2020 Season Catch All Thread

MLS is coming back, but the return-to-play plan came at a price.

After tough negotiations, the players see the league in a new light. “This is merely the first battle of what could be a long war.”

With @PaulTenorio: https://t.co/cOuWHa03D8

— Sam Stejskal (@samstejskal) June 4, 2020

 

The winner of #MLS’s Orlando tournament will receive an automatic CONCACAF Champions League berth, sources tell @MLSist and myself.

There’s your incentive for the competition.

— Jeff Rueter (@jeffrueter) June 4, 2020

 

1268679677146611712 is not a valid tweet id

 

In other words, 12:25PM Friday?

What is Sports Social? Podcast, radio show somewhere, etc?

 

It’s on Altitude TV. Don’t know if there’s a streaming option. Usually the Rapids post a video on their site later in the day.

 

Padraig Smith just confirmed on Sports Social that Galvan will be joining the team next month as planned.

 

I saw several posts that MLS and USSF were working on "changing" the summer transfer window.

 

Pádraig indicated the Galván deal was complete. So I am not concerned about it being subject to changes in the summer window. Said he'll arrive in July - which I assume means he'll join the Rapids in Orlando. So he won't have to deal with altitude for a month or more .

One interesting comment Pádraig made about Galván was that he is going to be a "player for the future more than immediately" (paraphrasing loosely) and that "he'll get more time this season with the Rapids than was originally anticipated."

Reading between the lines this makes me think that MLS is planning on playing into December, at the least.

Also, PS made it sound as if the Rapids could make one or two moves when the opportunity comes - I'll let @JasonMa add his 2 cents to this as he was listening as well.

Nothing is finalized for Orlando, but PS sounded upbeat and confident. And he stated that having labor relations dealt with is important.

The Rapids have sent in their plan to MLS for "phase 3" which means full team practice.

 

Hopefully the officiating in Orlando isn't a "Micky Mouse" operation

ESPN will spearhead production of #MLS' return-to-play tournament in an effort to limit personnel on site at Disney's Wide World of Sports complex and provide clean feeds to Fox Sports and Univision for their matches. #SportsBiz https://t.co/O8leyDrwLj

— Alex M. Silverman🏒⚽️ (@AlexMSilverman) June 3, 2020

 

Yeah, but it didn't seem like he was talking about big moves.

 

Agreed. Pádraig is feeling really good about the talent level of the squad and seems to be saying they are ready to compete at a high level now.

 

Probably time for me to dust off the roster and remind myself where we need help. I don't recall us needing many "above average players". Unless an addition makes a huge impact or is for the future, I am not sure we need them.

Depth is going to be an issue for every team, which is why I suspect PS thinks Galvan will get more playing time. The rapids seem to have decent depth, although every year I talk myself into being optimistic!

 

No need to think you are delusional this season. The Rapids have solid to quality depth everywhere and have a good mixture of youth and veterans. At the Disney Tourney there may well be opportunities for a number of players to make their case for playing time. And if/when MLS returns to a more normal schedule in late August or September the starters will know that they have to be at the top of their game or there will be someone very capable of taking over for them.

Exceptions to the above might be Rosenberry and Vines.

 

One key statement from Pádraig today was that he anticipates all Rapids players will travel to Orlando. No one is opting out.

 

It would be awesome for them to win the MLS COVID CUP 2020!

 

A major trophy is a major trophy, the Rapids can't control what happens to get there.

 

At #15, a name we haven't heard in a long time

http://view-from-the-couch.blogspot.com/2020/06/rapids-by-numbers-15.html

 

https://t.co/HM1omcEPXk

— Emilio E. Gonzalez (@_EmilioGonzalez) June 6, 2020

 

I have to be honest, it’s going to take me awhile to start caring about sports to a level anywhere near to where it was. I’m hoping when I see the Rapids play, I’ll feel the passion again.

The games better be on TV or there is no way.

 

No good player has ever worn #16, so we go with the best of what we had.

http://view-from-the-couch.blogspot.com/2020/06/rapids-by-numbers-16.html

 

I hear you. First Covid and the attending fallout. Now the realization that there are of course other problems, big ones, that we as a society needs to deal with pronto. So sports seem to be of little significance given all this.

Same here. I doubt it I'll feel the same as I did back in February, but I hope I can recover some of the passion.

Look like ESPN. Let's hope the Rapids matches are easy to access.

 

Up until the early expansion days (2008-ish) a guy named John Pershing had a set of web pages with the rosters by number of every team entry year. Even after he stopped updating he kept the site up for a while and I contacted him and got the data. I actually have his full data set, not just the Rapids. I then manually dig through Wikipedia, Rapids record books, game reports, and got some help from Richard Fleming to get the Rapids data update to 2020.

 

Make sure your hard work is backed up somewhere! May be hard to reproduce again in the future.