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American Soccer |OT2| Party Like It's 1999.

B

Blue Lou

Member
Mexico won. The commentator made me laugh.

Delarosa!
Excitedly
Gooooooooooooooooooooal
Mexico have won the Under 17 Championship yet again, absolute glory for El-Tri!!
solemnly
Absolute heartbreak for United States
 
R

RBH

Member
Icolin said:
Was just about to post this, lol.

Andrew Carleton's goal was exceptional. Hope he gets some MLS minutes soon.
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Yeah, I've been hoping for Tata to give Carleton some minutes. With the way Atlanta has been playing lately, they need a spark.
 
I

Icolin

Banned
Ottaro said:
Yup! Got into MLS only four seasons ago, but I have adored having FC Dallas as my team. They are a blast to watch, I go to the home games as often as I'm able.
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Huge admirer of FC Dallas. Oscar Pareja is the best coach in MLS, IMO. Spots under the radar players and gets the best out of them (Barrios, Diaz, Castillo, Gruezo, Urruti).

In unrelated news, seems like the Whitecaps are close to signing Australian international winger/striker Bernie Ibini from Club Brugge in Belgium. 24 years of age, fast, strong, technically sound and a capable target man with untapped potential. Really like this move.
 
D

Dr Campino

Member
Icolin said:
In unrelated news, seems like the Whitecaps are close to signing Australian international winger/striker Bernie Ibini from Club Brugge in Belgium. 24 years of age, fast, strong, technically sound and a capable target man with untapped potential. Really like this move.
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It should be noted that he never hit the field for Brugge, he broke his leg and then missed a year. Then he went on loan to Sydney FC in the A-League, scoring 3x in 20 appearances this past season (which literally just ended, I got up at 3am to watch).

So untapped potential is very right, haha. But he was never the star at Sydney, so we'll see what he can do.
 
I

Icolin

Banned
Dr Campino said:
It should be noted that he never hit the field for Brugge, he broke his leg and then missed a year. Then he went on loan to Sydney FC in the A-League, scoring 3x in 20 appearances this past season (which literally just ended, I got up at 3am to watch).

So untapped potential is very right, haha. But he was never the star at Sydney, so we'll see what he can do.
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He was the star at his previous club Central Coast Mariners. That was awhile ago, though.

Despite the fact that he never made an appearance for Club Brugge, the fact that they signed him means he must be pretty decent.

This is clearly a depth move by Robbo. Could come in handy for Canadian Championship games, or when Bolanos is on international duty with Costa Rica.
 
R

RBH

Member
Icolin said:
Isn't Josef Martinez coming back soon? That should help ATL out, to say the least.
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He might be back for the next game, just not sure how much he'll play or how effective he'll be after his injury. They've definitely been struggling without him lately, Kenwyne Jones seems to best serve as a super sub rather than a guy who plays 90
 
I

Icolin

Banned
RBH said:
He might be back for the next game, just not sure how much he'll play or how effective he'll be after his injury. They've definitely been struggling without him lately, Kenwyne Jones seems to best serve as a super sub rather than a guy who plays 90
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And he doesn't really fit Tata's possession oriented, quick counter attacking style either, especially when he's the lone striker.
 
C

Cornballer

Member
FourFourTwo: Why a league of parity is evolving into haves and have-nots
The theoretical purpose of a salary cap is to create competitive balance and prevent a league structured with haves and have-nots.

As Major League Soccer grows and with the introduction of Targeted Allocation Money, however, it will become more difficult for teams with frugal ownership groups to keep up. Multiple general managers and coaches have told FourFourTwo in recent months that MLS will start to see a separation between teams and ownership groups that spend at higher levels and those that don’t.

While some teams have been able to mask some lower spending with a healthy homegrown system or an ability to sell players to increase their pool of allocation money – the New York Red Bulls and FC Dallas are the best examples – the other powerhouse teams in the league are evidence that the balance of power is shifting toward those who spend more.

Orlando City, Toronto FC, New York City FC, Seattle Sounders and Atlanta United all have multiple high-cost Designated Players on the roster. So, too, do the Portland Timbers and LA Galaxy. It is making things more difficult for lower-spending teams, which may be able to produce single-season outliers like Colorado in 2016, but will find it more difficult to string together multiple seasons at the top.

I can’t emphasize this enough: We’re not talking about a snapshot of the league standings 10 games into one 34-game season. This is about sustained success.

“We’re going into an era soon that if your ownership doesn’t spend, we are going to have a divide in the league,” one MLS source said. “And if you don’t spend and you don’t have an academy, you’re in big trouble.”

It’s important to clarify what it means to be a higher-spending team.

MLS salary budgets are essentially money already spent by owners. The league pays player contracts, and so those budgets are already paid down by the league ownership groups and doled out to each team. Targeted Allocation Money is a use-it or lose-it amount that also comes out of a pool of money set aside and designated by the league. General Allocation Money, meanwhile, is distributed by the league at the beginning of every season. As MLSSoccer.com’s Matt Doyle wrote earlier this year, each team’s salary budget should be thought of as approximately $5.948 million. That’s what every owner in the league pays per year, essentially.

So, when it comes to first-team spending, salary numbers matter less until you get to the very top of the roster – or everything that comes above that $5.948 million. The focus is on Designated Player expenditures and transfer fees.

Here are the teams that have consistently spent well above that number over the past three seasons: Toronto FC, Seattle Sounders, LA Galaxy, Portland Timbers and NYCFC. All of those teams have either contended for or won a title in the past three years.

This goes beyond even a one, big-name DP level. Yes, there will eventually be a difference between an Orlando City, which spends $7.2 million per year on Kaká, and NYCFC, which spends $13.525 million per year on three high-level DPs.

Orlando City, for example, will have spent approximately $25 million on Kaká over three-and-a-half years, plus approximately $3.5 million in transfer fees and salaries for Carlos Rivas and Bryan Rochez. Subtract the budget charges for each player and that’s a $26 million outlay out of the ownership group’s pockets over a three-and-a-half season timeline – or about $2 million over three years in non-Kaká spending. What they end up doing in the post-Kaká era will be pivotal.

Teams like Seattle, NYCFC and Toronto have multiple high-level DPs that come at a high cost to the ownership groups every year, in addition to transfer fees. Over a four-year period, for example, Seattle committed $28 million to Clint Dempsey in salary alone, plus fees and salary for Nicolas Lodeiro and a DP salary for Osvaldo Alonso. Seattle also spent $4 million on a fee for Obafemi Martins, plus a DP salary for three seasons. Toronto FC spends nearly $20 million per season on salary alone for Sebastian Giovinco, Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore.

Atlanta United will be an interesting study because it spent young and up front, with approximately $12-15 million in transfer fees this offseason and about $3.23 million per year in salary, subtracting budget charges. Their model is based on the ability to sell players, which would then replenish their allocation money with a surplus.
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More via the link.


Icolin said:
And he doesn't really fit Tata's possession oriented, quick counter attacking style either, especially when he's the lone striker.
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Yup. He's an old school target man who spends a lot of time hanging out in the box waiting for service. He doesn't really get involved when they're on the move. I do wonder how long he'll be in Atlanta.
 
B

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
Cornballer said:
Yup. He's an old school target man who spends a lot of time hanging out in the box waiting for service. He doesn't really get involved when they're on the move. I do wonder how long he'll be in Atlanta.
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I don't think he was meant to be the starter though. He seems like the guy they throw on at the end of the game when they need a goal and are just going to be sending balls into the box endlessly. They definitely need another striker though.
 
C

Cornballer

Member
- MLS Analyst: Best XI, awards & more from the season's first quarter
- Tab Ramos names nine MLS players to US roster for FIFA Under-20 World Cup




B-Dubs said:
I don't think he was meant to be the starter though. He seems like the guy they throw on at the end of the game when they need a goal and are just going to be sending balls into the box endlessly. They definitely need another striker though.
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I can see that. For some reason I thought he was on near DP money (which he isn't), and I assumed they were building around him since he was one of their first pick ups.
 
I

Icolin

Banned
Osorio's out. Thank god.

Don't understand why TFC still plays him, to be honest. He's gotten all the opportunities in the world to prove himself, and he's done fuck all with them.
 
C

Cystm

Member
B-Dubs said:
Third game in two weeks with one more coming up. I'm surprised Vanney didn't rest him tonight.
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That's exactly what it is. Dude is gassed. On top of the past Hamstring issues, you're right - he should've been rested. Give Hamilton or Edwards some minutes.
 
C

Cystm

Member
Sporting KC to celebrate Retro Night on May 17 against Seattle Sounders FC


2017%20Retro%20Night%20training%20top.jpg
Click to expand...

Dope.
 
B

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
Cystm said:
That's exactly what it is. Dude is gassed. On top of the past Hamstring issues, you're right - he should've been rested. Give Hamilton or Edwards some minutes.
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Maybe they'll rest him against Minnesota, they shouldn't need both him and Gio to break down that back line. It's just crazy that they've had him play so many games in such a short span given his prior health issues.
 
C

Cystm

Member
WorldSoccerTalk: MLS reveals strategic plan to improve TV ratings in US

The plan includes:

1. Putting cameras in the locker rooms before the game,

2. Allowing access to team huddles,

3. Putting microphones on coaches during games, and

4. Increasing the number of media ”car wash" tours.

While the changes are welcome, they will do nothing to improve MLS TV ratings. The reason why soccer fans are not watching MLS isn't because of a lack of locker room access. Nor is it because the coaches aren't mic'd. It's because the league structure is fundamentally flawed. What's the point of watching an 8-month regular season when 54% of the teams qualify for the playoffs? What's the incentive for the viewer to watch these broadcasts? Plus why are the biggest games of the season scheduled at the same time as NFL games in the fall?
Click to expand...
 
B

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
Cystm said:
WorldSoccerTalk: MLS reveals strategic plan to improve TV ratings in US
Click to expand...

There's not a whole lot they can do about the timing of the playoffs, but there's absolutely an issue with too many teams making it to them. There's like 11 teams in a division and 6 playoff spots. Even when LAFC and, what I assume will be, Miami, come in that's still half the teams making the playoffs. I get wanting those midtable teams to have meaningful games at the end of the season, but it's just too much.
 
C

Cornballer

Member
Coughing up two goals in the first half to Colorado isn't something I saw coming. Colorado only scored five goals this season before today. :/

Edit: welp
 
S

SuperSonic1305

Member
Can't say enough good things about TFC's season so far. This schedule has been awful. Playing midweek and again on the weekend is nothing new but doing it for 3 weeks in a row? I've never seen this happen before and to come out of it with 6 straight wins is just mind boggling. Finally they get a week's rest.
 
I

Icolin

Banned
SuperSonic1305 said:
Can't say enough good things about TFC's season so far. This schedule has been awful. Playing midweek and again on the weekend is nothing new but doing it for 3 weeks in a row? I've never seen this happen before and to come out of it with 6 straight wins is just mind boggling. Finally they get a week's rest.
Click to expand...

That's squad depth for ya.
 
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