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| The best Christmas ever. |
Along with a lotta teams (e.g.
Real Salt Lake, who grabbed a couple players*, and the Colorado Rapids), the
Portland Timbers appear to be at what I’ll call “the plating stage” of their
offseason – i.e., the team is nailing down what they can get, leaving nothing but sending it outta the kitchen.
(* I just want to note that Chad
Barrett, the most MLS player in MLS, is one of these players. More on this
later, if from another angle.)
Signing Chance Myers (plz. see
poll a couple tweets down on my twitter feed), and re-signing Amobi Okugo and
recalling back Dairon Asprilla feel less like sexy acquisitions (Sebastian
Blanco/Dude-With-Similar-Talents/Profile, where are you?) than, say, getting a
vacuum for Christmas: it’s important to have and all, you know you need it,
but…well, it’s fucking vacuum.
With Myers being the only
completely new (if familiar) player, that seems the most exciting. I figure the
worst Portland gets out of that is Myers at starter, or an improved Alvas
Powell. Okugo should provide respectable cover in some key positions, at least,
but I’m still hope that he shows well enough to scare the people ahead of him
in the rotation (even as I don’t see that happening, goes against history,
etc.). With Asprilla, I guess it’s just hoping that he cleans up his game a
little, figures out how to play better with others (is that a decent recap on
Dairon? hmm…).
The thing I’m most geeked-up
about when it comes to the Timbers was last night’s still-dawning realization
that Portland’s left could be something next season – e.g., by way of the whole
Vytas Andriuskevicius/Darlington Nagbe pairing. If that pairing comes good,
Timbers fans simply must come up with a “Brangelina”-style nickname for the
pairing. “Darling Vytas” is all I got right now…taking fresh suggestions…
The Armchair Analyst sorta
sketched out how this functions by way of talking about how the Los Angeles
Galaxy paired Robbie Rogers with Landon Donovan in his 3 questions write-up
about the U.S. Men’s National Team’s January camp. It’s a buncha shit about
formations – talking about the Y midfield stuff - but it works all right if you
translate formation on mechanics.
Looking elsewhere….
CONCACAF CCL…meh
CONCACAF is fussing with the Champions League format and, sure, yes, it matters, because it’s different, but
when I get THAT bored when reading about something, I just gotta wonder. All in
all, there’s something about the CCL that recalls smashing together Lego’s and
tinker toys and hoping to get a functioning toy out of it. No disrespect to the
smaller teams – and lord knows they’ve embarrassed the shit out of their share
of MLS teams – but it also feels like there’ll never be a way they fit
comfortably with Liga MX, MLS and the best Honduran and Costa Rican teams.
Camp Cupcake’s Li’l Sprinkles
To reference Matt Doyle’s piece
again (link above), it seems fair to wonder what will really come out of the U.S. Men’s
January camp, because how much can Bruce Arena really change in terms of
formation/personnel ahead of the crucial World Cup qualifiers against Honduras
and Panama (and, no, these games have business being as scary as they are). And
yet optimism springs eternal in some parts (and god bless ‘em), so maybe if you
mash together, say, Doyle’s hopeful argument in favor of Matt Hedges and this list of 10 potential break-out players for the U.S. Men in 2017 by ESPN’s site, you
might goose your excitement for January camp a little.
And, again, thank god Jurgen
Klinsmann is gone, if only for the experiment/referendum on Klinsmann’s tenure.
What China Did to Chad Barrett
MLSSoccer.com linked to a story
this morning’s The Kickoff about a tweak to the handling of foreign players in
China’s Super League, one that might shake loose some persons of interest. The article provides details (of interest, but, if I’m
being honest, I’ll care if/when this comes to fruition), but the prospect of
flashy, under-employed players floating around feels like the kind of thing
that should keep a player like Barrett – e.g. attacking players, specifically –
up at night. Barrett’s upside has always been his motor and his burning desire
to run through walls for others. Effort is a beautiful thing – sometimes even
inspiring – but I look with at the idea of how he, and players like him, will
navigate/survive in an MLS market with a mixture of trepidation and projected sympathy.
OK, all for today…wait, no: SBI Soccer went deep on the Dax McCarty trade. Sounds like they've got some juicy drama going on over there...
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