The new season is upon us: opening day is tomorrow.
I liked Doyle's extensive preview, dividing the league up into six tiers. 2017 saw a shift in power from the West to the East for the first time in quite a while. This trend will likely continue in 2018. Toronto has reloaded after one of the best seasons in MLS history. NYCFC looks solid, Orlando has had a huge offseason and should be a contender. Even DC has made some significant upgrades.
The West will have an extra club with the addition of LAFC, giving Los Angeles two clubs once again. After LA Galaxy's dumpster fire of a season, it will be interesting to see which club will be bigger off the field after LAFC's new club sheen fades after a few years.
On a local note, nobody (myself included) has high expectations for the Revs this year. They added an attacker in Cristian Penilla and they'll have Krizstian Nemeth for the full season. However, Lee Nguyen will probably be disgruntled after an aborted transfer holdout and the Revs did little to address a very leaky defense this past winter. In the tough-looking East, it's just hard to see how they'll finish in the top six.
One of the bigger storylines of the offseason is how MLS clubs have ratcheted up the pace of young Latin American signings. The infusion of "TAM" this offseason has inflated team salary budgets and given them the resources to go out and sign more expensive players. One side effect is that it looks likely that the percentage of minutes going to American players will reach a new low in 2018.
Atlanta United broke the MLS transfer record in a big way by signing 18 year old Argentine attacker Ezequiel Barco. But there were plenty of others - Kaku (NYRB), Jesus Medina (NYCFC), Josue Colman (ORL) just to name a few. MLS clubs have also been plundering the Venezuelan league and (if YNT results are any indication) a stronger young generation of Venezuelans.
A couple of new stadiums opening for LAFC and (at long last) DC United.
Managerial changes:
I liked Doyle's extensive preview, dividing the league up into six tiers. 2017 saw a shift in power from the West to the East for the first time in quite a while. This trend will likely continue in 2018. Toronto has reloaded after one of the best seasons in MLS history. NYCFC looks solid, Orlando has had a huge offseason and should be a contender. Even DC has made some significant upgrades.
The West will have an extra club with the addition of LAFC, giving Los Angeles two clubs once again. After LA Galaxy's dumpster fire of a season, it will be interesting to see which club will be bigger off the field after LAFC's new club sheen fades after a few years.
On a local note, nobody (myself included) has high expectations for the Revs this year. They added an attacker in Cristian Penilla and they'll have Krizstian Nemeth for the full season. However, Lee Nguyen will probably be disgruntled after an aborted transfer holdout and the Revs did little to address a very leaky defense this past winter. In the tough-looking East, it's just hard to see how they'll finish in the top six.
One of the bigger storylines of the offseason is how MLS clubs have ratcheted up the pace of young Latin American signings. The infusion of "TAM" this offseason has inflated team salary budgets and given them the resources to go out and sign more expensive players. One side effect is that it looks likely that the percentage of minutes going to American players will reach a new low in 2018.
Atlanta United broke the MLS transfer record in a big way by signing 18 year old Argentine attacker Ezequiel Barco. But there were plenty of others - Kaku (NYRB), Jesus Medina (NYCFC), Josue Colman (ORL) just to name a few. MLS clubs have also been plundering the Venezuelan league and (if YNT results are any indication) a stronger young generation of Venezuelans.
A couple of new stadiums opening for LAFC and (at long last) DC United.
Managerial changes:
- MTL: Mauro Biello was fired and replaced with Rémi Garde
- NE: Brad Friedel was hired to replace the interim Tom Soehn (Heaps)
- POR: Caleb Porter resigned and was replaced by Cosmos manager Giovanni Savarese
- SJ: Chris Leitch was pushed back into the front office and replaced by Swede Mikael Stahre
- COL: Englishman Anthony Hudson arrived from the NZ national team to replace the interim Steve Cooke (Mastroeni)