The 2017 Major League Soccer Thread

steeplechase3k

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The Rhinos were once the minor league titans of their day, but have been on a slow and steady decline for years now. I'm not intimately familiar with the story, but I know a shady owner didn't help.
They haven't been the same since they stopped Raging. :) I just looked it up, they dropped the "Raging" in 2008. That makes me feel old. It also doesn't make me miss the days of constantly changing ownership.
 

SoxFanInPdx

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Honestly, not shocked. At all. It's known what a toxic owner in Merritt Paulson and GM Gavin Wilkinson are. Porter can have any coaching job he wants in this country and not be micro managed. I'll be forever thankful for Porter guiding this club to the Cup, but he can do better than working under these two idiots. This was about power and Porter flat-out left without having much of it during his 5 seasons here.
 

Titans Bastard

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He's okay, but I wouldn't hire him for the job. Given the nature of the player pool that we will have over the next cycle, his lack of faith in young American players is disqualifying.

Rumors are that he's heading to Cincinnati when they go to MLS. Of course, Cincinnati hasn't been announced yet, so either the rumors are wrong or Cincinnati is quietly known to be a sure thing.
 

Senator Donut

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He's okay, but I wouldn't hire him for the job. Given the nature of the player pool that we will have over the next cycle, his lack of faith in young American players is disqualifying.

Rumors are that he's heading to Cincinnati when they go to MLS. Of course, Cincinnati hasn't been announced yet, so either the rumors are wrong or Cincinnati is quietly known to be a sure thing.
Twellman says the Porter rumors are bogus (and he is not often wrong), so it appears to be the former.
 

moly99

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Is he a viable USMNT candidate, in the opinion of those here? And would he want the job?
He is smart enough, but I don't think he is psychologically suited to a NT job. I would similarly never choose Jose Mourinho to coach a national team. Coaches like that need to be able to shop for their own players, and Porter would not be able to do that with the USMNT.

The USSF needs to select a patient and cooperative manager who will work with MLS and international teams and can get the best out of the guys we happen to have in the player pool.
 

Titans Bastard

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The main benefit of having Porter replace Arena would be the ability to constantly use this gif.

 

Titans Bastard

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The Interminable Wait until the Conference Semifinals is over tomorrow when the playoffs resume just after all momentum has been killed.


In the mean time, Atlanta has announced their offseason clearout. No big surprises; it's time to move on from aging players like Mears and Boswell. Loyd was once a nifty player but can't stay healthy and didn't play in 2017. Kenwyne Jones was basically surplus to requirements after the acquisition of Josef Martinez. He wasn't really any better than the youngster Brandon Vazquez, so why not go young & cheap.

Atlanta still needs to sort out what they're going to do with their trio of on-loan players in reverse order of importance: Tottenham's Anton Walkes, Tijuana's Greg Garza, and Velez Sarsfield's Yamil Asad.

I'm also very curious to see how Atlanta manages their stable of young prospects. The state of Georgia has their own little golden generation by their standards coming of age right now, plus they've been recruiting. They've got U17s like Carleton and Goslin and U20s like Vazquez and Robinson under contract. There are three more players with contracts kicking in for 2018, and there will be more after that as well. Fingers crossed that they manage this last hurdle of the development process well. The USL team for next year will help.
 

Titans Bastard

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I could be wrong, but my sense is that Precourt really just wants to move the club to Austin. I don't think he's trying to bluff his way into a sweetheart stadium deal in Columbus. I think the only way #SaveTheCrew works out is if the Austin move falls through and Precourt sells the club to a local. The bridges between Precourt and anyone and anything in Ohio have already been torched.

This also appears to be a proposal by some rich guy in the Columbus Foundation. I don't know the first thing about Doug Kridler or local Columbus politics so maybe he's connected and can pull some strings. If we assume for amount that this proposal is serious and the local politicos will line up behind it, I'd expect it will, at best, force Precourt and MLSHQ to admit that all their concerns are bullshit and Precourt has been re-enacting the plot of Major League.

Speaking of such things, this was well done:

Columbus Crew Announce Attendance For Tomorrows Game As 9,563
 

Titans Bastard

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I'm just tuning in to Columbus-Toronto now. It seems like a big crowd, at least.
 

SoxFanInCali

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California. Duh.
Landon Donovan just referred to Booker T (former WWE wrestler and Houston resident who did the pre-game coin flip) as Booker T. Washington.
 

Senator Donut

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I would like to thank Seattle for scoring two road goals and ending the series before the Maui Invitational semifinal.
 

SoxFanInCali

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California. Duh.
Torres picks up a late yellow and will miss the second leg.

Although if the score stays the same they are in a great situation even with him out.
 

Titans Bastard

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Last night's Columbus-Toronto game literally put me to sleep. First leg soccer is often "cagey"...

Houston looks like toast. Toronto has a clear edge heading home even on aggregate and getting their two forwards back from suspension. Still, a 0-0 draw in Columbus leaves them vulnerable to the away goals rule if the Crew have a good night next week.


Some other news:
  • Colorado signed 30 year old Swedish attacking midfielder Johan Blomberg. Going after non-elite lifers in the Scandinavian leagues has not been a successful strategy in MLS. Just ask the 2017 Minnesota United squad. The Rapids also don't have a head coach in place yet.
  • LAFC has signed 25 year old Egyptian right back Omar Gaber on loan from FC Basel. Bob Bradley is familiar with the player from his days managing Egypt.
  • Vancouver loaned out Spencer Richey to FC Cincinnati for 2018. With Ousted likely leaving, I thought Richey had a chance to compete with Stefan Marinovic for minutes, but I guess not.
  • The Chicago Tribune reported that a developer is trying to build a 20,000 seat stadium as part of a larger development for a USL team. Normally I'd say that sounds like the plan of some unrealistic blowhard who isn't all that well-versed in minor league soccer, but the article has quotes from the USL's CEO and the league put out a statement saying the team hoped to start in 2020. It's often tough for minor league sports to be successful in major league cities, but at least Chicago is a huge place and the Fire haven't exactly been able to deeply embed themselves into the city's sports culture. The Fire play in the southwestern suburbs, far from this location and haven't done a great job of building up a big fanbase, though they've showed some signs of rehabilitation this year.
 

Titans Bastard

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San Jose made another managerial change today, hiring Mikael Stahre away from BK Häcken. The club finished 4th in the Swedish league this season, which I think is pretty good for a club of its size.

Chris Leitch, who had replaced Dominic Kinnear down the stretch, is going back to his technical director position at the club.
 

Titans Bastard

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Over the weekend, the NASL officially confirmed that the San Francisco Deltas have folded and that FC Edmonton have withdrawn from the league. The Eddies are now in limbo and may join the Canadian Premier League in 2019. However, they'll only be operating their youth teams in 2018 and their owner didn't sound particularly committed to the idea that the pro team would ever come back. They did not draw that well over the course of their existence, though their attendance did perk up this season.

The NASL is now down to seven clubs. That includes the two expansion clubs in San Diego and Orange County, neither of which look very solid, and Puerto Rico FC, which wasn't doing all that well even before Hurricane Maria.

Silva (Miami FC) and Commisso (Cosmos) have been floating the idea that 4-5 NPSL clubs will jump up from amateur soccer, but all look like jokes who would have to be propped up by the rest of the league.

I'm not sure what's stopping Indy and Jacksonville from jumping to the USL, but if they make the switch the NASL may be officially toast.
 

Infield Infidel

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Canadian Premier League is supposedly starting in August 2018 for a weird half season; if FC Edmonton is still around they would play again then. Then a full season starting spring 2019.

Also next year we should have a USL/NASL/NPSL thread, there's always a lot of non-MLS-related news about those leagues.
 

steeplechase3k

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JUST IN: A reliable source, close to the negotiations to #SaveTheCrew, informed me MLS & Crew leadership/management told Columbus leaders that the city could apply for an expansion team, if Crew SC leaves town. Awaiting response from league/team.
So the Crew are leaving because Columbus is not a reliable MLS market, but Columbus is a good enough market to possibly get an expansion franchise?
 

Titans Bastard

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A ton of teams are announcing their annual offseason contract option decisions today, the Revs among them.

The Revs declined: Angoua, D. Smith, J. Smith, Woodberry, Kouassi, Watson, Wright

No surprises there. Kouassi and Angoua were busts. The Smiths and Wright were fringe guys who never really worked out. Woodberry's role has consistently declined in his time in New England. Watson can play equally badly at seven different positions!

Koffie has returned to Hammarby. Knighton, Farrell, Kobayashi, and Bunbury are out of contract. Who comes back? Farrell is the most interesting.

As it stands, Delamea, Dielna, and Tierney are the only defenders under contract. It's time for yet another Major Defensive Rebuild. Hopefully the two agents Mike Burns talks to serve up someone good!!

The central midfield also needs a major overhaul. Caldwell is not a starting-caliber player on a playoff team and I'm not particularly optimistic that Herivaux will ever develop into anything. That's all the team has at the moment.

Attacking midfield has a decent base to build on with Nguyen, Fagundez, Rowe, and Nemeth.

They picked up Kamara's option for some reason. A physical banger like Kei continues to be a bad fit with players who like short passes and interplay like most of the team's attacking midfielders.

Maybe Agudelo's ninth year as a pro will be The Big Breakout....any takers?
 

robssecondjob

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I would think Farrell should be an easy call to bring back. Even as a depth defender. As long as they keep him in a wide position.

I am a lot more positive on Caldwell. He is never going to be the midfield destoyer, but he can pass.
 

Titans Bastard

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Caldwell's okay. I like him. However, when I look around at the teams who are still alive in the playoffs, I don't see him as part of their first XI. I see him as a player who is a starter on a bad team and the first CM off the bench on a good team. He's not the problem, really, but I'd upgrade at the position if possible. Sadly, that's not close to the top of the priority list at the moment.
 

Titans Bastard

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The next two expansion slots are down to Cincinnati, Detroit, Nashville, and Sacramento.


Toronto vs. Columbus tonight. It'll be tough sledding for the Crew on the road and with Giovinco and Altidore back from suspension. However, the 0-0 home draw makes advancing on away goals a real possibility.
 

Titans Bastard

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This is potentially interesting Revs news:


Angking got a cup of coffee with the U17 national team over the past cycle, but remained on the fringe of the player pool. This year, he is playing for the Revs' U19 team and thus far has been one of the leading scorers in the DA. I've never seem him play, but he's an attacking midfielder of some sort.

AFAIK Michael Parkhurst is the only active pro from Rhode Island and he's getting old, so someone like Angking needs to take the Ocean State mantle from him. (Geoff Cameron is close, from Attleboro. I guess Providence only produces NT-level players and doesn't bother with USL caliber types.)

It's also worth noting that the other major Revs prospect of sign-able age is Justin Rennicks, a winger who is a freshman at Indiana, but they decided to burn bridges with him and kick him out of the academy when he went on a training stint at a German club last winter. That was dumb. If you are running an MLS club, you have to recognize that players are going to be attracted by big European leagues and you just have to put your best foot forward and hope that they ultimately wind up with you.


Elsewhere, Atlanta has signed Greg Garza on a permanent basis from Tijuana. They had him on loan last year.
 

Titans Bastard

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Toronto:

Giovinco -- Altidore
Vazquez -- Bradley -- Osorio
Morrow ----------------------- Beitashour
Mavinga -- Moor -- Zavaleta
Bono
The return of Altidore and Giovinco from suspension is obviously the important business here. Osorio comes in for Delgado at CM, a move that probably trades a little offense for defense.

Columbus:

Kamara
Meram -- Higuain -- Santos
Trapp -- Abu
Abubakar -- Williams -- Mensah -- Afful
Steffen​

Artur is out on yellow card suspension and his replacement Mohammed Abu isn't as good. Abubakar is really more of a CB, making him an odd choice at LB over usual options Jimenez and Raitala.
 

Titans Bastard

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Abubakar is really more of a CB, making him an odd choice at LB over usual options Jimenez and Raitala.
Turns out this is because the Crew lied on their lineup graphic and they rolled out a 3-5-2. Berhalter has gone with a three-man backline at times this season, but not recently.
 

Titans Bastard

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Williams conceded a dumb PK but Steffen saved Vazquez's attempt. Steffen has been a HERO during the playoffs.

Has to be in line ahead of Horvath.
 

Titans Bastard

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Goal, Altidore puts Toronto up 1-0 after some nice interplay with Vazquez and Giovinco.
 

Titans Bastard

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Wow, so close for Kamara.

As it stands Columbus is going to regret missing some real chances to score.
 

Titans Bastard

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Toronto holds on. I wanted to see the awkwardness of an MLS Cup hosted in Columbus.

TFC will be favored against whoever emerges from the West because they're at home, they won the SS by 12 points and, well, the top team in the West had fewer points than fifth place Columbus.

Altidore's injury status will be a topic of concern.
 

SocrManiac

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That scene with Altidore was so, so strange. It looked like an extended act to me, but I guess we’ll see.