MLS Turns 21 - the 2016 season

Domer said:

In an interesting twist, the Revs just tweeted that the game will be at Harvard Stadium, not Jordan Field.

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Looks like the person running social media was playing a little loose with the facts. Someone responded to that tweet with a question about it and the Revs clarified that it will be at Jordan Field.

US Open Cup Quarterfinals:

Chicago vs. Fort Lauderdale Strikers
New England vs. Philadelphia (@Harvard)
Houston vs. Dallas
LA vs. Seattle


Fort Lauderdale knocked off Orlando in extra time and are the sole minor league representative remaining. Their reward is to play a team that is basically a minor league equivalent, the Chicago Fire.

I hope to make it to the Revs USOC game in Allston, but it depends on the the kickoff time...

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The California Clasico in San Jose last weekend pulled just over 1m viewers on Univision+Univision Deportes. Wow! That is an epic number for MLS, the best rating any game has ever gotten on Spanish language TV. Not coincidentally, it's apparently the first MLS game on Univision's main channel since 1999.

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Columbus signed attacking midfielder Dilly Duka, who has been mysteriously idle this season after his contract with Montreal expired last winter. He is certainly good enough to help teams, but the Crew seem like a strange fit to me. They have Higuain in the middle and plenty of guys on the wing.

Paolo Maldini's Miami FC strikes again! This time they bought Kwadwo Poku from NYCFC, for a fee that's been reported variously as $500k or $750k. Poku has some real talent, but Kreis was frustrated by his lack of professionalism or willingness to put in any defensive work whatsoever. Vieira has had even less patience for him and now he's gone. Too bad, because he'd be a fun player if his head were screwed on straight. Miami FC must be losing money hand over first, though.

SKC signed 24 year old Honduran left back Alvarado from Olimpia. Seth Sinovic has slipped over the last year and a half and Amadou Dia and Jimmy Medranda haven't locked down the position either. SKC also dumped Jordi Quintillà another former Barca B midfielder who wasn't as successful as Uri Rosell.

Montreal released Maxim Tissot and replaced him with a newer academy product, 19 year old David Choinière.

Revs blew a 2-0 lead in Montreal on Saturday and lost 3-2. They're leading the league in goals conceded per game.

Nigel de Jong is at it again:

Adrian Heath is out in Orlando. He'd been with them 7.5 years, since they started as a USL team in Austin before the move. This comes a couple days after Orlando got stuffed by Dallas 4-0 and looked even worse than the scoreline. For the moment, they'll turn to two assistants to co-coach the team, one of whom is Tony Pulis' son.


- Orlando had some bad news earlier this week when attacking midfielder Adrian Winter left the club for personal reasons to go back to his native Switzerland.

- Vancouver sold their disappointing striker Octavio Rivero to Colo Colo of Chile. Rivero got off to a hot start in 2015, but has basically sucked ever since,

- Dallas picked up Trinidadian defender Aubrey David on loan from Deportivo Saprissa. He's depth across the back line.

- Houston midfielder David Rocha has left the club by mutual consent for personal reasons and Leonel Miranda's loan from Independiente has expired. Neither played a particularly big role for Houston this year

Also, third loss in a row for the shitty Revs.

He's not the sole source of our problems by any means, but I have a hard time seeing how Jay Heaps is part of the solution.

- The Orlando Sentinel's former beat writer weighs in on Adrian Heath's firing. Also in light of Heath's sacking, the changing character of MLS ownership groups

- NYRB traded winger Lloyd Sam to DC. Sam had his best year for NYRB last season, but he's 31 and his performance has fallen off this year. Still, trading a fan favorite to a rival is tough. In the short term, Sam's minutes will go to academy winger Alex Muyl (who had already been taking more and more of Sam's playing time) or Gonzalo Veron -- though Veron looks ever more like a bust.

- Montreal signed Italian forward Matteo Mancosu on loan from Bologna, a club that's owned by....Joey Saputo. Mancosu has a good scoring record in Serie B, but hasn't done anything in Serie A. Looks like a depth move.

- The Fort Lauderdale Strikers are in trouble; their checks are bouncing.

- Update on the solidarity compensation court case. Regardless of the merits of the case from a soccer standpoint, I'm not sure the US courts will look favorably on the case.

Jimy Hendrix said:

I thought the hispanic/white marketing divide part of that article was a lot smarter than the "imply that MLS fan are racists because there are racist European hooligans" part.

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Agreed. The dual Anglo-centric and Hispanic-centric soccer worlds are interesting. The article didn't go too much in depth on that subject and what little it offered was buried by the fact that everyone was killing the author over the racism angle. A Nielsen report from a few years ago claimed that 34% of MLS fans are Hispanic. I don't know their methodology, though, and it's hard for me to gauge other markets. There's no way the Revs are anywhere even close to that number (Revs crowds are Red Sox-level white), though the borderline exurban stadium doesn't help and Boston-area Hispanics are disproportionately from noted soccer non-hotbeds like Puerto Rico and the DR. But many other markets are stronger in this department.

Dallas got hammered last night after some squad rotation on the road was made worse by a 5th minute red card to Maynor Figueroa. Dallas can be such a good team, but when they lose, they lose big.

- In the meantime, FCD has signed Getterson, a Brazilian forward. They've been relying on Maxi Urruti up top who has been okay, but they could really use a top-notch forward to push them over the top given the talent they have elsewhere. Based on his resume of playing for low-level clubs in Brazil, this guy doesn't look like the answer.

- Portland signed left back Lithuanian Vytautas Andriuškevičius, who spent the last two seasons at Cambuur Leeuwarden in the Eredivisie.

- Vancouver picked up a pair of veteran Canadians. They signed David Edgar [not as good as Edgar Davids!] on a free from Birmingham City. Then they signed Marcel de Jong from Ottawa Fury, a LB/LM who has become a journeyman since a stint in the Bundesliga with Augsburg. I imagine both are depth.

- Columbus sold Emil Larsen to Lyngby. The Danish winger wanted out six months after arriving from Odense since he was unable to earn much playing time.

- Toronto and center back Damien Perquis mutually terminated his contract. Perquis was expensive and they had a number of roughly equivalent, but cheaper options.

- In a trade of spare parts, KC sent left back Amadou Dia to Montreal in exchange for forward Cameron Porter. Porter scored one of Montreal's most famous goals in the CCL early in his rookie year last spring, but blew out his ACL on Gillette's FieldTurf shortly thereafter.

Atlanta's roster-building continues. This time, they signed Kenwyne Jones, who is going to go out on loan (in T&T!) for the rest of 2016. He's 31 now but should be a solid striker in MLS.

Vancouver shipped their young left back Sam Adekugbe on loan to Brighton & Hove Albion for the 2016-17 season. A curious move; Adekugbe wasn't getting much time for the Whitecaps this year and I'm not sure how motivated Brighton will be to give him time with their U21s if they don't have him permanently. Vancouver was clearing space for another academy player, 15 year old midfielder Alphonso Davies. He's supposed to be Canada's next big thing and he made his MLS debut last night.

EDIT:

And it's official. I think the NYCFC stint was a tough gig in several ways and I don't think it was overly damaging to Kreis' reputation. A second failure with Orlando would be, so the pressure is on for him.

The Revs are going to the US Open Cup semis! Great night for a game at Harvard's soccer stadium, which has a nice atmosphere for USOC games. The Revs won on PKs, 4-2 after a hard-fought 1-1 draw that vacillated between some nice possession soccer and a bit of pinball at times. The Revs gave up a late 90th minute equalizer, which was predictable. In extra time, they were forced to use Kelyn Rowe as a CF(!) because Kamara had been subbed off and there were no other forwards. Suffice to say, Rowe did not win any headers against Ken Tribbett. Nonetheless, the Revs had the best chance of extra time, which they somehow didn't convert.

Earnie Stewart was sitting a few rows ahead of me with his family, which was cool. His tenure with Philly is off to a really promising start, despite tonight's result.

- NYCFC signed Maxime Chanot, 26 year old center back from Kortrijk, probably the first Luxembourgish player in the league. They are short an international slot, so they dealt forward Patrick Mullins to DC for money and an international slot.

- DC, in turn, sent Fabian Espindola to Vancouver. Espindola is still a pretty good player, but fairly fragile and a questionable fit for how DC plays right now.

- Atlanta signed Argentine winger Hector Villalba, who will go on loan for the fall. He's 21 and seems like a solid building block, at least by reputation.

- Orlando's done some reshuffling - they loaned out disappointing Honduran striker Bryan Rochez to Real España, where he came from, and they signed Jose Aja on loan from Nacional (Uruguay). Orlando's center backs are pretty crap except for youngster Tommy Redding who is inexperienced. They need the help.

- Two signings for Columbus. First, they signed Nicolai Næss, a 23 year old Norwegian CB from Stabæk. Since Gaston Sauro got hurt, they need a new partner for Parkhurst in defense because Tyson Wahl and Chad Barson aren't the sort of players you want in your lineup every week. Columbus also -- surprisingly -- signed goalkeeper Zack Steffen from Freiburg. Steffen joined Freiburg 18 months ago and looked set to be their #3 after spending last season with the reserve team. There are several reasons why he might have left the club, but I'm not sure which one is true. Steve Clark is the incumbent, but he's been mediocre this year and I think his place in the lineup can be had. Steffen looked good at the U20 World Cup last summer.

- Montreal traded midfielder Eric Alexander to Houston. The Impact are rumored to be bringing back Hernan Bernardello; this transaction indicates that they are clearing out space. He's the sort of player who is decent depth anywhere in the league, but he's not the higher-end talent that Houston needs to improve.

- Toronto signed Canadian winger/forward Tosaint Ricketts. Based on his resume, he looks like a guy signed more for his Canadian-ness than anything else. A real journeyman with stops in Finland, Romania, Norway, Israel, and the Turkish second division. That he has 50 caps for Canada says it all about talent issues north of the border.

NYRB dominating NYCFC so far, though Tommy McNamara pulled one back with a great goal to make it 3-1. Sacha Kljestan has been excellent, a PK goal and two assists. It is weird to see a player evolve into more and more of a #10 in his career. Usually players drift positionally in the other direction. He's been really fun to watch today, you can see why he's leading the league in assists.

Vieira ejected in the first half and now NYCFC is melting down late. White sent off, Villa, Allen, and Bravo all earned yellow card accumulation suspensions for next match. Lampard got a yellow after a dirty challenge & handbags.

The Sigi Schmid death watch has reached new levels. Seattle turned in a putrid performance today in KC, lost 3-0, and were outshot by a 19-1 margin. Their one shot, in the 88th minute, was all that separated them from becoming the first team in MLS history to fail to record a shot in a game. The team looks totally flat.

I have to imagine that it's time to blow it up. Schmid's effectiveness as a manager has been gradually decreasing, but the roster construction is awful, too. They have basically a jumble of central midfielders and forwards, with very little width, so they typically play a 4-3-3 but without an inventive central midfielder or real wingers. Nelson Valdez is an awful waste of a $1.5m/yr contract. They were getting by on the strength of Obafemi Martins' creative abilities and without him they've got nothing. It's a miracle that Jordan Morris has scored 7 goals with this crew.

Kreis would have had obvious connections to the Seattle job based on his past work with Garth Lagerwey at RSL. At the same time, Kreis is in a position in Orlando where I think he'll have a good amount of control. In Seattle, he'd probably have less control working with a GM like Lagerwey. Since McDonough was more or less pushed out and went to Atlanta and Carneiro came and went quickly, Orlando's minority owner has been the acting GM. Kreis will likely absorb some of that role.

Apparently Seattle's locker room is a shitshow.

After weeks of speculation, Seattle finally got their man. Nicolas Lodeiro comes from Boca Juniors and he checks all the boxes. Attacking midfielder, age 27, capped 48 times for Uruguay, two-time WC and three-time Copa America veteran. The Sounders badly need creativity in the midfield. They'll get that from Lodeiro, who looks like a player they can really build around.

Less than a week left in the summer transfer window:

- It's been rumored for a while and hasn't been made official, but it's almost certain that Dallas winger Fabian Castillo has been sold to Trabzonspor. The fee is said to be $4m, which I think is a bargain for him. That's a huge loss for FCD, especially midseason when there's less time to find a replacement and less time for a replacement to adjust. I suspect that Castillo just decided that he wanted out, perhaps even with encouragement from Colombia, who rarely give serious looks to MLS players.

- A couple of teams have brought back old faces. Seattle signed Alvaro Fernandez, who has spent the last few years at Gimnasia La Plata in Argentina since leaving Chicago in 2013. He'll give them some width, at least, but at age 30 he feels like another stopgap.

- Likewise, central midfielder Hernan Bernardello returns to Montreal after stints at Cruz Azul, Newell's Old Boys, and Deportivo Alavés. They cleared out Eric Alexander to make room for him last week.

- The Fabian Espindola trade took a strange turn when he refused to play for the Whitecaps. Vancouver subsequently sold him to Necaxa.

- In a big blow for Portland, Nat Borchers ruptured his achilles and is out for the season. At age 35, he might be done. His immediate replacement at CB would likely be either Jermaine Taylor or Amobi Okugo, but the Timbers are rumored to be signing Steven Taylor.

- RSL has taken 19 year old Paraguayan forward Pedro Báez on loan from Cerro Porteño

- Philly made their first academy signing in a long time, inking central midfielder Derrick Jones to a homegrown contract. He had been on a USL deal with their second team, Bethlehem Steel. Philly's academy seems to be on the rise; having Bethlehem around to give minutes to guys like Jones and others is a big help.

- Tally Hall, who was a solid starter at GK in the league for a number of years, is retiring to become a cop. He had multiple knee injuries and never really recovered his form. Chris Rolfe, another DC player, is also facing a possible retirement after some bad concussion issues.

Titans Bastard said:

- It's been rumored for a while and hasn't been made official, but it's almost certain that Dallas winger Fabian Castillo has been sold to Trabzonspor. The fee is said to be $4m, which I think is a bargain for him. That's a huge loss for FCD, especially midseason when there's less time to find a replacement and less time for a replacement to adjust. I suspect that Castillo just decided that he wanted out, perhaps even with encouragement from Colombia, who rarely give serious looks to MLS players.

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The deal has fallen apart

What a mess. Castillo had already flown to Turkey, been paraded around the airport by Trabzonspor fans, taken a physical, and been presented by the club. Dallas is saying they are expecting him back in training soon, which could be very awkward.

The transfer window closes tonight and there has been a flurry of activity over the past few days, leading up to the deadline:

- It looks like the Bedoya to Philly deal is happening. Because Bedoya is subject to the allocation order, Philly had to acquire his rights from Chicago and consequently sent a bunch of money and a bunch of draft pick to the Fire. The Union have struggled a bit since the departure of Vincent Nogueira for personal health reasons; running a 4-2-3-1 with Brian Carroll and Warren Creavalle as the two deeper-lying mids won't cut it. The good news for them is that Maurice Edu should be back soon; a pairing of Edu and Bedoya could work well, with Pontius, Alberg, Ilsinho, Barnetta, and Le Toux as options for the attacking line behind C.J. Sapong.

- Chicago also unloaded forward Kennedy Igboananike, sending him to the MLS island of misfit toys, DC United. Igboananike is overpaid and not particularly good, but he's okay and DC needs a little help with Espindola gone and Rolfe dealing with serious concussion issues.

- The Houston Dynamo shipped forward Giles Barnes to Vancouver. Barnes was the second-highest paid player on the team and wasn't performing well in Houston this season. The Dynamo should be in rebuilding mode, as they are last in the West and have a new coach. Jettisoning salary makes sense here. For the Whitecaps, they get depth at forward that they missed out in when the Espindola deal went bad; Barnes doesn't need to be a lock starter to help them since they already have Kudo and Perez. The Dynamo are also taking a gander at Colombian winger Yair Arboleda, a 20 year old who comes on loan from Independiente Santa Fe for the rest of the year.

- NYRB signed 26 year old Austrian winger Daniel Royer from FC Midtjylland in Denmark. Winger isn't a problem for them, per se, since Grella and Muyl are good players, but since Lloyd Sam was traded the primary backup is the disappointing Gonzalo Veron. With CONCACAF Champions League games coming up, they need depth. And speaking of depth, Dax McCarty is out for 4-6 weeks with a tibia fracture. He's a crucial player for them and could be sorely missed. Sean Davis will need to step up.

- In the wake of Nat Borchers' season-ending injury, Portland has signed two center backs - ex-Newcastle Steven Taylor and 23 year old Nigerian Gbenga Arokoyo from Gaziantepspor. Both will compete with Jermaine Taylor for a spot next to Liam Ridgewell.

- Dallas signed big Argentine center back Norberto Paparatto. He spent a couple of seasons with Portland before returning to the Argentine Primera for half a season. He's mediocre and should be a depth option only. Matt Hedges and Walker Zimmerman are good and aren't going anywhere.

- In more consequential Dallas news, the saga of Fabian Castillo is still not over and nobody knows what exactly will happen. It will likely be difficult to integrate him back to the team as nobody wants a player who doesn't want to be there. On the other hand, if Trabzonspor can't come up with the money, there's no deal. There's also no time to sign a replacement. A real cluster over there.

- SJ dealt forward Adam Jahn to Columbus. A pretty simple deal. SJ has many center forwards and no playing time to offer Jahn. Columbus needed a backup for Ola Kamara other than the always-injured Conor Casey.

Vinho Tinto said:

Fox Soccer just posted on their FB account that Charlie Davies is in remission from liposarcoma.

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robssecondjob said:

Charlie Davies traded to the Philadelphia Union.

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Big week for the guy.

Revs get various allocation funds and a 2018 first rounder in exchange. It's impossible to judge the trade without knowing how much money came the other way. In any case, the Revs have three center forwards and use a one-forward formation, so it's not shocking to see one of them go. However, it's disappointing to see another transfer window come and go without any of the teams needs being addressed. Everyone else is going out and making improvements. The Revs, with their leaky defense, are standing pat.

From Philly's standpoint, he's a useful pickup. C.J. Sapong is an important cog in their lineup and when he's unavailable, they basically have no one else. Davies has a tendency to pick up minor injuries (maybe because one of his legs is significantly shorter than the other as a result of his car crash) so it's risky to rely on him as a starter, but as a backup and as an impact sub, he'd be great. Philly can afford to shed draft picks because (a) low 1st round picks aren't that valuable and (b) they have more talent coming through their academy now.

Some other deadline moves:

• Orlando traded Darwin Ceren to San Jose for Matias Perez Garcia. I expect a lot of moves from Orlando over the next 6-12 months as they retool their roster under new leadership.
• Houston signed Costa Rican center back Keyner Brown on loan from Herediano. They also called up Honduran winger Jose Escalante from their USL affiliate in Edinburg, TX.
• After unloading Kennedy Igboananike, Chicago signed a pair of forwards. One is David Arshakyan, a 21 year old Armenian striker who seems a bit speculative, as he has an excellent scoring record...in the Lithuanian league. They also acquired Argentine forward Luis Solignac from Colorado. If I had to guess, David Accam and Michael de Leeuw will remain their top choices.
• NYRB signed 27 year old Israeli striker Omer Damari on loan from RB Leipzig. (NY teams and their parent organizations....) He has a good scoring record in the Israeli league and in Austria, but fell out of favor at Leipzig. I guess they weren't happy with Anatole Abang and Brandon Allen as depth.

Castillo is gone to Trabzonspor, officially

A real shit sandwich for Dallas, but it can't be helped when a player goes rogue like that.

The following fun fact is making the rounds:

Chicago hasn't won a road match since 2014 and, indeed, even Chivas USA have won a road match more recently than the Fire.

A little bit of squad rotation and the Revs are blasted by Toronto, 4-1. They probably would have lost anyway, but Barnes looked to be a big downgrade from Farrell.

The Revs are now tied with NYCFC for the league lead in goal conceded, though they've played one less game. At -11, the Revs have the worst GD in the league. In the weak East, they will still be in playoff contention, but it's getting harder to see it happen and harder still to see them advancing from the first round if they make it there.

The USOC semifinals today - and amazingly, ESPN2 has picked up the games. I don't recall ever seeing a USOC game on cable except for the final.

The Revs host Chicago and LA hosts Dallas. The Revs/Fire game definitely has a lower profile, but the USOC is already the only thing that the Fire have to play for. And frankly, it's the Revs' only chance at hardware this year as well. NE may make the playoffs, but this team isn't going to get very far if they do.

Domer said:

Since when does the Desert Diamond Cup not count?

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One of the most storied competitions in all of soccer, I know. As was SuperLiga:

A nice left-footed finish from outside the box by Teal Bunbury (!!) puts the Revs up 3-1 in the 86th minute.

Final, here we come!

Dallas scored a 115' equalizer and a 120'+1' winner last night to beat LA. They'll host the Revs on 9/21.

The Revs' only piece of hardware to date was the 2007 US Open Cup, which they won....over Dallas in Frisco. May history repeat itself.