MLS Tourist Journal, Calendar Week 3: Trades, Progress and "Progress"

My li'l all-Homegrown team, in my head. And who they'll face...

To start with a happy thought, preseason dates are now bubbling up to the top of the crawl on MLSSoccer.com, and that means people will be kicking balls and people very, very soon (maybe even people’s balls). Wait! I’ve just received word of people kicking with intent! Sporting Kansas City knocked around Sporting AZ FC pretty good only yesterday, and thus the ball rolls forward for 2019. (What?! Rodney Wallace moved to SKC? Was this in between black-outs or something?) Based on the crawl, my personal preseason starts on January 30 when FC Cincinnati plays L’Impact de Montreal (show it, plz?). I’ll delve into all (available) things FC Cincy, and Portland Timbers down below and, after that, take a tour by all personal points of interest around MLS. But, with a big date on the domestic soccer calendar coming before everything that isn’t SKC getting amped (Peter Vermes is involved, obviously) for the CONCACAF Champions League (CCL), let’s start there.

Meet the New Boss, Nothing Like the Old Boss (and thank gods for it)

This time next week, I’ll be getting on my giddy about the U.S. Men’s National Team for the first time since U.S. Soccer finally and correctly terminated The Jurgen Klinsmann Experience. It makes sense to restate my beef with Klinsmann, briefly – i.e., I felt like he never prepared the team tactically, never mind conceptually, and that, like most self-help people, he had a horrible knack for blaming everyone but himself when things went wrong – because, per some soccer porn put out by U.S. Soccer (Behind the Crest, I think they call it), Gregg Berhalter takes a different approach, maybe even its micro-managing opposite. When the U.S. Men play Panama next Sunday, then Costa Rica the following Saturday, I don’t need to see the U.S. beat both teams badly enough to have to peel their boot out of their collective asses after the final whistle; I just want a team that doesn’t take the field seized with existential doubt about what the hell the coach actually meant by “expressing yourself" and “getting a little nasty.” Hearing Tyler Miller talk about Berhalter’s system not as gospel, but as a plan to “fall back on,” played in my ears like a chorus of angels.

We’re All Getting a Baby Brother (mom and dad have been doin’ it again!)

Now, back to MLS, I have a couple league-wide notes. First, the league confirmed Austin FC as the league’s 27^th team – and one with a much firmer plan/vision for the future that New York City FC or whatever the fuck they’re calling Miami’s boondoggle. Austin will officially join in 2021, and without shivving the hearts of another city, and, if all goes well, playing in a privately-funded stadium of their own. Don Garber said something about “a non-linear process” for getting a team in Austin, but all the above strikes me as doing things a damned site better than the two “glamour teams” named above.

Homegrown Fantasy League

Early in my reverse chronological journey through the past week’s news, I noted that the Colorado Rapids signed a couple homegrown players (Matt Hundley and Sam Raben). Signings like that…don’t generate a lot of buzz for natural reasons (how often are these head-fakes to life in the USL?), but they planted a little detour at the top of the article – a “glossary” of all the homegrown players. Next thing you know, I’m trying to build the best possible starting XI out of the players with which I have at least passing familiarity. Based on that lone criteria, here’s the candidate pool:

GK: Jesse Gonzalez, Tyler Deric,

Defense: Reggie Cannon, Alex Crognale, Kevin Ellis, Marco Farfan, Kortne Ford, Connor Lade. Brooks Lennon, Mark McKenzie, Tommy Redding, Auston Trusty

Midfield: Kellyn Acosta, Tyler Adams, Corey Baird, Gianluca Busio, Scott Caldwell, Jay Chapman, Sean Davis, Marky Delgado, Alphonso Davies, Diego Fagundez, Djordje Mihailovic, Alex Muyl, Paxton Pomykal, Dillon Serna, Russell Teibert, Wil Trapp, Victor Ulloa

Forward: Derrick Etienne, Jr., Anthony Jackson-Hamel, Foster Langsdorff, Jack McBean, Jordan Morris, Daniel Salloi

So, with that personnel, what’s my game-day starting XI? Let’s go with a 4-2-3-1.

GK: Gonzalez

Defense (R to L): Cannon, Kevin Ellis (for veteran savvy), Ford, Farfan

Midfield at the 2: Caldwell, Acosta

Midfield at the 3 (R to L): Davies, Adams, Baird

Forward: Jordan Morris

Would that team even make the playoffs? Maybe, but I’d ask for odds on it (and that says something). On the plus side, you have enough midfield options/permutations where that wouldn’t be the weakness, even if it’d be a team-first kind of unit, more than the sum of its parts (e.g., short on eye-catching “stars” after Davies). Going the other way, the “good-to-great” options dry up with defenders and forwards. And that’s of interest.

Speaking of a glut of midfielders (and, sorry! I’ll start with the Timbers one of these days, but Cincinnati keeps getting the seamless segues)…

FC Cincinnati Progress Report

When looking for a tally on steps forward versus steps backward, it depends on how one measures the steps. To start with the step backward, the deal for Necaxa’s (etc.’s) Matias Fernandez appears to have collapsed and, as many have pointed out, Cincy (like every other soccer team in this universe and the rest of them) could really use a No. 10. In his weekly “5 Questions” column, Andrew Wiebe says this could be a case of delay, not death, but this “need” will remain until it’s somehow filled.

Now, the step forward: Cincinnati did sign a midfielder – Costa Rican Allan Cruz. He looks like a solid signing, but a stray note in the pre-official announcement flags a potential issue just by listing some names:

“FC Cincy boast a deep depth chart at his position, having already acquired the likes of Fatai Alashe, Victor Ulloa, Leonardo Bertone and Eric Alexander.”

Depth and competition both = good, but this pushes the fine line between that and tripping over one’s own dick. You have to assume Bertone’s better than the domestic guys, while Cruz, at 22, is more of a wild card. Then again, he played for a club (Herediano) that does fine against MLS clubs in the CCL, then there’s the five-team competition within MLS to sign him, and that makes this a case of a lot of people seeing the same upside. With that in mind, what’s Eric Alexander to do? (Or, to name someone more immediately comparable, Corben Bone?)

The early book on FC Cincinnati keeps holding up – e.g., they’ll be athletic and hard to breakdown centrally – but, if they keep signing defensive/box-to-box midfielders, where will the goals come from? In his “One Question” for every team mega-post, Matt Doyle’s pull-out on Cincinnati wonders about Fanendo Adi’s scoring potential, but that question seems related to, if not powerfully subordinate to, the kind of players that Cincy is (Cruz) and is not (Fernandez) signing. Teams can’t order quality No. 10s like a value meal at McDonalds or anything, I get that, but I’ve seen Adi pull, at most, 3-4 goals out of his own ass; he needs guys to set him up. Looking at the current roster, if Emanuel Ledesma is not that guy…?

Portland Timbers, Progress, Praise Gods

If nothing else, the signing of Aljaz “All the Jazz” Ivacic provides total comfort and belief that the Timbers are ready at goalkeeper (do I know anything about Ivacic? Good lord, no, but his teeth look healthy). In related news, the Timbers did complete the long-rumored signing of Claude Dielna from the New England Revolution. I’ve decided to be excited about the pick-up, and against a concerning body of evidence. First, consider this paragraph from the write-up on his acquisition:

“Prior to MLS, Dielna had come through the French professional ranks. He has seen more than 1,000 minutes in just two seasons, once in Ligue 1 during Ajaccio's 2013-14 campaign, and once the following season at Sheffield Wednesday in the English League Championship.”

Next, consider that the Revs looked at that resume and still signed Dielna to a DP contract – and that was part of a larger project of “[spending] a lot of money on their backline in recent years (more than anybody else in the league, as a matter of fact).” All that effort and money, and the team still drowned in dumb goals and mediocrity in 2018. Here’s the reason Doyle gave in his pull-out on New England:

“But sometimes even the best press breaks down, and when that happens you need defenders who can put out fires in the open field. That was a struggle for New England.”

In defense of Dielna’s defending, Portland plays a different system, one that rarely demands “fire fighting” in the open field, and maybe that’ll play to Dielna’s strengths. Also, if you look closer at Dielna’s pre-MLS travels, you see loans to reasonably-sized clubs, which could explain away those limited minutes – e.g., Portland isn’t Olympiacos. Taken together, all the above argues for giving Dielna the benefit of the doubt, but against looking to him for salvation.

Finally, Doyle’s pull-out on the Timbers holds up Cristhian Paredes (just aged 20!) as a player to watch in the year ahead. For close followers of this space, I expect that to translate as another year of personal confusion and, related, a deeper preoccupation with resting players.

Well, that wraps up the league-wide stuff and checking in on my favorite children. Time for that quick tour through points of interest from around MLS. In no particular order…

Columbus Crew SC

They signed a young Brazilian winger named Francisco Wellington Barbosa de Lisboa, aka, Robinho, Robinho Barbosa or Robinho Madalena. I have no idea how he’ll do, but think he sounds like a Berhalter-esque signing (which gets tangled up in what Caleb Porter winds up doing with this team). Also, I want all those Robinho-related names squeezed onto his jersey…

Atlanta United FC

The biggest news comes with re-signing Josef Martinez to a 5-year contract and/or a fat transfer fee for Atlanta somewhere down the line – call it good business regardless. They also signed a kid named Don Pereira from Watford (or its academy) and, to throw out a hot take, Atlanta’s signings mean more than other team’s till further notice.

New York City FC

Anytime NYCFC’s struggled in 2018, people pointed to Yangel Herrera’s injuries and the expectation that the sun would come out again on his return. Another loan – this time to Spain’s Huesca – means Herrera will leave New York and take that little ray of sunshine with him. NYCFC picked up a young American named Keaton Parks, maybe to replace Herrera, but we’ll see.

DC United

Doyle’s pull-out on DC United asked what feels like a good question: whether the now-veteran Steve Birnbaum can lead an MLS defense. That’s certainly of interest, but I got a bigger kick out of Wayne Rooney’s steely negotiating style as he considered coming to DC last season:

“I love this place, man. I shouldn't say this with my agent here. This is where I want to be.”

Houston Dynamo

There’s some indirect good news around the Dynamo’s Honduran winger, Alberth Elis: it’s less that he’s staying with the team (because it doesn’t sound like he is), than he’s likely to deliver a strong return when he goes. The Dynamo is asking $6 million, and with enough intent to turn down $4 million. They also picked up Marlon Hairston from Colorado, who will give them good depth…

Colorado Rapids

Wiebe declared the Rapids “winners” of the 2018 off-season so far, and losing Hairston won’t change that (and getting $350K in TAM(? do I care?) won't hurt either). Landing Andre Shinyashki in the Superdraft motivated that trade, apparently, and that puts the both the greater risk and potential for reward on the Rapids side of the ledger.

New York Red Bulls

They lost Tyler Adams to FC Leipzig over the winter, but, if there’s a team in MLS that you trust when they say, “we got this,” that team is the Red Bulls until further notice.

Vancouver Whitecaps

I lifted this from Wiebe’s column. It comes from Vancouver’s new coach, Marcos dos Santos:

“We know exactly where we are going. You guys are not seeing. You’re in the living room smelling something. You don’t know what’s baking. We know. We know because we are cooking it. We know exactly what type of players we want for different positions.”

Even as I hear echoes of Darren Mattocks promising 20+ goals in his first or second season (or maybe both) in that statement, I’d rather hear that than someone reminding me that Vancouver has, so far, lost more than it has gained this off-season.

Chicago Fire

Again, I love that MLS articles on trades, etc. often paste the relevant team’s current roster at the bottom. Also, if I was a Chicago fan reading this pull-out on the age of their key players and seeing the players currently listed as defenders, I would be shitting myself.

Toronto FC

As Greg Vanney already knows, losing Victor Vasquez is a blow. That’s a lot of elegance (and assists) to lose, perhaps more than Jonathan Osorio, Marky Delgado, and the freshly-retained Tsubasa Endoh can make up (Jordan Hamilton will be of no assistance with assists).

Los Angeles Galaxy

For as long as it's just Rolf Feltscher putting pen to paper, things don’t look so great for one of MLS’s genuinely “big” teams. The rumor mill has started filling in some blanks - e.g., potential signings of Diego Polenta and Uriel Antuna feel more ambition-appropriate for them. The Galaxy still has the big names – including one of the biggest in Zlatan – but might they also have a traffic jam at the top of the formation? Zlatan gave them goals last season, obviously, but enough to overcome that?

Los Angeles FC

Re-signing centerback Walker Zimmerman answered one of their bigger off-season questions, but I was more interested to read how much LAFC spent on Andre Horta ($7 million), and for such paltry return. Call that a cautionary tale on any foreign singing, down even to whopping dollar amounts.

Minnesota United FC

Whatever happens with this team in 2019, I’ll always have Collin Martin playing Late Late Live Tinder. On a nuts and bolts level, the Loons seem determined to hold on to defender Francisco Calvo, or to get a good return on coughing him up. They’re looking at a French fullback as well, but Minnesota will necessarily remain on probation until they can crack into the playoffs.

Orlando City SC

Even after reading about their signing of Brazilian B-league right back Ruan Teixeira, and respecting Cristian Higuita as a solid destroyer/connector, I feel something other than confidence when looking at the current roster. The feeling only deepens when you read they waived Stefano Pinho a couple articles later. While I’m sure they’ll beat the Timbers next time they play them, this roster doesn’t look strong enough for 2019, and I don’t see the outlines of a future either.

San Jose Earthquakes

“No one knows just how he’ll fare with the Quakes, but other teams can no longer simply look past San Jose. There’s even a sense that bringing him on board could be an equalizer of sorts for San Jose, a way for the club, traditionally one of MLS’ lower spenders, to punch above their weight and compete with their higher-spending rivals.”

Landing Matias Almeyda was a big, ambitious deal…but people will continue to “look past San Jose” till the ‘Quakes force them to stop.