Anyone see this yet? What an absolute joke. https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2019...ounce-new-leagues-cup-competition-debuts-july
It's disappointing the Crew weren't invited to participate, but that just means they can focus on the league!
It's not a tournament, is a group of Liga MX preseason friendlies to be played in the US. Makes the league look like a joke that they will take teams away from the regular season (which I'm told repeatedly is important) to.... what? Get smashed by top Liga MX teams? Shameless money grab by MLS, USSF, and SUM. Just when you think they can't get more shameless, here ya go...
I'm not. You want to schedule a scrimmage with us on a training day, that's fine. Otherwise, not interested in providing pre-season training for the league south of us.
Toronto has won the Omar Gonzalez sweepstakes: https://www.torontofc.ca/post/2019/06/03/toronto-fc-signs-us-international-defender-omar-gonzalez
Number two team on the allocation list, also Toronto FC. I am okay with not picking him up. But it does amuse me that Toronto got first dibs.
Toronto ALWAYS gets first dibs on US internationals. They will be starting THREE US men's regulars. In case MLS hasn't noticed Moronto is in Canada. It's simply mind blowing in its utter ridiculousness
You’d think that mL$ would try to pull some strings and play Calvinball so that a US National Teamer would, like, actually play for a team in, you know, the USA. They certainly would sell more jerseys for one.
You mean Toronto? Because Vancouver and Montreal, combined (off the top of my head), have no US internationals, and hardly any Americans at all, period. Toronto has Bradley, Altidore, and Omar. Last time I checked, hardly anyone even wants them playing for the US anymore. So.... what are people bitching about exactly?
Sirius soccer channel mentioned that Beckham's Inter Miami has offered a 4-year contract to Luis Suarez.
Not to play Captain Obvious here, but whether a bunch of BigSoccer layabouts are high on the national team value of the players in question is not even remotely the point. Rather, those are recognizable names which register with casual fans. You and I would like to see Juan Agudelo or Christian Pulisic competing for the US, but names like Bradley and Altidore are much more useful for selling MLS tickets to Americans. Whereas your average Canadian fan has zero interest in US team stars. The Canadian teams should get first dibs on all Canadian internationals, every time,every day. Putting them in the allocation order for returning USMNT players makes literally no sense whatsoever.
I'm old enough to remember when Crew fans and MLS fans in general were shitting on Frank de Boer. After a 8 game stretch in 28 days where Atlanta got 18 out of an available 24 points Atlanta now sits 2nd in the East, 2 points of first, 2nd in PPG, and has the 4th best goal differential in the league. Interesting turnaround...
Couple things: 1) how juan agudelo and christian pulisic ended up in the same sentence i have no idea 2) people complain about mls rules, so now let’s go with absolute blatant roster manipulation 3) how do you know canadians don’t care about american players? My understanding is that both bradley and altidore are very popular in toronto 4) i mean, after one game, who is paying to see bradley jog around the field?
Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto are MLS teams. They belong in the allocation order for any players coming to MLS that are subject to allocation. Bill, you’re an incredibly bright guy, but your brain just goes sideways any time the Canadian teams are mentioned. There is no logical reason why the Canadian teams should be excluded from pursuing players that the other 21 teams are allowed to go after.
The whole point of having an allocation list was to get the most marketable US players in to the "right" markets. Otherwise they could just let them be subject to discovery claims where the team and player make a deal.
This doesn't make any sense at all. Exactly what business metrics are used to determine allocation order to ensure the "right markets" are at the top to select returning US players? I'll help you. None. The allocation list was created to prevent franchises bidding against each other and driving up player costs for MLS, who pays there bills. Then they tripped over their own system with the DP exception to the allocation rules, and you got stupid inflated prices for Duece, Bradley, and Altidore.
Reading comprehension. Its for returning US internationals, and ALL players that left the league with a transfer fee. Omar is both.
Two related points here: Unless I'm mistaken (and I don't think I am), the allocation mechanism rules used to have an out that said something along the lines of "US national team players of a certain threshold are not subject to the allocation process." A pretty mysterious statement that pretty much allowed MLS to do whatever the hell it wanted to with players like Dempsey, Bradley, etc. I no longer see that line in the roster rules. So, on the surface, anyway, it seems as the league's allocation rules for this kind of player are a little more above board than they used to be. Note that Pulisic - maybe the only USMNT player in the pool right now who's clearly "above a certain threshold" - is on the allocation player list. Second, I think it's easy to confuse the allocation process with the discovery process, which still remains as clear as mud. Note the following: In other words, any club interested in going after Zlatan had to convince MLS that they realistically could sign him. Now, on the surface (again), this is a way the league keeps low budget teams without a chance in hell is signing big names from using their seven discovery player slots to just claim the rights to players they know other teams will want. But, according the current rules, all that really does is get them $50K in GAM from another club that wants to sign a player (if the team with the player in their discovery list can't sign the player, the team that can pays for the first team $50K in GAM for that player's discovery rights); hardy a king's ransom. In reality, this clause allows the league to steer major, foreign signings to the markets they want them to play in.