He's nuts. We could improve but there are a lot of really good teams in the conference and I don't see them getting any worse, especially since some made big additions late in the season (particularly, Vancouver and LAFC). Also very good, Seattle and San Diego. As for Daniel, he's still under contract and we opted Edwards in, so if we want to upgrade that position we'd have to transfer or trade Daniel. We still don't know what happened at the end of the year. Was Daniel in the doghouse? Late scratch due to injury? Bruce signed him to a new contract last February and said he's a good GK. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I expect ‘26 to be a complete catastrophe. Bruce thinks that Earl Junior is a decent GK. That right there should set off alarm bells. We’re losing Josef. We might lose one or both of Cristian and Chicho. Bruce benched Beau late in the season! The second half of our season last year was shit. I expect us to be crap. Go Quakesfans!!
Let's see what transpires, and the clock starts clicking really quickly in the next few weeks with free agency looming.
Sure there's *potential* to get better - there always is. But usually to do that, you keep your good performers and upgrade your poor performers. We're starting at a deficit - looks like we will probably lose some of our best players, including the best player, Espinoza, we've moved on from Josef, and may even transfer Chicho. That's a big hole to dig out of, and "a bird in hand" and all that.
Bruce has a theory about the season not really starting until July or so when the dust settles. So I don't necessarily expect him to have our full roster at our opening game. I think he's gonna chip away at it. And he likes to see what he has before he commits to adding more pieces. I'm sure there will be signings in the next few months, but I wouldn't be surprised if they continue to trickle in over the few months after that, and he may save some arrows for the summer window. Also, Bruce doesn't even have a GM right now to help him make deals. The MLS reentry stuff is fine - he can handle that, but it's a lot more complicated to make international signings, and if he wants to do that he's gonna need some help, especially when training starts. Is he going to hire another GM, or just kind of use one of the other guys on the technical side of the front office to do those things? One of these people maybe? What exactly are Cremanzidis and Woly doing, from day to day besides "strategizing the sport" and "directing the technical stuff"? Vassili Cremanzidis, Head Sporting Strategist John Wolyniec, Technical Director Brett Karleen, Director, Soccer Operations
That's about when our season went into the crapper. Let's see Bruce act like it's the first 3 months the whole year.
Yeah, ironically he was confident that we'd have a good 2nd half of the season - he said that explicitly, and confident enough in how we were playing that he dumped Hernán. Oh well...
Nashville is also interested in Paul Rothrock. Glancing through their Reddit posts: "Rothrock is the perfect example of team bias. He’s the ultimate shithouser. If he came to Austin I would love him, but I “hate” him every time we play him. He knows exactly where the card lines are, and he dances on them all game long. If I’m being honest, I just want him down here in Austin, so no one else can have him." "Eh. As a Portland fan, I should hate him, but I don't. He's not as bad as a Lenhart or a Stroud imo. Gotta respect how hard he works and he successfully rides the line between competitor and asshole." "He's a workrate shithouser, not a sloppy/dangerous shithouser. It's like the difference between Chara/Roldan/Alonso style CDMs and Nigel De Jong (and to a much lesser extent, Beckerman)-style CDMs." Sounders fans like him for the heart and energy he injects to the team. Mind you that he is rumored to be a $750k to $850k guy.
I'm surprised Schmetz is not pulling out stops to keep Rothrock - Schmetz *loves him* some Rothrock, and I'm surprised that Rothrock wouldn't want to stay with the Sounders as long as he had a decent raise. He's a Seattle native and Seattle guy through and through. He's been a $100k guy. Why wouldn't the Sounders offer him like a 3x raise? Maybe they have but he wants to max out his salary while the iron is hot. And or course he could be using free agency to get some leverage on Seattle. I think he's a good player though a bit slow. Not sure where he'd fit with us. He can play on either wing. Espinoza to Rothrock would be a big downgrade, and on the left side I think I'd rather see Bouda there.
I never saw Rothrock as an "on the edge of dirty" / shithouser player but I haven't watched him that closely.
I just want to focus on this part of your post. I’ve heard Bruce say that the season doesn’t really get going until the second half. But, last year, we made some big moves in pre-season. So that gives me a little hope. But also, our second half last year was crap. We need some new guys. We collapsed in the second half last year. We need a new starting GK. Daniel is great when he’s on, but he’s fragile. Junior is just crap. Francesco might be OK … two or three years from now. Munie is our best and only reliable CB. We need to sign two more starters. Beau is our best center mid. Viera isn’t good enough to start. Harkes needs to go. We need at least two more quality CM’s. Outside mid, we’re OK. Forwards. We’re in trouble if we lose Josef, Chicho, and Cristian. Go Quakesfans!!
I'm sure he'll make a lot of moves before the season starts. But I think he's gonna want to see how things look before really cashing in his chips. That means waiting on a couple of upgrades until after the season starts and / or summer transfer window. Also, as I mentioned, we don't have a GM right now. So who's gonna be doing the grunt work of making these deals happen? A 73 / 74-year old guy who's also supposed to be coaching the team? Not seeing it. When is Curt Onalfo coming over?
I forgot that LAG will have Puig back next year, and looks like they are acquiring former Defender of the Year Glesnes. This makes me further realize how nuts this Matt Doyle take is. Vancouver is really good and will have a full season of Müller, LAFC will have a full season of Son and Bouanga terrorizing defenses, LAG will have Puig back, San Diego is a very good team and will be getting better with some upgrades, Seattle is always good. That's 5 teams already with a high probability of being better than us. The Quakes meanwhile have lost their top non-PK goal scorer, and (likely) their best player and captain and team leader, they don't have a GK they're happy with and their 2nd keeper sucks. So yeah, I’m holding my finger to wind and, yes, *that’s* the team that’s gonna win the west (and MLS Cup)!
Doyle has been full of crap since day one. I don't understand how he's become the voice of MLS over the years. Most of what he writes/talks about is very elementary with almost no sense of what any team truly needs. I understand MLS has blown up in number of teams over the years but if you're going to write a piece on any giving team, especially one like the Quakes then do your homework. Every off season he seems to have this nonsense articles. You'd think after ALL these yrs. of him working for the machine that he would have gotten better.... apparently not.
Yeah they really need to at least split the “analyst” duties to west and east if not regional - west, midwest, south, northeast, etc. He bases his analyses on little bits of info that he knows and then extrapolates to sometimes odd pronouncements. It was 2 or 3 years ago that he suggested we hand over the CAM job to Cruz Medina. I’m a supporter of Cruz and he should start getting minutes this year, but he barely had a goal or assist in Next/Pro 2 years ago. If the team followed Doyle’s advice we’d be perennial wooden spoon winners.
Exactly, but it makes to much sense for our beloved Quakes. We love to shoot ourselves in the foot time and time again.