FCD Radio voice Steve Davis' weekly column, drilling down on five hot topics in American soccer
1. A gloriously engaging off-season ahead
I am certain that we say this every year: this MLS off-season will be the most interesting one yet.
And I am also certain of this: This MLS off-season will definitely be the most interesting one yet. No, really. This one for sure.
First, the annual list of players eligible for re-entry draft processes is out and there are, as always, interesting names. More than usual, in fact. A bigger handful of players were starters in 2015; heck, there are three goalkeepers in the list who had at least 21 starts in 2015, and one more (Zac MacMath) who is just 24 years old but already has 105 MLS starts.
Expect big interest in Round 2 of the process (Round 1, when teams may assume players on their current salary, rarely kicks up much action) on several players, including: Steven Beitashour, Seth Sinovic, Marco Pappa, Gabriel Torres and Maximiliano Urruti, among a few others.
Then there is the
first class of free agents
. This is what MLS player reps have wanted, what they fought for, so we’ll see where it lands for guys like Mike Magee, Ricardo Clark, Drew Moor and other long-servers in MLS. But do take note as you remember what Jurgen Klinsmann says: In U.S. sports, clubs and fans get swept up in nostalgia and too often reward what players
were
, not what they
are
or
will be
. Just a heads up on that one.
Can the Galaxy find a way to lure Magee home? Do they want him? Or will Robb Heineman, the Sporting KC owner who is on the front end of “recruiting” through social media, see his efforts rewarded?
What in the world will happen at New York City FC? Watching the personnel chaos in the club’s first year was an absolute hoot. (Somewhere, Jason Kreis is nodding in quiet agreement.) Who is making the calls now? What kind of player does fresh-faced manager Patrick Vieira want? Will they find a way to kick Andrea Pirlo or Frank Lampard (or both) to the curb?
Down the way, the age on D.C. United’s roster was just this side of your local over-40 side. So we’ll see what Ben Olsen can do on his can-and-string budget. We do know this: he will not be adding Jermaine Jones, who is out of contract with New England (also facing a lengthy MLS suspension) and wants one more payday.
Roster makeovers are underway at Houston and, perhaps most intriguingly, at Philadelphia. In the Brotherly city, former U.S. international Earnie Stewart and soccer’s version of Money Ball will pull the strings. The roster turnover has already started, and that promises to be a fascinating place to watch.
Players will be added from abroad, but some Americans may be going the other way, too. Gyasi Zardes is still training at Reading of the English League Championship. Colorado’s Dillon Powers went on trial there as well. One or both could be signed in January.
Two more things to consider in the big picture. First, everything is happening with the backdrop of a possible (possible!) paradigm shift, where big spending on DPs fell second in 2015 to thrifty spending done well. Second, all of this will happen around the usual pancake stack of news; trades, international signings, the player combine, the SuperDraft, crazy rumors, trades, crazy rumors about trades and team management of the new Targeted Allocation Money available will all create headlines in this brief offseason.
2. Tough guys see values rise in MLS playoffs
I had this thought while watching Portland and Columbus play for Sunday’s MLS title: the real enforcers of MLS become even more valuable in the post-season.
It’s about the officiating. Follow me here.
When talking about MLS officiating, it’s important to keep three things in mind. A) It really is getting better (I’ve written more about it; read Item No. 2 here); B) It’s a point of contention all over the world, not just here, and; C) Sometimes it just is what it is, and the best teams can do is adjust to it and make it work to their advantage.
That’s where having a no-nonsense enforcer really works in MLS.
We know that MLS referees tend to let things go more in the playoffs; in the parlance, we call it “letting them play.” If we’re honest, “letting them play” is just “ignoring the rules” by another name, and it subtracts from overall quality. More to the point, it rewards one style over another, which is kind of odd when you really think about it.
But, this is where we are in 2015. So …
A guy like Portland’s Diego Chara becomes that much more effective in a more helter-skelter game of “letting them play.” Or a Tony Tchani, who was Chara’s opposite number on Sunday. Or for that matter, a guy like Seattle’s Osvaldo Alonso or Vancouver’s Matias Laba.
They all foul a lot. And they all tend to get away with more than they probably should. Not always, which is why they have to be smart about it. Once they finally get the booking, they prudently take it down a notch; being talented enough to do so is one mark of a truly gifted and highly useful holding midfielder.
When the officiating leans loose and lenient, your Tchanis and Charas become that much more effective. Younger defensive mids might not have the savvy to understand where that (fluctuating) line is. Beyond that, some defensive mids are more about reading the game, finding the right spots and interrupting passing lanes, less about being out and out machines of midfield tackling destruction.
Put guys like D.C. United’s Perry Kitchen or Dallas’ Victor Ulloa in that category. They have value, too, just in a different way. Thing is, when the playoffs come around, their value relative to the tough guys drops a little. That’s just the way it is in MLS of 2015.
3. The call on David Texeira; maybe not a tough one
In some corners, word was that FC Dallas had a difficult call on David Texeira, eventually declining the young Uruguayan striker’s contract option. His work as the “first line of defense,” surely an important concept in modern soccer, the set-up man for whatever defensive ploy and plotting is going on behind him, was outstanding. And this was the guy who displaced Blas Perez as Dallas’ starting striker, who also scored an important goal as Dallas clinched the Western Conference regular season crown.
But was it really such a difficult call? Really, it comes down to this: What do you want your team to be?
Let’s set aside, for a moment, the man’s salary of about $340,000 as a base. Frankly, that’s just too much to pay for 6 goals and 3 assists in 22 appearances. But if you contend that he’s still young (24) and yet to benefit from a full year as a starter, fair enough. Then we move onto that critical question, “What do you want your team to be?”
If you want a team that will make the playoffs and then, if several things go well, advance a couple of rounds toward the MLS Cup, Texeira can be the guy. If you want the guy who can score a few goals, develop some chemistry with wingers, dutifully handle all the defensive chores, then you have your man!
Heck, if the team just wants 8-10 goals and a guy for some hurry and scurry on defense, Alan Gordon or Chad Barrett could do that for a lot less money. They are free agents now, and they combined to make just $275,000 as a base last year.
Dallas decided they needed more from the position, and rightly so; Officials want a player who can score 15 goals over a regular season. They need a presence who can be an absolute handful for center backs even when he isn’t scoring. (Think of the way big, physical Fanendo Adi kept Dallas’ rear guard on constant alert over two playoff legs, even when he wasn’t getting shots on target.) They needed someone who could make the occasional goal from absolutely nothing, who could win a game by himself every now and then, even when the team is playing poorly.
Texeira never developed into that player. With $340,000 in salary to work with, they’ve got a good chance of going to find that guy.
4. 40-50 years of real U.S. soccer history. Seriously!
I love pointing out where soccer in our country has real history. Here’s a great “for instance:” Everybody saw Steve Clark’s mad moment as the Columbus Crew ‘keeper erred comically in a high-profile, American soccer final on Sunday.
It has happened before. I was kid but remember like it was yesterday as Pele and the mighty Cosmos played the Seattle Sounders in that year’s NASL title game. Seattle goalkeeper Tony Chursky was deaf in one ear and could not hear his teammates’ desperate shouts of warning as Steve Hunt sneaked in from behind, stole the ball from him and scored (the video is here) the opening goal. Similarly to Sunday’s title contest, his team went on to lose Soccer Bowl ’77 by a 2-1 score.
And add this bit to the irony: the match was played in … wait for it … Portland. In fact, it was inside a ground called Civic Stadium. Today, after significant sprucing up, that ground is called Providence Park, where the Portland Timbers play.
5. The Little Five
5a. Your MLS playoff Best XI – Goalkeeper Luis Robles; Right back Je-Vaughn Watson; center backs Nat Borchers and Michael Parkhurst; left back Jorge Villafana; Holding midfielder Diego Chara; Connecting midfielders Darlington Nagbe and Andreas Ivanschitz and attacking midfielder Mauro Diaz; Forwards Kei Kamara and Fanendo Adi.
5b. Could you put together a pretty decent MLS side with the first MLS free agent class? Yeah, you could. Not a great one (and certainly one that lives in the “older side of town,” if you know what I’m saying), but not bad. Jon Busch in goal; Corey Ashe and Michael Harrington at outside back; Drew Moor and Bobby Burling at center back; Ricardo Clark sitting deep in midfield behind Ned Grabavoy, with Eric Avila and Justin Mapp on the outside; Mike Magee behind Alan Gordon at forward. That team would win 12-14 games in MLS and challenge for the playoffs.
5c. Of everything said by the bright ESPN crew over two and a half hours of MLS Cup 2015 coverage, Alejandro Moreno nailed it with his brief post-match summation of Sunday’s two combatants, both from the smaller spending end of the pool: “These teams showed us in 2015 that it’s more important to have the right names than to have the big names.” Well said, Ale.
5d. Can’t help but think that the “system” has let Andrew Wenger down. A little bit, at least. Wenger was the top draft pick in 2012, selected just after winning the Hermann Trophy for his good work at Duke. But his work in MLS has been pedestrian, and here’s a big reason why: he’s never really had a position, one he could grow into. At Montreal and Philadelphia, Wenger was literally all over the place, deployed as a striker, a winger, a midfielder and for a few games this year, as a fullback. He was a similar jack of all trades through his solid youth and college career. Now he’s 24 and already in his third MLS stop, this time in Houston. Here’s hoping Owen Coyle gives him a position and leaves him the heck alone at it.
5e. On Monday, two storied NFL teams played an absolute grease fire of a football game. It was a serious clown show, with fumbles, stumbles, bad choices and silly penalties. And you know what, the ratings will still be through the roof. Because it’s still Monday Night Football! And as I watched I thought: People always want to know when soccer will “make it?” It’s really a silly and highly subjective question. But I did have this thought: When soccer in this country develops something as iconic as Monday Night Football, something that truly weaves itself into the very fabric of everyday life, that will be one of the markers that the sport has truly arrived here.
Steve Davis has covered Major League Soccer since is first kick in 1996. He writes on-line for World Soccer Talk and co-hosts the weekly radio show/podcast ESPN Soccer Today on 103.3 FM in Dallas. Davis is also the radio play-by-play voice for FC Dallas on 100.7 FM.