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| All carousel horses should like exactly like this... |
Outside a couple fairly specific
places, this wasn’t a big day in the domestic soccer world. From my tiny corner
of it, it feels like most people are waiting for Toronto and Montreal to kick
off – and, there, the most interesting thing I read today posed the pertinent
question of which of those two teams would give fans and neutrals the best game
(no spoilers…).
Coaching Carousel (Note the One
With a Shot at Grabbing the Brass Ring)
Peter Vermes signed a contract extension with Sporting Kansas City, something that would have pissed me off
were I an SKC fan (related: I’d really like to poll that fan-base, ‘cause I
don’t like Vermes at all; maybe they do, though). Elsewhere, Minnesota…hold on,
I wanna get this right…there it is, Minnesota United FC hired former Orlando City SC head coach Adrian Heath to guide them into their first season. The most
this one gets out of me is a shrug; I had a hell of a time caring about Orlando
over the last couple seasons, but, when I did check in on them, Orlando looked
like a team with a rock-star set-up (e.g. Kaka & The Other Soccer Players)
and issues with in-game discipline. Heath seems middling, basically, pending
further evidence…
…though let the record show that
I’d like to see Minnesota do all right in MLS.
The situation in Los Angeles, on
the other hand (see note), positively teems with possibilities good, bad and
franchise-busting. Only now do I realize that I tracked Bruce Arena’s re-ascension to the
U.S, Men’s National Team without ever really finishing the thought. Arena leaving must
feel at least a little like a “dad has a second family, and they are better”
moment for Galaxy fans – and with good reason. It’s not so much that there
aren’t a lot of coaches like Arena in U.S. circles: it’s fair to ask if there
are any. With Robbie Keane departing, the next year in LA has a very real
“without-a-net” quality to it. Soccer By Ives’ write-up flagged a couple worthwhile
talking points as well – e.g., the preference/philosophical discussion for a
domestic coach, rather than a foreign one; an intriguing list of names for
building blocks (e.g. Giovani dos Santos, Jelle Van Damme, Gyasi Zardes
and…wait for it, Sebastian Lletget). At any rate, that whole transition ought
to be fun…and with reasons for falling in some truly fascinating places.
The Transfer Tracker (and Its
Discontents)
Today, MLSSoccer.com teased fans
with a headline/photo combo that reads, “The Tracker: Four Clubs Announce
Roster Moves.” This isn’t an issue of passing on bad information – it’s
actually great to have all those details in one place – so much that it’s
almost impossible to find those four particular moves amongst, well, all those
details. Maybe just put the word “UPDATE,” or even just an asterisk in front of
the new ones, yeah?
Again, Why I Started Doing This
A young American (of whom I knew
nothing, and know only a little now) played for Italy’s Fiorentina this past
weekend – and against AC (Freakin’) Milan. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Josh Perez.
And, finally, yo, where was The
Kickoff this morning, MLS? I mean, I’m just a one-man shop and I’m posting
crap…wait. Goddammit. I forgot something. Screw it. Tomorrow. I'll get it tomorrow...
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