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| Call it due diligence, call it ass-covering, I'm good. |
First, and happily, there will be soccer this week - and in games that’ll count - when the U.S. Men’s Olympic Team (USMOT?) kicks off its crash-course qualification schedule in Mexico. I mean, this thing will be over in a flash.
The USMOT starts with Costa Rica on Thursday (3:30 pm PST), then the Dominican Republic on Sunday (5 pm PST), then the following Wednesday against Mexico (7:30 pm PST; all games airing on FS1). They’ll need to finish either first or second in their Group (A) to qualify for the semifinals and, in order to qualify for Tokyo (assuming it happens), they’ll just need to win that semifinal; the final, as it turns out, is for bragging rights alone. And, to finish the thought, their potential universe of opponents for that semifinal include, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, and Canada - and who among isn’t hoping for the 54-40 or Fight Derby?
As for handicapping, I have fan acquaintance-level familiarity with most of the roster (the exceptions: Matthew Freese, Mauricio Pineda, Johnny Cardoso, Ulysses Llanez, Andres Perea, and Sebastian Saucedo, and Sebastian Soto), but, because I don’t know even a quarter’s worth of dick about the opposition, I won’t pretend to have anything insightful, never mind useful to say. Matt Doyle raised a couple questions about the final roster - short version: he’s dubious on the calls at forward (for why no Jeremy Ebobisse?) and the FC Cincinnati 2019-esque midfield construction (for why no Eryk Williamson?) - so I’ll let those points stand. Overall, though, I’m just happy to know I’ll have some familiar faces kicking a ball in anger (and, ideally, joy) late next week - and in games that count.
The meaningless games have started as well - i.e., Major League Soccer preseason is (finally) under way - giving MLS fans the first (meaningless) results of the 2021 season. Not many teams have played so far, and fewer still have played anything bigger than an intra-squad scrimmage, but FC Cincinnati was one of them. I’ll get to that (reported shit-show) when I get to them, but here are the other results that count (e.g., not intra-squad (Dallas? Houston?), not victimizing the local college team, etc.):
Atlanta United 3-0 Tormenta FC (c’mon, they made up that name)
Chicago Fire 2-1 New York City FC
Sporting Kansas City 4-0 Phoenix Rising
To answer at least one person’s question (you, at the back), Jesus, no, I won’t list every preseason result between now and First Kick; blame the little frisson I feel at seeing games between teams I recognize this time ‘round. The SKC result looks about right and maybe I’d have something to add about Atlanta’s result if I knew what a “tormenta” was, but the result in the Chicago v NYCFC game feels worth bookmarking - for now, anyway.
Now…let’s move on to a result that feels like so very much more of the same…
Orange, Black and Blue
FC Cincinnati 0-3 Louisville City SC
First, to get it off my chest: oh, come the hell on. Guys?!
The rhyming score-line notwithstanding, I won’t read too much into this result - not that I can, when the identifiers only go as far as “a Cincinnati defender” and “the Cincy goalkeeper" (that is, they didn’t disclose the line-up). A win would have tickled my ivories a bit more, obviously, but I am miles past expecting miracles out of Cincinnati, at least in the near-term. The hope is that help is on the way - and, there, the Luciano Acosta rumors sound sturdy enough (right?) - but getting this team turned around registers at a level of backing a semi out of a long alley with two, three turns in it. This is a team chasing the pack, figuring itself out and chewing bubble gum at the same time. Landing Acosta (assuming they did) doesn’t hurt, of course, but any “youth movement” will need time to gel and some hangover remains, in my opinion, at time of writing (e.g., Locadia, Jurgen and Medunjanin, Haris). That said, a stray line in something I read last week (a wee intro to new kid Calvin Harris) struck me as a good jumping off point to a doom/salvation sub-plot in FC Cincinnati’s set-up:
“…the Orange and Blue are hoping that quality will translate into MLS for a team that scored only 11 goals in 2020.”
“That quality” references Harris’ output a college player while that searing “11 goals” points to the mountain Cincinnati has to climb to get to competitive. The second I finished that sentence, my thoughts skipped right past Harris and turned to Frank Amaya and the central dilemma of his career so far. Among everything else, Cincy fans know two things about Amaya: 1) he asked for a trade this offseason, and 2) that he rates as the team’s most reliable player or close to it, only without posting much for headline attacking numbers - e.g., goals and assists.
I don’t know how Amaya sees himself - particularly in the context of a trade - but I do know that he’ll have a hell of a time selling himself as an attacking midfielder with one goal and zero assists over 36 games started and 40 appearances. To move to less generous territory, Amaya’s on-the-ball presence has never impressed me all that much: he’s a decent dribbler, but nothing mind-blowing, and I’d call his general passing average and would place his final ball passing somewhere between unmemorable and underwhelming. Again, I say all that firm in the belief that Amaya has earned his place on the field and in the starting line-up. He clearly does positive things for the team, if not necessarily what the team needs on the attacking side…
…now, to what extent is that problem less about him than about the players around him and/or the general/presumed incoherence of what they do around him? What if Amaya’s passing suffers from not having good runs to play to? Or from a system that doesn’t work? In other words, how much do Amaya’s limitations follow from the players and the overall situation around him? The next (frankly terrifying) step from there (again, I’ve volunteered to watch this shit) is whether the same dynamic will stifle Acosta’s quality - or Harris’ for that matter.
To wrap up the thought, I see Amaya as a strong, but developing box-to-box player - and, more to the point, one who will improve as the players around him do the same; generally speaking, better players make everyone around them play better and, (apparent) curses aside, I see no reason that Cincinnati should defy that law. I do think Acosta (assuming he arrives) will give Cincinnati something they haven’t had before and I’ll be very, very curious as to how they use his talents and (counter-point) how much they’ll thrive in a Wayne-Rooney-free environment - again, better players, etc.
I still have lots of questions, basically, even as I do believe Ronald Matarrita and Brenner, plus a little more seasoning for players like Alvaro Barreal and Kamohelo Mokotjo (and Franko Kovacevic? please?) will make Cincinnati better or, gods willing, just less burning fucking hell to watch….and, yes, in that very narrow context, even a preseason loss to (fucking) Louisville does not help.
One final note(/segue): MLS released the first two regular season games for every team last week - and, with their shiny, new stadium opening, Cincinnati even got a third announced game. Those games, in order: at Nashville (April 17); at NYCFC (April 24), and the home opener on May 16 against Inter Miami CF. Because I consider myself both an honest man and a bit of a pessimist, I fully expect and have prepared for Cincy’s season to start with two red Ls (also, that Nashville game threatens severe boredom). Again, I’m not expecting miracles, nor do I demand them. That said, improvement would be fabu and increased watchability would make me weep from joy. With that, here’s to hoping that Cincy fans will roll into that home opener with some confidence they’ll go home happy.
Portland Timbers: Gio and Gavin’s Gamble
The Timbers, meanwhile, have had several more scheduled, competitive games revealed ahead of the start of the season. There’s preseason, naturally, and the related hope that someone (possibly named Kalvin) will somehow stream upcoming warm-ups against Colorado (March 16), Phoenix (same day, then March 20), SKC (March 24), and Motherfuckers FC (aka, Seattle, March 30). Thanks to winning MWoMLS last season, the Timbers' real season will start with CONCACAF Champions’ League (CCL) against Honduras’ C.D. Marathon on (first) April 6 and April 13. Their first official MLS games will follow hot on the heels of those two games, playing away to the Vancouver Whitecaps on April 18, then hosting the Houston Dynamo on April 24. My thoughts on all that are…complicated.
First, I’ve made a thoroughly unrealistic vow to not care about preseason results - i.e., preseason is about getting the first team match fit and nothing else - while also dreading the totality of the situation. As with every season in the history of the league, playing in the CCL means foregoing any kind of grace period to start the season: in this case, it could mean starting the long haul of the 2021 regular season with getting knocked out of another tournament wedged in the back of your favorite team’s collective mind; it could also mean starting the marathon that is the MLS regular season out of joint(s) (hey-oh!) and dropping results a team really shouldn’t.
Going the other way, how much confidence might the Timbers get from hitting the regular season sharp and against two of the weaker teams in the Western Conference? Momentum begets momentum and the more points a team can bank at the beginning of the season, the more flexibility they have to rest, frankly, aging legs as needed down the stretch.
Look, everyone agrees that the Timbers have talent - and I count myself among that “everyone.” That doesn’t minimize, never mind erase, the gamble that the Portland Timbers have seemingly committed to for the 2021 campaign. Winning it means that Diego Chara’s legs last for, by my math, most of another season; it also assumes that Diego Valeri can produce enough offense, not to mention that the injury bug doesn’t bite as hard as it did by the end of 2020. It also involves an auto de fe that the defense that bled late goals (by my count, sort of) will tighten up, and with fresh (but unknown) personnel added only at the fullback position. As much as I respect the hell out of the individual talent on Portland’s roster, time really does come for all of us. If there’s one thing I’m not sure the fan-base has fully appreciated, it’s the reality that, at time of writing, Portland has committed to a series of gambles that overlap….then again, I’m pretty sure that applied to the 2020 season as well and that one owns a solid place in my top three Portland Timbers seasons. So....
Mild panic aside, I do like the way the Timbers’ early season shapes up. Based on half-educated reading of the (or what strikes me as) half-educated insights into the Marathon/CCL series, as well as the fact that Portland faces two weak teams to open the season, I think they’ve got a decent chance of starting strong and all the benefits that flow therefrom…
…I also expect this to be a season where I’ll keep better track of the panic button - especially more than I did last year. To analogize the season to a real-life situation, 2021 feels like driving into a mountain pass with a dodgy forecast, bald tires and skipped maintenance. Having done that several times myself, I fully understand it’s possible, while still believing the whole thing feels like a lot to take on.
And…that’s it for the regular coverage. Think I’ll close out this week with some odds and ends.
MLS Round-Up
1) Home Openers, All ‘Round
To stick with a theme, MLS released home openers for (more or less) every team in the league, of course, and that feels like a good first step to an eventual column - e.g., handicapping which teams I expect to have a strong start to the 2021 regular season. That’ll come out the weekend I’ve got the first five games for every team in hand. For what it’s worth, I’m putting my money on a weird season…and all that means.
2) New Coach in Instability-Ville
In what was either a stab a continuity or a semi-conscious decision to just give up, Club de Foot Montreal opted for an internal hire for the head coaching job. Wilfried Nancy will take the reins, and maybe has already. I call that a tricky move for a team that has enjoyed a weird, limited kind of success since joining MLS - i.e., they aren’t the best, they aren’t the worst, and not a lot of teams went as deep in the CCL as they have. So…serve it up, I guess…
3) Sam Vines & His Contract
“He was also entering the final year of his contract this year. And for a long time, that combination of factors often added up to playing out the deal and crossing the Atlantic to try their luck as a free agent.”
“But Vines, much like NYCFC’s James Sands earlier in the week, and Reggie Cannon before them, didn’t do that.”
That comes out of an article posted on The Mothership about the Colorado Rapids’ Sam Vines signing a well-paying (probably), four-year contract extension with the same team. As the article (gently) argues, that probably follows from MLS’s growing credibility as a league, but it also represents something for the individual player that goes unsaid: on the one hand, sure, it protects the club’s investment in the player and opens the path to a bigger pay-out if/when Vines moves on to Europe, but it also gives Vines something young players don’t get enough of (especially those playing where Vines, Sands and Cannon play on the field); a reasonable guarantee of employment, and with a decent paycheck for four years. I could be missing something (oh, the things I miss) but this feels like a rare win-win for all concerned.
That’s all for this week. Here’s to hoping I’ve got as much to work with - or, gods forbid, more - next week. Just to note it, I very much doubt I’ll write anything about the USMOT beyond the aftermath. I do, however, expect to tweet aggressively throughout. And, for what it’s worth, I wouldn’t be surprised if the U.S. doesn’t land qualifying. That’s one hell of a group they’re in.
Till the next one!
The USMOT starts with Costa Rica on Thursday (3:30 pm PST), then the Dominican Republic on Sunday (5 pm PST), then the following Wednesday against Mexico (7:30 pm PST; all games airing on FS1). They’ll need to finish either first or second in their Group (A) to qualify for the semifinals and, in order to qualify for Tokyo (assuming it happens), they’ll just need to win that semifinal; the final, as it turns out, is for bragging rights alone. And, to finish the thought, their potential universe of opponents for that semifinal include, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, and Canada - and who among isn’t hoping for the 54-40 or Fight Derby?
As for handicapping, I have fan acquaintance-level familiarity with most of the roster (the exceptions: Matthew Freese, Mauricio Pineda, Johnny Cardoso, Ulysses Llanez, Andres Perea, and Sebastian Saucedo, and Sebastian Soto), but, because I don’t know even a quarter’s worth of dick about the opposition, I won’t pretend to have anything insightful, never mind useful to say. Matt Doyle raised a couple questions about the final roster - short version: he’s dubious on the calls at forward (for why no Jeremy Ebobisse?) and the FC Cincinnati 2019-esque midfield construction (for why no Eryk Williamson?) - so I’ll let those points stand. Overall, though, I’m just happy to know I’ll have some familiar faces kicking a ball in anger (and, ideally, joy) late next week - and in games that count.
The meaningless games have started as well - i.e., Major League Soccer preseason is (finally) under way - giving MLS fans the first (meaningless) results of the 2021 season. Not many teams have played so far, and fewer still have played anything bigger than an intra-squad scrimmage, but FC Cincinnati was one of them. I’ll get to that (reported shit-show) when I get to them, but here are the other results that count (e.g., not intra-squad (Dallas? Houston?), not victimizing the local college team, etc.):
Atlanta United 3-0 Tormenta FC (c’mon, they made up that name)
Chicago Fire 2-1 New York City FC
Sporting Kansas City 4-0 Phoenix Rising
To answer at least one person’s question (you, at the back), Jesus, no, I won’t list every preseason result between now and First Kick; blame the little frisson I feel at seeing games between teams I recognize this time ‘round. The SKC result looks about right and maybe I’d have something to add about Atlanta’s result if I knew what a “tormenta” was, but the result in the Chicago v NYCFC game feels worth bookmarking - for now, anyway.
Now…let’s move on to a result that feels like so very much more of the same…
Orange, Black and Blue
FC Cincinnati 0-3 Louisville City SC
First, to get it off my chest: oh, come the hell on. Guys?!
The rhyming score-line notwithstanding, I won’t read too much into this result - not that I can, when the identifiers only go as far as “a Cincinnati defender” and “the Cincy goalkeeper" (that is, they didn’t disclose the line-up). A win would have tickled my ivories a bit more, obviously, but I am miles past expecting miracles out of Cincinnati, at least in the near-term. The hope is that help is on the way - and, there, the Luciano Acosta rumors sound sturdy enough (right?) - but getting this team turned around registers at a level of backing a semi out of a long alley with two, three turns in it. This is a team chasing the pack, figuring itself out and chewing bubble gum at the same time. Landing Acosta (assuming they did) doesn’t hurt, of course, but any “youth movement” will need time to gel and some hangover remains, in my opinion, at time of writing (e.g., Locadia, Jurgen and Medunjanin, Haris). That said, a stray line in something I read last week (a wee intro to new kid Calvin Harris) struck me as a good jumping off point to a doom/salvation sub-plot in FC Cincinnati’s set-up:
“…the Orange and Blue are hoping that quality will translate into MLS for a team that scored only 11 goals in 2020.”
“That quality” references Harris’ output a college player while that searing “11 goals” points to the mountain Cincinnati has to climb to get to competitive. The second I finished that sentence, my thoughts skipped right past Harris and turned to Frank Amaya and the central dilemma of his career so far. Among everything else, Cincy fans know two things about Amaya: 1) he asked for a trade this offseason, and 2) that he rates as the team’s most reliable player or close to it, only without posting much for headline attacking numbers - e.g., goals and assists.
I don’t know how Amaya sees himself - particularly in the context of a trade - but I do know that he’ll have a hell of a time selling himself as an attacking midfielder with one goal and zero assists over 36 games started and 40 appearances. To move to less generous territory, Amaya’s on-the-ball presence has never impressed me all that much: he’s a decent dribbler, but nothing mind-blowing, and I’d call his general passing average and would place his final ball passing somewhere between unmemorable and underwhelming. Again, I say all that firm in the belief that Amaya has earned his place on the field and in the starting line-up. He clearly does positive things for the team, if not necessarily what the team needs on the attacking side…
…now, to what extent is that problem less about him than about the players around him and/or the general/presumed incoherence of what they do around him? What if Amaya’s passing suffers from not having good runs to play to? Or from a system that doesn’t work? In other words, how much do Amaya’s limitations follow from the players and the overall situation around him? The next (frankly terrifying) step from there (again, I’ve volunteered to watch this shit) is whether the same dynamic will stifle Acosta’s quality - or Harris’ for that matter.
To wrap up the thought, I see Amaya as a strong, but developing box-to-box player - and, more to the point, one who will improve as the players around him do the same; generally speaking, better players make everyone around them play better and, (apparent) curses aside, I see no reason that Cincinnati should defy that law. I do think Acosta (assuming he arrives) will give Cincinnati something they haven’t had before and I’ll be very, very curious as to how they use his talents and (counter-point) how much they’ll thrive in a Wayne-Rooney-free environment - again, better players, etc.
I still have lots of questions, basically, even as I do believe Ronald Matarrita and Brenner, plus a little more seasoning for players like Alvaro Barreal and Kamohelo Mokotjo (and Franko Kovacevic? please?) will make Cincinnati better or, gods willing, just less burning fucking hell to watch….and, yes, in that very narrow context, even a preseason loss to (fucking) Louisville does not help.
One final note(/segue): MLS released the first two regular season games for every team last week - and, with their shiny, new stadium opening, Cincinnati even got a third announced game. Those games, in order: at Nashville (April 17); at NYCFC (April 24), and the home opener on May 16 against Inter Miami CF. Because I consider myself both an honest man and a bit of a pessimist, I fully expect and have prepared for Cincy’s season to start with two red Ls (also, that Nashville game threatens severe boredom). Again, I’m not expecting miracles, nor do I demand them. That said, improvement would be fabu and increased watchability would make me weep from joy. With that, here’s to hoping that Cincy fans will roll into that home opener with some confidence they’ll go home happy.
Portland Timbers: Gio and Gavin’s Gamble
The Timbers, meanwhile, have had several more scheduled, competitive games revealed ahead of the start of the season. There’s preseason, naturally, and the related hope that someone (possibly named Kalvin) will somehow stream upcoming warm-ups against Colorado (March 16), Phoenix (same day, then March 20), SKC (March 24), and Motherfuckers FC (aka, Seattle, March 30). Thanks to winning MWoMLS last season, the Timbers' real season will start with CONCACAF Champions’ League (CCL) against Honduras’ C.D. Marathon on (first) April 6 and April 13. Their first official MLS games will follow hot on the heels of those two games, playing away to the Vancouver Whitecaps on April 18, then hosting the Houston Dynamo on April 24. My thoughts on all that are…complicated.
First, I’ve made a thoroughly unrealistic vow to not care about preseason results - i.e., preseason is about getting the first team match fit and nothing else - while also dreading the totality of the situation. As with every season in the history of the league, playing in the CCL means foregoing any kind of grace period to start the season: in this case, it could mean starting the long haul of the 2021 regular season with getting knocked out of another tournament wedged in the back of your favorite team’s collective mind; it could also mean starting the marathon that is the MLS regular season out of joint(s) (hey-oh!) and dropping results a team really shouldn’t.
Going the other way, how much confidence might the Timbers get from hitting the regular season sharp and against two of the weaker teams in the Western Conference? Momentum begets momentum and the more points a team can bank at the beginning of the season, the more flexibility they have to rest, frankly, aging legs as needed down the stretch.
Look, everyone agrees that the Timbers have talent - and I count myself among that “everyone.” That doesn’t minimize, never mind erase, the gamble that the Portland Timbers have seemingly committed to for the 2021 campaign. Winning it means that Diego Chara’s legs last for, by my math, most of another season; it also assumes that Diego Valeri can produce enough offense, not to mention that the injury bug doesn’t bite as hard as it did by the end of 2020. It also involves an auto de fe that the defense that bled late goals (by my count, sort of) will tighten up, and with fresh (but unknown) personnel added only at the fullback position. As much as I respect the hell out of the individual talent on Portland’s roster, time really does come for all of us. If there’s one thing I’m not sure the fan-base has fully appreciated, it’s the reality that, at time of writing, Portland has committed to a series of gambles that overlap….then again, I’m pretty sure that applied to the 2020 season as well and that one owns a solid place in my top three Portland Timbers seasons. So....
Mild panic aside, I do like the way the Timbers’ early season shapes up. Based on half-educated reading of the (or what strikes me as) half-educated insights into the Marathon/CCL series, as well as the fact that Portland faces two weak teams to open the season, I think they’ve got a decent chance of starting strong and all the benefits that flow therefrom…
…I also expect this to be a season where I’ll keep better track of the panic button - especially more than I did last year. To analogize the season to a real-life situation, 2021 feels like driving into a mountain pass with a dodgy forecast, bald tires and skipped maintenance. Having done that several times myself, I fully understand it’s possible, while still believing the whole thing feels like a lot to take on.
And…that’s it for the regular coverage. Think I’ll close out this week with some odds and ends.
MLS Round-Up
1) Home Openers, All ‘Round
To stick with a theme, MLS released home openers for (more or less) every team in the league, of course, and that feels like a good first step to an eventual column - e.g., handicapping which teams I expect to have a strong start to the 2021 regular season. That’ll come out the weekend I’ve got the first five games for every team in hand. For what it’s worth, I’m putting my money on a weird season…and all that means.
2) New Coach in Instability-Ville
In what was either a stab a continuity or a semi-conscious decision to just give up, Club de Foot Montreal opted for an internal hire for the head coaching job. Wilfried Nancy will take the reins, and maybe has already. I call that a tricky move for a team that has enjoyed a weird, limited kind of success since joining MLS - i.e., they aren’t the best, they aren’t the worst, and not a lot of teams went as deep in the CCL as they have. So…serve it up, I guess…
3) Sam Vines & His Contract
“He was also entering the final year of his contract this year. And for a long time, that combination of factors often added up to playing out the deal and crossing the Atlantic to try their luck as a free agent.”
“But Vines, much like NYCFC’s James Sands earlier in the week, and Reggie Cannon before them, didn’t do that.”
That comes out of an article posted on The Mothership about the Colorado Rapids’ Sam Vines signing a well-paying (probably), four-year contract extension with the same team. As the article (gently) argues, that probably follows from MLS’s growing credibility as a league, but it also represents something for the individual player that goes unsaid: on the one hand, sure, it protects the club’s investment in the player and opens the path to a bigger pay-out if/when Vines moves on to Europe, but it also gives Vines something young players don’t get enough of (especially those playing where Vines, Sands and Cannon play on the field); a reasonable guarantee of employment, and with a decent paycheck for four years. I could be missing something (oh, the things I miss) but this feels like a rare win-win for all concerned.
That’s all for this week. Here’s to hoping I’ve got as much to work with - or, gods forbid, more - next week. Just to note it, I very much doubt I’ll write anything about the USMOT beyond the aftermath. I do, however, expect to tweet aggressively throughout. And, for what it’s worth, I wouldn’t be surprised if the U.S. doesn’t land qualifying. That’s one hell of a group they’re in.
Till the next one!
TIL
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