Yanks Abroad Flavors of the Week 2018-19

If MLS wants to add incentives to the player's choices, that would be great. It would probably force some concomitant benefits from European concerns, which would also be great. I'm in favor of anything that benefits the players and their choices, especially if it makes them more competitive with Euro and SA trained youth.

I couldn't care less about some arbitrary methodology for the training of US youths' future. It has meaning only to the player, his family, and his future. It might be fun for fans to think about, but only the player knows what is in his best interest.

 

Market forces have recently forced the league to acknowledge their place in the soccer food chain as sellers. So ideally, the league would work a bit more to keep them and so profit either through transfers or through the players contributing on the first teams. Steps the league could take include:

1. Getting rid of 'home territories'. An academy player should be allowed to sign his first pro contract with any MLS team. The home team could then receive some compensation for this or for any transfers abroad.

2. Reaching an agreement with the player's union over solidarity and training payments.

3. Allowing free agency after 5 years.

 

I agree with the first two. As for free agency length of time in the league should be irrelevant. If their deal is up they should have the freedom to move.

 

Even Shakespeare would be for this!

 

I think Garber mentioned the first two.

 

A player, unless he meets certain requirements, is not a free agent within the league when the contract expires.

 

That needs to change

 

Garber: “We’re looking at evolving our homegrown and academy process. I don’t know what those changes will be, but certainly there’s been so much investment at the academy level, we need to be sure that we’re doing our part to help develop the national team but also to ensure that our clubs can deliver on what it is they’re investing in. Maybe that means that clubs can go outside of their location. That would mean L.A. could come to Kansas City, but it could mean Kansas City could go to Columbus. We’re talking about maybe investing more in homegrown subsidies and things like that to figure out if there are ways we can incentivize our clubs to continue to invest. But that’s all on the drawing board — nothing that’s ready for prime time yet.”

https://www.kansascity.com/sports/mls/sporting-kc/article211217139.html

 

Here's the official news that RSL academy product and US U20 Richie Ledesma has signed for PSV. In the past calendar year the RSL academy has lost Ledesma to PSV, Booth to Bayern Munich, and Soto to Hannover. All on free transfers. Ouch.

1076090372059738112 is not a valid tweet id

 

Ignore them at 16, lowball the kids at 17, see them leave for free at 18.

 

Congrats to RSL for developing an incredibly productive pipeline. But, when you hire a coach none of the up and coming kids want to play for, after watching what Petke did with Glad, Acosta, and Saucedo, the lure of Europe only gets stronger (and to be fair, RSL never had a shot with Booth).

 

Welp the draft class just got weaker single handedly with Manny Perez signing to Celtic. Good move for him.

 

Sargent with the tying goal for Bremen!

 

Ream went 90 for Fulham in a draw to Newcastle, with Yedlin on the bench. Being part of a shutout these days is an important thing for Fulham and a rare occasion, i imagine that only helps Ream's hopes of locking down a premier league starting spot. Yedlin, we shall see if its time to be concerned.

 

Siebatcheu starts in Ligue 1 and gets an assist, though most credit goes to the scorer. He's playing more under the new management.
https://streamable.com/qf5yu

Edit: and he just scored. A candidate for the March camp if he can keep this up.
https://streamable.com/yhggz

 

And he scores a second.
https://streamable.com/1h4ut

 

Wes came on for Schalke as a sub and played a kind of diamond 10 role. It was kind of hard to tell cuz I only saw the game from when he came in. He seems to have rounded into form - finally. Looked very promising in the attacking mid role.

Berhalter has said McKennie isn't a forward and sees him as a disruptor. That could be a problem. If Schalke's fwds continue injured, Wes should be getting plenty more time in attacking role and he can develop some chemistry with the attackers. I'm not all that impressed with Wes on the back foot.

 

Schalke started in a 4-2-3-1 and switched to a 3-4-3 when Wes came on. Wes played as a b-t-b CM next to Bentaleb.

Kono Skrzybski Schopk
Ocipka Bentaleb McKennie Caligiuri
Nastasic Sane Stambouli
Fahrmann​

Would love to see Adams and McKennie together in a similar scheme for the US.

 

Works against a woeful Stuttgart team.

Wes and Adams don't complement each other very well but the pressure will be on to play them like you say. I would only play them together if there were 2 dmids to go with so the job gets done. That way Adams and Wes could both be on the front foot and Adams could tend wide and Wes tend central. We don't have a Caliguri/Ocipka pair.

 

It's far too early to say this. Even if there is some coordination problems like with Gerrard/Lampard or Jones/Bradley I expect a manager to work it out, especially with two young players. I'm not worried about it.

As an aside, I don't remember the US ever using a 343. Somebody refresh my memory.

 

The first match of HEX2018 started in a 3-4-3 (1-2) with Pulisic in a free role. Klinsmann and Berti thought that Pulisic would become the fulcrum of the US attack with Deuce out with heart issues and wanted to start to build a scheme that would give him as many touches to run at the defenses as possible. He did get some great looks early ...

Wood ^ Altidore
Pulisic
Johnson Jones Bradley Chandler
Besler Brooks Gonzo
Howard
​

 

Can't have the 10 playing a free role in that formation...unless one of the forwards is going to do the defensive work in central midfield. Strange choice by JK.

 

Oh, sure.

 

The WCQ match at Azteca.