Since we've wondered about a rebrand here too, here's The Guardian wondering why MLS teams seem so keen on rebranding when its rare elsewhere in the world.
A lot (in fact, most) of the clubs the guardian is referencing that don't go through rebrands have been around for years on end - especially in England/UK. They are part of the fabric of those cities/areas. For a lot, they represent a historical aspect of the area. If not, they've survived long enough that they have now created it. A majority of those clubs didn't originate in a world anywhere close to what MLS clubs did/do. That's all without mentioning the massive cultural differences that exist between American sports and anywhere else in the world. I'm fine if RSL doesn't rebrand, but I also wouldn't be opposed to it bar a horrific name/color scheme that is somehow worse than what we currently have.
This Wed is the end of the Brasileirão season, and everyone is expecting that Mateus Vital will not be back to Corinthians. From the perspective of many fans, they feel he has underperformed, and are anxious to get rid of him. Mostly that's an emotional response, as other fans acknowledge the talent (and market value) that he brings. Corinthians are expecting a significant amount of rebuilding in the offseason as their 10th place standings isn't sitting well with the club leadership. It's pretty typical for South American teams to make wholesale changes when they've had unsuccessful seasons.
This talk of Corinthians just reminds me how irritated I am that RSL seems to have burned all bridges with Argentine teams. Seems they all go to Atlanta. I remember fondly the Morales, Espindola, Mantilla trifecta. I guess we still have 1 with Ruiz, but it feels like a lot of those channels are closed.
The RSL Argentine connection didn't really have anything to do with relationships with clubs. They all came through one man, Alejandro Taraciuk. Kreis and Lagerwey had a close relationship with him. Those were the days of wild, wild west when it came to international scouting and there were very limited connections across the league to make this kind of deals work, so Taraciuk was a huge asset. Now the league is becoming more of a destination league, and some teams have very sophisticated scouting mechanisms in place (although certainly not RSL).
Ochoa, Glad, and Herrera - plus Saucedo and Soto and Lennon - are on the preliminary roster for Olympic qualifying. Malik Johnson (a new signing with the Monarchs) is on Canada's preliminary roster, and Douglas is on Honduras' roster.
Lets assume the Olympics actually happen: - Final roster of 20 is announced on March 8 - Qualifiers are March 18-30 in Mexico - Should the US qualify, Olympics run July 21 - August 7 It is worth noting that this 48 man roster can be tapped into up to a day before the first qualifier game in the case of an injury or something significant. I personally expect Ochoa and Herrera to be on the 20 player list, but expect Glad to be on the outside given the depth at CB - even with the likely "MLS Only" limitation presented. Should the US qualify, we're very seriously looking at two key players missing the majority of preseason and then a month of play in the season, given the team will likely be required to quarantine and have camp ahead of the actual start date. This just further amplifies the crazy decisions by Elliott Fall to fill this roster to all but two spots (assuming the Dewsnup loan). Does anyone think, should we lose Ochoa and, especially, Herrera, that this team won't be the worst in the league? He's our most promising defender and a very influential part of transition. Without him, we're looking at a Toia on the left and then one of these guys: Morgan, Powder, Halsey, or Brody stepping in. That's... not good enough.
The biggest issue with losing Lennon, is that our CB pairing is weak. Silva and Glad, both inconsistent mentally (more of an issue with Silva), are not a solid pair. I'll let 15to32 go through the analytics of their performances when paired together. We could handle taking the time to get one of these new guys time to adjust to the league if the CBs and LB plus GK were on the same page. It isn't like any of our keepers have really established themselves as the defensive leader. Nicky was pretty special in that sense. Not a lot of GK's command that kind of respect from their defense. 2021 gonna be UGLY. EMBRATSU!!!
On one hand, I'd love to see all of them make it. On the other, it's likely that Glad won't and Ochoa's been injured in the last two camps. So, we probably don't have to see the atrocious lack of depth behind Glad and it's probably good to have Putna and MacMath on the roster. However, it's might be worse behind Herrera. Morgan and Powder are LBs. Brody and Halsey are RBs. Maybe Brody can fill in ala Chang last year, that's best case scenario. One question that nobody is asking Elliot, why does the team have SIX! outside backs and only THREE! CBs on the roster? Also, it seems like the roster is mostly up to date here. https://www.mlssoccer.com/rosters/2020/real-salt-lake There should be 2 international slots available and 2 senior roster spots, what a coincidence. Martinez and maybe Putna should be senior roster spots?
Good catch on the update to the roster. It's interesting that Rusnak isn't counted as an international anymore - I don't remember any announcement from the club on that - but Silva is still an international. I'd have thought, given how long Silva has been here (2017 - same year as Rusnak), he'd have completed that by now. Though, that site says we have 6 of 7 slots filled. I'm guessing they aren't including the slot we traded for with LAFC yet, for whatever reason. Also, why isn't Halsey part of the "30-man active roster"? I know GA cap hits are 0, but I thought they still counted against your roster...? Edit: That would be because, as currently constructed, RSL doesn't have any room on the supplemental roster. In fact, we're over (see below comment) already and so would need to not only loan Dewsnup to the Monarchs, but also shift one of these four players to the senior roster: Holt, Portillo, Putna, or Schmitt. What that does is take away that much cap space for the team. Which, honestly, shouldn't be that much for any of those guys. But it's such a weird decision by Fall to fill in the back end of the roster past the brim... In fact, you'll notice a weird thing in the Supplemental Roster Slots (25-30) portion as we have nobody listed as slot 27 and 28, but have players from 29-33. What the ******** is going on with this roster?! Oh, and could there be a more MLS Roster Rules header than this: Supplemental Slots 25-30 (7 of 6 slots filled) Last edit (I swear) it is worth remembering that Bobby Wood is not on this roster yet. By all accounts that deal is final just needs to be negotiated on when Wood will actually join the team. He'll occupy a senior roster slot, no doubt. So that'll put us at 18 of 20 senior roster spots filled, once the supplemental roster situation is ironed out
Rusnak got his green card well over a year ago - I think early 2019. Having too many developmental roster players is not an issue - it's easy to bump a contract up to sr. roster - happens a lot. Those players don't seem to ever mind the additional benefits that come with a sr. roster agreement. You just can't go the other direction if the player doesn't meet the supplemental/developmental requirements. However, I think that's very symbolic of this team - a lot of players signed, but thin on starter quality players. All of the calls for signing more youngsters drives me a bit bonkers - this roster has too many underqualified youngsters (and unproven oldsters) IMO. Give me an experienced 28 yo player (or two) who has experience playing at a high level, please.
This is why the rumor about a Miguel Ibarra signing is troubling. Ibarra is thirty and played 250 minutes last season. We have those 250 minute a year guys who we need to get experience that Ibarra ought not get in their stead.
an experienced 28yo player with experience isn't going to be cheap. In fact, with where we especially need that kind of player (up top/CB) it quickly gets into the TAM/DP level. Ironically, when you look at the age breakdown of our team, some of the least... exciting? players fall into the 26-29 range (see below). These should be key starters, like you mention, not guys that fill out the roster. Within the group you have two actual starters (Rusnak and Toia) with both being underwhelming in their roles. You could throw Wood or Chang in there, but they don't really scream "experience at a high level" like we need. Putna (26) Rusnak (26) Besler (27) Portillo (28) Toia (28) Wood (28) Chang (29) MacMath (29) In fact, a fun exercise of this roster that I haven't seen broken down yet is the age brackets. Setting up a roster to not be overly reliant on veterans, nor too young to get blown apart for being naïve - though my personal beliefs in giving young players chances is well known. I see a roster broken into four parts listed out below. Obviously players age at different rates and different positions are more adaptable to an older player, but in a general sense you can't rely too heavily on any one bracket otherwise you're being too short-sighted or not giving adequate support. Here is the 29-man current roster breakdown: Youth (age Teen-21) Dewsnup (16) Garcia (18) Davis (19) Ramirez (19) Ochoa (20) Iloski (21) Young Professionals (age 22-25) Powder (22) Halsey (22) Ruiz (22) Schmitt (23) Martinez (23) Herrera (23) Glad (23) Holt (24) Rubin (24) Brody (25) Prime of Career (age 26-29) Rusnak (26) Putna (26) Besler (27) Portillo (28) Toia (28) Wood (28) Chang (29) MacMath (29) Veteran/Old (age 30-up) Morgan (30) Silva (31) Kreilach (31) Luiz (32) Meram (32)
I don't really want to completely fill the roster before training camp, but I'd rather have Bobby Wood and a starting level CB on the roster at the start of camp. Figure out how to open a roster spot later. I don't like that concept. Sure wish someone would ask Elliot about it.
If cheap is the goal, this team is screwed, and I'm afraid that might in fact be the goal absent a new owner. This team needs top-side talent, not bottom-dwellers on the roster - plenty of those there already. We've got one legit DP (Rusnak), one quasi-youth DP (Jeizon), and not a lot of other players requiring GAM/TAM juggling to meet budget.
Andy Williams (Head Coach for Pre-College Development Academy Arizona) and Tyrone Marshall (FCC U-19 Head Coach) have officially left RSL. https://www.rslsoapbox.com/2021/2/2...-marshall-leaves-fc-cincinnati-u19-head-coach https://www.rslsoapbox.com/2021/2/2...p-andy-williams-drops-a-bombshell-on-rsl-fans Discuss.
Honest to god, what is going on with the Andy Williams situation? The club remains mute on it while Andy has voiced his disappointment. It's... weird. I've heard rumblings of issues with Andy - some that would be grounds for termination a couple times over - but the way to handle that isn't to just essentially ghost the guy and act like he isn't part of things as a club publicly. The Marshall one is one you can't help but understand. It's very similar to the Henry situation where we are seeing just how much of an impact the 2020 season had on these professionals. If you had a family, and especially if you were part of a Canadian team, that had to be the hardest year of your career. In the years under Marshall, our defense had some crazy variations in terms of performance, so I'm not going to say he's a big miss. However, he knows the league both as a player and a manager. This staff is very slim on that kind of experience. I'm really curious who will be tapped to step into that role.
I appreciate everything Andy has done for the organization. But I've also heard about the 2nd and 3rd chances he's been given and he seems to routinely air his dirty laundry on social media so it's hard to make heads or tails of his departure. He's definitely bitter and is playing the victim but without the organization's side of the story it's hard to pass judgement on either side.
‘Deal on the table’ for naming rights to Real Salt Lake stadium "Here at the Visible Supply Chain Management Stadium, the battle hymn's begun..."
the VSCM! It is weird to me that Rio Tinto wouldn't want to re-up given their presence here. Their share price has been solid, with projections of it to go higher. They've always had negative press, you tend to get that when you're a mining company, so maybe I'm missing a scandal. Shrug. As long as their is actual soccer in there with a new ownership, call it the Harmons Sandy stadium location, I don't care.
All the good will afforded by Andy's playing days and his wife's medical issues was eventually more than offset by the afore-not-mentioned issues that should have gotten him fired years ago. I'm still thinking he chose to talk out about DeLoy's issues in a way to protect himself (if he looks like a whistleblower, it is much harder to terminate him, even for cause.) At the end of the day, I think an agreement was made between himself and the organization to let him leave and have the organization keep the reasons on the down low.
Um, Andy's comments/tweets would suggest he didn't know of this agreement. All the club has to do is say "thanks for your service" and call it a day. Not sure why they wont do that and just move on. The longer they don't say something, the louder they're saying something
Hey, Bobby Wood scored for Hamburg just minutes after being subbed on. Against a team called Wurzburger Kickers. They lost.
Can we use this as an example the next time someone says European teams only use FC, United, Athletic, etc., for team names?
Okay I've been awol again for a couple months, distracted by a new job and new guy. Who wants to catch me up? As far as I can tell, I've missed a whole lot of nothing happening.