges this year as the number two," Cameron said. "He's managed to reach each level because he's really worked hard and earned the trust of his teammates to get to that next rung in the ladder."
"Now this year, the next challenge for him is to play some games, showcase himself in the professional level. I know he's champing at the bit for that opportunity and he deserves it. And when the opportunity presents itself this year it's going to be exciting to watch his journey," Cameron said.
Defense:
Defensively, Callum Stretch is the lone returner from last year as Tormenta and a player that Manager Ian Cameron said would be important due to his flexibility. "His best position is center back, but he can play right back really, really well." Joining Stretch in the back are Gabriel Aves (most recently of Rhode Island FC), Jackson Kasanzu (San Diego Loyal), Thabo Nare (LAFC 2), and Anatolie Prepelita (Chattanooga FC).
Alves, in particular, is a player Cameron has been trying to get to Tormenta for three years, he said. "He's a terrific talent, a terrific young man and I think he'll really suit our playing style very well," he said in January. "The down side is I think Gabby Alves should be playing in the (USL) Championship. I think at one point if he'd got a bit of a stroke of luck he might have made it to the MLS, but certainly should be at the cutting edge of the Championship."
Prepelita is another player Cameron has been recruiting for a couple of years. "Excellent center back. Organizes the game terrifically," he said. "He has a personality where he demands excellence from his back line and loves defending. I think he'll be a stalwart in the back."
Midfield:
The midfield for Tormenta sees the most stability from last season, with veterans Aaron Walker and Conor Doyle adding a wealth of experience to Tormenta. Another familiar face will be the return of Gabriel Cabral after spending two seasons with Miami FC after helping lead Tormenta to the 2022 title. That trio will be joined by Alon Drey (Florida Gulf Coast University) holding down the central midfield.
Cameron said Doyle will benefit greatly from a preseason after dealing with injuries at the start of the 2024 season.
"When you're older, you need that preseason. So for him, it's massive that he have that preseason under his belt so that his mobility and change of direction and technical proficiency gets back to the levels that he knows he can get at and he can help the team. He was desperately disappointed last year in not helping the team as much as he knows he can," Cameron said.
Walker was another piece that Cameron said was key to Tormenta for 2025.
"He was incredibly important to bring back. He's great in the locker room and will become a coach in the next couple of years and still has a lot of football to give," he said.
Walker, who joined Tormenta midseason and while he played well, it wasn't enough as Tormenta stumbled down the stretch and missed the playoffs.
"He called me straight after the season and he says 'look, I need to come back because I'm not having that be my finish of my career,'" Cameron said. "I want to be back and be a part of that solution," Cameron said Walker told him.
Cabral, meanwhile, returns to Statesboro with a comfort level of knowing what it takes to win a championship as well as knowing what Cameron and the coaching staff expect from him.
"From a coaching side, it's massively important to have some lieutenants on your field who have the utmost trust in, technically, as a footballer, who can influence the game and be a top player, but also, character wise, to really embody the qualities that the staff and the organization wants," he said.
"Sometimes you have players that you lose a lot of sleep over. With Cabral, you've got a player that you don't lose much sleep over because you know you've got a baller in the field and an excellent character in the locker room."
He said they've identified a few things in Cabral's game that they plan to develop this year so that he can be the "top-end Championship player" that Cameron is convinced Cabral can be.
Wingers:
One thing Cameron has mentioned each time I've spoken with him this preseason is how the past two seasons the skill set of the players didn't always match what the coaching staff wanted to see. "It's not a player not understanding, it's just what their skill sets are."
He said last year's team had players who tended to want to play more in the middle of the field whereas he was looking for his wingers to play high and wide, take players on and create 1v1 opportunities. Cameron hopes to have addressed that with the composition of this year's team.
"This year, the composition of our team, we've got three out and out wingers in our squad who want to be high and wide, who want to take players on and get deliveries into the box," he said.
Obviously it depends on how Tormenta lines up, but Handwalla Bwana, Taylor Gray, Mason Tunbridge and Niall Reid-Stephen could all see time on the wings for South Georgia. In the press releases announcing their signings, both Gray and Reid-Stephen were announced as forwards.
Gray saw plenty of time on the wing during Tormenta's first two home preseason games (their final two were closed to the public so your guess is as good as mine).
Cameron wants to see Tunbridge leverage the "unquestionable ability he has to make key passes and make big plays and be a dynamic attacking player" and learn more against the ball actions and positional discipline to be a "top professional."
"He's probably been the hardest worker of everybody in the off season to come back in a physical shapes that is one of the best shapes of his career. He's extended an olive branch to say 'hey, I'm giving you a body now that is more durable and we can run harder and run further and won't break down as much' and now we need to bring to life his football ability."
Strikers:
2024 Tormenta MVP Sebastian Vivas headlines the strikers for Tormenta. He scored 12 goals across all competitions to lead South Georgia while also adding two assists on the year.
"He did that with (speaking) little English, with little pace and mobility around him," Cameron said. "What we know about him is the build up play is the part he needs to work on the most, but in the box, he's really, really dynamic and comes to life. So if we can arrive to the box with more supply to him, then he can have a season where he scores 10 plus goals again and really kickstart his career."
"He's got his wife and daughter here. He's going to be more comfortable. He knows what to expect," Cameron said. "He's working hard on this English and I'm working a wee bit on Spanish to try to bridge the gap. Scottish people with Spanish isn't great."
Another player who could see time at striker is Jonathan Nyandjo (Crown Legacy FC) who scored three times and added an assist for the MLS Next Pro side of Charlotte FC last season.
Tormenta kicks off their season Friday hosting the Richmond Kickers. There's a preview story slated to run in Thursday's Statesboro Herald and I'll have an additional posting on here Friday. (hopefully with some Richmond Kickers' content as I'm hoping to reach out to people throughout the league to contribute short "what to watch for" segments throughout the season.)
We made it through the off-season everyone. Let's enjoy the 2025 season.
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