It's funny... I fully expect our marketing department to hit the Messi message soon enough, but it's highly unlikely he'll ever play in San Jose.
Right, he'd probably play in Santa Clara, or possibly Palo Alto . His contract runs for another 2 years and so it's possible he comes to town in one of those 2 years. Also, he may re-up for another few years. Don't think he likes to move his family around too much and assuming he continues to like it here, and he'll have played just 1 season in the new stadium at the end of his 1st contract, I can definitely see him re-upping for another few years.
He'll be pretty old by the time the current schedule mechanism will allow. They played here in 2022 and we're not playing them this year, but I assume we'll play them in Miami in 2024. Based on that maybe they come in 2026? Maybe Open Cup (unlikely), Play-offs (less likely) or some weird tournament like Leagues Cup (also not likely).
He should be able to play until age 40 or longer, so I think it's a question of how long he wants to play and how long he wants to stay in Miami.
The current scheduling format has them playing six games vs. the Western Conference, three home and three away. If they don't change the format, and if they make it so they do a full cycle of visits to all teams before repeating any, then it would take five years to go through all the teams. Those are big IFs in the preceding sentence, as anything can be changed and nobody is forcing MLS to be consistent in its scheduling format from year to year. But if they did stay consistent and they followed the principle that SJ would have to go there first after hosting them in 2022, then it's probably 2027 for Miami to cycle back here for a visit. Now there would also be a theoretical possibility of hosting Miami in the playoffs, Leagues Cup, or US Open Cup, but given the regionalization used in all of those, the only real possibility would be if both teams reached the final of one of them. And there's also the CONCACAF Champions Cup, which would be more random in its pairings, but, you know, you need to qualify, so good luck there. Hey, how 'bout an offseason friendly? That's how the Quakes got their first visit from Pelé and the Cosmos.
Right there are lots of possibilities outside the MLS regular season format. My guess is that the league would make some kind of effort to cart Messi around to every city at least once if he's going to play another 4-5 years. Messi will be 40 in 2027 I believe. There's no reason for me to believe he won't still be functioning at a high level at 40. Right now at 36 he doesn't look slow at all and can still outrun guys when he wants to, and all he'd need to do at 40 is make a few runs and launch a few wicked shots a game. So it all depends on whether or not he still wants to play and where.
If I'm reading the tea leaves right, we may have seen the last of Jonathan Mensah as a Quake. I'd say unlikely Mensah will be available tonight at least. Oskar Ågren recalled from Colorado Springs for remainder of season
So unbiased, I think the only 3 players on this team that are irreplaceable at this point are Cristian Espinoza: He's been our absolute best player this season. No player is perfect, but he shows up every single game, puts his best efforts in and has carried an offense that's struggled all season on his back. Without his MVP performance so far this season, we'd be in some serious trouble offensively. Daniel: He started the season out a little bit bumpy but he was dealing with slight injury, he bounced back and has put in performances that have gone unnoticed by the league. He's earned us points we shouldn't have received. He needs to improve with box command, but his shot saving abilities are top 5 in the league with Burki, Blake, Melia, and Callender I believe. Rodrigues: Our best defensive player. He isn't prone to many mistakes and is a big defensive improvement from what we've had over the past few years. Finding him a partner that provides some height and ariel ability is a priority. We should keep these guys, however if we can upgrade or add players of equal quality for depth or starting rotation would be a bonus for us. Carlos Akapo Cade Cowell Carlos Gruezo JT Marcinkowski Daniel Munie Jack Skahan Niko Tsakiris These are the players we need to upgrade, and use as rotation starters or off the bench. Jeremy Ebobisse Tanner Beason Paul Marie Johnathan Mensah: Keep or Cut really doesn't matter as long as he's not the everyday starter. Nathan Miguel Truaco Jackson Yueill These are guys who I think are dead weight on this roster and have no purpose here. Ayo Akinola Michael Baldisimo Ousseni Bouda Benji Kikanovic Jamiro Monteiro Judson Will Richmond Tommy Thompson Too early to tell for Oskar Agren Cameron Cilley Matt Hoppe Cristian Medina Keegan Tingey Casey Walls Could careless about Emi Ochoa
It’s been a fairly disappointing year for me in regard to Emi. I expected him to show some improvement but it feels like he has regressed a little. He looks particularly unimpressive in penalties and has issues with giving up goals on low shots. He also doesn’t make himself big enough on 1v1s and has lazily passed out of the back and given away dangerous chances.
I'm on the keep Akapo train, but I'm starting to get frustrated with him, given the number of times he's pushing into the final 3rd and nothing comes of it. And I had the impression that he was fast but he looks slower and slower to me. And he looks like a hammie waiting to happen. He'll be 31 by the time next season rolls around and not getting any faster. Maybe play at a lighter weight and do some yoga? In the twilight of his career Wondo really reduced his playing weight. I mean he got really thin, just trying to get the last bit out of his body. That's the standard. Same goes for Trauco on the "hammie waiting to happen" and needing to reduce his playing weight and doing some yoga. He and Akapo are about the same age. And man he is slow, but man he is good technically. So he can still be an asset but I'd like to see him cut down his playing weight to maybe eke just a bit more quickness out of his body.
It Trauco could limber up and lose a little bit of muscle mass he would be a better player, but eveyrtime the guy pivots or plants I cringe thinking somethings about to tear in half. I'm on the keep those guys train too, but if we can get upgrades i'm alright with that as well. Let me say though, WE SHOULDN'T focus on trying to find those positions we need other important needs attended to first.
Yeah, keep them on the train for at least another year, but we'd better start looking for their replacements for after that.
Or better yet, someone who can push them for minutes. Marie kind of does now, but we need one or two more.
Salary spend isn't the only investment metric (doesn't factor transfer fees, infrastructure, whatever) BUT... - 4 of the top 5 salary spending teams in MLS missed the playoffs- 8 of the bottom 9 salary spending teams in MLS made the playoffs.https://t.co/ZJVV6i7T52 pic.twitter.com/gmwcWmvXAA— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) October 22, 2023 Some good points in the replies
Couple of things about the replies. 1) How is this "bad for the league"? As the second comments suggests, what this probably means is that MLS teams have to get smarter in their scouting and decision-making. These results force that to happen rather than the fat, dumb, and happy teams getting the best results and MLS is the "dumb league" with no pressure to get smarter. 2) The transfer fees comment - that's always a legitimate call-out but a lot of the teams at the top of roster spending also spend a lot on transfers, e.g. Miami and LAG to name a few. So I'm not sure if it will make a huge difference.
Did Miami spend ANY transfer fees on Messi, Alba, Busquets, or even Josef Martinez? I don't think so. I can't even think of who the LA Galaxy spent on in terms of transfer fees, can you name names?
Yes, I can name names. Inter Miami: Farias - $5.5M, Aviles - $9M, and Gomez - $3M LAG: Jovlejic - $3.5M+$4M add-on, Julian Aude - $4.65M, Brugman - $2.2M The latter 2 figures for LAG taken from transfermarket, the rest were published "estimated" numbers in various articles. https://www.transfermarkt.us/dejan-...-among-club-record-transfers/view/news/390541 https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/38117040/messi-revitalized-miami-now-new-u22-trio-shake-mls