Willing to give this guy a shot. He's on the right side of 30, is perhaps hungry to get more NT caps and seems to be a capable CB at the levels he's played. Sincerely hope he pans out well and surprises us. This is an interesting thought. On his transfermarkt profile he is listed as a CB with the ability to also play RB. If they go to 3 in the back, I would guess: [Unknow signing] [Mlinar] [Farrell] With Tierney, there's your back 4. Woodberry and Watson are the cover. I know Callens isn't confirmed as the mystery CB, but he is left footed. That could make sense if he is the CB/LB with Mlinar/Farrell covering duties on the right.
Once in awhile eastern European leagues produce a halfway decent team in the CL, like Ludogorets from Bulgaria a few years back. Ukrainian clubs are always a battle in Europe, but I agree, Slovenia isn't known for its league.
I've never heard of this guy either, but it's only fair that we give him the benefit of the doubt for now, but... The Revs made a conscious trade-off. They are gambling that this guy, that other guy or some other unknown guy are going to be better than JoGo was. Now a lot of us became frustrated that JoGo never regained the form of his first year, but overall, he was at least a competent defender. The Revs weighed what salary it would take to bring him back and decided to go in another direction. fair enough, and a pretty bold move for a team with a track record like the Revs. If this was a guy they scouted, wanted and paid some TAM money for a transfer fee to get him now, instead of in May, at least they are being deliberate about it. Maybe they learned their lesson when Kouassi got injured on someone else's watch because they didn't want to pay.
I agree that this guy could turn out to be a solid MLS player, and I'm all for signing a player like this. But he's 24 and unproven, yet we expect him to anchor our backline to an MLS Cup. I think we all see a team with a lot of potential and the players do as well. Look at the quotes from Lee Nguyen in the Herald today “We’ve been saying that for four years,” Nguyen said. “The thing is that we’ve always been trying to get that one piece to fix that puzzle. We came close two years ago with (former midfielder) Jermaine (Jones). With center backs leaving (following last season), it’s that piece of the puzzle we’re trying to fix now." This guy is not Jermaine Jones and he's not going to get us to a MLS Cup. We cant count on a guy who is only 24 (relatively young for a CB) and his highest level of play is the Slovenian league, which is probably just a step up from the NASL. And I don't think I'm far fetched for saying that because the year before the starting defender from the 2nd place team in the league transferred to Puerto Rico. He has never faced players even close to the quality of Sebastian Giovinco, Nicolas Lodeiro, David Villa, and Piatti. Its going to be a big test and challenge for him and its unfair for the organization to trot him out as the key piece to our defense this year.
A lot of Jeff Lemieux tweets on Delamea: Heaps confirmed this was a transfer. #NERevs https://t.co/r1wk9V7waj— Jeff Lemieux (@jeff_lemieux) January 25, 2017 Did get the chance to chat with Delamea - who the guys call "Toni" - after training. English is good. Will have full stories today. #NERevs— Jeff Lemieux (@jeff_lemieux) January 25, 2017 Delamea said joining MLS/#NERevs is "the right move" for him after spending six years in Slovenia and recently earning his first cap.— Jeff Lemieux (@jeff_lemieux) January 25, 2017 Delamea said he was "flattered" by the #NERevs approach for him. "I already decided much before I joined that I wanted to come here."— Jeff Lemieux (@jeff_lemieux) January 25, 2017 Delamea: "Now I'm very happy, very excited to be here. I can't wait for the league to start." #NERevs— Jeff Lemieux (@jeff_lemieux) January 25, 2017
I am whelmed so under that the tow is over. Might as well go to Horseneck and put the Revs season in a bottle and watch it get ripped out into the briny deep. Of course I dare hope that these two players pan out and around them coheres an impressive defense....but my money is on us pining away for the days of Parkhurst or JoGo 1.0 [We're certainly not ever going to be thinking of pining away for the days of Shalrie Joseph or Jermaine Jones, for there would lie insanity mein freunden]. Yeah, the Audacity of Hope, and all that yeah yeah blather...... I'm just freakin' frumious.
I have to disagree with you on this, especially the highlighted section. No one here, including yourself, knows anything about the quality of the Slovenia league. This is the same attitude you see from uninformed Europeans soccer fans who trash MLS. The "If I haven't heard much about the league, it must suck" attitude that really embraces ignorance is something we should all try and avoid as MLS fans
I do believe there is a reason for that. It's because the world of international soccer is ridiculously large. The majority of us don't know anything about the vast majority of leagues. Can anyone name the best players in the Croatian 1.HNL, Japanese J-League, Uruguayan Primero Division, honestly, without googling it. The most important information about this player is that he was a starter and captain on his team. I'd much rather us sign a player who has done well in a league I don't know anything about then waist money on someone who couldn't hack it at a club with name recognition.
The reason many of us don't know is as was pointed out by someone else, usually the "diamonds in the rough" from those countries are scouted and signed at a young age by teams from the big European leagues. Those players then come through the academies and into first teams or wash out and play in smaller clubs or back in their home country. MLS is in the market for the latter with very few exceptions and that's ok. It's not to say there aren't some good players that slip through the cracks but considering the vast scouting network of clubs like Arsenal, PSG, Liverpool, Bayern, Ajax, Real Madrid etc it's unlikely there are many diamonds that aren't picked up by someone in France, Germany, England or the Netherlands. Mlinar may do fine in MLS but it's a bit silly to assume we should follow every league in every country worldwide.
I disagree. It's nice that he was a key player on his team and a leader, but all of that is insignificant if he can't compete with the level of play in MLS. None of us can comment on the quality of play in the Slovenian league, but I think it's safe to assume that it doesn't compare to MLS.
Just my two cents on the European leagues vs. MLS debate, but based on the matches I've watched from the top flights in Denmark, Poland, and Germany featuring random mid-table teams, there's no more talent on an average, per starting player basis there than in MLS; arguably less. So I'm not inclined to put much stock in Slovenia's top league – we're talking about a country with a population on a par with Greater Boston. That doesn't mean that there's not talent to be had of course; just as getting a top player from an MLS side would improve another MLS side (see us with Kei), so too could getting the best player from Joe Public Denmark – or Super Eagles Slovenia – improve our team. I am still cautiously optimistic that our new Slovenian and rumored Ivorian will be upgrades. They're certainly better than the blank spaces we had occupying our CB slots until their signings. I'm just saying that playing in Europe outside of the biggest leagues and clubs offers no particular indications of MLS success, as it's quite possible – nay, likely – that their previous squad was worse than even our lowly Revs.
The real question isn't so much about how good the Solvenian league is. It's really whether this guy and the Ivorian guy from France are better than JoGo and Barnes. Unless they together are significantly better, all we are doing is treading water.
It will also be interesting to see how Kouassi compares to Jones regarding how much better he makes our back line. I think the back line really missed Jones last year.
exactly. While Koffie did and OK job he was not very vocal. I recall the first game Jones played with the Revs he laid into JoGo and a few others. The team responded and played better the rest of the year. This team has lacked that passion since Shalrie roamed the midfield
Great points. To put your thoughts together, I think we're assuming Kouassi will be somewhere between Koffie and Jones as both a player and a leader. There's a good chance we'll be either pleasantly or unpleasantly surprised on this. My guess is that Kouassi will be as good a player as Jones (both defensively and springing the offense), but I'd be really surprised if he comes close to Jones' leadership.
Wasn't Kouassi the captain of his Swiss club? Or am I thinking of Samba? I don't know how comfortable he is with English now, but language can make it really hard for a guy who normally has the inate leadership qualities to be as vocal as he might be in a place where he is understood.
824649503235936256 is not a valid tweet id An interview with Kouassi. Maybe this belongs in another thread?
A) What do I care if you're the club captain of a lousy team in a lousy league? For low level teams, the captain is usually some guy who's been around for a while and has to care because this is the best he can do. B) I'll take a guy who couldn't hack it for Barca or PSG. I'd do that in a heartbeat. Most of the teams in the Spanish top flight count Madrid or Barca castoffs as some of their better players. You can feast on the leftovers of giants.
I'd be happy with a mix of Koffie and Jones. FWIW I was told by someone who is pretty familiar with the Swiss league that Kouassi is the real deal and was very surprised the Revs were able to land him.