I'm not disagreeing with you. All I'm stating is LAG should have done better with the payroll they have.
Precourt's ownership of Columbus was scandalous. Many observers are certain that he actively sabotaged the team so he could then trigger a clause that allowed him to relocate to a city of his choosing. The league, under pressure, negotiated a deal where the Crew were sold and Precourt relocated.
An interesting dichotomy is taking shape in MLS, though the sample size is a little small. If you want to win the Supporter's Shield, the best way to do it is to have a deep squad. The only way to have a deep squad in MLS, is to have good homegrown players with an integrated USL team. 5 of the last 8 winners can be described that way. Although, teams that have elite DPs can still win it. To win MLS Cup, you need a veteran team with low cost proven MLS talent supporting highly successful DPs. This was brought home when Aiden Morris started the Final and was the only the 9th "rookie" to start a final and the first since 2016. Of course, "rookie" used to exclusively mean someone who went to college and was drafted (Jordan Morris was the last rookie in 2016, when he was 22 e.g.). Morris was the youngest ever to start a final. A. Morris is older by a year than Gio Reyna or Yunus Musah. So, he really isn't "young" in the modern game. But it shows you the formula for Cup success. It is a formula (veterans and DPs) that Arena uses at all his stops, that some expansion teams are emulating, and in reality most teams are.
Since we more or less agree, I'd just like to note that Gio Reyna and Yunus Musah are exceptional even for international soccer. Nineteen is still a very young soccer player anywhere. I think because Americans tend to focus on an incredibly small subset of elite teams and players, we get this image that there are breakthrough 17 year olds left and right; there aren't. I'm not a big Aidan Morris fan, but he's still young in the modern game.
where does Arena fit in? The Revs have (arguably) the worst record of developing young talent of any MLS team.
Good point. We are almost spoiled... 19 is young, I was probably reacting to the over the top analysis that they were playing some kid. Makoko is playing at 16 in the Bundesliga, Busio plays in MLS, Caden Clark at 17 started a playoff game. He is not old, but to go so bonkers over starting a 19 yo is just sort of proving of MLS and many of the long time coaches and pundits view young players.
Bruce came up with the formula or learned it quickly a long time ago. You get some super DPs from abroad (Gil, Bou) then you bring in some cheap American vets to do the dirty work. Look at the moves Arena made, he basically brought in older 20s Americans and big time DPs. The team actually doesn't do that well in the regular season, but was dangerous in the playoffs, simply beaten by a team doing the formula better. If young players come into these teams they are usually not in the spine. Fullback is a great place to save money and some winger depth. Bradley did basically the same thing to start at LAFC, with Vela and Rossi and then a bunch of vets like Benny, Nguyen, El Monir, Blessing. Atlanta did it with Almiron and Joseph along with Laurentiwitz, Guzan, Parkhurst, Pirez, Zizzo, Nagbe, etc. The important thing is to get high performing American veterans of the league on sub-TAM contracts. Wasn't there until recently a restriction on using TAM on that type of player? Everyone understands. Some teams are just too cheap to do it all the time. DC United did it for a season, New England only recently did it when Kraft was embarrassed. But other teams just don't really do it all out on the DP end. DPs sometimes miss too. But the key is getting guys like Parkhurst on the cheap or keeping Besler and Zusi on the cheap back a few years ago.
New England did start Turner, Kessler, Jones and Buchanan. All young American or Canadian players. None of them are vets, really, for their position. They basically went with a homegrownish defense across the board. It's not an exciting-teenager-sell-for-a-profit group, but it was key to shoring up the team. And maybe someday they will have someone worth being excited about.
You should just stop posting about all things related to MLS because clearly you pay zero attention to the league if the whole PSV sabotage, Save The Crew thing, which went on from late 2017 into 2019, slipped by you. You missed that? For the record, Mensah was here prior to the ownership change. And Zelarayan was a record signing. And Nagbe was brought in as well. Our two most influential players in my mind. Though Zardes, Mensah, and Santos are close. Point being, that little bit of extra quality can go a long way. It is not inpossible to win with a lower end budget, but it is certainly more difficult. I mean, look who wins the EPL, Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A, & League 1 every year. The players brought in by the new owners were: Zelarayan, Nagbe, Room, Diaz, Etienne, Francis, Tarbell, Mokhtar, Cadden, Adi, Morris, Berhalter, & Keita ). Though the last 3 were homegrowns. Also Alashe, Boateng, and Nemeth. Maybe a couple minor moves escaped me. I believe all those guys saw PO action save for Mokhtar, Berhalter, Keita, and maybe Nemeth/Adi. Holdovers: Mensah, Zardes, Santos, Artur, Afful, Valenzuela, Jimenez. The FO the new owners brought on with Bezbatchenko and Onstad is also outstanding. Porter, like Berhalter, is an excellent coach. But he had more help. Owners willing to spend. And two qualified guys running the FO. Berhalter was also the GM (Sporting Director). I also think Porter has learned a bit from his Portland exit. I think he's a bit more humble. Less inflexible. More willing to listen to others. Less of a d!ck, basically.
I knew about the takeover, and props to you guys in Columbus for keeping the team there. I think you all did the league and soccer in general a big favor there and it was good to see the City stand up. So I see a lot of credit to go around for a lot of good things. My only point was, I didn't see anything other than basic competence before on the field. Players changed, but Berhalter had Schelotto and he's gone. Players come and go all the time. Relative to other teams improving all the time as well with personnel maybe it is a much bigger gap than I think. There has been a lot of improvement that I can credit the new guys with on and off field. And in the end, I hope Greg does well. I just am still more or less waiting for an answer to what will happen although the El Salvador game was very good and has made me feel more optimistic lately as well as the European guys producing on the scoreboards like we've not seen for a long time with Americans if ever. Still want to see the whole group together. Hopefully something is possible in March. None of us really know what he will do yet with a full squad available so I should withhold judgement a bit more sometimes.
Anyone who has watched the movie "Major League" could see that Precourt was following the Rachel Phelps model of team ownership. He didn't do a very good job of hiding it. I hope the guy falls flat on his face in Austin. If he was an absentee owner (like the Kroenkes with Arsenal) or just bad at spending money on the team (see James Dolan with the Knicks), it's one thing. He was intentionally trying to damage the team to the point where MLS would be forced to let him do what he wanted. If I were the owner of another team, I would have had a VERY hard time not going off on him for damaging the brand of the league and, by extension, my own franchise.
Berhalter has added the first of hopefully many trophies into his cabinet - the CONCACAF Nations League. And his team beat Mexico in a final, something only otherwise done by Bob Bradley. Once the dust settles, I think people will have some critical commentary of Berhalter. But I'm going to enjoy the moment.
good summation, there was things to be critical of, can discuss it over the next couple of days, but a W against mexico is always a good W, credit is given where it is due
Too bad for Tata he didn't know Ream would start on the left. He did know, he would have had Lainez from the beginning. The Ream pick almost cost him the game. As soon as he saw Lainez warm-up, I would have put Robinson to counter. Dest always had Lainez's number I was very surprised that he was subbed out so early. Another head-scratcher, GB hardly played Weah, instead of going with Aaronson. What was that about? He was lucky putting Lletget didn't cost him because non-factor again. The boys gave GB a win, a win that he didn't deserve.
I think Pulisic and Reyna both look better when they pick the ball up on the halfway line than when they pick it up 25 yards out.
You're right on the first bit, but the second? Dest was the worst US player on the pitch, completely useless in attack, possession, transition, and defense.
I just re-engaged with the USMNT again after several years, frankly, being really depressed about the team and their results (so it was easier to just watch the games and not try to discuss them. As we see a good core of young, but really talented players coming into the USMNT ranks it has been exciting, but also frustrating to see their halting progress over the last two years. I think there is a real need to develop American coaching, and support the idea that we have to give American coaches a chance to learn the ropes, but I have just seen so many cases when the team has been set up in a way that opens us up to be exploited. I worry that GB hasn’t often shown the ability to set his teams up to avoid obvious weaknesses, and doesn’t often change his tactics in meaningful ways once the plan A is going badly. Today’s result was largely due to some lucky events. Best case scenario GB grows into the job as his young player pool does, but I can see things getting out of control easily. The fact that we are still relying on a 34 yo LB at this stage in the lead up to the WCQ is a problem, and makes me wonder what we’ve been doing these last couple of years. I guess I’m not in the band that says let’s toss GB right now, but man… is this the best we can do?
To give him a break he's a right-back playing left midfield. I thought Reyna looked great when Dest went off and he moved to the left.
The victory means Berhalter will be the coach thru the 2022 cycle. There's an understanding that we're going into the Gold Cup with a "B" team so that result isn't really going to mean anything. People can talk about player selection, tactics, etc. all they want. The bottom line for the USMNT is trophies and WCQication. Berhalter has coached in two competitions that mattered. The 2019 Gold Cup, for which we made the final, and now the Nations League. So we enter WCQing, and let's not forget that Berhalter's record against CONCACAF is very good. 4 losses. Only two in games that actually mattered. The 2019 Gold Cup Final and the Nations League match against Canada (after which we spanked them in the return leg.) US 3 Mexico 2 US 1 Honduras 0 US 4 Jamaica 1 US 7 T&T 0 US 6 El Salvador 0 US 6 Panama 2 US 4 Cuba 0 US 4 Canada 1 Canada 2 US 0 US 7 Cuba 0 Mexico 3 US 0 Mexico 1 US 0 (2019 GC final) US 3 Jamaica 1 US 1 Curacao 0 US 1 Panama 0 US 6 T&T 0 US 4 Guyana 0 Jamaica 1 US 0 US 2 Costa Rica 0 US 3 Panama 0