I kind of forgot how the 2020 season unfolded. Let's call it missing the playoffs for 2 out of the last 4. Not sure that is much better. So far, this is not the defensive rebuild I was hoping for. Agree about Sweat and Ndenbe. Ironic that what used to be the SKC weak point on the back line is now (by far) the strongest position. I really like how Sweat ended the season and hope he will continue to improve. The second year after an ACL injury is usually when the player is back to 100 percent. Right back...not sold on Pierre yet. He has potential. That said, we all know that PV is going to play Zusi ahead of Pierre and ride Zusi until his wheels fall off completely. CB is a disaster. Unless there are additions to come, preseason starters are Ford and Fontas. That's one of the worst (and most unbalanced) CB pairs in MLS. A low technique/high athleticism player paired with a high technique, extremely low athleticism player. SKC's preseason starts Jan 6. Not much time to add players.
Good point, but both your stat and his idea can be correct. Vermes did play Zusi until he fell apart in 2022. If he hadn't had a couple injuries, do you think he'd have stayed at 54 percent?
Fair, but the delta at right back wasn't filled by Pierre. He only played 26% of the minutes. It was filled by a left back. Zusi, Sweat and Ndenbe all played similar MLS minutes and a similar number of games. Pierre played about half the minutes in a similar amount of games. Honestly, I wouldn't have a problem with a similar distribution of minutes next year. Zusi, Sweat and Ndenbe are all good outside backs. Hopefully Pierre keeps growing. I don't remember thinking that the LBs playing as RB was an issue or resulted in a big drop in quality. That can be a tough switch.
The MLS site is reporting that SKC is one of a bunch of MLS clubs interested in Matt Hedges. There is nothing about this piece that suggests were going to land him, but it says we are interested, which is interesting in that it means we are chasing another CB. The piece also talks about Long, though we aren't mentioned unless it's in the "and others" bit.
While signing Hedges wouldn't be the worst move, he is 32. Given that Peter has doubled down on anchoring (yes, pun intended) the left side with the slowest man in MLS, one would presume his right side CB partner would be of the more young and athletic type. Think Collin/Opara paired with Besler. Not Coelho paired with Besler.
More than signing Hedges, I think what is interesting about this is that we are in the game for someone like him. His Dallas salary was $900,000 this year. Usually, free agents aren't looking to make a lot less money, so, to me, being part of this discussion says that we do have about a million set aside for another CB. Hedges wouldn't be my first choice, even among MLS free agents. I rate Callens and Long above him. At that level of salary, there are quite a few very decent CBs around, and they will come in lots of different models.
Came to this thread to hopefully gather some optimism for 2023. Regret to inform, I didnt really find it. You guys are too honest. But at the very least, this made me laugh out loud. I'm the proud owner of STs for the first time since 2015 and I'm looking forward to it. Dang, I just wish we had more speed in the rear. And, correct me if wrong, but Nemanja Radoja turns 30 in February and likely wont provide much of an uptick in team speed in the middle of the park. (Though I do like the idea of freeing Remi Walter from the 6 role; and, I'm hoping we can find a 'less is more' equation for Espinoza). That all said, Im really looking forward to seeing the top of the formation play.
Counterpoint - Isi was paid $1M last year. We were already "in the game". Fontas was paid $1.1M last year. They've eliminated Isi's salary from the equation and presumptively cut Fontas' salary substantially. That should leave SKC with a lot of money (say $1.5M) to pay for a real CB.
I was worried that we weren't looking at staying at that level. We hope Fontas' new deal saved us something, but won't know until the new MLSPA numbers are out. We know we signed Radoja for something, as an excellent piece on Blue Testament estimated, probably somewhere around $800,000 to a million plus a bit, based on previous contracts of his. We know the budgets in MLS really are very weird, but we're taking a full year hit on Thommy (and Agada, but he makes nothing). I am happy to see we're still in the market. Also, does anyone know if someone is close to a green card? If not, I'm pretty sure the new CB (s) will need to either have them or be US nationals. Is that right?
Can't find the original article, so grain of salt, but a CB rumor. https://www.tuttomercatoweb.com/ser...-al-ahli-dubai-e-sporting-kansas-city-1768249
If it's "agent stirring up rumor" he's doing a good job ... because the connection isn't obvious since he's Slovakian, but if Wikipedia is to be believed, he "belongs to the Hungarian minority of Slovakia" which means he likely speaks Hungarian. Sounds like our kind of middle aged CB already.
Well. according to the blue testament piece based on this piece which was allegedly based on a corriere del sport piece which cannot be found, the price is right. free next summer, so free to negotiate now and probably be released, and looking for an MLS max salary but not a lot more than that. With his age, I am more interested in Callens or Long. I'd much, much rather make a run at EPB, whose club is 1 point above the relegation zone. etc. But hey, if he's a player, Norbert would be welcome.
I'm not going to say Chad didn't search more to try to find it, but I spent a good 30 minutes of my lunch looking for it after I came across the article I posted and shared in the TBT slack channel. Obviously Italian isn't my 1st (or 2nd, or 3rd, or 4th) language but I couldn't find anything on their site. No way they make a run at EPB who according to transfermarkt is valued $2m more than Gyomber and still has a year and a half left on his deal with Troyes. He does check a lot of the boxes PV had talked about though, specifically an experienced RCB. And he checks all the boxes we've come to expect; contract running out soonish, not super expensive, tends to have some injury issues,
I'm sure you're right, but Statista has a graph on La Ligue 1 average player salaries. PSG, $11.6 million. Troyes $.16 million. Now, he must be making better than average, but at 400 percent of average he'd be making $640,000. The problem with an average that low, you don't really get a lot of professionals at a lot less than that, meaning you don't have a lot of player that much above the mark. If by the summer EPB has not attracted a big 5 buyer, I think he very much can be had for, at least by Jan. 2024. If they do go down, i'd think he's part of the fire sale this summer. and with all that Apple TV money burning a hole in our pocket, he would be worth a thnk.
Also, interesting thought advanced on the Blue testament. It is possible we had a couple players, Fontas, Kinda, Pulido, awarded green cards within the last six months, but since that would not have mattered regarding roster compliance after roster is set day, SKC just might not bother to announce the new status.
My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty serious.
Sort of roster movement related, but USMNTProspects recently ranked the MLS academies. Categories in their criteria were mostly related to how many USMNT first team players ('04 and later) are in various youth national teams and prospects within the organization. SKC 22 out of 26. Echoes what I have been saying is the main problem with the organization. What is supposed to be the organization's primary player acquisition pathway kind of sucks in comparison to the rest of MLS.
On the other hand, there are three good teams in the top ten of that list, so it's certainly no magic bullet.
Agreed. Definitely not a silver bullet, especially if promotion within your organization is not your primary method of acquiring players. But...... if your technical director/coach comes out and says that the primary way of getting players to the first team IS the academy, then it would be good if the academy wasn't one of the worst in the league. Philly is the model. The scary ones are Atlanta and LAFC. They spend money and have a good Academy.
True. Weird how Dallas has slipped so far. I can't get a read on the metrics, because if we're talking internationals, they've got to be ahead of basically everyone in the league, right?
FWIW here's his thread about SKC. FWIW he puts a lot of the issues on bad luck and the new territory rules and teams in areas KC recruited in (NC). US-based MLS Academy Rankings.22. Sporting Kansas City.— USMNTProspects (@ProspectsUsmnt) December 7, 2022
On a separate, but related point, the list of draft eligible players came out today, including the GA list, there are 8 on the list, so at least 1 will be available when KC picks at 8. https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/mls-superdraft-2023-presented-by-adidas-eligible-player-list Also to tie it back into the academy, I count 8 that have at one time played in the academy, and I may have missed some. Abualnadi, Mohammad - DF Cruz, Sebastian - MF Gilyard, Dontell - DF Karani, Sean - FW Kendall, Karson - DF Kennedy, Sebastian - DF Klein, John - MF Knox, Roman - MF And of those 8, half played for Swope, the number is their games played for Swope. Karani 16 Cruz 8 (plus 1 playoff) Knox 7 Abualnadi 4 Also on the list is Cade Thomson, who played 11 times for SKCII this year on a pro contract.
thanks for the list. I admit, i don't know that I really understand what it means, though. What I think it means: All of these players were in the SKC Academy, but we decided against signing them to SKC or SKC 2 contracts, or they refused to sign? Because we opted out, or they refused to sign, they go into the draft, where, if we want and act before someone else, we can sign them? And, of course, after the draft, they can sign for whomever wants them (though, obviously, not very badly)? How is it possible that MLS can be so complicated at every level of roster building?