Palmeiras emprestou Lucas Esteves ao Colorado Rapids, da MLS. O alviverde receberá uma compensação financeira. pic.twitter.com/MCA2TpW3FY— Rony da Depressão (@deprepalmeiras) July 28, 2021 This tweet claims he’s being loaned to the Rapids.
Left-back Lucas Esteves, formed in #Palmeiras Youth Academy, was called to join #Brazil national team in their #CopaAmerica2021 campaign. He replaces #AtleticoMadrid defender Renan Lodi, who has a hip injury.21-y.o. Esteves debuted at #Verdao in 2019 and has 1 goal in 27 matches pic.twitter.com/BYpRAXMXdo— Palmeiras California (@PalmeirasCali) June 30, 2021
Wrote a thing about whether big-allocation-money trades within MLS are worth it in the wake of Colorado's acquisition of Mark-Anthony Kaye. In short? Yes, particularly over the last few years (unless you're Cincinnati... sorry for the stray, Cincy)https://t.co/kGS0t2u9af— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) July 29, 2021
I still really wish we'd boost the squad with good CB and a clinical #9, but credit to Padraig for securing replacements for two players that are very likely to leave. In the past we'd just let key players leave, act surprised, and scramble to find anybody, overpay for a stopgap, then take multiple years to sufficiently address the problem. I'm glad that will not be the case if Acosta and Vines leave by the end of the year.
Rapids just traded $50K in GAM for a backup striker.... Wait for it.... Wait for it.... Welcome back Dominique Badji! (Nashville will get an additional $50K of GAM if we re-sign him for 2022)
BTW now that Badji is back we've traded $150K in GAM, an international spot for a year, and a first round pick for Kellyn Acosta, Clint Irwin, and Andre Shinyashiki. That's a steal at twice the price.
Bright side, more souvenir balls (I know you can't keep them) for the crowd at top of stands behind goals.
BTW, I know there seems to be a push that we need a CB, but I don't think so. Or at least, we have bigger needs. Once we have a LB replacement for Vines we have 3 MLS-quality CB's (Abubakar, Wilson, and Trusty) and a good knowledgeable veteran to bring off the bench to close out games (Moor). Only 5 teams have conceded less goals than us and that's coming off a match where we just conceded almost 20% of our goals allowed this season. We've had 3 bad defensive games (Austin, SKC, and FSL) where we gave up 9 of our 16 goals this season. Coincidentally 2 of those games were without Acosta in the middle and the third was one of the games with the mistaken 5-3-2 experiment. IMO the defensive issues we've seen don't show we need another CB. They show we need more bite in or midfield so our CB's don't have to deal with wave after wave of attacks. Kaye will hopefully help that.
Not exactly what I had in mind...but at least it means we'll start seeing game day rosters with more than 2 forwards. Trusty is the best of the 3 MLS-quality options we have. Abubakar has great athleticism and reasonably good recovery speed, but his brain periodically turns off. Wilson has reasonably good positioning and good distribution, but is painfully slow. Yes, he has been playing better this year, and yes, he isn't ludicrously overpaid anymore, but I still think he wouldn't start for most other teams in the league. I agree that our defense is better when our midfield is more effective. I can live without a CB upgrade right now if we reliably have someone in the midfield that is able to support the back line, whether thats Acosta or Kaye. If we don't have somebody in the midfield that can do that, I think an upgrade at CB is a more immediate need.
Agreed. All reports (Sam S. at the Athletic is the strongest one) are that Acosta isn't going anywhere anytime soon. We'll have to deal with a diminished midfield during WCQ's as Acosta will likely be called up for the U.S. and Kaye for Canada, but that's life in a roster/salary capped league. Outside of that I think we've got a pretty solid defense at this point. If we don't get a real striker option this window it has to be our #1 (and really only) priority this offseason.
A report here that Penarol in Uruguay is interested in Rubio. https://www.adnradio.cl/futbol/2021...-KJZ2FYgMtboR6CsCy8eqUPGR92vMeffkBtcHu6Wp2KeE
One of my sisters after Badji put one over the top after getting behind the defense, "he just Deshorned it." I'll remember that one for a while.
FYI I signed up for Fraser's regular press availability today, with Padraig Smith joining him this week. It just started, I'll post anything of note that comes out (if anything).
"Nothing finalized" on the Vines deal but discussions going on. Editorial note, I've heard that its essentially at the dot the i's, cross the t's stage.
LOL, Robin was asked how he thinks his new midfield stacks up against the rest of the league. His response "I don't spend time looking at that".
Rubio questionable for Saturday but Fraser is hopeful Sounds like even if he wasn't suspended Wilson wouldn't be able to go, but possibly the team will be back to full strength by SKC next week. And that's it. Conference just ended.
Did nobody ask about the contract discussion between Robin and Padraig? That's kinda what I'm most worried about, lol
What I've heard is not to be worried. Sounds like TFC asked about Fraser because they knew they had to be seen to be doing due diligence on their coaching search but all sides knew it was just a pro forma request. They're getting Fraser a new deal because he's earned it, not because they're worried that he's looking elsewhere. (BTW, apparently KSE is also working on a new deal for Padraig Smith)
FS1 ran a little bit on Acosta before the Semi final game tonight (starts in 15 mins) also mention he is looking to use his gold cup performance to move to Europe.
My head is spinning. Seems that if I am every time I'm away from the internet/twitter there is a move made by the Rapids. Last night getting ready for bed there are there's a tweet about Esteves. Then this morning I was out for a but and come back to the Badji news. Of course the other day it was the MAK acquisition. Got to hand it to Pádraig, he really didn't stay the status quo. He's working to make give Fraser players that he can work with to make the playoffs this season and hopefully going beyond the first round. I see Badji as giving a bit of depth behind Rubio but not a big time goal scorer. It will be interesting to see how he works in Fraser's system, in particular the high press. He could do some damage in pressing and forcing turnovers. My guess is that the the pending acquisition of Esteves will wrap up this window for the Rapids. Still, it seems that the last big piece for the Rapids would be finding a real serious scoring threat 9. It's not going to happen now, but perhaps Pádraig can work his magic in the winter window.
Kellyn Acosta coming in and completely disrupting the Qatar PK. It’s absolutely hilarious how he’s baited the Ref and Qatar, and he even got a Qatar player to get a card lol. Fingers crossed it works! And… PK IS SKIED OVER THE BAR. I fully put that PK miss on Acosta. That was brilliantly, subtly, sneaky disruption of the PK.
For those not watching, he didn’t take any dives. All he did was talk to the ref. Stemming from that was a shoving match, a yellow card for Qatar, and a missed PK by Qatar