Wish I knew the rules better. I'm just making minimally informed guesses at this point. I'm not trying to be a contrarian. I'm genuinely curious as to how many minutes (in MLS) kids (U-17 or so) on MLS contracts got last year. I'm guessing it's not many. There does seem to be a disconnect between Elliot and Pablo when it comes to the youngest players on the team. I'm not fan and I don't think they're handling it well by not picking a lane.
Totally fair My snark wasn’t supposed to be directed at you. I just feel like Fall saw all the negative reaction from those kids leaving before so he went and said “not on my watch!”… which is great, if there was actually plans to play them I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, the club should require the monarchs to play with a minimum amount of academy products. Force the hand. Eventually it should extend to the first team always having academy products, too. From the Herriman academy
No offense taken. Looking at the Monarchs, there's currently 10 players, looks like 6 were Academy kids that earned a contract. I'm pretty sure most of the Monarchs minutes are going to Academy products. I'd love for the Academy to be good enough to be producing a significant number of young men that are good enough to get MLS minutes before being 18, but they aren't there yet. More games being played by the first team should help though.
https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/ranking-all-29-mls-teams-by-tier-for-2023 I'd like to see fans and the club address the concerns raised in this article. "The argument for RSL here is that the things that carried them in 2022 – big switches to open the field of play, lots of speed on the flanks and an endless supply of xDAWG – are still around in 2023. And if that recipe was good enough last year without Damir Kreilach, who is back from injury, and with less than a full season from DP winger Jefferson Savarino, and without big-money signing Andrés Gómez, who will presumably be lined up across from Savarino on the other wing, then why won’t it work this year? And you know what? Fair enough. Pablo Mastroeni always gets his team to buy in, and he’s not at all dogmatic about where he finds talent to fit his game model, and those wingers can fly, and Kreilach is a Best XI-caliber talent if he really is back to full fitness. So RSL have depth and speed and commitment to how they play. Which maybe makes this like the fifth straight offseason in which everyone is underestimating them. My Worry The rest of the West really did get better just based on pure talent, and I don’t think the same can be argued that strenuously for RSL. Yeah, they added Gómez, but he’s far from a sure thing for one, and for two, they lost Sergio Córdova, who finally seemed to buy into his center forward role in July and who subsequently scored eight goals in his last 15 appearances across all competitions, including a brace in the playoffs. They’re weaker without him at center forward, and they offloaded Aaron Herrera, who’s a Best XI-caliber right back, for GAM. Kreilach, soon to be 34 and having just missed nearly an entire season, is a massive question mark, and while goalkeeper Zac MacMath was good in the first half of last season, the second half was a STRUGGLE. First-Choice XI 4-4-1-1: MacMath; Oviedo, Silva, Glad, Brody; Gomez, Ojeda, Ruiz, Savarino; Kreilach; Rubin"
I certainly have concerns about the team this season. Surprisingly I am a bit more positive than last season but that's like going from a D- to a D but it is an improvement. I do have concerns with this team when it comes to who is going to score the goals and how they are going to score consistently this season. From the looks of it, with the addition of Gomez, that the midfield is going to be asked to carry the scoring load and the offense in general. I really don't have faith that Dami will last the season but certainly hope that he can stay healthy all season. I have concerns that there could be a huge hole in the back line with Herrera no longer back there. On the front line I have zero faith in Rubio but if the midfield is creating more quality chances perhaps that leads to more goal poaching opportunities which could be helpful considering that none of the current guys on top are creative, consistent, goal scorers. My absolute main concern though is Pablo Mastroeni. RSL only had 5 wins over the last 20 games with 8 loses and 7 draws. That's kinda awful. Just over 1 point a game isn't going to cut it and doesn't cut it ever. I think that it all comes down to Pablo becoming a manager that can do more that just get the team ready to start a game, which he has proven he is quite capable of and become the kind of manager that can make the second half adjustments that turn draws into wins and save draws from loses. I hope he can but my money would be on the opposite. Definitely going to be an interesting season.
The point about the west improving can’t be overstated enough. Rsl fans and staff seem to operate in a vacuum in assessing this team. The only comparison is that made to last year. This might shock some, but this team isn’t going to play against its former self in 2023… Looking across the West, I’m confident in saying these teams are better than RSL for 2023: Austin LAFC Seattle (too good to be down again) LAG (see above) FCD Which puts RSL immediately to 6th in a best case scenario. I’m also pretty sure we won’t see a repeat season from Portland or SKC. If you made me pick, I’d put us behind them too. So rsl is left in the group below fighting for the last 2 playoff spots… - crapids - Minnesota - Vancouver - SJ - Houston - St Louis
Roster update: https://www.rsl.com/news/rsl-kicks-off-2023-season-in-vancouver 34 players are listed. 3 are on loan. 4 are likely to be listed as "Unavailable". I don't know if they'll list roster spot designations tomorrow or Saturday, but there may only be a couple spots on the senior roster. Of note, it looks like Benitez is going on loan to a USL League One team (Madison). That's a 3rd Division league just like MLS Next Pro. Why would he go on loan there instead of with the Monarchs? Assuming this team could add a Sava level DP and another U22 player, what position(s) do you target? International slots may have to be acquired for those players, too.
You're more than likely right with your assessments on the state of the Western Conference but I would suggest that those 5 teams you have SHOULD be better but you still have to play the games on the field and not on paper. Obvious cliche. I'm not as bully on Seattle as you may be. Waibel is no Lagerway and they haven't made a ton of moves outside of Heber. The defending champs always seem to struggle and LAG will be fighting through internal bs that can be detrimental to onfield play at times. FCD fades late and Austin slumped late. All of that may just be wishful thinking but maybe the West will be pretty wide open this season. I would think that the CRapids and Loons will probably be improved as well with Vancouver running roughshod over everyone now that they have Cordova. Right? I would agree that RSL will probably be right where you suggest they will be especially if we see the same thing game after game from Pablo M that we saw last year. Personally I think that how this team is coached will make all of the difference between fighting for the play in games or being comfortably in the playoffs at the end of the season. RSL started, some would say surprisingly strong last season, going 7-4-3 through the end of May only to finish 5-8-7. I may be irrationally a bit more optimistic this season, and I can't tell you at all where that is coming from, blind hope probably, but if Pablo is the same coach that ended the last 5 months of the season with 22 points after earning 25 in the first 3 then yea, this is going to be a long season. Perhaps I'm just trying to avoid being overly pessimistic and willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. The players that is.
I'm usually the last person to give much benefit of the doubt to Fall, but I actually think sending Benitez on loan to Madison makes some sense if the idea is to prioritize minutes for higher-level prospects at the same position. Wellings is universally considered one of the top prospects any MLS team currently has at any position, and Abokye Bikyeombe was one of the biggest surprises for the Monarchs last year. Each of those two are younger than Benitez, and I'd guess they're the first choices to start. Then there's Luca Moisa, who is only 14 but is already being talked about as a Wellings-level prospect. So I'm not sure if Benitez would have played much for the Monarchs. Sending him on loan may indicate that they're prioritizing minutes for Wellings and Bikyeombe, but not giving up on Benitez.
Nothing to worry about guys. We let Cordova go so we can let Rubin do his thing! *checks notes* he totally scored a lot of *checks notes* Chik-Fil-A points. Wait? Those aren't the same?