The 2017 Major League Soccer Thread

[Titans Bastard]

Vancouver signed Anthony Blondell, a 23 year old Venezuelan forward.

https://www.whitecapsfc.com/post/2017/11/30/wfc-acquire-striker-anthony-blondell

He scored 23 goals in 37 games last season after not doing much prior to that. There's been an influx of good players from Venezuela lately (Josef Martinez, Yangel Herrera, Jefferson Savarino), as well as some guys who didn't work out. We'll see where he falls in that spectrum.

Fredy Montero's loan has expired but the Whitecaps may find a way to bring him over from Tianjin permanently.

 

[SoxFanInCali]

That will likely do it. I can't see Houston scoring 3 with no response from the Sounders.

 

[SoxFanInCali]

And Dempsey finishes it off. Houston now needs 4 in just over 30 minutes.

 

[SoxFanInCali]

If this was a fight, the ref would call it.

 

[ThePrideofShiner]

Good to see Jordan Morris back on the field - and he nearly scores!

 

[SoxinSeattle]

I wish twellman and lalas would start their own network so I would know which channel to ignore.

 

[Titans Bastard]

Is anyone familiar with Horse Guy from Revs games? He's playing for Brandeis in the DIII Final Four.

 

[Titans Bastard]

Current forecast in Toronto for December 9: 30 F. Soccer played at that temperature is rarely pretty, unfortunately.


A few moves around the league:

• Remember that FC Cincinnati who was amazing against Chicago in the USOC? He's Mitch Hildebrandt and he just signed with Atlanta United. It'll be very competitive there with Guzan and Alec Kann, who did a solid job deputizing before Guzan's summer arrival.
• SJ signed Swedish-Colombian left back Joel Qwiberg. This looks very dubious. He's a 25 year old who has played in the Swedish 2nd/3rd tiers with a short loan stint in the Dutch 2nd tier.
• Vancouver signed 19 year old academy grad David Norman, Jr. to an MLS deal. He's a CM who was on USL terms last season and was a regular for the now-defunct Whitecaps 2 team.

 

[ThePrideofShiner]

A look back at last year's final from the Sounders' perspective.

https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2016/12/14/eternal-blue-forever-green-re-live-2016-mls-cup-final?autoplay=true&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=video&utm_campaign=unpaid

 

[steeplechase3k]

Diego Valeri is the 2017 MLS MVP:

And it wasn't even close:

 

[Senator Donut]

A local paper in Nottingham paper has linked Eric Lichaj to the Revs, who have only three defenders on the roster (and one of them Chris Tierney).

http://www.nottinghampost.com/sport/football/football-news/eric-lichaj-still-being-linked-875368

 

[Titans Bastard]

>50% of snow for MLS Cup in the current forecast. Bring on the orange balls.......and the hoofball that comes with those conditions.


--

San Jose signed GK J.T. Marcinkowski, who is an academy product who went on to play three seasons at Georgetown. He backed up Jonathan Klinsmann at this year's U20 World Cup.



Vancouver re-signed Canadian midfielder Russell "Canadian Soccer Jesus" Teibert after declining his contract option a few weeks ago.

 

[moly99]

Atlanta are likely to sign 18yo Ezequiel Barco from Indepentiente in Buenos Aires for $12 million.

 

[Titans Bastard]

The Barco rumors are big if true. MLS clubs have been importing a lot of young Latin American talent, but he is supposedly an upper echelon talent.


Columbus managed to strike a deal with São Paulo to sign Artur permanently. He and Wil Trapp formed a very nice midfield partnership and, at 21, Artur may continue to improve.


Houston also signed 26 year old Colombian CM Juan David Cabezas to a permanent deal; he was on loan from Deportivo Cali last year.

 

[Titans Bastard]

Garber is doing his state of the league speech and as part of it MLS released some major news for the next two seasons: in 2018 and 2019, clubs will be able to spend an additional $2.8m of TAM each season on top of the $1.2m they do now.

This is going to have a BIG effect on the number of non-famous but still higher-end players coming into the league. It's also going to help differentiate the ambitious, quality owners/FOs from the shitty ones. Organizations like New England, Philly, Colorado, DC, etc are going to find it harder and harder to compete in this environment. That accountability is a good thing.

For the uninitiated, allow me to explain this area of Major League Soccer's painfully Rube Goldberg-esque rules.

1. The 2018 salary budget per team is $4,035,000 as per the CBA. However, there are a variety of ways that clubs can spend far more on player salaries than this.

2. The first method is the Designated Player rule. Teams can sign up to three DPs at any salary. Despite sometimes enormous salaries, the salary cap hit for DPs is only $480k. The cap hit for DPs who are younger is considerably smaller ($200k for 21-23, $150k for 20 or younger) to incentivize teams to sign young talent.

3. There is also General Allocation Money (GAM) and Targeted Allocation Money (TAM) which is basically tradable extra salary cap space. TAM is a relatively new invention and it comes with strings attached. It has to be used on player who make between the CBA-negotiated max salary budget charge (which was $480k in 2017, probably a little higher in 2018) and $1m.

Q: Why the F doesn't MLS just make it simple by raising the salary cap and dispense with the GAM/TAM nonsense?
A: Because TAM rules ensure that 100% of the new spending goes to obtaining higher quality players and 0% of the new spending winds up inflating the salaries of the rank-and-file.

TAM players suiting up for MLS Cup include Victor Vazquez and Roman Torres. So we're talking about those kinds of guys - not particularly well-known, but if you have a team full of them plus


Anyway, TAM per team since it was invented:
2015: $500k
2016: $800k
2017: $1.2m
2018: $4m
2019: $4m

In addition, in 2018 and 2019 TAM player salaries can max out at $1.5m instead of today's $1m.

 

[Titans Bastard]

Also Garber:


This is a horseshit, dishonest argument. In 2014, Precourt signed a ridiculous local TV deal with a channel that half the Columbus metro doesn't get. Precourt's shenanigans are a real-life soccer version of Major League.


Miami MLS continues to be a mess. Garber is now admitting that Miami might get lapped by one of the expansion candidates.

 

[moly99]

It's worth noting that the average Liga MX salary is roughly $500,00 per year and even the full use of TAM only gets MLS teams to roughly $285,000 before adding in the extra costs of designated players.

The Eredivisie pays an average of 266,000 Euros per year, though, and I think that's the league MLS should look at as a comparison. Eredivisie is a very good developmental league with investments in the kind of scouting and coaching MLS ought to have.

 

[Titans Bastard]

It's worth noting that the average Liga MX salary is roughly $500,00 per year and even the full use of TAM only gets MLS teams to roughly $285,000 before adding in the extra costs of designated players.

The Eredivisie pays an average of 266,000 Euros per year, though, and I think that's the league MLS should look at as a comparison. Eredivisie is a very good developmental league with investments in the kind of scouting and coaching MLS ought to have.

That's true, but I bet MLS is more ruthless about limiting salaries of domestic players than Liga MX is. That's not enough to claim parity between Liga MX and MLS, but I think it does indicate that the quality gap won't be quite as large as the $500k vs. $285k averages suggest.

MLS has a long way to go to match the Eredivisie's focus on development. The increased spending at the higher end of the roster, enabling higher quality imports, can make things tricky. But of course, if big-spending leagues in Europe can get development right, spending $8-10m on your roster instead of $6-8m shouldn't be a backbreaker. It's about getting the whole organization to buy into a development culture and having the personnel in place who can execute the vision. Managers need to believe in and give chances to youth. Youth coaches need to serve up young players worthy of belief and chances.

Garber did mention in his speech yesterday that the league needs to be more open to allowing (in his words) the Tyler Adams types to move on after a few years. So, we'll see. MLS needs to tweak some rules to better facilitate and incentivize those sorts of moves. There needs to be a recognition that top youth players want to play in top European leagues and right now young players see MLS as more of an obstacle to moving overseas than something that can facilitate that move.

Weston McKennie has urged U.S. talents to follow his example and come to Europe at a young age, telling ESPN FC: "If you have the opportunity to come to Europe, I would say for me ... 100 percent take it!"

...

"No offence to MLS or anything, but you can say that Bundesliga is a better league than MLS," McKennie told ESPN FC. "If he [Sargent] can come over, and make it, be successful and play his game, there is no doubt in my mind that he can go back to MLS -- if he wanted to. It's a little bit difficult when you start in MLS and come to Europe."

Players talk, players know, and elite youth players are now voting with their feet. MLS clubs are now feeling the pain of losing some of their top prospects for free. McKennie (Dallas) is a big one, Booth (RSL) has been on trial at Schalke, Reyna (NYCFC) is looking overseas even though his dad is an executive at the club. I don't know if he's a good prospect, but the son of Portland's academy director moved to Levante this summer.

It is in the interest of MLS and US Soccer that the league evolves into a place that facilitates development and sells players on when a reasonable offer comes in. It is good for MLS - they'll get a better ROI on their academy and will have more transfer proceeds to reinvest. It is good for US Soccer - an improved domestic developmental culture is our holy grail and it will benefit not just the top tier prospects but everyone else too.

 

[Titans Bastard]

It's going to be a cold one in Toronto for MLS Cup. BMO Field has a heated pitch, so hopefully the field won't be totally rock-hard.

 

[ThePrideofShiner]

So, Seattle has been dominated in both MLS Cups. What can they do in the offseason to change that?