The 2017 Major League Soccer Thread

Senator Donut

post-Domer
SoSH Member
Apr 21, 2010
5,500
That's a pretty reasonable solution, although it makes things more crapshoot-y. Season long winners tend to guarantee long-term stability and strenghth; cup winners can come out of nowhere. It's just one year though.
Are you saying the Revolution were not the second-best team in the US last year even though they played in a cup final? Kidding aside, it's stinks that the Supporter's Shield winner is getting shut out. It was only two posts ago that TB pointed out how bad Canadian sides have been in CCL because of their qualification method. Now MLS is not sending their best either.
 

Titans Bastard

has sunil gulati in his sights
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 15, 2002
14,446
A 2-0 win over Houston bumps the Revs up to fourth in the East for the moment with seven points from five games, though they are only one point ahead of ninth place Orlando. It's the first clean sheet of the year for New England. The offense isn't quite clicking yet and I still have the nagging feeling it has to do with Kamara's stylistic non-fit with the rest of the team. We'll see.

Elsewhere in the East, I have to think that Jim Curtin's seat is getting awfully warm.
 

Schnerres

Member
SoSH Member
Apr 28, 2009
1,554
Germany
What can you guys say about Joshua Smith, who´s from my hometown? Any chance for regular starts, if the roster is complete/healthy?
 

Titans Bastard

has sunil gulati in his sights
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 15, 2002
14,446
What can you guys say about Joshua Smith, who´s from my hometown? Any chance for regular starts, if the roster is complete/healthy?
Big, hulking central defender who has done a decent job so far this season. He's only gotten two starts, so we'll see how he holds up. The Revs had poor CBs and poor CB depth last season and they've basically had to rebuild the position from scratch. The starters initially were two imports, Antonio Delamea and Benjamin Angoua, but it looks like Smith has edged ahead of Angoua for now on merit (there haven't been any injuries/suspensions at CB yet).

Smith decided to go to college at an advanced age after playing in the Regionalliga for a few years, so he is super old for a first-year pro even by American standards (25). He probably doesn't have that much more room to improve, but I don't think he'll be the sort of player who washes out of the league after one season.
 

Titans Bastard

has sunil gulati in his sights
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 15, 2002
14,446
Drogba to Phoenix is official:


He joins Omar Bravo and Shaun Wright-Phillips on the roster. I wonder how much they are being paid and how much attention they'll garner locally. Minor league soccer has been unstable in Phoenix. Phoenix FC (2013) folded after one season and was replaced by Arizona United (2014-2016) with a new ownership group. They sold the team last August to a new group, who renamed the team in November.

---

The draw for the first two rounds of the 2017 US Open Cup has been made. This year's addition includes 19 MLS clubs, 6 NASL clubs, and 18 USL clubs from the professional ranks. Among the amateurs, there are 18 NPSL clubs, 21 PDL clubs, and 17 clubs that gained entry through regional qualifying tournaments.

Some local flavor:

Boston City FC (NPSL - play at Malden Catholic)
GPS Portland Phoenix (PDL)
Western Mass Pioneers (PDL - Ludlow, MA)
GPS Omens (BSSL - not sure where in MA they are based)
 

Senator Donut

post-Domer
SoSH Member
Apr 21, 2010
5,500
Good draw for Boston City FC's pod. They don't have to face a Division II side in the second round, guaranteeing an amateur club makes round three.
 

SocrManiac

Tommy Seebach’s mustache
SoSH Member
Apr 15, 2006
8,633
Somers, CT
Apropos of nothing, my club team played against the Pioneers at Festa last year. The difference between Sunday Leaguers and even low-level US Pros is substantial. I got great practice at picking the ball out of my goal, however.
 

DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
SoSH Member
Dec 16, 2010
53,837
Apropos of nothing, my club team played against the Pioneers at Festa last year. The difference between Sunday Leaguers and even low-level US Pros is substantial. I got great practice at picking the ball out of my goal, however.
Details?
 

SocrManiac

Tommy Seebach’s mustache
SoSH Member
Apr 15, 2006
8,633
Somers, CT
Every year at Ludlow's Festa celebration there's an exhibition game with one of the other local clubs. Hartford, I believe, was scheduled to play this year. They backed out. My Sunday league team isn't one of the best in the region, but we're generally known for sportsmanship and enjoying the game. Since that kept with the spirit, we were asked to play with very little notice. I'd say we were able to gather up 40% of our guys and none of our college players. We were a month or so removed from playing together last.

We actually scored the first goal, put in by one of our pro-am guys (plays for Lynn United). They leveled on a cross into the box where the striker nearly flattened me. Our central defense was a pair of guys that I'd never met before, nor had they played together. That lead to a few breakaways, more than one of which I turned aside.

Fitness is an obvious separator, but the speed of the larger guys was especially telling. The biggest differentiator is first touch. The higher the level, it seems the more errant a ball that these guys can not only drop at their feet, but put into a position that allows them to move into space or away from trouble. That half second or more they were able to gain always seemed to take out the nearest defender. Everybody shifts, somebody on the weak side is open and the next thing you know a cross is sailing in.

It was a great experience that truly put me in my place. Nothing against these guys, but we aren't even talking about full-time professionals. The speed at which the high level must be played (as viewed as a player) must be absolutely dizzying.
 

OCST

Sunny von Bulow
SoSH Member
Jan 10, 2004
24,483
The 718
Tim Howard suspended three games for altercations with fans before and after the SKC match.
One of the problems which greased the skids for Timmeh out of Everton was getting snippy with the fans (gestures, mock taunting), which went over like a fart in church as you might imagine.

He's getting surly at the end of his career.
 

Arroyo Con Frijoles

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 19, 2005
1,171
No reason at all to even watch your DVR copy of this one. Watson with two idiotic yellows early and the Revs with nothing going go down a goal before and one right after halftime. Absolutely hopeless.
 

Titans Bastard

has sunil gulati in his sights
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 15, 2002
14,446
No reason at all to even watch your DVR copy of this one. Watson with two idiotic yellows early and the Revs with nothing going go down a goal before and one right after halftime. Absolutely hopeless.
I went soccer-less this weekend so I only saw the highlights. They didn't show the first yellow, but the second was...wow. It would be idiotic under any circumstance and when sitting on a yellow, it's even worse.
 

Senator Donut

post-Domer
SoSH Member
Apr 21, 2010
5,500
I went soccer-less this weekend so I only saw the highlights. They didn't show the first yellow, but the second was...wow. It would be idiotic under any circumstance and when sitting on a yellow, it's even worse.
The first yellow was controversial; it could have been a straight red.
 

Titans Bastard

has sunil gulati in his sights
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 15, 2002
14,446
The first yellow was controversial; it could have been a straight red.
So, two orange cards within seven minutes of each other. GJGE, Watson.

The Revs are mid-table at the moment, but they feel a bit worse than that. One win, of course, came over Minnesota, who have conceded more than twice as many goals (24) as the next worse defense (11).

The CB situation is better than last year, but with Tierney slowing down we don't have any real alternatives at LB. Just Watson and the how-is-he-still-even-on-the-roster Donnie Smith, who has more MLS years of service (5) than MLS starts (4).

How could Mike Burns possibly be expected to plan to have a reasonable backup for a 31 year old?
 

Titans Bastard

has sunil gulati in his sights
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 15, 2002
14,446
Jack Mac has signed with LA


It's his fifth MLS team in his eight season as a pro. But he's still only 24 and has 44 MLS goals to his name, which works out to a goal every 215 minutes or so.

I've always felt that he'd have had a better career in the era when everyone was playing a straight 4-4-2. He doesn't have the skillset to play as a lone forward or a winger, but he has nice technique and can be a clever fox-in-the-box type. He has been stuck on a lot of 4-2-3-1 teams and never quite fit in. Due to being a niche player, he will have to pick his spots wisely. LA could be a decent club for him; they play with two forwards (GdS and Zardes) and right now their first forward off the bench is Jack McBean, who is not the toughest competition.
 

Titans Bastard

has sunil gulati in his sights
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 15, 2002
14,446
MLS academies participated in a couple of significant youth tournaments recently - the Dallas Cup and the Generation Adidas Cup. Obviously they are just youth friendly tournaments, but both gave various teams the opportunity to measure themselves against foreign competition. MLS academy teams are increasingly dominating their non-MLS opponents in the US Soccer Development Academy, so these sorts of tests are important reality checks.

The Dallas Cup is a fairly prestigious tournament, which attracts some quality clubs who usually bring their best team for the age group.

In the U19 "Super Group" (which has the marquee names; younger groups are bit more domestic/local):
  • RSL finished last in Group A after draws with Coritiba and Chivas and a loss to Manchester United.
  • FC Dallas won Group B after a draw with Monterrey and wins over Maccabi Haifa and Everton (5-0!).
  • Toronto finished third in Group C after beating RB Brasil, drawing Eintracht Frankfurt, and losing to Tigres.
  • FC Dallas ended up winning the whole thing, beating Coritiba and Monterrey in the knockout rounds, the first time an MLS team has ever won the Super Group.

The GA Cup is a U16 tournament between MLS and foreign academy teams, split into two tiers. It started really poorly with MLS teams losing all nine games vs. foreign opposition on the first day, but results improved over time.

In the first tier "Champions Division":
  • FC Dallas finished 2nd in Group A, edged out on GD by Ecuador's Independiente Del Valle. FCD picked up a very nice win over Real Madrid and also beat RSL. RSL finished last but did beat IDV 3-0.
  • In Group B, LA beat SKC and Eintracht Frankfurt, but lost to Flamengo and came in second. SKC lost all three.
  • In Group C, Atlanta and Colorado both lost to River Plate and Malaga and drew each other.
  • In Group D, NYRB finished first with wins over Toronto and Tijuana, though they lost to Estudiantes. Toronto managed draws with Tijuana and Estudiantes.
  • NYRB was knocked out in the semifinals by Flamengo and beat IDV in the 3rd place game, both decided by PKs
In the second tier "Premier Division":
  • In Group A, NYCFC and Seattle both beat Pumas and Saprissa and drew each other
  • In Group B, Philly won all three games over Monterrey and NE. New England managed to go 0-3 with zero goals scored and 14 conceded - a 5-0 loss to the Union, a 7-0 loss to the Rayados, and a 2-0 loss to Chicago. Ouch. At least they beat Deportivo Saprissa in the...13th place game.
  • In Group C, San Jose emerged with wins over Chivas and Columbus and a draw with Orlando. CLB and ORL both fell to Chivas by a 3-2 score.
  • In Group D, Tigres finished ahead of Houston, DC, and Portland. DC managed to beat Tigres, though.
  • In the playoffs, Tigres beat Philly, but then lost to NYCFC in the final in extra time. NYCFC U16's big star is Gio Reyna (Claudio's son) who is apparently a really good prospect.
 

Titans Bastard

has sunil gulati in his sights
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 15, 2002
14,446
How far have the Galaxy fallen? They looked abysmal against a Sounders team that was missing Marshall and Torres on defense.
At home, too. I still can't believe they hired Curt Onalfo, a twice-failed manager from a worse era of MLS.

They have promoted a lot of last year's LA Galaxy II team, including the manager. I think their reserve team has helped cultivate a lot of useful pieces but they forgot to make sure they had enough above average players too. Losing Lletget was really bad for them.

It's like they want LAFC to come into the league and eat their lunch next year.
 

Titans Bastard

has sunil gulati in his sights
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 15, 2002
14,446
I always have fun parsing through this stuff, even though it is supposedly not always an accurate reflection of a player's full compensation. For example, Twellman was saying that Ignacio Piatti is being paid much more than the $450k listed in the MLSPU doc (he'd have been a total steal at that price).

  • Minnesota's offseason roster-building was almost Chivas USA level bad for an expansion team. $550k for Vadim Demidov, who Heath named captain, and who has been so godawful in the first few games of the season that they are already trying to get rid of him. Yikes. Spending $250k on a goalkeeper who lost his job to Bobby Shuttleworth is also not a good thing.
  • Cyle Larin for $190k? He's due for a raise. So is Cristian Roldan at $137k
  • Schweinsteiger is at $5.4m. Chicago also spent big on Nikolic, who is at $1.9m.
  • Elsewhere, Alessandrini is making $2m and Jones is making $725k in LA. $240k for Lletget is a great deal.
  • For the Revs: Kouassi - $890k, Angoua - $650k, Delamea - $400k. Angoua has, at least temporarily, lost his job to $53k Joshua Smith, of course.
  • Given his background as a GM for two Eredivisie clubs, I was really curious to see how Earnie Stewart did in MLS. I am impressed by what Philly is doing with their academy, which is just now starting to bear some fruit and I think will produce more talent in the future. On the transfer market, though, results aren't good. Bizarre League Two signing Jay Simpson clocks in at $510k and he (unsurprisingly) hasn't looked good, losing his job to C.J Sapong so far. Bedoya at $1.2m isn't good value, either. Ilsinho ($520k) and Medunjanin ($505k) aren't bad players but other clubs have gotten more value with less money.
 

Infield Infidel

teaching korea american
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
11,463
Meeting Place, Canada
It's incredible that Kaka makes 135 times the salary of some of his teammates. He makes more in 3 days than some players make in a year. Here's hoping min salaries reach 6 figures next CBA
 

steeplechase3k

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Oct 25, 2005
2,978
Portland, OR

Titans Bastard

has sunil gulati in his sights
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 15, 2002
14,446
It's incredible that Kaka makes 135 times the salary of some of his teammates. He makes more in 3 days than some players make in a year. Here's hoping min salaries reach 6 figures next CBA
It's a tricky thing from the MLSPU perspective. Players want more money, but a significant chunk of union membership is wary of too large an increase in salaries because they know that such an increase will result in pricier foreign acquisitions that force them out of a job.

In theory, the limit on international players should provide some protection, but MLS teams are getting really good at stretching their international slots by obtaining green cards for foreign players.

The percentage of minutes in MLS going to Americans is already noticeably lower in 2017 than it was last year. The speedy green cards are a factor, but in large part this is because the owners have added "TAM" spending on top of the CBA-negotiated salary budget and TAM is mostly going to $500k-$1m type imports. A bigger CBA-negotiated salary budget would only expedite the process of replacing existing MLSPU member starters with David Accam/Mauro Diaz/Carlos Carmona types.

In the last CBA negotiations, the MLSPU went all-in on loosening weird MLS rules on player movement and only made a small amount of headway (free agency for longtime league vets, basically). I'd view the CBA a disappointing effort on their part given that player movement was such a focus. They did not exert nearly as much effort on raising salaries, probably for reasons mentioned above.

Beyond the dynamics between internal MLSPU factions, one problem for the players is that they don't really have much leverage. MLS spending (and quality) has increased to the point where we aren't seeing middle-class MLS players move to Scandinavian leagues any more because MLS has grown to the point where they can make more money in a better quality league playing closer to home.

In fairness, MLS players are in a tough situation. The median American MLS player needs to get better in order to demonstrate to ownership that significant salary increases are necessary to retain domestic talent. But even an improved median MLS player won't give the MLSPU a hugely superior negotiating position because of barriers to entry to many European leagues such as work permits for non-EU players (UK), non-EU player limits (Spain, France, Italy), and high salary floors for non-EU players (Netherlands).

I always thought that history of MLS salaries would be different if the UK didn't have their work permit rules. Non-elite Americans are a better fit for English lower league clubs on a cultural+stylistic level than they would be in many other places in Europe. If WP system didn't completely stonewall the vast majority of American pros, I'd imagine Americans could have been littered across the Championship and League One (esp 5-10 years ago when MLS salaries were lower), much as Scottish players are.
 

steeplechase3k

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Oct 25, 2005
2,978
Portland, OR

Titans Bastard

has sunil gulati in his sights
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 15, 2002
14,446
St. Petersburg passed a referendum by an 87-13 margin that will help the Tampa Bay MLS bid move forward on stadium plans.

https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017/05/02/mls-releases-statement-after-st-petersburg-votes-soccer-stadium

It wasn't very controversial because voters were just authorizing the city to initiate a long-term lease for use of Al Lang Stadium in St. Petersburg. The Tampa bid wants to privately finance an $80m expansion of Al Lang for MLS.

It's good news for Tampa's chances, but they still have a few hurdles: (1) it's hard to see Tampa accepted unless Miami is officially declared dead and (2) their primary owner Bill Edwards is a loose cannon with some business shadiness in his past.
 

robssecondjob

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 18, 2005
661
Falmouth, MA
Al Lang Stadium is in a great location and depending on how it is built out it could be truly iconic grounds. Last time I was there I was fortunate enough to watch the match with Earnie Stewart (pre-season match and Philly was in town).
 

steeplechase3k

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Oct 25, 2005
2,978
Portland, OR


Your MLS team's willingness to play homegrowns vs pay $500k+ players in one chart. Two schools of thoughts being played out.


The follow up tweets indicate that some calculation mistakes were made, but it's still an interesting chart.
 

Titans Bastard

has sunil gulati in his sights
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 15, 2002
14,446
Kansas City has given up three goals in nine games so far. Healthy Ike Opara is good during the few months he pops up each season.
 

Titans Bastard

has sunil gulati in his sights
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 15, 2002
14,446
Local reports from Fresno indicate that the USL is expanding there next season.

http://www.fresnobee.com/sports/soccer/article148679339.html

The existing Fresno Fuego is one of the best-supported clubs in the amateur PDL, but the USL group is entirely separate.



Meanwhile, the lead investor in the Nashville MLS bid has bought a majority stake in Nashville SC, which is starting in the USL next year as well. Getting all the local players on the same team is always helpful to expansion efforts. Not that Nashville SC has a long and storied history, but using it as a launching pad for the identity of an MLS team is smart.
 

Titans Bastard

has sunil gulati in his sights
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 15, 2002
14,446
The Colorado Rapids have officially turned back into a pumpkin after their perplexingly good year in 2016. Their defense is still fairly solid (12 GA in eight games) but they just can't score and the number of one-goal wins they had last year was unsustainable. Pablo Mastroeni sucks again!

--

Big news for the Great White North:


The Canadian Premier League has been given the green light. It'll be a USL-type league, though probably a bit lower in quality at least from the outset. Hamilton and Calgary are the first two confirmed clubs. I'd guess they'll go after FC Edmonton (NASL) and Ottawa Fury (USL) in addition to other expansion efforts.

Currently Canada has seven professional clubs (TOR, MTL, VAN, EDM, OTT, and the reserve teams of TOR and VAN). This league should help give Canadian players more professional opportunities that, they hope, will serve as a stepping stone to bigger things.

--

Seattle announced that they are moving their USL reserve team to Tacoma, where they will be building a 5k-seat stadium. They are converting to a MiLB-style model where the team will be owned by another group but Seattle will have control over the technical staff and players. Houston has already done this with Rio Grande Valley FC.
 

Senator Donut

post-Domer
SoSH Member
Apr 21, 2010
5,500
If the Revs still have the same team and manager after the transfer window closes on Monday, you can forget about the playoffs again.
 

Titans Bastard

has sunil gulati in his sights
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 15, 2002
14,446
If the Revs still have the same team and manager after the transfer window closes on Monday, you can forget about the playoffs again.
Today was an uninspiring loss - standard fare for the road. I'm not particularly confident that Kouassi will ever be the difference-maker he was signed to be. He completely checked out on the second goal and failed to track Higuain's run. There are even some rumors that Koffie may be coming back on loan. I'd support that because I thought we played our best soccer of 2016 with him at DM, but it's damning of the current roster. With Tierney getting older and more rickety, we could really use another real LB, too.

Outside of Koffie, I'd be gob-smacked if there were other signings, though, and Heaps....he's not going anywhere.
 

ThePrideofShiner

Crests prematurely
SoSH Member
Jul 16, 2005
10,687
Washington
While the Sounders looked awful today, the Tacoma news is awesome since I live in Tacoma. I would definitely go to USL games if they are in my backyard.
 

Infield Infidel

teaching korea american
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
11,463
Meeting Place, Canada
Big news for the Great White North:


The Canadian Premier League has been given the green light. It'll be a USL-type league, though probably a bit lower in quality at least from the outset. Hamilton and Calgary are the first two confirmed clubs. I'd guess they'll go after FC Edmonton (NASL) and Ottawa Fury (USL) in addition to other expansion efforts.

Currently Canada has seven professional clubs (TOR, MTL, VAN, EDM, OTT, and the reserve teams of TOR and VAN). This league should help give Canadian players more professional opportunities that, they hope, will serve as a stepping stone to bigger things.
Weirdly, they are saying they'll start August 2018 for a truncated first season, then a full season starting Spring 2019. I say just start in 2019
 

Titans Bastard

has sunil gulati in his sights
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 15, 2002
14,446
Goff with some USL expansion tidbits:

  • USL is looking to finalize Fresno and Las Vegas for 2018 and Birmingham for 2019
  • There are eight applications in for clubs that would start in 2019 or 2020, one of which is Baltimore
  • DCU is looking to establish a reserve team somewhere in northern Virginia, probably for 2019
Baltimore and Las Vegas are the 4th and 5th largest metro areas with no pro soccer right now. Birmingham is 14th. Fresno is 19th. There's plenty of opportunity to do well in all these places if properly executed.

Fresno and Las Vegas would fill in the map in the West nicely. More density of clubs --> travel cost savings --> sustainable league.
 

Titans Bastard

has sunil gulati in his sights
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 15, 2002
14,446

Titans Bastard

has sunil gulati in his sights
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 15, 2002
14,446