I doubt we'll have to eat all (or possibly even any) of Boateng's 2020 salary and we might get off the hook for 2019. Its one thing for a player like Aigner or Gashi to keep showing up enough to get paid. To get rid of somebody like that you've got to pay them off. If you've got a player that can't, or won't, even show up though its a lot easier to give them an ultimatum of "either you show up at training and make an effort, or we'll release you on a free transfer and we owe you nothing/very little".
I finally read some of those Post articles...I get why news outlets do it*, but it is getting a lot harder to read the Post articles as news sites get smarter about subscription-protecting their articles, and I don't have a sub. Anyway, I find the comments on the coaching change to be interesting. These quotes are from the Kiszla article on Conor Casey: It makes it hard to figure out what Hudson had been trying to do. Under Hudson they were playing like they never practiced any sort of shape. Yet between this article and the one on the MLS site about Casey and is lineage to Klopp, it sounds like schemes have been simplified and then they're less strict. It did definitely seem that Hudson pounded a lot of square pegs into round holes, whether that was players out of position, or formations that did not match the available talent. It also seems like the forwards and midfield are hacking the other team less, which is nice. [*I remember the Post's corporate overlords doing a controversial cutdown on the staff recently, but given the increased Rapids coverage, perhaps I should pay for a subscription.]
Anyone hoping to buy the warm-up rainbow jersey at the stadium tonight, don’t. They’ve got the pricing wrong, listing it at $120 instead of $60. I talked to the manager and he knows something is wrong but can’t do anything until he can talk to his bosses in Altitude Authentics. He said if they figure it out he can fix them for the USOC game on Wednesday and the games after that.
Got to the shop before the match and saw the $120 price tag and walked out. Will purchase one on Wednesday if they get the price corrected.
Things like that - the business side gaffs, bug me more than the team performance. In my mind, I guess, it goes back to reflecting the culture and ownership. Consistent quality throughout the business. If you can't get the little things right away from the pitch, how do you expect to maintain competitiveness on the pitch, where the pressure is more intense?
The last time a Rapids player hit double digit goals in a season was when Deshorn Brown did it in 2014. In the last 10 years only 3 Rapids players have done so: Brown (2013, 2014), Cummings (2010), and our interim coach (2009, 2010). Casey also holds the Rapids single season record at 16, but that was in 10 fewer games than are played now. I would be very surprised if Kamara doesn't hit double digits this season, 5 years after the last time a Rapids player did so.
Not to spoil anything, but these quotes have been echoing in my head watching the US team's pre-Gold Cup friendlies.
Feilhaber left a dogshit team playing for a worse coach with no light at the end of the tunnel. His actions might be partly responsible for getting Hudson out of town-who knows? If so-thanks Benny.
Conor Casey for national team coach? I like how during the US game, the ad board was hawking coaching licenses.
There are certainly a lot of similarities between Hudson and Berlhalter--blind obedience to a "system", failure to adapt after results, having pet players, asking players to do things they aren't capable of doing, and generally producing totally unwatchable soccer. It didn't work for Hudson over the course of one and a third seasons. I'm wondering how it's going to work for the USMNT when they only have a couple weeks to practice.
You missed one other similarity, they both take teams to the next level. The problem is, regardless of how bad they found things to be, the next level they took them to was down not up.
And I missed another similarity in that both Hudson and Berhalter have enormous egos and never take responsibility for a loss. Both love to blame the players.
I've said they've (at least temporarily) lost me but booing is going too far. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/jun/09/usmnt-venezuela-soccer-gold-cup Two highlights: "Berhalter is still refining his line-up for the tournament, and several players were held out on Sunday. Christian Pulisic joined the team on Thursday and didn’t play against Venezuela. Forward Jonathan Lewis and midfielder Michael Bradley are recovering from hamstring strains, and Tyler Adams does not report until Tuesday." Line up should be set and playing together but apparently not, and with a finite roster and short turn around on matches -- why not call up a couple injured guys? And wait there's more: "Forward Tyler Boyd made his debut, one of five changes. The 24-year-old attacker made five appearances for New Zealand before Fifa approved his switch to the US last month." Hudson 2.0 - the International version?
Salary info was finally posted: http://s3.amazonaws.com/mlspa/June-1-2019-Salaries-Alphabetical-Web.pdf?mtime=20190612135339 Annoyingly they have the list by name, not by team, so you have to page through to find all the Rapids. Reportedly the Rapids are 17th in salary this year but that likely does not include Gashi as the union officially lists his team as 'MLS' not the the Rapids, even though he still hits our cap this year.
You can sort the interactive tool but PDF output is still Alpha. Don't have time to manually record the Team sorted info but sure someone so inclined can. https://mlsplayers.org/resources/salary-guide
We used to track this type of stuff here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fKtekpFUlrtd-6wfwhCQdag4EpElPjVlCK08B_fuIX4/edit#gid=0 Best part of this link is a reminder who was on the team at the time! (Go LaBrocca!)
Colorado Rapids,Abubakar,Lalas,D,"$135,000 ","$144,938 " Colorado Rapids,Acosta,Kellyn,D-M,"$550,000 ","$665,000 " Colorado Rapids,Adjei-Boateng,Nana,M,"$350,004 ","$391,250 " Colorado Rapids,Anderson,Sebastian,D,"$56,250 ","$80,917 " Colorado Rapids,Bassett,Cole,M,"$75,000 ","$84,000 " Colorado Rapids,Blomberg,Johan,M,"$250,962 ","$250,962 " Colorado Rapids,Ford,Kortne,D,"$85,000 ","$85,000 " Colorado Rapids,Howard,Tim,GK,"$2,000,000 ","$2,475,000 " Colorado Rapids,Hundley,Matt,M-F,"$65,000 ","$98,000 " Colorado Rapids,Irwin,Clint,GK,"$126,000 ","$138,707 " Colorado Rapids,Jackson,Niki,F,"$57,225 ","$57,225 " Colorado Rapids,Kamara,Kei,F,"$750,000 ","$750,000 " Colorado Rapids,Lewis,Jonathan,M-F,"$100,000 ","$121,000 " Colorado Rapids,Mezquida,Nicolas,F,"$320,000 ","$320,000 " Colorado Rapids,Nicholson,Sam,M-F,"$300,000 ","$313,000 " Colorado Rapids,Opare,Kofi,D,"$70,250 ","$70,250 " Colorado Rapids,Price,Jack,M,"$430,000 ","$437,500 " Colorado Rapids,Raben,Sam,D,"$70,250 ","$70,250 " Colorado Rapids,Rawls,Andre,GK,"$72,361 ","$72,361 " Colorado Rapids,Rosenberry,Keegan,D,"$151,195 ","$164,945 " Colorado Rapids,Rubio Kostner,Diego,F,"$325,000 ","$353,750 " Colorado Rapids,Rwatubyaye,Abdul,D,"$56,250 ","$62,625 " Colorado Rapids,Serna,Dillon,M-F,"$120,000 ","$120,000 " Colorado Rapids,Shinyashiki,Andre,F,"$85,000 ","$95,000 " Colorado Rapids,Sjoberg,Axel,D,"$174,996 ","$179,996 " Colorado Rapids,Smith,Tommy,D,"$600,000 ","$640,000 " Colorado Rapids,Vines,Sam,D,"$80,000 ","$81,250 " Colorado Rapids,Wilson,Daniel,D,"$500,000 ","$540,000 " Colorado Rapids,Wynne,Deklan,D,"$74,250 ","$74,250 " Major League Soccer,Gashi,Shkelzen,M-F,"$1,575,000 ","$1,668,750 "
@AbbieMood's take on the Rapids' turnaround - 3 big reasons for the #Rapids96 mid-season turnaround, with quotes from Coach Casey on his philosophy, @LALASABUBAKAR1 & @Jon_lewis710 on how they’re fitting in & @keikamara on how praying to the soccer gods is finally working 🙏 https://t.co/1Qk0Z9qvbx pic.twitter.com/wmGCaXoaaq— Burgundy Wave (@Burgundywave) June 12, 2019
I'm glad that praying to the soccer gods has worked for Kamara. My liver couldn't take much more of my praying to the porcelain one after "medicating" during Rapids matches.
Very interesting breakdown of player salaries. Sam Stejskal did the breakdown on average number of dollars spent per point this season. It’s not perfect, but measuring how much each team pays in salary per point earned is an interesting to view MLS payrolls.Philly and Houston look great in that metric thus far in 2019. Chicago and Toronto, not so much. https://t.co/J6HgK96Scv pic.twitter.com/T5HMfHlcEF— Sam Stejskal (@samstejskal) June 12, 2019 Rapids are 16th in the league in dollars per point, and are 17th in total salaries. Not entirely sure what it means, but it means something!