One of the rules with a stage 1 pick is you have to pay the same salary - you can renegotiate in stage 2 - but this fellow is on the minimum already so there's no worry there.
It feels like RSL is doing the NBA/jazz strategy of cycling through cheap young players until you find one that hits.
Then heads should role at the academy That isn’t happening and yet there just isn’t any player of note to come through. I really hope Gozo breaks the trend. This model of identifying young players elsewhere isn’t inherently bad. It’s just bad business to invest as much as the club does in the academy but not see results
So, Rijsenburg joined back in 2019 from Belgium, but I don’t see his name associated with the academy on its website. I’m not certain what is going on. John Spencer is the Academy Director. Phil Cousins is Professional Development Coach. I’m not really certain who is in charge? I smell another Random Fan Interview is in order… @goobx1 ???
Just think it's a fair question at this point. I don't know if he was hurt, but I don't think Kei played last year. The Monarchs don't seen to be developing much of anyone, academy player or not.
Recent academy guys: Dewsnup - GK who bailed on soccer for mental health reasons. Beavers - GK, not yet a success, but can see the progress. Gozo - seems promising, but then we just signed Wolff and that Ghanaian kid Jude Wellings - still really young and plays a high-skill position. Kinda makes sense to get him in USL on a loan. Farnsworth - finally played a full season with the Monarchs after 3 years injured. He may stay there. We are only a couple years into the Blitzer/Smith era, and the development pipeline is likely going to be a lagging indicator of success. That said, the academy seems to be a black box. I’d love to hear more about it.
I thought maybe Danny Acosta was going to break out. That was a long time ago now. Same for Ledezma (scored a goal in the Eredivise last week), and Taylor Booth is getting USNT B/C team call-ups too.
From The Athletic: LA Galaxy’s 2-1 win over the New York Red Bulls on Saturday averaged 468,000 viewers on Fox and Fox Deportes, according to multiple reports, down 47 percent from the championship game’s combined linear audience of 890,000 in 2023 A lot of stupid decisions lead to the. Going head to head with college football championship Saturday - especially the SEC game - was the worst of the bunch, imo. The fact that the playoffs took nearly two months to complete was a cluster ******** too. The league needs to react to this and finish the playoffs ahead of the November fifa windows. I’m a pretty devout fan of this league and I just couldn’t find reason to care to watch towards the end. It wasn’t because Messi got eliminated (for me at least) but rather a broken schedule that destroyed any storyline.
Also: I imagine most of us who did watch, watched on Apple. I don't even have Fox on my TV package. If the Apple numbers year-by-year get better and better, it stands to reason the Fox numbers will decline.
There was no way in hell, given options, that I was going to watch the broadcast with Alexi Lalas, even though I watch soccer on mute. I have grown to dislike him so much, I can’t even stand the sight of him. I also can’t stand Taylor Twellman, but at least he has the excuse of being kicked in the head really hard a few times. Apple it was, for me.
There is another story on the athletic that suggests numbers for the game on apple were in the tens of thousands of viewers. This is hard to know as Apple notoriously doesn’t release viewership data. However it’s hard to justify that decision because mls season pass is a flying success. The story was able to pull general apple+ viewership which showed the time of the game (again, head to head with SEC) was the lowest of the day
Maybe not the ideal thread for this, but definitely off-season news (for most of the league). https://www.goal.com/en-us/lists/le...d-revamped-format-in-2025/blt7cebfd9f8fe2c43d Looking forward to hearing more about the schedules in 2025.
Pre-season schedule has been released. I believe the regular season schedule drops Thursday. https://www.rsl.com/news/real-salt-...-highlighted-by-coachella-valley-invitational
The article says that Herediano is managed by former RSL player Jafet Soto. I swear I do not remember the name.
I still don't really care for the leagues cup given how congested the schedule usually is. If they do go to all midweek games that does at least help with the long breaks.
So will it be spread out over the whole season? I don't know how to do it, but they need to find a way to get the playoffs done 4-6 weeks earlier than they do now.
I think a break of a week or two max for the group stages is fine. Thereafter is should be on rotation with the regular schedule. That so many teams go weeks without playing a competitive game in the middle of the season, with zero weather related reasoning, is completely bizarre
Does RSL end up with any of these guys on Friday? https://www.mlssoccer.com/superdraft/news/2025-mls-superdraft-top-prospects-by-position They have picks 19 (1st round), 46 &49 (2nd round, thanks Crapids) and 79 (3rd round).
They will definitely draft. Almost certainly they will end up with at least one on the list. RSL has done well recently hitting in the super draft. I have no idea which position/group they will prioritize though. It seems like MF stands out in RSL’s focus.