A listing of the 10 best defenses in MLS history. RSL 2010 checks in at #7. https://www.americansocceranalysis.com/home/2020/7/6/ranking-the-top-10-defenses-in-mls-history
Look, I'm not going to say that team was the absolute best defense in league history. But 7th?! The graph they used shows that RSL team so much better than any other contender. It really doesn't make sense.
Absolutely. I guess I can understand there could be other factors that would lead one to believe RSL 2010 wasn’t the best defense ever but 7th? They only allowed 20 goals that season. 20! And it’s not even close. So their 7th because the ran the diamond and had more possession so their defense wasn’t really needed? They had Rimando so that’s not fair? That 2010 RSL team is wholly underrated and such a shame they let themselves down with an early exit.
The way the write up is makes it sound like the get the lower ranking because they didn't win the cup. Dumb! If your going to rank the best defensive teams then rank them on defense, period.
the only basis for their argument to drop that group so far, it seems, is the playoff performance. That ignores the fact that the team RSL lost to (FCD) went to MLS Cup and lost on an OG to the cRapids. Seems a dumb thing to make the basis of best team in league history on what is well known to be essentially a separate "season" in the playoffs. It certainly should have an impact, and is why I wouldn't rate that team as the best in the league history, but 7th is laughable. The writer, Jared Young, isn't someone I'm familiar with. When I look at the final rankings, I notice the Kansas City teams are given a lot of kudos that I really don't agree with. I especially have a problem with that 2017 KC team being so high on the list (4th) and the 2000 KC team seeming to be this undisputed top of the pack. The 2012 KC defense was certainly not better than 2010 RSL. Is this guy a former KC writer? Edit: The ending of the article states the following: Any attempt at an objective measure starts with subjective decisions. What are valuable ways to measure quality defense? Should I adjust for era idiosyncrasies? How important are the playoffs? Here is a summary of how those questions were answered for the purposes of this ranking. Goals Allowed – It really doesn’t matter how a defense does it as long as they don’t let the ball in the net. This is the ultimate metric. Some modernists might pine for expected goals allowed, but that data doesn’t exist back to 1996, and so only common data was collected. Without expected goals this list might involve a good share of luck, but a little bit of luck is involved in all stories of greatness. Era Adjustment – Some periods in league history have been more offensive minded than others. In fact, the peak/nadir difference is over one goal per game in just over a decade. It stands that defenses that perform best against better offenses should be rated higher. Here is a chart of goals per game with a three month moving average, which was used in the scoring. Playoff Performance – Greatness has to be delivered when it counts. That is definitely a subjective statement but one that should be close to consensus. In this case a playoff game was counted as three times as much as a regular season game. Two seems too slight and four to strong. No weight was given to the importance of the playoff game. I’ve also capped the playoff performance at 40% of the total rating. This cap is due to the fact that there have been many different playoff constructs combined with different numbers of regular season games, and this limits any imbalance caused by those differences. Qualification - To avoid having a ridiculous playoff performance override a great regular season, qualification criteria was added. To be considered for the top 10, a team had to allow less than one goal per game and have their goals against average be at least 30% better than the league average. The Metric - In sum, that brings us to era-adjusted goals allowed per game, where playoffs count as three games each (capped at 40% of the total weighting) divided by the overall GAA of the league.
After taking another look I have to call bullshit on this whole thing if the 2000 KC team is considered the best defense ever. I'm sure they were a good defense but they gave up 5.2 shots per game. For a great defense, according the list there, that seems a bit egregious. And then to go on about an 82% save percentage for Meola when Rimando/RSL was the same is interesting. Granted that's more shots to stop and 2 more games played but good defenses don't give up tons of shots. That's just great goalie play. Or somebody standing on their head for a season. He does say that RSL had the best regular season in history and then it's all pretty much discounted because of an early playoff exit. I can see being punished for that but all the way to 7th? Totally agree the guy is from KC. 3 teams from KC in the top 6? Whatever.
Here.We.Go. Looks like we are on the verge of obtaining Manuel Schaffler. Schaffler is a 31 years old goal scorer from SV Wehen Wiesbaden. Wiesbaden is a German side that in 2018-19 was in the Bundesliga 1. This past season in Bundesliga 2. And is being relegated to the 3rd Division. https://www.kicker.de/4000000034340/transfermeldung
So . . . 19 goals in 32 games in the 2 Bundesliga in 2019-20 16 goals in 32 games in the 3 Bundesliga in 2018-19. 22 goals in 32 games in the 3 Bundesliga in 2017-18. . . . but it's the 2 and 3 Bundesliga and he's 31 years old.
Guess I was wrong about 1Bundesliga in 18-19. I apologize for that. SV Wehen Wiesbaden has been in the German 3rd Division all of the past decade except for last season in the 2B. Prior to Wiesbaden Schlaffler played at Kiel and Ingolstadt in the 2B... so, 2Bundesliga is his level. His age and history are no doubt why the article compared him to Damir, who played at 2B Union Berlin. However Damir was a D-mid who played in the attack, much like he has done at times with RSL. Schaffler is purely a forward. In my original post I described him as a “scorer”, because he has produced on the scoreboard. At 6’2, 196 he’s physically solid (my HS pointy-football size). He doesn’t have a long list of injuries historically...but, yeah, he’s 31. His Transfermarkt value is $605,000.
The articles I’ve read say RSL. I can’t see us spending $600K for a Monarchs player. (If your post was tongue-in-cheek I apologize ahead of time).
I didn't see the fee was $600k. For a 31 year old from the 2 Bundesliga (one season therein his past four), that's nuts unless he scores 18-20+ a season for us. That's buying at the very high point of his trajectory - say we tried to move him in 2-4 years, he isn't generating that again and likely anywhere close. Sam at least is young enough we could probably move him for a decent fee.
No, it was a genuine question. I have seen Monarch acquisitions that have been initially reported in foreign media as RSL in the past. Is the $600K a transfer fee or that fictitious TransferMarkt value? If there is a fee, it doesn't make sense for the Monarchs. As you pointed out Damir also came from a B2 team (although he was only 28 when he joined RSL), but this seems like a marginal player from a pedigree standpoint. Damir was helping elevate a club toward B1, whereas this team has been floundering at the bottom of B2, and will be relegated. Damir also has been a utility player - known to be good at a lot of things, but not exceptional at one thing. That likely diminished his value with a greater league. Hard to see the same factor at play here with a striker. It's easy to look at these players on paper and establish value, but there is no substitute for seeing them in action. Could be a diamond in the rough, but color my expectations low.
Bring him in! We need help up front, and second Bundesliga is by every measure a hinge step up from MLS.
Just to clarify for you and @Ismitje, the $600K is reported value on Transfermarkt. His last couple of transfers have been free.
31 is a tough sell for me though. Especially given the unknowns with the pandemic. We could pick him up and not see him until he's 32 or so, and still trying to gel with the team. How many years could we realistically expect?
I'm not sure this belongs in this tread or somewhere else. I've been watching way more MLS than I typically do. Here are my observations as they pertain to RSL Roster: Every single roster in this league has giant wholes in it. Even the best teams have clear and obvious weak links in their starting 11s. I actually don't think that RSL roster is far off the MLS curve. However, we have a clear lack of production from the top paid part of our roster. We have a DP that can't make the bench (Ramirez), a DP that can't get on the pitch (Johnson), and a DP that is on the pitch but disappears for large portions of the match (Rusnak). In this league you simply cannot survive without high production from your DPs. I also think we tend to get good production out of our mid to low paid part of our roster. Coaching: There are a lot of really good coaches in the current iteration of MLS. We do not have one. I think if you look at the Bruce you can see how the level of coaching has changed. The Bruce used to be the clear top of the field in MLS coaching. How many do you put above him now? Quite a few. This could partly be Bruce slipping, and it his roster certainly has an affect on this ability. But I think mostly, mostly teams are paying for better coaches. I like Freddy. I think he has a lot of good qualities. But we need a better coach. Management: It's really hard to judge because we only see and hear so much, but it's pretty clear that we don't have an identity as a club and we seem very content to be mediocre. Just good enough to keep the fans interested but never good enough to do anything special. That is who we are.
And there is the biggest problem. With managment who cares and is competent the rest of the pieces fall into place.
I like Freddy and his interviews are a breath of fresh air compared to other coaches. But I don't think he is at the MLS coaching level. For example: how do you finish a knockout round game with two subs remaining? I understand reserving one for overtime or something, but you gotta make the necessary adjustments when the wheels are falling off and you're down multiple goals.