Which teams seems to have made the right moves? Who will start this season with a better team overall? Any "dark horse" team that might surprise everyone? Which team seem to be worse off this season?
On whole, I think most teams have lost more than they have gained, up to this point at least. D.C. has made some nice moves, but did lose a lot as well. And probably Gomez. Galaxy got Ruiz, but lost Albright. I'd have to say, aside from San Jose, Colorado. Maybe Salt Lake. Or D.C. League wise, I'd say more talent has left than come in so far this year.
RSL have added some highly touted South Americans in Olave and Cordoba, and of course they have Mantilla, Espindola and Morales who all made an impact at the end of last season
Colorado. With 80 minutes left of buisness time before training camp opens the total moves, not counting the draft, are cutting Osorno, Thorton, Cancela, and Sanneh, trading for a left back in Burciaga, and signing an unknown American left back who's been playing in Chile since he was passed over in the draft.
To highlight this point, here was our starting lineup for the 1st preseason contest last season and our projected starting lineup this season. Preseason Game #1 --------Harris--------Cunningham -----------------Adu----------------- Ballouchy------------------------Klein ----------Kreis-------Talley------------- Forko---------Pope------------Stewart ---------------Garlick----------------- Projected Starting lineup ‘08 -------------Rimando------------ Wingert--Mantilla--Olaveson--Joy -------------Talley---------------- ----Beckerman------Cordoba---- --------------Morales-------------- -----Espindola-------Findley------- With Sturgis, Movsisyan, Andy Williams and Seitz likely to be key contributors off of the bench. Come to think of it, we were pretty close to the situation that San Jose is in. At least we know we'll retain the RMC this season.
The offseason isn't over yet, but I think the most improved is FC Dallas. Ruiz and his contact are gone, so that freed up a lot of cap space for them plus gives Toja more influence on their style of play, Denilson won't be their DP this year so they have that spot open again, and they signed Duilio Davino without using the DP spot. They still have the cap-room to make more splashes in the season, and they have a solid foundation to build off of.
I'm not buying Dallas just yet. The best case scenario is addition by subtraction and while there may be something to that, I think you have to do more than that to be considered a team that helped themselves the most. Their draft was good but none of those players will make much of a mark in 2008. Houston hasn't done a thing except lose 2 forwards (3 if you count Dalglish but he wasn't really around last year so losing him isn't that tough). There's still time but Houston needs to make some additions in the next few weeks or else they won't be nearly as strong as last year.
Is Cordoba to SLC official? Or is it one of those deals where everything is done except for the official announcement?
Just got a feeling RSL will be opening up their new stadium with a play-off game this year Could be a breakout season
I think Toronto FC could match, yes we got rid of some dead wood (Reda, Braz, Kenny, Canizalez etc) but we have not added one player besides draft picks.
That's a much better lineup than the year before... I'm just wondering what it'll take to poach Findley from your sqaud.
We did get Boswell which I think will help. Especially if we don't get any forwards since we'll live and die by our defense.
What's interesting about the posts so far is the answer appears to be "no one." (Well, except the San Jose now has players thing). I think you might be able to argue that Galaxy, of all teams, have done the best because they added a proven goal-scorer and appear to be adding a new defender soon. Based on history I trust the folks at DCU the most and believe their S. Americans will turn out the best and thus give them the best off-season. That's all based on track record though. I don't know much about the people they have brought in, just that guys like Emilio and Moreno and Gomez worked out well previously. Maybe it's just too early to tell???
Just go to the offseason roster change thread and compare the players IN to those leaving. For every team other than SJ, there are more leaving. Which means that a bunch of signings haven't happened yet. This season can't begin soon enough!
Reading the Chivas forum it doesn't seem that they agree. The answer to this question depends on how you measure it. If you take the roster now versus the end of last season thats one thing. Obviously if you take now versus the start of last season - I think it's RSL. If your taking it from the end of last season (which I assume was the intention) it's a bit tougher. Maybe we could start by naming the team's that it is not, and getting to the answer through the process of elimination. I'll start: Most improved team is not: CRapids
I think our draft picks will make a larger impact than people are assuming, so TFC's lack of news on the signing front isn't worrisome yet. James, Phelan and Balc will all end out playing some minutes, I'm guessing. That much extra depth alone would help over last year's situation. If we can sign three or four more decent performers, that little run of wins (we did manage to beat Dallas, Houston and New York last season when most of the guys were healthy) might stretch out or be repeated a few times this coming season.
No question, LA. Albright basically didn't play last year, and Ruiz is a proven commodity plus will be getting world class service. Also, Gullitt is a big big believer in conditioning - he will have them in great shape, plus he's changed their formation to be more attacking. Dallas is looking to bring in some South Americans, so we'll see, but right now Dallas is down.
If TFC can keep Lapira that's a plus. If not, they better get some transfers in. I don't see the other draftee's doing much this year.