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| How my people say "love." |
Welcome to the first of the weekly spins I plan to take
around Major League Soccer’s points of (personal) interest for calendar year
2019. Because I can go deep on only two teams (the Portland Timbers and FC
Cincinnati), I am truly embracing “tourism” concept this season. It just feels
right. As always, or at least when it doesn’t trip up the narrative flow (which
ranks high for me), I’ll start with those two teams and branch out from there.
Portland Timbers, Neither Holding Nor Folding
All quiet on the Timbers front for the past week – and how
one feels about that corresponds directly, no doubt, with one’s sense of the state
of team (i.e., I want action, baby). Barring some draft-day monkeyshines, the
Timbers aren’t likely to do much during the first “real” event on the MLS
Events Calendar – e.g., Friday’s Superdraft (scare quotes = real). To note an
impulse, however, when I saw Logan Gdula identified as a right back (and one
with a(n alleged) 40% chance of starting five games or more (see the “senior
prospects” link below), one of the voices in my head whispered “Timbers,” and
that tells me where I see a need for Portland. Besides that, and thanks to this brief article (and the artist’s rendering therein), I finally seee The Master Plan for the East side of Providence Park. (What? That really
could be the first artist’s rendering I’ve seen. I ride by Providence every
weekday and, every time I’ve ridden by, I’ve looked at it and thought, “huh”?).
Next.
FC Cincinnati's First Steps
Call the point arguable, but participating in the Superdraft
makes FC Cincinnati in MLS official for me (it’s like Don Garber gave them his
lettermen’s jacket and his class ring). As nearly everyone points out these
days, MLS’s broad evolution means that most teams look to the Superdraft for “depth
pieces” rather than starters. Or, to borrow a really efficient phrase from Matt Doyle’s mock Superdraft:
“Homegrowns, TAM signings and young DPs are investments.
A drafted player is found money.”
I glanced at two more mock drafts to see what Cincy might do
with its Number 1 pick – Top Drawer Soccer’s and Ives Galarcep’s – and, on
evidence even of seasons where the Superdraft mattered more, the next time you’ll
see a majority of those names will be on USL rosters or the name tag of a guy
selling you your next hi-def TV. Before the mock drafts, I searched for hidden gems among a list of senior prospects and didn’t turn up anything obvious – and that
could explain why the three mock drafts tabbed Siad Haji, a midfielder (Doyle
and Top Drawer), and Tajon Buchanan, a forward, for Cincinnati’s first pick.
