And if Tommy's PK had been called, Philly would not have been on the road. Union are the true champs of 2022.
so Philly is smart and you expect them to kick our butts, CL isn’t smart enough to find us a another cheapo DP like Espinoza and sometimes great players are more or less impactful once they come to MLS. Brilliant stuff there Jazzy.
It's not supposed to be "brilliant". It's common sense and I stand by all of it except for your strawman "CL isn't smart enough to find another cheapo DP like Espinoza". It isn't easy to find another Espinoza. CL hasn't done it yet, but he may. Or he may sign 2 or 3 good but not necessarily great players that put lift us up a notch. We have essentially 4 cheapo DP's: Espinoza, Monteiro, Gruezo, and Mensah. One is A+ and the others are C+. We can hopefully get some B / B+ / A- DP's next. Or one of our homegrowns may turn into an MLS star of sorts, whether it's Niko or Cruz Medina, etc.
Rumor has it we were a close 2nd to getting Messi . Just for fun, what would be our lineup? He's a false 9, more or less a "luxury player" at this point. Where does he fit in. I might do something like this: 3 in the back with a 5-man midfield, Espinoza and Marie/Akapo as wingers + Messi as false 9 and Jebo as 9. ---------------------------------Jebo--------------------------- ---------------------------------Messi-------------------------- ---Marie/Akapo--Monteiro--Yueill---Espinoza--- --------------------------------Gruezo---------------------- --------Beason-----------Rodgrigues--------Mensah No place for Cade or Benji but they could sub in as wingers, or Benji as depth for Jebo's spot.
I wouldn't be in favor of that, but I don't think marketing is the main reason teams sign the Beckham's and the Messi's of the world. I think they want to win first and foremost. Would be nice to see the Quakes sign a high-profile player that anyone had ever heard of, just once though. I'm sure our marketing team would be delighted.
John Doyle tried to sign Rolando Fonseca, but Fonseca wanted $2M a year in salary, and we couldn’t go there.
Could not disagree more. Beckham and now Messi are both primarily marketing plays. Winning is secondary. In Messi's case, that is why the league and reportedly (Apple) also got involved to ensure the most competitive offer.
Supposedly Luis Suarez and Sergio Busquets will end up in Miami with Messi. I think they’ll be competitive.
I’ll eat crow on his one…never thought we’d see a move to MLS prior to the Copa, but they threw the sun, moon and stars at him. I hate the move, as I’d like to see him play for as long as possible at the highest level he can. I think it will be a circus, with him getting 99.9% of the calls…everything will be so Messi biased…and if it isn’t he’ll get incredibly frustrated. From a competitive level for himself I can’t stand seeing him come to MLS. Sounds like they’ll give him everything he wants and needs to be happy on the field…a handful of quality players he knows well and a coach who will be in alignment with his views…This whole thing is going to make the Beckham Rule seem insignificant…the hoops MLS will jump through to make sure he gets every whim delivered. Martino is a quality coach and he wouldn’t be there without Messi’s blessing. I’m curious to see how long he’ll enjoy the MLS vibe…the travel, the turf, the overall lower level reffing…lower quality starting 11 teammates….probably doesn’t matter at all this was just about money…and I honestly thought he still cared about playing competitive soccer.
Datebook: 2023 Inter Miami schedule (with Messi) July. 8 at D.C. United. 15 at Saint Louis City. 21 vs. Cruz Azul (Leagues Cup). 25 vs. Atlanta United (Leagues Cup). August. (2-16 Leagues Cup knockout phase). 20 vs. Charlotte FC, 23 *FC Cincinnati (Open Cup semifinals), 26 at NY Red Bulls. 30 vs. Nashville SC. September. 3 at LAFC. 9 vs. Sporting KC. 16 at Atlanta United. 20 vs. Toronto FC. 24 at Orlando City. (27 Open Cup final). 30 vs. NYCFC. October. 4 at Chicago. 7 vs. FC Cincinnati. 21 at Charlotte FC. (25-Dec. 9 MLS playoffs). *Venue will be determined on Thursday. Note: Secondary registration window opens July 5. FIFA fall windows are Sept. 4-12, Oct. 9-17 and Nov. 13-21. Messi ready to fire 'rocket ship' MLS by Simon Evans , COMMENTARY Messi to Miami: Timing is everything by Paul Kennedy @pkedit, Messi brings glory years in Europe to a close by Andy Scott ,
Absolutely. Money could have been spent on younger players which the general public have never heard of and the results in the table would likely be no worse. It's about pumping up the league image and making money. (That is why the league exists. If it were about true competition it would be structured more like USL.) Saudi clubs are buying their image as well except you have to add their attempt, as a country, to buy an improved image for the country as a whole through sports.
That largely didn't happen for Beckham (getting the calls and what not) and, from an on the field product standpoint, didn't mean much other than the Galaxy sucked for a few years. And the Beckham rule eventually made MLS better. I'm pretty positive on this move... Messi was one of the best players at the World Cup last year... he's still got it. I don't know how his style is going to translate in Miami and whether the on-field stuff will be a success, but I do hope it will pave a faster road for better players. I'm not looking forward to yet another game at Levi's so I probably won't go see him live if we get the scheduling gods to favor us (huge long shot), which is a shame.
Really? Levi’s is so bad you’d pass up maybe your last chance to see Messi play live? Try pedaling in - it’s great. Bike path right to the stadium. No muss, no fuss. In and out in 5 minutes, $0 for parking.
Getting there is only half the battle... the stadium experience sucks too, unless you are in the elite 50 yard line club where you can go on the field. I do hope I'll be forced into a decision though.
One thing the Beckham signing did was increase values of franchises, helped with expansion and gained the league much needed exposure. At the end of 2006, the only former superstar in the league was Youri Djorkaeff and he had just retired. So signing David was a much needed boost for MLS. Also, when Beck's signed, I believe the league only had 13 teams and now they are about to have 30. With the stadiums in place, I honestly believe that each team is now worth over $1 billion and I think it will take at least that figure if not more to start a new team in the future. Although we all hate the Galaxy and AEG, that David Beckham signing whether we want to admit it or not, helped MLS tremendously. Messi's signing could also be another huge boost. Very few leagues in the history of the sport have made the progress MLS has made in such a short period of time. If the next 5-7 years are anything what the last 15 brought to the league, there is no telling what heights the league can climb to. I think the next step the league should work on is improving quality, better sponsors and TV exposure, raising the salary caps, and bringing in better and younger foreign talent.
My seats for LAFC were great, and I have only OK seats at PPP. Only negative is if someone tall is sitting in front of you. "Steep rake" it is not. But "shallow rake" is my only complaint. Otherwise, nice stadium, easy access (for pedals), easy access to concessions and bathrooms - not sure how that would change if truly packed but it was much better at Levi's than at PPP even for a moderately attended PPP match.