I guess it was a season-ending injury.Their #1 GK, Steve Clark, was injured as well. Portland got to use the Extreme Hardship Waiver to sign another GK, as they only had a 19-yr-old GK available. I guess they could take Putna or MacMath?
Portland has a third option in Ivacic. No idea how good he is, but he's on a salary larger than Attinella so I'd be surprised if they didn't try him out before exploring for a trade. Maybe Portland comes and tries to get Putna, but I have my doubts. GK is a position that, most typically, you can go search the USL and find someone worth bringing in.
Nedum is one of the studio personalities on ESPN’s EURO coverage today. Is this his first time in that ESPN role?
Thx for the update. I typically DVR games and then start watching the recording about 20 minutes in so that I can fast forward thru the talking head portions.
He's been doing stuff with ESPNFC for a few months now. He's a very measured voice and brings good insight to the game. He did some of the post game stuff after the Champions League final and it was really really solid work. I find it funny that, because he's a defender and didn't feature for the English national team, they list his time in the EPL and then his time with RSL. Anyone else they would throw in their goals or assists or something. Burley, for example, gets the handful of goals and caps for Scotland stats next to him when he shows up.
Doyle's midseason review of a good thing and a bad thing for each MLS team in 2021 includes this for Atlanta: "The Good: Brooks Lennon’s season has really flown under the radar. That should not be the case, because the kid is balling. Lennon has been more than just “comfortable” as a right wingback in Gabriel Heinze’s 3-4-2-1; he has been a weapon. He has a pure attacker’s instincts, an engine that doesn’t quit and is one of the best crossers in the league, so it’s the perfect home for him. RSL had tried to convert him to an overlapping fullback a couple of years ago but it didn’t quite take -- Lennon had a propensity for pushing too far forward and leaving space in behind. That is much less of an issue with three center backs behind him, and I think he’s inarguably been Atlanta’s best attacking weapon this year."
The number of people that did the "Brooks isn't a defender" quick take and passed it off for why he shouldn't play outside back still baffles me for an area that tends to understand soccer ok. The key is about the 3-5-2, which I think RSL should honestly try.
I posted tangentially about Brooks in another thread. He wasn’t the strongest one-on-one defender. But he offered a lot offensively.
Carlos Salcedo has had some shaky moments during the Gold Cup - he was then beaten for Canada's goal in regulation - and then he stood up to take a penalty to give Mexico the lead late. It was saved. Rough day for him. I guess he was rumored to come to Houston Dynamo last offseason for something like $14m.
I don't know what they were thinking letting him take that penalty. Maybe he takes a bunch in practice but that was not a very well taken PK. Mexico looked shaky and Canada really laid out a template for the US to have some success against Mexico. Of course the US looked a bit shaky as well and Qatar laid out a template for Mexico to possibly have success against the US. I certainly hope that the final is a bit better officiated than the Mex/Can game. That could have REALLY gotten out of hand. I think Canada decided that they might actually not like someone. Fun times.
Corey Baird traded to Houston for something like $750,000 in allocation money and a 2022 international slot. Someone see’s more to his game than we did.
Well it isn't LAFC, who gave up on him pretty quickly after a hot start. But then, they are pretty good at selling high (Zimmerman and Kaye before Baird too).
If the US gets a lot of momentum late in the game the Mex fans will start chanting slurs, the refs will temporarily halt the game and the momentum will disappear just like Canada’s last night. The CONCACAF methodology of trying to address the slur chant issue is ridiculous. It does stop it and no group of fans or national team is ever really penalized.
So far Mexico will be playing the first two World Cup qualifying matches in home empty stadiums, I fully expect another ban to fans in their third match.
The RSL trade for Baird was $500K, an int'l slot AND future considerations. Wondering what those included.