No one for this season. We should just hope Pomykal, Servania, Ferreira and Richards get regular minutes. Roberts is also a possibility. They just created a second team where a lot of their young prospects will start out. One of them, Ricardo Pepi, just signed a pro contract with the second team. There are a few other ones in the upper level of their system like Tessman, Gomez (younger of the two brothers), Wilson, Letayf, Carrera who look like they might be first team players in a year or two. I’ve also thought that Luchi Gonzalez was a bad coach at academy level, so I wouldn’t expect great coaching here, but he should help get some of those they already have signed onto the field with more regularity.
That’s because they have the best talent. Having the best talent almost always wins youth trophies. His teams play bad football and they underachieve from what I’ve seen.
Coaching adult professionals to win games versus coaching youth teams for development...................is apples versus oranges. So we'll see how he does. We'll have to see what other signings are made this off-season before thinking about the depth chart. Right now they're being linked to a Brazilian "defender," a Honduran central midfielder, a Venezuelan winger/attacking midfielder, and a Czech striker.
This is a mistake: https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2018/12/13/2019-mls-playoff-structure Season starts March 2 and ends in the first week of October? What do the players do from October 6 to March 2nd? It's almost half a year. Then they begin playoffs but it's not home and home series anymore so half the teams could have zero home games. The Conference winner in East and West don't play the first two rounds so after a lay off they will face an opponent who is firing on all cylinders. Plus they lose out on more home games because they don't play first rounds? I wonder what the thinking was here.
Going to single elimination is a good thing, in my opinion. It makes the playoffs and regular season mean more. But I do agree that an off-season that’s too long is a bad thing. If they’re going to end the season sooner then they should start the season sooner, as well. I don’t see why the season can’t start Valentines Day and Preseason start on MLK.
So any player on a non-playoff team has a 5 month break between competitive matches? And it's 4 months for those who play in the Cup? What a brilliant idea.
Look at it this way: Atlanta will be playing a CCL game sometime in mid Feb along with Northern climate teams like Toronto, RedBulls, and I guess Kansas is cold that time of year. Why not start teams like Orlando and Miami and Houston and LA(2) at end of Jan/beg Feb and play the CCL teams against them in southern climes so the CCL teams have a couple of real games before taking on the CA teams? The Southern climate teams can conversely take off time in July/August. Out of sight, out of mind. I guess the fans of teams like Vancouer will watch NFL from mid October to the Super Bowl btw, I don't agee that the home and home scheme wasn't as exciting as one-off play off games like they have in ko round. Would it have been better foro Atlanta to play one game v. RedBulls, in Red Bull stadium? People said the Red Bull game in Atlanta wasn't exciting - that's because they made the mistake of playing safe instead of going for the away goal.
Imagine the great demand for players from MLS who play a 7 month season.. Imagine an agent talking to a prospect and telling him he can be lazy and go to MLS or he can be ambitious and avoid it because managers in Europe are wary of players who play a 7 month season.
As an Atlanta fan, we deserved only to play Red Bull in Red Bull Arena... that’s what we deserved after blowing it against Toronto. That said, we are the fortunate beneficiary of a now out of date system. Also, I wouldn’t mind if there was more of an imbalance in the scheduling to accommodate weather.
The commercial reasoning behind this move is logical. MLS gets better TV numbers midweek than weekend and has to improve its TV numbers to earn more revenue. The scheduling though... let's just hope the 2019 season will be a transition season to a long-term mid-February to mid-November league schedule. North American winters are horrible for soccer, but if the MLS season concludes before the November international break, then MLS has to start in early- or mid-February. Also, MLS should hold the playoffs at 12 clubs until the league expands to 32.
The season ends a week before Halloween now...............all but 4 teams play a game after Thanksgiving........ The Bundesliga takes a near 2 month break this time of year. La Liga and Serie A take an extended break for the Holidays as well. Portugal takes several multi week breaks during their season. Hell most European leagues conclude at the end of April, and don't start back up with Competitive league games until August/September...........
When the MLS season was shorter did we qualify for the WC? Ipso facto, correlation = causation USA 2020 WC champs!
I am not a lawyer, but I think March 2 is the earliest the season can possibly start based on the MLSPA's collective bargaining agreement. Players are guaranteed 6 weeks off, plus teams can start their preseasons 6 weeks before the first match. It's exactly 12 weeks from the MLS Cup to the start of the 2019 season. This would also support rumors that are being reported by soccer journalists that the 2020 season will likely start in February. Twelve weeks from 11/10/2019 would be Feb 1, 2020.
tks,, appreciate, makes more sense. unions as usual doing everything to muck things up and destroy the product then complain that people go abroad in search of decent product as they get laid off. The American solution to Corporate monopoly power at the beginning of the 20th century was to give labor a countervailing monopoly power in the form of labor unions. It might have been necessary at some point but it has lasted way too long. End rant.
"It's the players' union's fault MLS is so messed up" is certainly an original take. From its very first days, everything about MLS has been structured with one primary purpose in mind: protection of capital. That's the reason for the single entity structure, it's the reason there's no pro/rel, it's the reason the salary cap and roster rules are so crazy, it's why the league wants parity so badly, why so many of the rules and structures are designed to mimic other American sports leagues and not global football. Every single thing is the way it is to ensure franchise values remain on an upward trajectory -- regardless of what fans or players may want. Of course the owners could change all of that in an instant if they wanted to, but they don't -- the only thing they care about is guaranteed returns on their investment. It's actually kind of the perfect reflection of the overall American economy in that way. Anyway, we're clearly not going to see eye to eye on this, and I expect both these posts will probably be deleted sooner rather than later.
Then start a union. Is there any evidence the longer breaks are actually an issue for anyone, or are we just towing that line because someone said it? Because there has been talk for awhile that the European season is already too long. FIFPro, the global players union, has been harping on the fact that off season breaks are not long enough for awhile now. FIFPro is aware of at least 15 footballers who have played in @UEFA competitions two to four weeks after participating in the 2018 @FIFAWorldCup, leaving them without a sufficient offseason break: https://t.co/fZuYOkHAuz pic.twitter.com/g9tDu5KKb8— FIFPRO (@FIFPRO) July 30, 2018 📢 OUT TODAY 📢FIFPro is publishing a pre-World Cup survey of football playersMore here:https://t.co/BQoc4XRpke pic.twitter.com/KpITZgcrF9— FIFPRO (@FIFPRO) June 8, 2018
I think you misunderstood my post which I expected anyway. Most people think there's one good side and one bad side. They've grown up in the English "adversary" system and don't really consider if it's the system that is at fault, rather than one of the sides. Like the song said "nobody's right when everybody's wrong".
Kelyn Rowe was dealt to SKC, that should be a great system for him. Dont think he could ask for a much better change of scenery. Hope it does for him what SKC did for Feilhaber. Eric Hurtado also moves to SKC, could make them a very exciting Flavor option the bad news: Agudelo resigns with the Revs, and another Columbian striker, Caicedo as competition
I bet Hurtado will have a better season than Shelton next year. Love the Rowe trade if anything this can make him a viable USMNT piece assuming he becomes a starter in midfield. Excited to see what Berhalter can do with the best American attackers I know he will be able to get the most out of them.
Why would Agudelo stay with NE. He looked at the last few years and decided "well, this has worked out well, time to sign away the rest of my prime"? He'll go down as one of the biggest wastes of talent in his generation.
Roldan just signed a 5 year extension, valued at $4m, to stay in Seattle. All years are guaranteed. https://www.sounderatheart.com/2018/12/19/18148535/cristian-roldan-extension I doubt this contract runs it's course. I imagine in 3 years Roldan will be underpaid (if he stays in MLS).
Absolutely shocking decision, his career will go down as an example of what not to do when choosing a club.