New York Cosmos announce extensions with two key players

On the pitch, it's been a great season for the New York Cosmos in 2015. While the team will have a hole to fill in 2016 with the retirement of midfielder Marcos Senna, the club has moved this week to lock up a pair of core players, agreeing extensions with two key components to the 2013 title-winning squad.

On Thursday, the Cosmos announced that they had reached an agreement with their starting left back, Ayoze. On Friday, they followed that announcement up by confirming that starting midfielder Danny Szetela had done the same. As per usual with the Cosmos, specifics of the deals were not disclosed.

Head coach Gio Savarese was obviously thrilled with the news, and had the following to say about the newly-extended pair:

"Ever since he arrived in New York, Ayoze has brought quality and versatility to our back line. He has great attacking instincts and is also very capable defensively."

"Danny has been an important player for this team from day one and we’re delighted that he’ll be staying on. He’s got a lot of match experience and attributes that are key to the way we play and he’s a player that keeps getting better every year."

I'm thrilled to see both players extend with the Cosmos, as both are among the best in their positions in American club soccer at the moment. The club will still have some work to do in replacing Senna when he retires, but it's nice to see that there won't be several other big holes on top of that.