And yet somehow never seems to get injured. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Speaking of oft-injured I checked in on Nathan and Akapo, both in Brazilian 2nd division but barely playing or not playing.
Pellegrino scored for San Diego - 2nd game in a row, and this time it was a brace. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Oh, he had an assist too, which I think means he has 3g, 3a in the last 2 games.
Cool! Maybe they’ll buy him from us? They badly need a #9 and he’s played well in that role for them even when he doesn’t score. I wish him well, but F#$& San Diego!! Just sayin. Go Quakesfans!!
I could see them offering a much smaller package and him accepting. He's close to retirement and they need (and probably will continue to need) depth at this position. Let's see how their post season goes.
I was thinking the same thing. They could essentially halve his salarly to something like $4-500k and he'd probably take it. That would probably be way more than he can make in Norway. And I'm sure he's enjoying playing in San Diego, very good team and nice place and all that. He may be kind of on the bubble right now and it may kind of depend how he does in the playoffs. Or maybe they are already willing to offer a greatly reduced salary and see if he takes it.
Well, at least two 2025 Quakes player made the team of the week on decision day.... Pellegrino who they traded away (good decision) and Tsakiris who they don't usually play (who got 17 minutes). The best of the best from Decision Day. 💫🗞️ Team of the Matchday pres. by Audi: https://t.co/UpCeNpbJrl pic.twitter.com/3XZQovrrLE— Major League Soccer (@MLS) October 20, 2025
Sunday, November 23, 2025 Amahi Pellegrino is flying for San Diego FC by Scott French https://www.socceramerica.com/amahi-pellegrino-san-diego-fc-chucky-lozano/ (Reminding y'all that even @falvo cannot copy/paste entire articles!) Pellegrino's rise Aug. 23 Portland, 0-0 (sub-8 minutes) Aug. 31 at LAFC 2-1 (sub-21 minutes) Sept. 13 Minnesota, 1-3 (63 minutes) Sept. 20 at Atlanta, 0-0 (61 minutes) Sept. 27 San Jose, 0-1 (63 minutes) Oct. 4 at Houston, 4-2 (sub-45 minutes, 1 goal, 2 assists) Oct. 18 at Portland, 4-0 (67 minutes, 2 goals, 1 assist) *Oct. 26 Portland, 2-1 (73 minutes) *Nov. 1 at Portland, 2-2 (70 minutes, 1 goal) *Nov. 9 Portland, 4-0 (71 minutes, 2 goals) Totals: 542 minutes, 6 goals, 3 assists
This part is just plain wrong - pure fantasy. "He was coming off two and a half sensational years with Bodø/Glimt -- two league championships and 75 goals, 64 of them the last two seasons, four in UEFA Champions League -- and figured the Earthquakes would use him in his natural position. Instead, he found himself 9. "I'm a winger, and I've always been a winger, so it wasn't the best fit," said Pellegrino, who'd last played as a center forward a dozen years earlier. "I tried to do my best, as I always do, but I think that everyone can see that it didn't fit me, and it didn't fit the team." Pellegrino rarely if ever played the #9 for us. 90% of the time, going back to 2024, he was the left sided attacking winger / forward. Our #9's have been Jebo, Josef, Judd, or Chicho. And then Bruce played him in center midfield a couple of times. When he says he was played out of position at SJ, I assumed he meant that he was expected to be more of a sideline to sideline winger, which is not his game. He's a cut-in guy all the way, and is pretty useless with the ball out on the wing. He can't take players on. He needs service in front of goal. The article also mentions about how he was used as a #9 at San Diego for a while around when he first joined and it wasn't a good fit. I think the author just got confused with the "out of position" stuff. Also, from Tverskov: "Whenever he gets the finishing opportunity, he scores goals." Um....
I'm sure Amahl Pellegrino is loving San Diego as opposed to playing for FK Bodø/Glimt.... This game is gonna be rough!
On the broadcast they said that he was planning to go back to Norway to finish out his career after this year (or possibly before the year ended - he implied that he'd met with Quakes staff and said this isn't working - we should do end it) but then the San Diego opportunity came up, and he jumped at it. Now they are negotiating a new contract with him. So he will likely be here for another year or two.
Welp, there it is. As I predicted, San Diego signed Pellegrino to a new contract after his strong late season + playoffs. It goes all the way, potentially, to 2028, when he'll be 38. Just goes to show, "One man's trash is another man's treasure". ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ What does it tell us about our team when our cast-offs like Pellegrino and Hernán can move to different D1 teams and almost immediately start raking? It can't be all that good. https://www.sandiegofc.com/news/san-diego-fc-announces-roster-decisions-to-conclude-2025-season
That the curse of the Earthquakes is so strong and so deep that even a talented and experienced coach is powerless against it?
This might help him make the decision easier: https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/09/americas/argentina-football-raid-latam-intl
At this point I question how good Bruce is as a coach in MLS. There are a lot of really good coaches now in MLS - Bruce says that himself, and I'm not sure Bruce is one of the better ones anymore. Mikey Varas, Sorenson, Schmetz, Ramsey, Nancy (now leaving), Noonan, etc. I don't think it's a coincidence that Pellegrino did so much better under Mikey Varas. San Diego is just a so much better team and he figured out how to make Pellegrino useful in his system. And that's in their expansion year and with pretty average spending.
The longer someone spends in a particular role, the harder it is -- at least for most people -- to keep reinventing themselves and come up with fresh ideas for approaching familiar tasks. The long-timers who continue to succeed, like Schmetzer, must be able to do that. There's a little bit of luck, a little bit of players -- but these guys are all professional and theoretically the training is helping them elevate their skills -- it's mostly the coach
Yes, and Schmetz is not really an old-timer relative to Bruce - he's 10 years or so younger. 73 is really up there. I don't want to say that a coach that old can't be successful, but it would be unusual for him / her not to be set in their ways, and the league is constantly evolving. At some point, the league passes you by. Has it passed Bruce by? I'd say it's kind of up in the air at this point and next year will be a really important data point. Even coaches like Frank and Dom - the league passed them by when they were much younger because it evolved and there methods did not work as well anymore.