I’ve soured on Penedo considering the way he left. I put a little blame on him for the Galaxy not repeating in 2015.
I blame the club more than him. He wanted his contract extended and we wouldn't extend it. Extending it would have been the smart move. If Penedo is in goal for the rest of the season we probably win MLS Cup.
True, but the club had already renegotiated his contract at the beginning of the season. He was playing well for LA, but he wasn’t the best goal keeper in the league and he wasn’t putting in performances that warranted a second contract renegotiation in the span of four months. Jaime’s immediate post-Galaxy career goes a long way to showing which side acted in better faith that summer. If LA wanted to they could have told him to suck it up and see out his contract or try to trade/transfer him. Instead they cancelled the contract and allowed him to negotiate without another team having to worry about a transfer fee or giving up one of their players.
There's probably blame on both sides. Penedo could have handled it better but I do think Bruce consistently undervalued him.
Maybe. Bruce and the front office thought enough of him to give him a 30% raise from $135K to $178K which made him the 8th highest paid goal keeper in the league. Eighth might be a bit low, but at the same time the guys who were ahead of him had been in the league for years and been the beneficiary of MPLU annual raises. For the record and not in order: Bill Hamid Donovan Ricketts Steve Clark Sean Johnson Dan Kennedy David Ousted Nick Rimando Of those Hamid, Johnson and Rimando were marquee/franchise players. I think Hamid was even a DP at that point. Honestly the whole thing just rubs me the wrong way. Sitting out early games of the season until you get a new contract was frustrating as a fan, that he got a $40K raise and came back four months later and asking for more. Just struck me as greedy and having a massively overinflated sense of how much he was worth. I can’t think of another player in any league of any value to a team who’s asked to renegotiate a contract that soon after agreeing to such a big raise, especially without having done anything special to warrant a renegotiation. Even Zlatan who likely deserved a mid-season contract waited until the end of the season.
You might be (probably are) right. I don't remember all the details but I think Penedo's version was that he mainly wanted an extension rather than another raise. Also he had an outstanding 1.09 GAA (not all his doing but still very impressive). Anyway I liked Penedo so I am probably giving him the benefit of the doubt. He wasn't that big and his goal kicks sucked but when he was on the field he gave it his all and made a lot of spectacular saves. It didn't help that Bruce did such a poor job with his replacements. Losing Penedo killed that season and gk has been a major weak spot since.
Yep it was an extension, but an extension is still a form of compensation/reward. The time to negotiate for an extension was at the time of the raise. He could have asked for a smaller raise and an extra year. It’s a bit like asking your boss for a raise then four months later asking for an additional two weeks off per year. That said, yeah Bruce did a terrible job replacing him. As others have mentioned for a former goal keeper Bruce did a remarkably poor job of managing that position. I’d go so far as to say it was the one position he consistently failed at and the bright spots of Penendo and Ricketts v1 look like dumb luck in hindsight. I also like Penedo a lot. I thought he could have been a franchise player like Gato or Rimando. If he’d been a little more patient and a little less greedy I think it would have worked out for club and player.
IIRC, Penedo was great at making stops during the run of play, but wasn't very good at taking charge of the box on set pieces and corner kicks in particular.
Yep his small stature prevented him from controlling the air on ck's* and fk's but his shot stopping and smart positioning in general more than made up for it. He always had a 70%+ save rate and his career 1.09 GAA is reportedly 3rd best in league history for players with 50+ games. Some of the credit for the low GAA goes to the defense in front of him, but a lot of it was him. As an example in Penedo's final season with us (2015) he played 16 games and gave up 19 goals. With the same defense Ricketts and Rowe together played 18 games and gave up 27 goals. * I used to overestimate the danger of opponent ck's until I looked at the data. From a few studies I've seen teams across leagues tend to score once every 35-50 corner kicks, and this number includes all corner kick situations, not just direct scores (so flick ons, short corners, etc that yield goals are counted in this). Assume a typical MLS team takes an ave of 5 ck's/gm (just a guess, but prob not too far off). That would translate into 170 ck's and 3-5 goals per season. If we assume Penedo is only 75% as good at as a typical keeper at preventing scores from corners - that would mean this deficit would cost about 1 or 1.5 goals per season. Small potatoes when compared to the many goals he saves with his overall superior shot stopping abilities.
“As far as I am concerned, I am a San Antonio FC player right now, so what’s most important to me is how San Antonio performs every day.”We caught up with @brjIV on joining the squad and his mentality as the season approaches. STORY: https://t.co/21zqGt8Aac #Defend210 pic.twitter.com/yaiuuzQfAv— San Antonio FC (@SanAntonioFC) February 27, 2019 Hopefully we can see him again soon playing in MLS for San Antonio
.@LAGalaxy alumni news: Former Defender of the Year Leonardo, a member of three MLS Cup champions, has signed with USL side @orangecountysc— Kevin Baxter 🇺🇦🏳️🌈 (@kbaxter11) March 12, 2019
In less positive alumni news..... https://www.latimes.com/sports/ucla...ylzbm9vr3bogMxgllj6oQmryBHC1lLt5CvM53awWtEEt4 Sigh....
This whole thing reminded me of a scene from the Rocky and Bulwinkle movie. I can't recall what they get arrested for, but they are brought into court where Whoopi Goldberg plays the judge. She looks up from her papers and breaks into a big grin and says, as I recall, "you are Rocky and Bullwinkle! You are celebrities! The law doesn't apply o celebrities!"
What the hell is with this indoor soccer league? I never knew about it until Landon signed. Had this been common before for big names to head there? What are they offering these guys?
The very first soccer game I attended in America was a San Diego Sockets game that was back in 1980. I don't know about big names going there to retire, but in the early days of MLS some of the bigger indoor stars were signed to MLS. Preki probably being the most notable. //edit whatever happened to Preki?
Apparently Preki is an assistant coach for Seattle. I had to look it up--my curiosity got the best of me!
I've been wanting to check out arena soccer for some time, now I feel I have a reason to go. Getting to see the GOAT play more soccer? Arena soccer is a North American peculiarity, as its even a unique game from futsal. But the sport has sustained a fanbase and even various national pro and semi-pro leagues sporadically for 40-50 years. MASL apparently even has a development league. It's just odd that arena soccer culture and "regular" soccer culture in this country have so rarely overlapped. But I guess that's something like beach soccer. Don't people know the United States are Beach soccer World Cup finalists!?
My good friend plays the organ for the San Diego Sockers. I saw him yesterday and he said the games are a fun time. Apparently LD will be playing in upcoming away games -
Apparently, Marcelo Sarvas is going for his A senior coaching license with USSF. Excited to be at the National Development Center for meeting 2 of the @ussoccer A Senior License. Always a great opportunity to learn from other quality coaches. pic.twitter.com/8gsICXsgxN— Nathan Thackeray (@NathanThackeray) March 24, 2019
Great video, but the coolest part? Our own Robbie Keane comes in at number 6! One of my favorite Keane goals ever (although they confuse him with ROY!) Around the 5th minute.
Keane-o still magic That finish and celebration... 🔥😍 Take a bow, Keano! 👏📽️ LIVE ▶️ https://t.co/JryCa1tPBp ⚪️ #THFC 2-1 #Inter 🔵 pic.twitter.com/PxyVpXPTyx— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) March 30, 2019