MLS Offseason 2016-17

[Titans Bastard]

After weeks of mystery, NYRB confirms what everyone suspected - GM Ali Curtis is gone. What's still not entirely certain is what happened, but the most common theory is that he lost a power struggle with manager Jesse Marsch. I'm not sure how Marsch's trip to RB Salzburg and the rumors that he was going to take over there fit into the puzzle.

This was good, from a player who as of very recently has an axe to grind with the organization in general and Marsch in particular:

 

[Titans Bastard]

• At long last, DC United has obtained final approval for their stadium. Bob Kraft, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

• NYFCFC made a pair of signings - former RSL midfielder John Stertzer and Costa Rican winger Rodney Wallace. Stertzer is a mediocrity who will be depth, but Wallace is more interesting. After a long career in MLS with DC and Portland, he left for Portugal and then Brazil, where played their Serie A in 2016. They really have a ton of wing options now.

• John Harkes was abruptly fired by FC Cincinnati yesterday, reportedly after a power struggle with the club's president/GM Jeff Berding. Maybe he just slept with the GM's wife.

 

[Titans Bastard]

Nasty:

 

[Titans Bastard]

The first competitive game of 2017 involving an American team is...tomorrow! The CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal first legs are this week:

2/21
Deportivo Saprissa vs. Pachuca

2/22
NYRB vs. Vancouver
Tigres vs. Pumas

2/23
Dallas vs. Árabe Unido

The draw has been kind to the three remaining MLS teams in that they don't have to face any Mexican opposition in the quarterfinals. The semifinal legs are in mid-March and early April, so there will be at least a little time to shake off the rust. Obviously one MLS team is guaranteed advancement and Dallas really should be able to get by the Panamanians, too.

 

[Titans Bastard]

Preseason is nearing a close and many rosters are close to full, so the pace of international signings has slowed down considerably. Some teams are signing a draft pick or two, but the majority of draftees will be offered deals with USL affiliates (if applicable) or cut and left to search out their own deal with independent USL teams.

A few moves lately, however:

• Minnesota signed right back Jerome Thiesson, a 29 year old from FC Luzern of the Swiss Super League. He looks like a starter, as the club doesn't have much else at RB except for NASL holdover Kevin Venegas who is a career lower division player.

• Toronto signed 30 year old Spaniard Victor Vazquez. He is a central midfielder who began his career at Barcelona and got a few cups of coffee for the first team before moving on to Club Brugge and Cruz Azul. He's supposed to add some creativity to the midfield in Vanney's 3-5-2 and could displace either Jonathan Osorio or Armando Cooper ahead of Michael Bradley. They also have Jay Chapman (creative) and Benoit Cheyrou and Marco Delgado (defensive) in reserve. That's good depth.

• NYRB made a pair of signings. They picked up 21 year old Panamanian RB Michael Murillo from San Francisco FC. The loss of Chris Duvall in the expansion draft left a hole that needed to be filled. No idea how he'll stack up to incumbent option Sal Zizzo and Connor Lade.

• NYRB also signed 24 year old CB Aaron Long to an MLS deal. Since 2014, Long has bounced from Portland to Seattle to NYRB, playing for USL affiliates all the while. He did well enough last year for NYRB II that his contract was "loaned" to the first team and he played some CCL games. Now he's on the team permanently and will probably start the year as the #4 CB behind Collin, Baah, and Perrinelle.

 

[Titans Bastard]

The offseason is over:

 

[Titans Bastard]

NYRB's 4-4-2 is a new look for them. Using Kljestan out wide doesn't seem like the most efficient use of one of their best players, but perhaps he'll pinch in? Kemar Lawrence is suspended because of yellow card accumulation, so Bilyeu starts at LB. Long starts ahead of Perrinelle; Baah is still not fit. Royer starts over Muyl and Grella. I don't think NYRB has used Gonzalo Veron as part of a two-forward partnership before. Despite arriving with some fanfare, he has thus far been a big disappointing as a wide attacker.

It's not every day that you see an MLS team starting a 16 year old kid at the #10 in a knockout game. Too bad Alphonso Davies is Canadian and not American...but it's hard to begrudge sad-sack Canada a few decent prospects. Nerwinski at RB is a rookie making his debut. He is starting ahead of Sheanon Williams for whatever reason.

The Whitecaps are more short-handed than NYRB - midfielders Christian Bolaños and Nicolas Mezquida are injured, as is new forward signing Yordy Reyna. Other new forward signing Fredy Montero isn't ready to go yet, but should play in the second leg. CB David Edgar is out for a while after getting hurt in a hit-and-run car crash.

 

[Titans Bastard]

Didn't see the game, but Dallas stomped Árabe Unido 4-0 today, which means they can rest a bunch of starters next week. Kellyn Acosta scored a brace and new forward signing Cristian Colman got his first.

NYRB and Vancouver head back to Canada after a 1-1 first leg that the Whitecaps will be happy about. Kljestan took an absolutely awful penalty that will probably come back to bite him.

 

[Titans Bastard]

Only two teams even averaged >30k total attendance last season and one of them (Orlando) will drop below that figure in 2017 because they are moving into a new stadium with a capacity of 25.5k.

 

[Titans Bastard]

• In a trade of two players underperforming their contracts, Orlando sent Brek Shea to Vancouver in exchange for Giles Barnes. Barnes gives Orlando some more depth at forward behind Cyle Larin. The Whitecaps' announcement referred to Shea as a MF/FW, so presumably he'll compete for time on the wings with Manneh, Techera, and others.

• Montreal signed 24 year old DM Adrian Arregui on loan from Tamperley of the Argentine Primera. Some of their current central midfielders (Bernier & Donadel) are old as dirt and Bernardello isn't a spring chicken either, so presumably this will help.

• NYCFC signed journeyman LB Ben Sweat.

 

[Zososoxfan]

I think TB's been posting on reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/5wnu9n/2017_guide_to_mls/

 

[Titans Bastard]

I think TB's been posting on reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/5wnu9n/2017_guide_to_mls/

Not me!

 

[Titans Bastard]

MLS announced today that teams can expand their roster from 28 to 30 players provided that the last two slots are occupied by academy signings. Additionally, teams can use up to $200k of one form of GarberBux (TAM) to sign academy players. TAM was originally created to help teams sign upper-middle class type players (for MLS, roughly the $500k-$1m range).

The "salary budget" in 2017 is $3,845,000, a number that is almost entirely meaningless in terms of trying to understand how much teams are spending on players. There are all sorts of players whose salaries are partially or entirely not applied towards that salary budget number. Mechanisms like the Designated Player Rule and TAM are just convoluted methods the owners use to increase investment in higher-end foreign talent (and now higher-end domestic prospects) while ensuring that none of the extra pool of money seeps into the salaries of domestic players. The players bitch about it, but the fact is that MLS salaries for the rank-and-file have increased considerably over the last 5-7 years and if they really want more money from MLS they are going to have improve to the point that MLS clubs have to compete with moneyed foreign clubs for their signatures. I have argued in the past and still believe that American players are at a disadvantage in the global market because of passport/nationality rules that make signing in the UK, France, Spain, Italy, etc more difficult than it is for EU nationals, but that's just the reality they have to deal with.

 

[Titans Bastard]

The Revs signed fourth round pick Joshua Smith today. He's a very low-profile Germerican and one of those guys who washed out of an academy (Karlsruhe), played semi-pro in the Regionalliga, and eventually decided to play NCAA soccer. So he's old as dirt for a draft pick, just short of his 25th birthday. He's a big CB who supposedly looked good in camp. We do need the depth, even if Smith is rather unlikely to be a world-beater.

The Revs have seven open roster spots, but Mike Burns has said they are done for now. I think this team should be a little better than last year, but I think there are a lot of fair questions about whether Heaps can get the most out of the group and the team is pretty screwed if Kouassi gets hurt again or turns out to not be very good post-injury. I'm in the camp that says we need an athletic DM (like Koffie last year) and Caldwell as a shuttler in the diamond across from a more attack-minded player like Fagundez or Rowe. If the diamond consists of Caldwell at the base, Rowe and Fagundez wide, and Nguyen (or even Agudelo, which Heaps has tried) at the tip, I don't think that's enough defense. An injured or ineffective Kouassi means that we have to hope Caldwell can cover a shitload of ground because the only alternatives would be to insert Watson, Kobayashi, or Herivaux at the base, all of whom are not acceptable options.

---

Dallas is down in Panama for the quarterfinal second leg against Árabe Unido. Dallas is carrying a 4-0 aggregate lead, so they can afford to rotate the squad a bit ahead of MLS season openers this weekend. It's nice to see an MLS team make life easy for themselves on the road in CONCACAF for once. Unless there is a choke of epic proportions, they will play Pachuca in the semifinal.

 

[steeplechase3k]

The Timbers have waived Jack McInerney




I'm a little surprised the Timbers couldn't get SOMETHING for him. I wonder if he stays in MLS or goes overseas.

 

[Titans Bastard]

The Timbers have waived Jack McInerney




I'm a little surprised the Timbers couldn't get SOMETHING for him. I wonder if he stays in MLS or goes overseas.

I've always felt that McInerney needs to be in a team that plays a two-forward system to succeed. He's not a hold-up central forward and he doesn't have a winger's skill set. He's been a victim of the 4-2-3-1 era, though now that we're moving away from that perhaps he'll perk up.

 

[Arroyo Con Frijoles]

I'm glad they signed Smith based on the preseason reports. He's not going to turn into even an all-league CB at his age, but even a competent body for depth at the position is desperately needed.

I have defensive concerns too, but based on personnel, I really suspect we're going to see that offensively oriented diamond with Rowe and Fagundez out wide. I can't imagine anyone will be complaining about drab 0-0 matches when the Revs are playing, so here's to hoping for a bunch of 4-3 wins.

 

[Titans Bastard]

Mix Diskerud's contract has been bought out by NYCFC, which is not surprising at all because he's been out of favor since last summer and hasn't been with the team in preseason. We'll see if he ends up on another team in MLS or Norway or elsewhere. I think there'd be interest in MLS now that he'll be available for much less than what NYCFC was paying him.

LA signed a couple of long-time USL reserve team players, both of whom have spent the last three seasons with Los Dos. One is academy product Jaime Villarreal, younger brother of LA winger Jose Villarreal. The other is 26 year old French left back Bradley Diallo.

LA's roster is....different. They still have a huge star in Gio dos Santos and prominent veterans in Jermaine Jones and Jelle Van Damme, but almost all of their depth is made of former academy players and other youngsters. Curt Onalfo's promotion from the reserve team was as unsplashy a management hire as could be imagined. It definitely feels like the early phase of a philosophy shift. It's starting to seem that when LAFC joins the league next year, they will be the decidedly flashier LA team.

It's all good; it would be an enormous waste if neither LA club were development-focused. Now let's see if Onalfo and the Galaxy can do it right. It's good news for US soccer that NYRB and Dallas were able to romp through the league on the smallest budgets thanks to some contributions from academy players and a focus on development. When more clubs copycat that model, the domestic player pool wins.

 

[steeplechase3k]

Mix Diskerud's contract has been bought out by NYCFC, which is not surprising at all because he's been out of favor since last summer and hasn't been with the team in preseason. We'll see if he ends up on another team in MLS or Norway or elsewhere. I think there'd be interest in MLS now that he'll be available for much less than what NYCFC was paying him.

I can't believe how lucky the Timbers are that he balked at signing with MLS in 2013 (because of the fact that he's be signing with MLS, not the Timbers). If he had singed here the Timbers probably don't have Diego Valeri.