The Sandsman

Another player who continues to win rave reviews is James Sands, who is enjoying a breakout season of his own.

Only Maxime Chanot, Sean Johnson, Alex Ring and Anton Tinnerholm have more minutes than James’s 538 minutes, with the Rye native playing all but two minutes of City’s six games.

Fielded in the central defensive role he’s played for the Academy and for U.S. youth teams, Sands was just as combative and intelligent as he’s been in his first five games at the base of midfield.

Again, Torrent was impressed by what he saw: “In the second half we played with four in the back in a 4-3-2-1. We had more quality in the forwards and our defenders played well. Especially James [Sands], he was a fantastic player for us today, and the last game and he can play as a holding midfielder, as a center back.

“He is in top form right now.”

He sure is!