Adolfo Gregorio
Colorado Head Coach Tim Hankinson originally sought to bolster the back line, but with two consecutive picks in the second round, saw Gregorio as a necessary pickup. “We felt we needed to add something offensively, but also stabilize defensively. We went into the draft thinking we needed two defenders. We thought Adolfo would go in the first round, so we felt that adding an American player with a great pedigree was too good to pass up.”
Because of his versatility, Gregorio is looking forward to fitting into the Rapids system wherever he is needed. “It’s a great honor to get picked up by Colorado and I’m just looking forward to working out with the team,” said the California native. “At UCLA, I played a little bit of inside midfielder as well as on the right. I was pretty heavily marked, so I just liked to attract players to me, and dish off to the open man. I really like to swing some good balls in and beat my man one-on-one, so I’ll just give the team what I can. Hopefully, my style of soccer fits in with what the Coach is looking for and the team.”
Hankinson was also impressed with Gregorio’s experience through the U.S. National Team program, as well as a very good collegiate program in UCLA. “He’s got great pedigree playing for the U-17, U-18, U-20, and U-23 National Team including the Youth World Cup. He has also been first-team all Pac 10 three years in a row which is great consistency,” Hankinson told soccer365.com from Charlotte, NC. “Obviously, (Mark) Chung and (Chris) Henderson are our key starters (in the midfield), but we also have guys like (Zach) Kingsley and (Matt) Crawford. The thing we noticed about Adolfo is that he’s a player who can play both sides of the midfield and in the center in an attacking way.”
__________________
|