I noticed his second name Paul Joseph Arriola Hendricks is Dutch/Belgian. Does he have a parent from there?
Not parent, as far as I can tell. His mom's brother (extreme social media creeping here) ran the Tahoe Rim Trail 100 Miler last month, and lists his residence as Laguna Niguel, CA. Unless they immigrated as children, the name probably comes from further back than that generation.
Paul started and went the full 90+ for Tijuana. Unfortunately they were out-classed by mighty Monterrey in a 0-3 defeat at home. As for Paul's individual performance, he himself struggled in the first half. He wasn't thinking quickly and clearly enough. Dribbles into traffic, predictable attempts to get to the corner, and really should have hit a long one-touch switch off the break to play a teammate in. Instead he took a couple touches and crossed it into the defender. Second half he really came into the game though, giving the Monterrey defense plenty of problems. Thought quicker and varied his crosses more. Also benefited from his speed more as opponents tired themselves out. Just dribbled straight passed them at times. Not a lot of nuance to his game. Best play was a weaving dribble around a couple, splitting pass to runner at the edge of the box (it was deflected slowing him up), and after the missed cross he somehow ended up all the way on the other side of the field to save it from going out and keep his team on the attack. Had a few crosses to teammates in the box they could have done more with, but no killer balls.
Exclusive interview with Paul: https://www.soccernation.com/soccernation-exclusive-catching-up-with-paul-arriola/
Breaking: D.C. United on brink of signing Paul Arriola https://t.co/hhZxP6I1ON #dcu #mls #usmnt— Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) August 9, 2017
Huh. I did not see that one coming. If I were an GM of an MLS team willing to shell out a $3 million transfer fee and a $1 million salary, I'd want more of an impact player. I like Arriola as a player and hope he can continue to develop, but I am really unsure he is worth that level of investment for an MLS side. From a USMNT fan perspective, I hope I am wrong.
That makes no sense from either end. He's not worth a 3M fee and a 1M salary in MLS' system as pointed out above, and DCU is a train wreck and quite a step down from Xolos. And Ben Olsen is just an awful coach. For perspective, a 5M fee and a 1M salary got ATL Josef Martinez. And no offense to Arriola but Josef is a completely different class of player.
And in Martinez case they can have him for 3 years and then resale him for profit. Arriola has no resale value beyond MLS.
Josef Martinez was a steal, though. If Arriola makes the cut for Russia, and ends up playing, possibly even starting for the USMNT at right wing, that would increase his notoriety and value.
Pretty good looking Mid field "Projected DCU midfield down the road: Arriola & Stieber on the flanks, Acosta, Harkes and Canouse in the middle." Goff / WaPo
Am I wrong in speculating that a $1m salary would be a pretty big raise? I have no idea what he was making in Liga MX to be honest.
Josef Martinez was a 5M fee and 1M salary. Diego Valeri was a 3M fee and a 600K salary before his new contract. Nemanja Nikolics was a 3M fee and a 1.9M salary. Accam was a 2M fee and a 820K salary. Higuain was a 530K fee and a 1M salary. Piatti was free and a 450K salary. These are all probably top 20-25 players in MLS and I could go on. Victor Vasquez came on a free and a 700K salary. Alessandrini was a 1.75M fee and a 2M salary. This move reminds me more of Bedoya to Philly, only slightly worse. Arriola is a bit better and is younger but Philly got him for about a 900K fee and pay him 1.1M. Basically from what I see, a 3M fee should put you at about a top 10 player in MLS. And know what's crazier, apparently LAG held his HG rights and DCU also paid them 350K in allocation money on top of the fee. Jeff Carlisle claims it's actually 500K in TAM/GAM. So essentially a 3.5M+ fee for Arriola. Club-record transfer fee DCU playing for Arriola around $3.5M, source confirms. Massive statement. Wonder how that compares to Rafa's bail.— Brian Straus (@BrianStraus) August 9, 2017
Perhaps DCU are banking on Paul making a splash with as a potential World Cup player. God for marketing...
To be fair I don't think he would make much impact in Europe. MLS is closer to his level than EPL. But we won't get a chance to see.
Yes, I understand that his contract is expensive by MLS standards. What I am saying is that, IMHO, Joseph Martinez is a player of such quality that his contract is a steal, regardless of MLS standards. I would go further and say that what MLS clubs have paid in recent years is going to be less and less relevant. The landscape in MLS is rapidly evolving.
He is only 22. If he had gone to a nice club to develop at he could have improved and had a nice European career. Nobody is saying he was shoe in for the EPL or anything like that. He probably stagnates in MLS. It has not proven to be a great place for young player development. It's a disappointing outcome.
It is evolving every where. Look at the prices many players were sold for across the world this summer. This rise is not something anyone could have predicted. It is almost meaningless to compare transfer fees to even the recent past now because things are so out of whack and that goes across the board in all leagues. MLS is not going to be immune to this.
I agree. For all the arguments against Jurgen, he is absolutely correct in that our players have/need to go to Europe to better advance their skills. I hate his move.
This is certainly possible. But we also have a list of players longer than my arm who tried this and it did not work out. If his salary is close to a $1m at 22, it is hard to argue with this choice.
I don't know that anybody is arguing the finances of it. It was certainly the right move for his bank account. I still don't have to like the move. Much like when I don't like it when MLS pays ridiculous amounts of money to bring USMNT players back to the league.It is an overpay because likely no other club in the world was going to pay Paul nearly as much money same with Bradley, Altidore and Dempsey. There are plenty of examples of players coming to MLS and their level of play/ability having dropped noticeably. I didn't want that for Paul. I would prefer he went somewhere that would raise his level of play and improve him as a player. MLS clubs don't have a good record of doing that. Good for his bank account. Likely bad for his game.
Sure, just as there are plenty of examples of players going to Europe and doing poorly. Nothing is guaranteed. Bradley, Dempsey and Altidore are three players who are still mainstays on the US even after coming back to MLS. Bradley had a dip in form, much of which was due to his ankle, but I think he is back to playing as well as he has in a long long time. Even at Dempsey's advanced age, he is still a good player and Altidore is every bit as good now for the US as he was when he was struggling in Europe. Some could make an argument he is even better now. At the other end of the quality level, even a player like Lletget was all about to retire from the sport and moving to MLS got him to the fringes of the National Team.