Yeah, he is. He’s not Weah or CP but he has no problems getting around the field. Staying fit and conditioned is his issue.
I need watch Luna more probably. Don't feel that getting around is an issue for him either. Also LDLT isn't a sprinter either. Besides them the only American center mid that recently played in top 4 was certifiably slow MB. Slow Dempsey even managed to play on a wing.
We really need to give Philadelphia kudos for blowing a 3-1 lead in the 82 minute to the Chicago Fire last night. Philadelphia is now tied on points with DC as the worst team in the East. Just a shocking fall from grace. The line between SS contender and god-awful mess is so thin in MLS. ..............................and Jim Curtin might be looking for a job soon. Philly is reminding me of recent FCD teams. Giving lots of minutes to young USMNT-eligible players that get us excited on this board. But they're not winning games. They're a bad soccer team.
Philly has tried to run it back with the group that made MLS Cup in 2022 and just gotten older, not better. I foresee a lot of changes over the next couple of years, mostly them pushing academy guys up since their owner is definitely one of the cheaper ones in MLS for spending. Craig (they didn't put an emergency bring back clause in his loan for this year iirc which has been a big mistake) will probably get a lot of starts at cb next year since Glesnes and his partner have both majorly regressed
It’s crazy, what the hell happened there? No Blake isn’t enough to explain it, any Union fans have a guess?
GOt old. Didn't replace players they lost. No additions in the off-season. They actually score plenty of goals. They concede waaaaaaaaaaaay too many. Backline problems. The goalkeeping situation might be part of it. I didn't see the game last night. The winning goal for Chicago wasn't the 18 year old keeper's fault. Philly was playing optional defense. Rick seems to have been OK. The problem really isn't their young academy products. The veterans aren't good enough.
Hardest thing for a GM to prepare for is a good player suddenly being bad. There were warning signs for the vets last year though.
I’ve only watched Philly three times this season, is it Glesnes and Elliot you mean? Also, I thought Martinez was so underrated in this league but I’m told he’s having a rough season. And I’ve said it before, Andre Blake is a legit MVP candidate every year.
Blake has been playing through injury and not his normal level. Wagner is not as effective offensively because the midfield is not covering as much ground. Everyone is just a little more stretched because the CB's and Martinez aren't putting out the fires they did for the last few seasons.
And McGlynn? I loved him in u20’s, thought he was their best player, but he looked a bit like a turnstile in MLS play, even though he’s a truly gifted passer. Right, wrong, somewhere in between?
He's added more offense to him game, long distance shooting mostly. Can't say much about him defensively. He doesn't seem terrible but he is compared to Bedoya or Flach who cover tons of ground.
Thanks for the discussion. McGlynn has had a couple of ridiculous goals. His passing skill is really on another level to what I’m used to seeing from Nats, I hope he just keeps getting better.
What's wrong with Philly? Blake has been hurt for most of this season. Bedoya is no longer an every game starter and has also missed time due to injury. Uhre started the season slow. Carranza missed time due to injury, and is now off to Feyenoord. Baribo got hurt during preseason, same goes for Flach. Yes the defense has been uncharacteristically bad. Some of that is having McGlynn and Sullivan in midfield instead of Flach/Bedoya. They are more attacking minded then the latter. They've had some suspensions and minor injury absences at Centerback, plus Lowe being away with Jamaica. Martinez is still martinez, he just didn't have two more defensive minded midfielders to partner with who would rotate back when he goes forward. No Blake is a HUGE problem. Semmle has had a couple of decent games, but mostly has not looked up to this level currently. Granted he was USL Keeper of the year last season. He's terrible in commanding his area, and worse on crosses. He's also gotten caught off of his line twice this season from midfield for goals, and nearly got caught out again last night. His terrible punch attempt (should have easily caught that ball) lead to the tying goal. He made no attempt to come out and get the floated cross on the winning goal either. Worse, it doesn't appear that he's learning from his mistakes. Andrew Rick has played two games. He's 18. He wasn't supposed to be on the Union first team yet. They were planning on signing him in the upcoming offseason. The injury to their third keeper Holden Trent forced their hand after they expended his short term contracts. IMO, Curtin's job should be safe. Look at the lineups and subs benches for the past 4-5 games. They've been missing 5-6 starters a game for much of this season. There hasn't been much, if any lineup continuity. The Union have been bit incredibly hard by the injury bug this year. In years past (like the previous 6 seasons) they've barely had any significant injuries to players. They now are being forced to use the guys are the far end of the bench too often. They've also been ruthlessly punished for every mistake they have made this season. Yes Glesnes appears to be a step slower, and possibly still not fully recovered from the sports hernia surgery from late last season. Elliott is who he has always been, It's just in seasons past no one really noticed the mistakes he was making because his teammates covered them up. Now since Flach, Bedoya and Martinez weren't all in front of them..... mistakes are getting ruthlessly punished. Tanner has missed on some of the moves he's made. They elected to run it back again. It's not working out. Shit happens. They had planned and prepared to sell Carranza in January. Carranza and his reps rejected all of the deals presented to them. That put a huge spammer in their transfer plans. It's kinda difficult to replace a DP striker with another DP striker when you're maxed out on Senior DP spots. They also couldn't sign any more U22 players because they were maxed on those too (due to the roster rules at that time). They're essentially maxxed on TAM level players too (Wagner, Elliott, Glesnes, Baribo, Blake). Joaquin Torres didn;'t work out, which isn't really a surprise when you realize he doesn't play any defense, which is required to play in the Union's preferred system. Also, it's pretty much required of nearly every midfielder in MLS (there are a few exceptions). Andres Perrea was beaten out for playing time by the emergence of Jesus Bueno. They had to move him and get some money back. They did. Brandon Craig was not ready to play in MLS. He couldn't beat out the current centerbacks for playing time in preseason. They loaned him out for the season to get minutes at a higher level then NextPro. To those who think Craig could help the Union NOW, I'm not sorry, you're wrong. Further, Craig possibly getting minutes with the Union this season would have been bad for him. It could kill the kids confidence. At the end of the day, the Union have gotten a little bit away from their ethos IMO. They're not spending efficiently. People forget that they are spending nearly DOUBLE the league's salar budget. Tanner needs to bring back some of that German/European ruthlessness when he makes roster decisions. Hindsight is always 20/20. They should have moved on from Blake and Elliott after the 2022 season and gotten full value for them. Promote Matt Freese and then go find another centerback to pair with Glesnes and bridge the gap to the kids. They need to get some younger starting centerbacks, and a box to box midfielder in the mold of Bedoya for next season. Resign Flach, and go out and find a DP striker. They haven't been blown out yet this season. They've been in every game. A few roster changes/upgrades, and they're right there again.
Its sorta a....................you can't rest on your laurels in MLS situation. A team like Cincinnati SPENT money bringing in players. Even bringing domestic players into the fold like Miles Robinson. Corey Baird, DeAndre Yedlin. They lose two CBs to long-term injuries plus Robinson to international duty? No bother, they thought ahead by bringing former Austin CB Kip Keller in for depth prior to the season (former 5th overall draft pick). That was a prescient signing. By who? Cincinnati GM Chris Albright. ( ) Plus they have Ian Murphy in the back, who was invited to the last USMNT January camp. They just won their 7th straight road game. Impressive. They lost Miazga and Hagglund to long-term injuries, and played a 3-4-3 this past weekend with 3 CBs. Such great depth. [Cincinnati also happens to have a guy with 24 goal contributions already. Lucho Acosta is having a phenomenal season. Philly also needs to find THAT kind of impact player in the transfer market now that they have GAM from the Carranza deal.] Nashville was good in MLS for years by just having a really good group of solid domestic veterans all over the field as depth to supplement their squad. Nabbed them from other clubs. Every team has injuries and international callups. Blaming injuries only goes so far. FC Dallas has had a ton of injuries to key players. Nobody is crying for them. An organization needs to have depth to account for injuries and international callups. If you have nobody to fill in after losing Paxton Pomykal for the season, then you get what you deserve. Lessons learned from FC Dallas. Being a conveyor belt of young talent to Europe isn't necessarily conducive to winning in MLS. Philly is starting to be the same. Lots of great sales of talent to Europe. So what? I mean, advertising heavily that you sold 14 year old Cavan Sullivan to Man City? Does that help win games or something?? Does selling the Aaronson brothers, McKenzie, Carranza, and others help you win games? Only if you continuously invest properly in building the squad. And having a whole bunch of academy players start for you only really matters if they're BETTER than the talent that a team like LAFC or Miami is going to field. They're not in 2024. So now you sell McGlynn next? Great for him. But as an organization, you can't build a consistent winner by being a conveyor belt out the door. I can't take an organization seriously is they're going to blow a 3-1 lead to the Chicago Fire in the 82nd minute.
Boils down to profitability, right? One model: try to be a winner with loyal fans. Other model: be a glorified academy that regularly plays showcase matches against professional teams. For MLS owners it's about which makes them more money. In leagues w/ pro/rel, they have to try to field a good team. In MLS, the exhibition academy train-up-and-immediately-sell is a perfectly viable model. And, most every player coming up wants to escape to Europe: 1) to get away from MLS's crazy rules (If Wes comes back to MLS he has to deal with Dallas? Why?, If you're out of contract, you can't sign with whomever you want?) 2) to get to what is perceived to be better competition (the reality depends on where in Europe they land). 3) to get to a serious league. Serious leagues don't play through international breaks, have a champion that is decided by the table. Are easy to find on tv and don't require fee on top of a streaming fee to watch. So, if you step on the gas on the train-sell model, you're going accelerate into that real hard. I'm more or less fine with this duality.
Friday afternoon had way too much to drink at champagne brunch thoughts. This rendition of the Earthquakes might actually be the worst MLS team in the history of the league. We are Derby Countying this, and Im starting to get paranoid thoughts that there is an ulterior motive to do this so Bay Area fans no longer care and so they can move this team to Vegas with the A's. This team would be a basement dweller in USL, and Sacramento Republic is their daddy. Its just an embarrassment.
No kidding. Philly will be back. They'll reinvest and they've got more good young players on their way thru the academy. But what is San Jose's direction? I really do think they shouldn't half-ass it. Go "all-in" on youth and player development. It will be bad for a couple of years. But just effing go for it. And sign the Luna and Barajas types. For heaven's sake!!! The confounding franchise to me is SKC. They're bad and worryingly...................completely irrelevant when it comes to the USMNT. They were a regular contender for silverware with a number of USMNT regulars, and young players coming thru their academy. Then it all stopped. Now they're bad and worse............faceless. But at least SKC has openly said "we're not happy with this direction. We're trying something else." Analytics? Big roster budget? New Sporting KC sporting director Mike Burns has a vision (msn.com)
Over the past 10 years, the Union have been to 4 cup finals and won a Supporter's Shield. They've been competitive while also selling talent.
Truly embarrassed by the way that USSF has managed Luna’s call-ups. He’s almost certainly our best U23 player domestically right now, but can’t make our Olympic squad? Ridiculous.
DIEGO LUNA! 😱He adds a goal to his three assists on the night to pull Salt Lake ahead 5-2! pic.twitter.com/Vctz1XQej3— Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 7, 2024
When you wake up in the morning and see......................Cincinnati 6 Miami 1. There is something really special brewing in Cincinnati. [I get it, Miami didn't have Messi. Still.]
Regarding Luna, I strongly favor using Nations League as a young player testing exercise. I don't give a crap about winning it. Bringing in young players is way more important to me than beating Mexico.