Monday 12 May 2025

some things to expect soon and not so soon:

1. LAG will have to fire head coach, Greg Vanney- for whatever has happened between him and the players, he will pay the price, not the players who have quit on him and the supporters- yes, they have lost Ricky Puig, the best MF in MLS- but loosing 7-0 will be too much for the owners - and no wins this year- YIKES!! he is a good coach, but the dressing room and training sessions have seriously gone off the rails- it shows on the field

2. InterMiami have lost their fire to compete and the special players are just dragging along, except for Jordy Alba-- i expect some major addition or 2 in order to kick-start their season - Teams are now following the Vancouver Whitecaps game plan- swarm the Miami player who has the ball and take the ball back- Miami are a slow moving Team- Beckham wont put up with this

3. something has to give from MLS- so many games for the better players that make the games special- tournaments, international friendlies, the coming Gold Cup, regular season games, US Cup, Canada Championship, World Up qualifiers- there is no end to the madness of treating the players like robots - i think there will have to be some alignment by MLS to the FIFA calendar (and i am not saying a Fall to Spring season)- i expect changes to the 2026 or 2027 season calendar

4. The Messi-effect is slowing and the attendance numbers seem to be dwindling- Minnepaolis even chose to play in their 20 000 stadium rather than hosting it in a massive pointy football stadium- Messi looks frustrated, Busquets looks disinterested and Suarez looks ... 38

 

That’s the badge of AD Municipal Liberia, a member of the Primera División de Costa Rica.

 

Spot on!
By delivering to their core fan base and utilizing the field that their players cut the grass on with their shift, their work, the return on staying at home is a tremendous display in a win over Miami.

Home to the Supporters Group of Howl at the Luna!

 

The Galaxy basically sold out to win a championship. They had Riqui Puig a game changing MLS signing from Barcelona who wanted to win in order to stay with the team. The Galaxy built the team around him and won the Cup. The problem is that MLS is an American league that is based on parity and winning a championship comes with punishment the next year, not reward. Players who performed and received a bonus from winning, couldn't fit in this years salary cap. This is why the league is the most competitive in the world from top to bottom. The flaw is that once you compete outside the league in international competition, until the cap can employ players who aren't starters for a significant wage you have a drop in play.
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Although it is a disadvantage, it should push teams to have a stronger academy's as homegrown players come with more cap flexibility. You see a team like Columbus with a good mix and they maintain a certain level of play from one season to the next. They Galaxy went out and signed in their prime players but with just one breaking down and having to trade away good MLS veterans, they didn't have depth in their second team to maintain their level of play.
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Until MLS can reach a salary budget structure that makes it a reason for a 24 year old player to leave Europe or high-end South American teams for more money, the only goal should be catching Liga MX. That's who is the top dog in our region and must get past to make the Club World Cup. I understand the CWC isn't popular in Europe but it's a big payday for everyone else.

 

MLS has little control over congested schedules. International friendlies are scheduled by the various federations, the Gold Cup by CONCACAF, the Open Cup (which MLS tried to step back from) by USSF, etc. Even Leagues Cup -- the bete noir of the anti-MLS orfentic brigade -- has the impact of giving most players in the league a nice mid-year break.

 

David Beckham tells Minnesota to ‘show a little respect’ after Pink Phony Club jibe | Inter Miami | The Guardian


What's with the HISTORY OVER HYPE claim?
They've been around less than 10 years!

 

Well they can shorten the teams that make the playoffs and reward teams that make leagues Cup, giving greater emphasis to both.
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Go back to the 2022 format that only required three weeks to play and just 14 teams. Give teams that qualify from the Supporters' Shield standings for Leagues Cup a bonus so the last four spots mean something to the players and don't have it count on the salary budget. If they really want to grow Leagues Cup, play in Mexico and reward a bigger bonus to the top eight teams who get home games.

 

And yet we see teams put back-to-back MLS Cup runs together. The idea that this is all because they won MLS Cup and had to pay some bonuses doesn't add up. It was lousy roster construction combined with going all in for one season of success. Good thread here.

https://bsky.app/profile/jeremiah.sounderatheart.com/post/3loy7cgzh422g

 

I'm not disputing this as that was one of my points, they went all in. Teams in the past haven't really spent at this level as they have since Messi has entered the league. LAFC won the Cup and made it back the next year. They also couldn't keep Cristian Anrago and had the Gareth Bale discount for the year. Toronto had a minute but they've crashed and burned since. Seattle would be a good example of using the academy but they also haven't won since. For the most part I understand how MLS has designed the rules to build the league and how it is important.
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That being said the first goal of building a league that is sustainable has been accomplished.
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The second goal of catching Liga MX is in the process. They partnered with Liga MX and CONCACAF to increase the level of play within the region and I think this is the next step. Do you believe any MLS team builds to win outside MLS, because I don't. Everyone cried about the US Open Cup but 15-1 against USL and stadiums still half empty keeps me in the make Leagues Cup bigger. The next CBA is after the World Cup and hopefully they simply the rules to compete outside the league.

 

It's also due because Pec and Joveljic added an extra million to the salary cap due to them turning 1 year older. Plus all the bonuses a lot of players hit. That counts against the cap too. But who better to explain it than the man building the roster....

 

Thank you. That answers the question I posed, and that's fair enough.

A positive interpretation of this is "we're proud of our soccer past around here." I get that, I grew up in St Louis and it's treated similarly there.

A more skeptical view finds humor in United's claim that the history in those teams is United's history, and that it's a stretch to play the history card as a criticism levied at Inter, when United only joined the league about three years before Inter.

Nonetheless it's gotta be hard to make a banner reading WE HAVE A PATCHWORK OF FORMER CLUBS HERE THAT FOLDED! SO TAKE THAT!

 

It's all very silly. Fort Lauderdale/Miami has it's own decades-long history of previous clubs to match Minnesota's. They're both relatively new clubs, none is more real or "authentic" (puke) than the other.

 

IMO it's one thing for Supporter's to poke fun of teams with tifos, banners and chants. It's another thing for official team outlets to do it. It just comes off as unprofessional. It should also be notes that Beckham only played for the largest teams in the world (Man United, Real Madrid, AC Milan and PSG), so he's likely not had to deal with this before.

 

Denver Dynamos or GTFO

 

Long live the fringe!

 

This juvenile stuff emanating from the club itself is something of the social media era. It never happened when a communications director had to talk to a reporter or a columnist -- when the reporter would likely ask "you really want to say this?" It's the dissolution of a standard which existed previously but no longer does.

 

I wish the Quakes would bring back the old redclad jersey and logo.

I liked the Minnesota Strkers logo......

Those Caribous of Colorado jerseys were so ugly but looking back, they were kind of cool at the same time.

 

Kuntz seemed to go on a tour explaining the perks of the salary cap rules and roster building.

GM Will Kuntz goes in depth on managing the LA Galaxy's roster moves. pic.twitter.com/4OG5bs05j9

— UnfilteredSoccer (@UnfilteredSoccr) May 13, 2025