MLS Flavors of the Week: 2020 Edition

Discussion in 'USA Men: News & Analysis' started by IndividualEleven, Feb 28, 2020.

  1. truefan420

    truefan420 Member+

    May 30, 2010
    oakland
    Club:
    Chelsea FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  2. tomásbernal

    tomásbernal Member+

    Sep 4, 2007
    Club:
    Portland Timbers
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I guess that, like me, Xfinity and the ESPN app can't handle Taylor Twellman.
     
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  3. Ghost

    Ghost Member+

    Sep 5, 2001
    BTW: Ale Bedoya keeps chugging. I wouldn't be surprised to see him make a return. If it were my team, I would want a hard-nosed defensive-minded wing player to hold down a flank and win balls for 12 minutes to round out a game. I'm not sure I see another player to hold that role. Maybe Arriola, but I haven't given a lot of consideration to his defensive play.

    Plus, I think Bedoya's general hard-work attitude is something valuable to rub off on the young guys.
     
  4. Excellency

    Excellency Member+

    LA Galaxy
    United States
    Nov 4, 2011
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Ineresting. I thought LIma was far superior to TT
     
  5. Patrick167

    Patrick167 Member+

    Dortmund
    United States
    May 4, 2017
    It is hard, so many variables. Sorry for clogging up this thread, but Gregg seems to think this is important.

    I'm watching this SJ v Sea game right now and Yueill has so much space to operate. Adams has to do the same thing with 1/5th the touches and in 1/5th the time. There is definitely differences in decision time and speed of play.

    But over time, I've become less interested in league level to a certain point. A certain level is what we want, the Champions League. After that, there is possibly a rung, but then it gets much more amorphous.

    If we take our UCL players, add in players at clubs consistently in Europa League contention in the big leagues, then just take players that are the best in these other leagues.

    We can talk about the Austria League coefficient and blah blah, but the games look like MLS games. EPB has taken a step in development and is standing out. Antonee Robinson likewise, around took a step this winter and had taken another lately. Wigan is not a great team, but he is making Team of the Month. Which is probably harder to do from a bad team.

    Anyone over 23 in MLS isn't that exciting, but anyone under that that sticks out is interesting.

    If Morales was 21, I would think he more interesting. When he was 21, we had better players. The drop in talent from 2015-2018 is staggering.
     
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  6. tomásbernal

    tomásbernal Member+

    Sep 4, 2007
    Club:
    Portland Timbers
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Maybe it's because Lima was on the far side and, without commentary, it was hard to tell where he was. Nonetheless, I was impressed by TT in the first half.
     
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  7. Excellency

    Excellency Member+

    LA Galaxy
    United States
    Nov 4, 2011
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Almeyda wants a good target forward
     
  8. Patrick167

    Patrick167 Member+

    Dortmund
    United States
    May 4, 2017
    Sorry. MLS builds their rosters very differently than any other league. The best 2-3 players on many MLS teams could play at WB. But WB has 10-15 players that would displace the other players on the roster.

    But those players are mostly midfielders and defenders. But those positions are important.
     
  9. Patrick167

    Patrick167 Member+

    Dortmund
    United States
    May 4, 2017
    You understand the problems with small samples in a low scoring sport? That bad coaching is bad coaching?

    Is the Honduran League better than MLS? No. Is the roster of Seattle better than Olympia? Of course. Seattle has 15 players that would be the best player on Olympia. But I watched the CCL, Olympia beat them over two legs! So, logic and bigger samples be damn, Olympia beat the MLS Champs so the level can't be that different.

    At least, that is your argument.

    I guess Olympia of Honduras is better than Werder Bremen then too.
     
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  10. Patrick167

    Patrick167 Member+

    Dortmund
    United States
    May 4, 2017
    Lima and the RB send in a lot of crosses that are nowhere near as team mate. TT is ok. He had so much hype, but he can't beat anyone on the dribble that I can see. Yueill makes the open pass, but anytime he had a chance to break the back line with a pass he fails.

    Morris, non-factor 67' in. Roldan not much to write about except missing a 1 v 1.

    Like the Philly game, game is really slowing down.
     
  11. tomásbernal

    tomásbernal Member+

    Sep 4, 2007
    Club:
    Portland Timbers
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Players are dropping like flies. Everyone seems to have the same cramps. I understand that the ESPN Wide World of Sports location has advantages but, f*ck, maybe pick a place that isn't the worst to play these games in the height of summer?
     
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  12. Ghost

    Ghost Member+

    Sep 5, 2001
    At the moment MLS has the national spotlight all to itself, it has about 2 1/2 ounces of star power. So we get ESPN highlights of 1-0 games with the anchors flummoxed by how to pronounce Ruidiaz.
     
  13. largegarlic

    largegarlic Member+

    Jul 2, 2007
    That’s a good point. I watched the first half and thought Thompson was good too, but maybe that it is because he was on the near side. I also thought Mueller looked good for Orlando the other night after watching the second half when he was on the near side. It is hard to identify players on the far side.
     
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  14. Excellency

    Excellency Member+

    LA Galaxy
    United States
    Nov 4, 2011
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Espinoza and TT duplicate.
     
  15. tomásbernal

    tomásbernal Member+

    Sep 4, 2007
    Club:
    Portland Timbers
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I didn't hear it but I can only imagine how Twellman assured that it's supposed to be pronounced incorrectly. That turd will never allow another fart in the vicinity to be acknowledged.
     
  16. Ghost

    Ghost Member+

    Sep 5, 2001
    No it was on SportsCenter.
     
  17. LuckofLichaj

    LuckofLichaj Member+

    Mar 9, 2012
    Davy Klaasen was better than Roma Bradley before this year. I’m shocked that Klaasen is only 27. Played like he was 35 this season
     
  18. DHC1

    DHC1 Member+

    Jun 3, 2002
    NYC
    the problem, as usual, is that people compare performances against major league players to ones who are competing at a lower level. It’s apples and oranges
     
  19. Calling BS

    Calling BS Member+

    Orlando City
    United States
    Jan 25, 2020
    Your the one that made the claim that many of the WB players are DPs and some would surely be best XI players. Do you have any actual proof of these players in a large sample size to prove this?( I say this knowing you don’t). I shared the most recent proof that stated otherwise. This was two games, where neither team was able to dominate play. This was not some overwhelmed team trying to hold on against a superior side. I would suspect that over the two legs the expected goals would be very close.
    So here’s my stance. I’m reasonably enough to understand a team of lesser quality can knock off a better team in a one-off and even less so in a home-away series. It’s less probable that a team of less quality can play two games straight up with a team of a supposed higher quality. It can happen, but it shouldn’t happen often. I didn’t see the Seattle - Olympia tie. Where the games evenly played? Or did Olympia dominate? I can’t tell you anything about Olimpia’s Quality compare to Seattle’s. Not sure what this has to do with Olympia vs Bremen.
    In response to the league comment, you won’t find me stating one league vs another in any quantitative way. I think it’s shortcuts taken by people who don’t want to honestly measure players. These leagues have huge disparities with in them, and players shouldn’t be lumped together as a particular quality based on that. I also understand the disparities among players on the same team. I understand that a player on Aston Villa could be better than a player on Arsenal. I also understand that a team in a Honduran league can be better than a team in MLS. I also understand that that doesn’t mean on league is better than another one. I’m not even sure how one quantifies such a statement. I can see different ways in which the arguments could be made.
    I find you as a reasonable poster who I agree with more than not. Hopefully you can see how and why I disagree with your statements about WBs players even if you don’t agree.
    I’m more interested your coaching argument. I don’t disregard it. I’m curious, how many levels can you see a player drop by being miss-coached? And what are the implications for this when gauging a players worth versus another one?
     
  20. Calling BS

    Calling BS Member+

    Orlando City
    United States
    Jan 25, 2020
    I think this is the core cause of where we disagree on some things. My view is just because Yueill has space to take 5 touches on the ball in his defensive third doesn’t mean he needs to. If he was pressed could he acclimate his game to deal with that? How long would it take if he could? Could it be instant? We don’t know. We shouldn’t make assumptions. There are clues we can look at, like when he’s further up the pitch and he does get pressed. How does he handle it? Also we can throw him into a camp and see how he deals with it in comparison to those playing in leagues that do chose to press.
     
  21. Calling BS

    Calling BS Member+

    Orlando City
    United States
    Jan 25, 2020
    And when we get a chance to see apples to apples, we are told it’s a small sample size and to not pay attention to the man behind the curtain.
     
  22. DHC1

    DHC1 Member+

    Jun 3, 2002
    NYC
    Huh? The better team won as it has over 80% of the time in home/home over a decade. That clearly shows that the 3rd worst team in B1 is clearly better than the third best team in B2. It’s right there in front of us.

    the better team took care of business instead of going for style points or trying to send a message like Arena did at TNT when he tried to show how good MLS is.
     
  23. tomásbernal

    tomásbernal Member+

    Sep 4, 2007
    Club:
    Portland Timbers
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Yeah, it's kind of a catch-22, so we should all just assume that the guy in in Europe is better than the guy in MLS.

    (this is tongue in cheek)
     
  24. DHC1

    DHC1 Member+

    Jun 3, 2002
    NYC
    We don’t know but as with most minor leaguers across any sport, it’s the exception of those who can step up when the level rises.

    therefore, it’s wiser to assume that they can’t until the show the ability. Conversely, we know clearly whether players who maintain their spot at a big 4 bottom dwellers over several years can hang at a higher level.

    that’s why many posters here are more interested in the best [10] under 22 than in the Best XI/All-star players and get dumbfounded when Gregg builds his team around older players who aren’t even close to Best XI Status.

    In other words, the argument that Pomykal is better than Morales for the USMNT is one that can be made as Paxton is a young rising talent that hopefully has higher aspirations but NFW is Roldan in that conversation. Same with Trapp, Bradley, etc.
     
  25. DHC1

    DHC1 Member+

    Jun 3, 2002
    NYC
    the flip side of this, my friend, is that we have posters who seemingly believe that lletget is comparable to a guy who has earned a true rotational (at a minimum) spot for BVB.

    tongue sticking out.
     

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