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| Harry Shipp’s next step? |
Let the record show that I did
watch the U.S. post that goal-less draw against the Serbian First Division
All-Stars (or, just Serbia). The only thing I have to add beyond what’s already
out there (yay, Darlington Nagbe! yah, Sebastian Lletget!) is the thought that
the U.S. looked actually comfortable on the field for the first time in a
while. If nothing else, sending players onto the field with some form of
tactical direction marks the only departure from the Jurgen Klinsmann Era, I’ll
call that enough of a win.
Let the record also show that I’m
probably gonna miss U.S. v. Jamaica. Then again, who knows? Maybe work’ll be
dead on Friday.
How a Situation Becomes a Crisis
With the whole Sebastian Blanco
thing waiting for someone to tie on the bow, and with a linkable report to the Portland
Timbers’ loss to Istra 1961 not yetup, the biggest news out of Timbers Land
probably came with yesterday’s report that Gbenga Arokoyo, the possible/planned
preferred partner (sorry, got on a roll) for Liam Ridgewell, has been
downgraded to broken. The guy blew out his Achilles tendon, apparently, and,
sad to say, his only contribution as a Timber that I will ever recall was providing
what might have been an assist on Rennico Clarke’s own-goal in the preseason opener. Tough, tough break
for Arokoyo, obviously, and you feel for the guy…all while pretty much thinking
that he’s not a player to bank on for the future.
If, like me, you wanted to see
the Timbers sign a central defender even before Arokoyo went down, this looks
closer to a mountain than a molehill (a foothill?). Portland’s thin for
personnel back there, and possibly (debatably) thinner in quality, so, in a
word…goddammit. If Portland goes into the regular season with the current corps
of defenders, I’ll start 2017 by protecting myself (e.g. tempering
expectations).
How a Crisis Deepens
Regular visitors might recall
that I’ve spent parts of this offseason anxiously eyeing roster rebuilds for
the Houston Dynamo and Sporting Kansas City. I was able to take a little comfort
in the idea that Portland wasn’t alone in standing something closer to standing
pat; if nothing else, we had the San Jose Earthquakes. As it happens, we might
not have them anymore. Just a day after hinting that they would stand-pat on
big moves till the summer, San Jose signed Marcos Urena; then, just this
morning, their GM, Jesse Fioranelli, announced that still more reinforcements
are coming. Like, now.
Sure, even if Urena feels like a
decent pickup (he does to me), the rest of the guys could be nobodies. Banking
on that feels like a bad idea – and that’s a little too close what the Timbers
appeared to be doing with central defenders. And that was before Arokoyo went
down.
One last thought on
trades/transfers/signings, etc. You can do worse than duck into SBI Soccer’s “MLS Ticker” posts to keep track of this stuff. Unless you’re really switched on,
most of those names won’t mean anything to you anyway.
Second Acts in the Modern Game
To circle back to some old news,
people were talking last week about the intersection of free agency and MLS
academy products coming into the league. A couple separate pieces came in to
frame it – e.g., thinking about how Harry Shipp and Will Bruin will do in Seattle (which hits the subject a little obliquely) – but the most interesting
thing came with this paragraph from a Matt Doyle/The Armchair Analyst write-up
on the state of the present free agency market:
“The advent of the academy age is going to change free agency starting around 2020. Each year we'll see more and better players available for the wintertime silly season – possibly earlier in their careers – and I think that will have a profound effect on how teams build their rosters.”
Two thoughts here, just to sort
of keep the ball rollin’. First, Doyle lists all still available free agents,
as well as the players who found a home, and I can’t say it includes guys that
most teams will beg their local team to acquire. Second, and this wasn’t too
long ago, Will Parchman listed and ranked the MLS academies, each according to
their best current product and their best product all-time.
That brings things back to Shipp.
Whether you think he has struggled, or if you think he’s been repeatedly
undermined, signing Shipp feels more like taking a chance than landing on a
solution. As much as he could go either way, the fact that Shipp’s coming into
a team with the kind of depth that might force him to play out of position, or
not at all, makes it worth wondering how long it’ll really take for the
academies to have that “profound effect” on roster builds.
Like most people, I assume it’ll
come, if only to some teams (e.g. FC Dallas and New York Red Bulls). It’ll be interesting
to track regardless.
Finally, Because We Are Not
Allowed to Escape It…
Being of my particular political persuasion
(flexible, but allergic to assholes), I find it heartening to see a couple MLS
athletes, and the MLS Players’ Union, issue public statements against what’s
being called Donald Trump’s “Muslim ban.” (Personally, I think it’s more trial
balloon than actual ban, and no less noxious for it, still…) While Kei Kamara’s statements feel more relevant, I did like Michael Bradley’s decision to circle
back with a bolder, no-actually-fuck-this statement (same as last link).
Elsewhere, MLS, as a league, had
this to cough up:
“An MLS spokesman said Monday the league was in daylong expansion-team meetings and not prepared to issue any statement.”
Fine,
I guess. Sit on the fence; it’s a free country (for now). At the same time, how
long’s it take to say, “yeah, total bullshit?”
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