MLS 2019 & 2020

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wlu_lax6
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Re: MLS 2019

Post by wlu_lax6 »

Thierry Henry the new head coach of the Impact.
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Re: MLS 2019

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Expansion draft tonight for Miami and Nashville to expand their rosters.
Some interesting names on the list (plus lots of players who are retiring), but not really anyone that is going to set the world on fire (unless you still believe in the former Arsenal youth player). MLS is also down playing the college draft now. Just low value event.

Brek Shea
Darren Mattocks
Kofi Opare
Ricardo Clark
Federico Higuain
Perry Kitchen
Miguel Ibarra
Bobby Shuttleworth
Cody Cropper
Juan Pablo Torres
Sacha Kljestan (not sure if his mustache is eligible by itself)
Dillon Powers
Chad Marshall
Alex Roldan
Benny Feilhaber
Gedion Zelalem
Drew Moor
Patrick Mullins
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Re: MLS 2019

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Chad Marshall retired mid-season.
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Re: MLS 2019

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Kinda surprised USMNT capped Ben Sweat is on the list.
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Re: MLS 2019

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MLS All Stars v. Liga MX All Stars next year. Interesting idea.
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Re: MLS 2019

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mister d wrote: Tue Nov 19, 2019 1:52 pm Kinda surprised USMNT capped Ben Sweat is on the list.
and got picked
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Re: MLS 2019

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So Claudio Reyna goes from NYCFC to Austin FC as their new Sporting Director.

and Red Bulls are losing both Bradley Wright-Phillips and Luis Robles.
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Re: MLS 2019

Post by HaulCitgo »

wlu_lax6 wrote: Wed Nov 20, 2019 1:41 pm MLS All Stars v. Liga MX All Stars next year. Interesting idea.
Like that too. Would watch
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Re: MLS 2019

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Miami picks up Robles and De La Garza. Good veteran pickups when building a team. Probably got them at a good salary and helps that they got no transfer costs.

Brooks Lennon to Atlanta for 150K in General Allocation $ to Real Salt Lake. Former USMNT and Liverpooler has fallen off in recent years.

Nashville is in the Western Conference. Everyone thinks this is a temporary setup as Austin, St. Louis, and Sacremento join in the next 2 years.
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Re: MLS 2019

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Atlanta brings yank Emerson Hyndman back from England

Miami trying to bring in Roger Martinez (Colombian playing in Mexico) as a DP

DC United got the permanent transfer for Bill Hamid from FC Midtjylland. Midtjylland signed him from DC on a free transfer, loaned him back, and then sold him back for $750K.
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Re: MLS 2019

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KC picks up a new DP, Alan Pulido from Chivas
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Re: MLS 2019

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Charlotte gets MLS team number 30 tomorrow. Ron Rivera is available to coach..
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Re: MLS 2019

Post by HaulCitgo »

Like these guys have learned nothing from the other watered down leagues. And not sure how they decided on Charlotte vs triangle. Id have put it in Raleigh area for the fan support despite the (presumed) banking money.
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Re: MLS 2019

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HaulCitgo wrote: Mon Dec 16, 2019 12:23 pm Like these guys have learned nothing from the other watered down leagues. And not sure how they decided on Charlotte vs triangle. Id have put it in Raleigh area for the fan support despite the (presumed) banking money.
Charlotte is 2x as large as the Triangle from a population standpoint. Short version though...David Tepper.

Bigger surprise is it beat out Vegas and Phoenix. But I think it goes back to Tepper.
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Re: MLS 2019

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HaulCitgo wrote: Mon Dec 16, 2019 12:23 pm Like these guys have learned nothing from the other watered down leagues.
There seems to be an endless supply of good cheap talent from Central and South America.
And his one problem is he didn’t go to Russia that night because he had extracurricular activities, and they froze to death.
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Re: MLS 2019

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I'm not one of those Ponzi scheme weirdos, but I don't think MLS was going to turn down a super rich guy (way richer than Blank) willing to pay $325 million, especially when he has a downtown stadium lined up.

Charlotte also fits my working theory that MLS does best in places where college sports are a very big deal. That's true for Raleigh too, but Raleigh didn't have all those other bells and whistles.
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Re: MLS 2019

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They must really care about the stadium because Detroit had two richer guys lined up in a city with a better, longer history of supporting soccer at every level in a much larger media market, but playing in Ford Field was apparently a deal breaker.
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Re: MLS 2019

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Steve of phpBB wrote: Mon Dec 16, 2019 1:22 pm
HaulCitgo wrote: Mon Dec 16, 2019 12:23 pm Like these guys have learned nothing from the other watered down leagues.
There seems to be an endless supply of good cheap talent from Central and South America.
There are roughly 600-700 teams playing in top-flight leagues in UEFA countries. The UEFA footprint is about twice the population of USA + Canada. There's a lot of minnows in there but even if you narrow it down to the leagues that sent a team to the Champions League group stage this year, you're talking way over 200 and we're not even counting the feeder leagues in those countries. And to Steve's point, a lot of those clubs draw heavily from other parts of the world when they can. So I don't see that moving from 20 to 30 or even to 60 or 90 will necessarily water down the talent.

What does get watered down is the schedule. This will be the first year that some teams will not play other teams and that will only get worse. They've got to figure out a way to get the truly ambitious teams playing each other more often and not waste games against the teams that get left behind.
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Re: MLS 2019

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Rex wrote: Mon Dec 16, 2019 1:54 pm
Steve of phpBB wrote: Mon Dec 16, 2019 1:22 pm
HaulCitgo wrote: Mon Dec 16, 2019 12:23 pm Like these guys have learned nothing from the other watered down leagues.
There seems to be an endless supply of good cheap talent from Central and South America.
There are roughly 600-700 teams playing in top-flight leagues in UEFA countries. The UEFA footprint is about twice the population of USA + Canada. There's a lot of minnows in there but even if you narrow it down to the leagues that sent a team to the Champions League group stage this year, you're talking way over 200 and we're not even counting the feeder leagues in those countries. And to Steve's point, a lot of those clubs draw heavily from other parts of the world when they can. So I don't see that moving from 20 to 30 or even to 60 or 90 will necessarily water down the talent.

What does get watered down is the schedule. This will be the first year that some teams will not play other teams and that will only get worse. They've got to figure out a way to get the truly ambitious teams playing each other more often and not waste games against the teams that get left behind.
Nobody is paying $300M+ to play as a 2nd division team. So while pro/rel has pros it is not happening.
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Re: MLS 2019

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It's not MLS, but drove past the Louisville City stadium construction Friday and that looks like it is going to be a tremendous facility.

I can get from my door to the stadium in just over an hour. May be enough to get me to go.

(This coming from the guy who has never been to a Louisville Bats game and that stadium is only about 5 minutes further away - but I do have minor league baseball in town at least.)
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Re: MLS 2019

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I think we are going to move into a space where the "ambitious" teams, that truly invest in their academies, quasi-professional teams, and minor league affiliates... That put real money into their facilities and roster... The teams that really aspire to be regional powerhouses, are going to create a pro-rel situation, but not in the way many have posited.

With talk of merging or better organizing with FML, I think we'll see a kind of Super League, based on the CL model. I know they've tinkered with CONCACAF club championships, but I'm talking about something is truly just the elite clubs and then really putting some marketing behind it.

The wrinkle there is trying to pull it off DESPITE the greedy and corrupt mitts of CONCACAF, not with it.
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Re: MLS 2019

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I agree. I lack the creativity to imagine how it will come about, but I think the bigger clubs will see more and more opportunities outside of MLS league play, especially if the expanded Club World Cup becomes a real thing. I don't think MLS can create 30 or 32 superclubs using this or any other model. I do think they can create 8-10 really ambitious and relevant clubs, and once that happens, they may be better off playing in a super league with Monterrey, America, etc. Which leaves the rest of MLS holding the bag.
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Re: MLS 2019

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Right, and I think people look at the CL and kind of get fogged over or confused or... I dunno.

But if you look at even the top 4 leagues in UEFA, there aren't 10-12 super clubs in each of those leagues... In the richest clubs in the world, you have a top 5 or 6 in each country (at most) and then a whole host of others striving to maintain top half of the league status year in and year out.
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Re: MLS 2019

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I really prefer comparing the MLS footprint to a continent rather than a country because the population and GDP/ability to invest match up better that way. It just doesn't make sense for North America to follow a model that's used for countries that are 1/5 the size and even smaller than that in GDP terms. I know my way of thinking about it rubs against how FIFA and the confederations do things presently, but I think American money will eventually overwhelm the sport and steer it towards its own interests, so who cares about them.
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Re: MLS 2019

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Why not include South America in that plan? Rio is 6-8 hours from Atlanta so not too much different than a trip to Sounders? Change the salary/international rules and American clubs ought to beat out most all others in the hemisphere for talent, right?

Eta: bit further it seems
Last edited by HaulCitgo on Mon Dec 16, 2019 5:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: MLS 2019

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HaulCitgo wrote: Mon Dec 16, 2019 5:46 pm Why not include South America in that plan? Rio is 6-8 hours from Atlanta so not too much different than a trip to Sounders. Change the salary/international rules and American clubs ought to beat out most all others in the hemisphere for talent, right?
Not any time in the next two decades or so probably, no. Even the most successful MLS clubs are a joke compared to the top Mexican and South American clubs. Hard to imagine even a team like Seattle beating out Tigres, Club America, River Plate, Boca Juniors, et al out for talent. Not unless and until MLS gets rid of single-entity ownership, which is the only thing that has kept MLS alive for the last couple of decades.
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Re: MLS 2019

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Keep. Stacking. Bills.
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Re: MLS 2019

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Re: MLS 2019

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Luchiano Acosta, whose relationship fell apart with DC last year after almost going to PSG, is likely going to LigaMX. DC will retain the MLS rights.
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Re: MLS 2019

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"El Trafico" as the nickname for the LA derby is pretty clever IMO.
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Re: MLS 2019

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DC targeting Luka Modric....who is friend of my buddy (and endorses his product)
https://thelegendsbrand.com/pages/lukamodric

DC also linked with Edison Flores (Peru international), Brian Lozano (Santos Laguna), Gelmin Rivas (Venezuelan), and Christian Aleman (Ecuadoran)
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Re: MLS 2019

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He needs to beat out Russell Canouse
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Re: MLS 2019

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Rex wrote: Mon Jan 06, 2020 6:03 pm He needs to beat out Russell Canouse
Canouse is getting interest from a few German teams. DC has been less than keen to let him go.
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Re: MLS 2019

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wlu_lax6 wrote: Mon Jan 06, 2020 4:07 pm DC targeting Luka Modric....who is friend of my buddy (and endorses his product)
https://thelegendsbrand.com/pages/lukamodric

DC also linked with Edison Flores (Peru international), Brian Lozano (Santos Laguna), Gelmin Rivas (Venezuelan), and Christian Aleman (Ecuadoran)
Why would Luka Modric leave Real Madrid for the MLS, just 1 year after winning the Ballon D'Or? Has his game dropped off that much?
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Re: MLS 2019

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DaveInSeattle wrote: Tue Jan 07, 2020 12:34 pm
wlu_lax6 wrote: Mon Jan 06, 2020 4:07 pm DC targeting Luka Modric....who is friend of my buddy (and endorses his product)
https://thelegendsbrand.com/pages/lukamodric

DC also linked with Edison Flores (Peru international), Brian Lozano (Santos Laguna), Gelmin Rivas (Venezuelan), and Christian Aleman (Ecuadoran)
Why would Luka Modric leave Real Madrid for the MLS, just 1 year after winning the Ballon D'Or? Has his game dropped off that much?
Not sure below is from the article on the Athletic. The only angle I could see is he sees other business ops this side of the Atlantic (similar to how DC was looking at Ozil and his coffee business). My buddy I reference above also has a connection to Kobe via this (https://mambasportsacademy.com/).
But D.C. United haven’t turned completely away from high-profile imports, and Modric might prove to be the club’s next big name. United have had talks with Modric’s representation about a potential move stateside, perhaps as soon as this coming summer.
United first met with Modric’s representatives abroad shortly after the conclusion of D.C.’s 2019 campaign, according to sources familiar with the talks. The two sides have kept in contact in the ensuing months, with Modric said to be very interested in an eventual move abroad.

“He’s discussed it with his family,” said one source, “and is excited by the idea.”

Modric would not come cheap, with one source estimating that the Croatian would likely command a salary “in the five-to-six million a year” range. Modric’s recent form may also discourage Madrid from letting him walk away when his contract expires this summer. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that Los Blancos would bring him back for another year or more.

There will also be no lack of suitors for Modric’s services elsewhere, not just in Europe but also possibly in Japan or the Middle East, where clubs have demonstrated a willingness to spend huge sums of money on big-name players even as they approach the sunset of their professional careers, though no specific reports of interest have emerged.
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Re: MLS 2019

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Robbie Robinson from Clemson goes first to Miami in the Draft. Amazingly awkward skype call between him and Mr. Spice. Wonder if Robbie is a fan of the Band (not the spice girls but the one that did up on cripple creek)?
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Re: MLS 2019

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You know what you need? A lyrical sucker punch to the face.
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Re: MLS 2019 & 2020

Post by wlu_lax6 »

Gressel to DC from Atlanta. Well liked guy but it came to not being able to get a better contract in Atl. Olsen will run out of excuses if this team does not produce quickly. Gressel, Flores, Ariola, Hamid, Canouse, Mora, Brilliant, Kamra, and Birnbaum should make a decent core (i.e. maybe losing Rooney and Acosta won't feel so bad). Not Chicarito or Vela but add in some young talent in Griffin Yow, Pines, and Paredes along with the return of Fisher and this team should compete.
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Re: MLS 2019 & 2020

Post by Steve of phpBB »

Just saw RSL's depth chart on a post yesterday.

Damn, it really doesn't look right to not see Rimando on there.
And his one problem is he didn’t go to Russia that night because he had extracurricular activities, and they froze to death.
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Re: MLS 2019 & 2020

Post by P.D.X. »

Really wanted Gressel in Portland but that was kinda a pipe dream.

Also, Chicharito is now a Gal.
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