Less than a week out from the opening kick of the season. Now seems a decent time to get a sense of what the rest of the league is looking like, ie spout off my ill informed opinions and predictions. For the East specifically, I believe the top contenders besides Columbus are Miami and Cincinnati, with sleepers Atlanta and New England. Ive seen some people trying to say Miami is a mess, they're over the hill, the roster cant hold up. But come on. Its Messi. Writing his team off in preseason seems foolish. They are going to win a lot of games. For the rest of the playoff field I believe Montreal and Chicago will have bounce back years, Nashville and Philly fall off, and Orlando/NYC/NYRB all scrap around the playoff line. DC and Toronto stay in the basement where they belong. The West will continue being much worse than the East. Give me Seattle winning it pretty convincingly, and being in the shield race. I think St Louis drops off a cliff. I dont care enough about the rest of the conference to say anything else other than Austin will be absolute dog water again, which is fun.
Orlando signing a DP striker Luis Muriel at age 32 seems like a win now move. A 3 year deal at that and McGuire is back. They play a 4-2-3-1 and have lots of talent and still a major contender to win the East. They also picked up Loderio who will start and an upgrade from Pereyra.
Cincinnati swapping Mosquera for Robinson should be a smooth transition if he is healthy. I mean I would have like to had Robinson over Camacho any day of the week. Baird for Vazquez is meh but he might gel with the team better mainly paired with Boupendza. Hopefully it backfires for them. They already lost Arias and Barreal is leaving in summer. Seems to me Orlando is better than FCC
Minnesota hiring a 31 year old Man U assistant https://m.startribune.com/minnesota...-mls-loons/600344531/?clmob=y&c=n&clmob=y&c=n Miami got rid of Gregore and others but now want Escobar from Houston.
Kai Wagner is back early due to having "completed the leagues new restorative practices program. Now, I have nothing but respect for anyone who can sit through whatever that program entails - one can only shudder in horror - but Wagner hasn't been cured of being an asshole. Wagner received a three-game suspension in November during last season's playoffs after allegations he used a racial slur against New England Revolution forward Bobby Wood. The suspension was supposed to extend one game into this season, but MLS announced Monday that Wagner had completed the league's new restorative practices program.
Philly brought Wagner & Bedoya back but didn’t really add anyone. They will still be very good with Blake.
Barreal out at Cincy. That will benefit us quite a bit I would think. More on #allforcincy sending Alvaro Barreal out on loan: https://t.co/tio7ZEDQEp via @enquirer— Pat Brennan (@PBrennanENQ) February 20, 2024
I thought he was already going to be done this summer. Anyone know the whole story of what’s going on with this ?
The Crew broke them. Hate to see it. And why now? After his desired move abroad didn’t materialize as expected, it became clear Barreal no longer wanted to play for FC Cincinnati, per multiple sources. https://t.co/RsMTHQpGGu— Pat Brennan (@PBrennanENQ) February 20, 2024
The first match preview is here! Let the slobbery begin! https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/lionel-messi-how-to-watch-stream-inter-miami-vs-real-salt-lake
Replacement ref has been ok so far. Apparently he’s Spanish, there’s been a couple soft calls, but other than that nothing objectionable.
This Audi commercial is gonna make me lose my mind this season, I already know. It’s worse than how will I know
Miami looks good on the front foot, absolutely snowflake fragile on the back foot. A better team than RSL easily gets a draw tonight, possibly even a win. I didn’t see Suarez sprint once the entire game.
At least it isn't GovX, Phil Swift selling FlexWhatever, Kim Kardashian hawking underwear or Kars4Kids.
Watching the game last night made me excited to play them. Based on what I saw from Miami, our attack will absolutely feast on their defense. The big name guys definitely looked old as well, but they were still able to spring into attack very effectively when they wanted to. Just look at the second goal they scored near the end of the game. Messi actually hit top speed on the break for one of the only times during the game and you saw how deadly he can be. I think they are still working out some kinks in their attack, but will end up being one of the more dangerous attacks once they get going. Also, Gressel looked bad. Really bad. He was playing more centrally which doesn't suit him very well, but my goodness. He's going to play himself straight to the bench.