And Los Galaxios have decided on a new coach and the winner is, envelope please, OMG, OMG, I can;t believe it, it's Schelotto from Boca Juniors. https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2018/12/26/report-la-galaxy-guillermo-barros-schelotto-agree-deal I guess if you are a Boca Juniors fan, this sucks, but as for the rest of the MLS, meh. I thought this tidbit at the end was interesting: "Interim LA Galaxy coach Dominic Kinnear and former Portland Timbers coach Caleb Porter both recently turned down offers to be the head coach, according to MLSsoccer.com's Sam Stejskal." So, if this is to believed, Kinnear decided against coaching the Galaxy, not the Galaxy deciding that he wasn't up to the job. Or, maybe Ibra had something to do with it. Anyway, is Kreis still part of the Galaxy coaching staff or is he out also?
This is a surprise. I expected Schelotto to go to Columbus. The only Kreis talk I heard was as potentially part of Kinnear’s staff at LAG. Also, I didn’t know MLS managers were getting paid $1MM/season. That’s unreal.
I had seen he had gone into the hospital. But, I missed the news of his death. Sad to watch a man with so much talent not be able to get a handle on his weight issues.
Kinnear was only offered a 1yr deal, which he wasn't interested in. What can realistically be achieved in a year? He didn't want to just be a caretaker until a flashier name became available. I think Zlatan had nothing to do with it. In fact, I think Zlatan felt, at the very least, much more comfortable with Kinnear at the helm than Schmid (RIP). Schelotto had announced his departure from Boca right after they lost to River Plate in Libertadores. I don't think I've seen a coach take a loss that hard. He really wanted to go out with that accomplishment under his belt. I'm not certain if Galaxy was always the intended destination, but he definitely had already decided that he was done at Boca before the Libertadores final was played. As for Sigi, it was clear that his time at the helm was over at the end of his tenure in Seattle. It was odd that Galaxy entertained the idea of putting him at the helm. Many will remember him for his Yogi Bear-like physique and failure to adapt to MLS' rapidly evolving tactics and realities. I won't. Everyone he has coached and played with over the last 40+ years has universally praised him as a great person who helped mentor and inspire them to reach higher and be better, whether that pointed them towards a career in soccer or elsewhere. He was a dedicated competitor, and like so many others who have excelled in their fields, struggled to pass the torch when it was time.
His teams were pretty consistently good and his players loved him. That's as high of an accomplishment any coach could want, in my opinion. He moved the sport along in this country very well. You wonder if Seattle would have been the same thing without a coach that had their team playing successful soccer. He revitalized Columbus, he was manager when LAG won their first MLS Cup. The dude has an insane resume and should be honored for his accomplishments.
A long time ago, everyone playing in Southern California would step it up a notch when rumors he was scouting a tournament or a game were going around. When he was coach at UCLA, the team played some transformative soccer. I remember choosing to go watch UCLA's Spring game one weekend instead of a US Men's National Team game the previous or next weekend when I could only get one weekend day off to make the drive, because Sigi's team was good and the US really wasn't.
CBus announces Tim Bezbatchenko at president and Caleb Porter as head coach. Interesting that Bez left Toronto. Is this a sign that Toronto is moving to change the way they are spending money, or was Bez just ready for a new challenge? Also, the article includes a quote from The Crew SC Investor-Operator Group. I knew the sale of the team was in the process, but I didn't think it was final yet. Does this mean Precourt is completely divested from the Crew? https://www.columbuscrewsc.com/post...nko-president-and-announces-caleb-porter-head
Yes. Precourt gets to take his franchise to Austin and the new owners of the Crew essentially bought an expansion team but get to keep the branding and history. This all but confirms that MLS is expanding past 28 teams as well
Given what the NFL has done, didn't we kind of assume that 32 teams was the stopping point? Personally, I think the MLS could expand to 40 teams, but then split the league into an American League/National League a la MLB, but with no interleague play. Then you would essentially have two #1 leagues in the US. Take that FIFA! The US is too big for just one top league. FWIW, The NBA has 30 teams (29 in the US and 1 in Canada) The MLB has 30 teams (29 in the US and 1 in Canada) The NHL has 31 teams (expanding to 32 teams with the addition of Seattle) (24 (25) in the US and 7 in Canada) So, 32 teams looks like the magic number.
I haven't been following this for a while. Is there still a chance that Precourt won't ever actually get Austin off the ground?
I'd put the odds at a team in Austin at 75% in favor. Unless the stadium opponents somehow block the project then the Austin Fighting Broccoli are going to be play in 2020/1
There's no stopping point but I think anywhere from 30-36 will be a defacto stopping point. FC Cincy is coming in this year with Nashville, Miami and Austin pretty much guaranteed. St. Louis looks to be close to getting a team and there's been some rumblings about Phoenix. I'd guess that we'll see and NBA/NHL setup with an East and West subdivided into divisions like the Pacific, Northeast, etc.
scheduling becomes a nightmare after 32 but that new franchise money isn't something the owners are going to be fine with saying to stop.
I recall Sir Alex Ferguson when manager of Manchester United said during the all star match that MLS should expand to 40s in terms of teams. He said the US and Canada market was large enough for it. He also thought MLS should have multiple season and cup competition like Brazil. Just another crazy idea to consider. I do have a concern about the stopping point and the MLS dependency on new franchise fees. MLS appears to be dependent on $100M every two years. When it stops, and it will have to, where is the revenue going to come from. Ideallt it would be TV revenue on par with other big 5 leagues, but it is not there yet.
MLS doesn’t depend on expansion fees no more than the NHL relied on Vegas’ $500 million and Seattle’s $700 million expansion fees. I wish this idea would die
Mark your calendars. January 15th is scheduled to be the official announcement of the Austin FC expansion award. https://www.statesman.com/sports/20...ly-recognized-as-27th-mls-team-at-celebration
It makes money from SUM, to be sure. But it's survival isn't reliant on SUM either. Sorry. There are certain topics surrounding MLS that get me hyperbolic. SUM/USSF Conspiracites, the pro/rel truther brigade, MLS fudges its numbers, and MLS needs expansion money to operate are all things that set me off. Maybe I need to lay off soccer Twitter and Reddit for a while but there's a vocal minority of US soccer fans who repeat this crap ad nauseum then you get semi-respected pundits repeating it. It's exhausting.
I honestly don't know what LAFC was thinking with this trade. It doesn't look like they got anything. I'm still picking them to win the West though. https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2019...ade-involving-gam-draft-picks-allocation-slot
There's gotta be a national team player or someone that Coach Sweats believes will be valuable in the allocation distribution mechanism.
Philly just traded all of their picks (five total) to Cincinnati for $150k in GAM; Cincy now has ten picks. It's a bit nuts because there almost certainly will not be ten players in the whole draft who pan out, but they lack both an academy and a USL partner while Philly has both.