1) I thought Nelson was a great defender, the kind that is a leader. I felt that men like Robin Fraser also are these kind of individuals. Does that translate into great coaches? Maybe? As I mentioned earlier, Kreis also had no coaching experience but was a recognized leader on the field, he has turned out decent. 2) I do feel Winter was a train wreck. I realize that he was found by Klinsmann people, but I think there is little doubt it was unsuccessful. I agree stability is key, but their core, full of the wrong kind of promises, coaches and players was not the correct starting point. Can Nelson turn it around? Maybe, I think he has the right tools to do so.
Not sure where this conversation is going, but I feel that Kreis and Lagerway started improvements from day one in 2007 which just got better with 2008. People like Winter and Mariner, for all of the positives, made one bad decision after another. I don't think just saying they should have stuck with something, anything, would actually be to their benefit. It helps when the first decision on the coach is at least a good one, if not an excellent one. Otherwise, you get error propagation.
I think TFC has the same organizational challenges that Chivas has. Fraser may be an excellent coach, perhaps Nelson too, but neither will survive in the chaotic organizations that they are inserted into. I don't know if Payne is enough to turn everything around at TFC. Perhaps the issue starts higher up than that.
Did the Adidas guy just out the fact that the cRapids have less than 1500 season ticket holders? Seriously - new definition for crapIDs
They might. They have something like 3,500-4,000 season tickets. Maybe those are divided up among only 1,500 separate accounts.
This, it was one name per account, not one name per ticket. Season tickets are close to 4K this year, per Tim Hinchey's comments to the Denver Post today on the new jersey. And you can count me as one who was severely unimpressed by our Colorado flag road/alternate jersey. Even if it didn't closely mimic your color design its not a great jersey. Our state flag is what it is (and predates Utah, much less a MLS team in Salt Lake) but you can do a lot with those colors without looking like another team.
That's definitely more like it. That Adidas guy should get a smack upside the head for saying 'all', as it portrays it the wrong way. Nice gesture though, but a shame they can only pick one name per account.
Spaceship NYC soccer stadium caught on camera... http://www.empireofsoccer.com/first-look-mlss-flushing-meadow-park-stadium-renderings/
Good article on Discovery process on Goal.com - http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/1110...ditor-a-look-inside-the-mls-discovery-process They even use the reference to 'dibs', but highlight that there has to be genuine or 'bonafide' interest by a team to keep their dibs. A bit like trying to claim dibs on a hottie you have no interest in, but just want to get leverage over your friend that's also interested - no interest, no dice. Also interesting point at the bottom of the article is that it's supposed to give small market teams like RSL a better chance at players.
I liked the reporter's question to the Don, asking about a second team in NY, when RBNY has about 60% capacity.
I can't seem to find the mlssoccer.com article that said it, but directkick is free the first two weekends of the season this year... i know what I'll be doing this weekend
Meanwhile in Seattle......the Sounders are near to signing Obafemi Martins as a DP, they will of course have to dump one of their 3 current DP's (Rosales, Joseph and Tiffert) to bring him on. Must be nice to have owners who are willing to actually go out and find then bring in a player of that quality: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obafemi_Martins Guess we'll have to wait and see if Olmes can grow into that kind of pedigree 3 or 4 years down the road....
Is Joseph even considered a DP since Chivas is paying part of his salary? I'm kind of surprised if this is a true signing. He just signed for Levante in Sept and seems to be doing good for them.
The DP tag cannot be removed from the contract so Joseph is a DP even though the cap hit is probably only $100-200k. Martins was having a great year at Levante and Levante was clearly blind-sided by his departure. In La Liga, all contracts are required to have a clause that terminates the existing contract if a fee is paid. It is often used so that clubs can drop players without buying their whole contract but it can be triggered by the player as well. Apparently Martins was not being paid regularly like many players in Spain, so Seattle showed up with a contract for a significant pay raise and a bag full of cash to trigger the La Liga release clause (3 million Euros from reports). I have to give credit to Seattle's FO for figuring out how to buy prime players in Spain without having to negotiate with the La Liga clubs. Negotiate a contract directly with the player and throw a bag of cash at the release clause. It is expensive but now that Seattle has shown how it is done I expect to see other cash-rich MLS teams trying the same approach.
Says the fan of almost every small market team in every sport that doesn't have a hard cap. If you are looking for those kinds of owners, you are going to have to switch teams I'm afraid.
3 million seems like a pretty low release for someone that seems to score consistently. He's only 28 so he could be a player that sticks around a few years.