The 24th season of America's very own domestic league kicks off on Saturday. Warts and all, MLS has long become my favorite league. For me, there's nothing like having a local league with local teams and local players.
A few league-wide previews:
Toronto got whupped in Panama and put in a poor performance at home, as well, in a continuation of the terrible form that has plagued them since last summer. Otherwise, the first round of CCL went swimmingly. Houston, NYRB, and KC won both legs of their games — KC against Mexican opposition. Atlanta laid an egg in Costa Rica, but obliterated Herediano in the second leg at home. It's only the second time MLS has sent four teams to the quarterfinals.
Some local color:
The Revs are widely expected to be near the bottom of the Eastern Conference this year. They did make some notable signings: attacking midfielder Carles Gil, forward Juan Fernando Caicedo, and left back Edgar Castillo. They also signed two academy players and a couple of semi-interesting draft picks. Still, the backline will probably have issues, all the DM options are mediocre, and there likely isn't enough offensive firepower to make up for it. We will see if Brad Friedel can get more from this group in 2019, but in an era where there are a number of legitimately impressive American coaches, Friedel looked out of ideas in 2018.
Portland/Seattle/Atlanta/Philly/whoever else people on SoSH: what do you expect from 2019?
A few league-wide previews:
- SI (plus power rankings)
- Charles Boehm
- Matt Doyle
- ASN: 20 young American players who could break out
- FC Cincinnati joins as the 24th club after quickly becoming a big deal at the USL level
- The Columbus Crew have been saved and are moving forward with a new downtown stadium
- MLS is starting to embrace a deeper relationship with the global transfer market. There were about $60m worth of outbound transfers finalized this winter (Almiron, Davies, Adams, Richards, Steffen, Yotun, Silva, et al), which is far more than usual.
Toronto got whupped in Panama and put in a poor performance at home, as well, in a continuation of the terrible form that has plagued them since last summer. Otherwise, the first round of CCL went swimmingly. Houston, NYRB, and KC won both legs of their games — KC against Mexican opposition. Atlanta laid an egg in Costa Rica, but obliterated Herediano in the second leg at home. It's only the second time MLS has sent four teams to the quarterfinals.
Some local color:
The Revs are widely expected to be near the bottom of the Eastern Conference this year. They did make some notable signings: attacking midfielder Carles Gil, forward Juan Fernando Caicedo, and left back Edgar Castillo. They also signed two academy players and a couple of semi-interesting draft picks. Still, the backline will probably have issues, all the DM options are mediocre, and there likely isn't enough offensive firepower to make up for it. We will see if Brad Friedel can get more from this group in 2019, but in an era where there are a number of legitimately impressive American coaches, Friedel looked out of ideas in 2018.
Portland/Seattle/Atlanta/Philly/whoever else people on SoSH: what do you expect from 2019?