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| Ah, Fredy! Ya beautiful prick! Come on in, son! |
I want to start with a couple
quick notes, then it’s on today’s topic (moving fast, people, go go go!).
First, I decided to skip rolling
out preseasons results as they come in. Think I’ll just roll that into the
final All-MLS preview post for 2017 that I’ve been fantasizing about since late
January. Wholesomely fantasizing, ya sickos.
Second, articles like this one
(e.g. “10 Observations about the New England Revolution Preseason” or something
like that) are starting come out and these are just nice for getting a bead on
where fan-bases are on their local team’s rebuild. I’m working this week to
combine them into a big mega-post. I hope to post by the end of the week, but
failing that, I’ll post it Monday.
Or I won’t finish it. You know
how these things go. Just know I wanna (and that’s usually enough).
Coming Back And Why A Player Does
It
A couple things come together for
this one. First, MLSSoccer.com pulled together a list the author (Ben Couch)
titled, “Which Former Players Should Return to MLS”? I resisted the initial
temptation to come up with my own list – because, that’s a bigger universe than
I want to wrap my head around for so little return – but it does include a
nifty player or two – e.g., Andy Najar, Krizstian Nemeth and, for all you
Portland Timbers fans, Jorge Villafana.
The thing I want to flag with
this is how much more contingent this whole concept has become. Jorge, for
instance, wouldn’t feel like the same homecoming as, say, Fredy Montero, who’s
rumored (strongly enough to call it done, right?) to return to MLS with the
Vancouver Whitecaps. Along with Seattle’s new kid, Gustav Svensson, Montero’s
could follow from not so much success or failure during his one year in China
as a change to the care and handling of foreign players in the Chinese Super
League. A quick review of Montero’s CV shows a guy who’s continued to score for
the teams he’s gone to (the main ones being Portugal’s Sporting CP and China’s
Tianjin Tedo), even if he’s not lighting it up quite like he did with Seattle.
