Photo: Paul Rudderow
Philadelphia Union
Auston Trusty has been traded to the Colorado Rapids.
The Union turned down contract options for Marco Fabian and Haris Medunjanin, clearing nearly a third of the team’s salary. A big *thank you* to Haris for his time with the club.
It is also the end of Fabinho’s sun rocket, but he might stick with the club in other capacities.
Ernst Tanner is making his mark this offseason.
MLS
It will be MLS vs. Liga MX in the 2020 All Star Game. Solid move by both leagues.
What Wednesday’s trades mean for Colorado, Columbus, and Philly.
The state of Inter Miami and Nashville’s rosters after the expansion draft.
Ooof… that Chicago Fire rebrand. I’m not in favor of a rebrand, but what it looks like they are going with is just not good.
Yeah, that’s pretty awful. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with their current badge.
crew rebrand was fresh. this lacks character, even when colorized. Fire had one of the stronger crests in my opinion. they’ll return to something like that eventually. Similarly, I embraced the (last) Man City crest, but the (current) return to tradition looks smart.
New badge looks like something out of Demolition Man. Not good!
What is that badge anyway? OOF! Quite horrible.
Kind of interesting to me that the club picked up Bendik’s option. The club seems high on Freese considering he played for the 1st team over Coronel. Either the thought is to continue to push Freese, or could it be that they are also considering moving Blake?
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Along with the off year he had for the Union, I noticed Blake was not the starter for Jamaica’s last national team game on Monday.
It could also be that they want Freese playing with Steel when Blake is healthy so they still need a body in the 18 as a backup.
Correct, he did not play. They had clinched the group in League B, guaranteeing promotion to League A with the best twelve teams in Concacaf.
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And the opponent was not strong.
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My read when Whitmore called up Chavany Willis, most recently on loan to Bethlehem, was that he was giving his reserves opportunities. Creating experience as insurance against injury is a good thing to do when opportunity arises.
Good to know. I like Blake and think he’ll bounce back this year but I recall Tanner’s quotes when he brought in Coronel making it sound like he wanted someone comfortable in more of a sweeper-keeper role. Plus I’d argue that all three of Blake, Bendik, and Freese are all at least borderline MLS starters. As we’ve seen, Tanner is not shy about making moves to fit the mold he envisions.
I’ll say this about Mourinho, I would have slept through Spurs – West Ham Saturday morning. Now it’s must-see TV. That man is ratings gold.
I don’t know. I’m tired of Mourinho acting like a fool, to be honest. I think he lasts a year and a half and doesn’t win a damn thing. Bad move by Levy IMO.
I don’t think Jose is a long term solution at Spuds. I think he was brought in, to stabilize things. Think about it, Jose knows going in they aren’t a spending club anymore, so he probably won’t bitch about signings like at United. You expect United to spend, Spuds not so much. You know what you are going to get with Jose, and it starts with not conceding goals. He has a better back four and six’s to work with at Spuds than he did at United, and still guys up top to get you goals. I joked with my Spud supporting friends today they’ll probably end up winning a lot of 1 goal matches……in a boring fashion. I was happy Spuds took him, because now my Gunners can grab Arteta! Unai tries to play Jose ball…….I was thinking the Gooners might pull the trigger for the OG. Wenger would have went bat shit crazy…….
After I wrote this I ended up watching the 43 min presser with Jose on his second day. I liked to amend my previous statement by saying it might not be “must-see tv”, but it certainly will be interesting. It’s the interviews he gives like that one that makes me want to like him. Then he goes and starts blaming everything on the media, ranting about his players, and I’m totally put off again.
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I’d like to think he got the hint that he doesn’t have many chances left. I’d like to think that…
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Ali maybe you are right. Jose said multiple times he didn’t need any other players in the interview. He’s happy with what he’s got. I agree they are a talented squad and WAY better than Man U. I just feel this leopard won’t be able to hide his spots for long. I feel before the start of next season he’s going to be crying about getting players and we all know Levy won’t spend. I just think it’s only a matter of time. Which IMO means he doesn’t have that much time to win a trophy, and I don’t think they will win one this year.
I got you. His stick with the media is all to protect his players……he tells them…..”if they are talking about me, they aren’t talking about you”…..I don’t know how well it’s worked, but thats the logic. It worked with his Porto and Chelsea sides, we shall see. When Jose got the sack at United, a few weeks after he gave an hour long interview to BeIn sports. It was awesome and most of the time he’s talking you are nodding your head…..yup, yup, yup. Highly recommend if you haven’t seen it. Interesting to hear his side and perspective on things about what happened at United.
Is there anyone else who feels not an ounce of excitement over an all-star game announcement. It’s a waste of time that does nothing but disrupt the season and put marquee players at risk for a freak injury.
That’s why I always vote for players from the team the Union plays right after the all-star game. Let their players go and get hurt and not the Union players.
This is brilliance. Make sure to remind all PSP readers of this strategy in 2020.
Chris Gibbons speaks my mind.
I’m fine with it on a few levels.
I’m glad we’re moving away from whatever euro team is doing preseason here. Those games did no one any favors.
I’m happy we are getting more competitions with LigaMX. Too many too quickly? Maybe.
It’s also a good gathering event for all fans/players/MLS people. With the SuperDraft going away we lost one this year. They can be fun and it’s still a showcase event.
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Do I care if Union players are in it? Kinda. Yeah resting players is better, but it still generates some excitement for the team and gives us something to talk about. It’s always fun to see our guys hanging around with the other stars of the league.
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My druthers would have us back in an East-West format, but LigaMX is probably the next best thing.
More of a bored Friday lunch time thought exercise than anything – but could/would the MLS and LigaMX ever merge?
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Clearly a lot of pros and cons in terms of marketing, potential for at least a variant of Pro/Rel. In theory they could shift over to the international calendar.
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Would imagine travel costs would be a big negative.
The MLS clubs would get smoked……….
Jose M is the man. He’s too complex for the US hence the hate. Took a bunch of Porto fellas too the top, then brought Chelsea glory multiple times, then inter and la liga for Real….
The best is when he said his best managerial success was with a shyte ManU team finishing 2nd in 2017. His biggest mistake was pogba. He’ll own it in a book in 10-20 years. Pogba is a joke: the French don’t like him and who would? He would make mince meat of the mls.