Good morning to all this Wednesday. News yesterday was dominated by one topic in particular, so let’s get right to it!
2023 MLS All-Star Team Roster (MLS): The roster for this year’s MLS All-star match has been announced. Head coach Wayne Rooney got to select 12 members of this 26-player roster. Two such selections are Christian Benteke and Tyler Miller. This of course means we’ll see our local sweeper keeper bag an assist as he pinpoints Benteke down the field for some fun spectacle.
I was personally hoping to see Lucho as a coach’s choice, but the fans/media/players voted him in already. It will be fun to see LuchoRoo back, albeit in a different format.
We also have some idea of what the players will be wearing, and the color palette is fitting for MLS soccer in the District; the All-stars will be donning their own Black and Red. The D.C. flag homage on the back of the neck is a nice touch.
Come support your local soccer with two matches for the price of one on July 3rd at Segra Field. The opening act is a USL2 matchup between NoVa FC (typically playing out of the Virginia Revolution Sportsplex in Leesburg) and VA Marauders FC (hailing from nearby Winchester, VA). Don’t wander far because Loudoun United play right after that.
Tata Martino to be named Inter Miami coach as early as Wednesday, will reunite with Messi (Miami Herald): Speaking of the almighty player, wasn’t there a rumor that Messi might be participating in the MLS All-Star festivities in some capacity? There is some precedent, as Héctor Herrera and Lorenzo Insigne were invited to the All-Stars challenge last year despite joining their respective clubs during the summer transfer window.
That’s all for today. Get kicking in the comments!
Coach Martino will break what’s left of Inter Miami. His high press style will lead to even more injuries. The only reason why it worked so well in Atlanta was because Almiron is a star.
They will need an entire roster overhaul in the offseason.
He had a lot of buy-in at Atlanta too. He’s probably not walking into the same situation with Miami. They’re willing (and able) to spend now that they’ve secured the ultimate prize, though.
The fact is, even with a (substantially) less talented team around him, Messi is the GOAT and still one of the best players in the world. I can’t imagine Miami being totally embarrassed unless he just completely gives up playing all together. Plus they’ve got Busquets coming in to control the midfield. The biggest issue they’ll have is lack of athleticism since neither of them is exactly mobile.
Tata has a good soccer mind, but a terrible personality, excessive arrogance, and a complete inability to take criticism, constructive or otherwise. He’s never going to throw Messi or Busquets under the bus, probably, but the rest of the squad will feel it in his press talks I bet if things continue to go less than awesome.
*I know I said I wouldn’t reply to you but I come in peace.*
I couldn’t agree with you more. I remember how horribly Coach Martino behaved all those times his Alanta team were cooly rope-a-doped by Coach Olsen’s DC United teams. I also remember how he broke the Mexican National Team. They were just past their recent peak with an aging but still very talented core for the 2022 cycle but he insisted on playing a pressing style. When you have a bunch of talented over-30’s, you look to control the space and make the ball do the work, not run and run and run.
I don’t think they can play a high-press. They’ll likely keep Josef Martinez (hoping he’ll benefit from Messi’s service and creativity). Between those two (Messi and Martinez) you cannot run a consistent high-press.
And yes, they’ll overall the entire roster. I think they’ll be dumping all of their DPs.
My guess is he won’t try that this year, but Miami is looking at a complete rebuild over the winter. A star player completely changing a clubs fate in a half season is rare, it only worked for Rooney because the new stadium left DC schedule extremely backloaded.
Yeah but I feel that DCU wasn’t completely helpless prior to Rooney, like Miami seems to be. Sure we lost a lot of games but that was also because we played 85% of them away. I’m actually surprised that Miami keeps losing badly after the Messi announcement, I thought that the news would be like a shot of adrenaline for many of the players and that some of these would be eager to show that they belong on the field with him. But nothing so far has been able to lift them from their slump. Messi immediately becomes the best player in the league the moment he steps into his first game, despite his 35 years, but unfortunately I’m not sure that will be enough for Miami this season. Next season though, they might make a run for the title.
The interesting thing for me, regarding next season, is who will Messi attract?
I bet there are a ton of players that wouldn’t mind a stint in Miami to play with one of the clear GOATs.
He’ll attract lots of great players, not sure many can join with the salary cap rules that are currently in place. A team can have only 3 DPs and Miami has already been burned once on that.
Hey, no mention of USMNT v St Kitts & Nevis at 10 pm tonight in Gold Cup!!! Telecast on Unimas (517 on FIOS) and Fox Sports 1 (583 on FIOS). I believe that Unimas is an over the air station.
Thus why I encourage everyone to “get kicking in the comments”! The kicks don’t stop when the author hits “publish” 😉
Any thoughts on the Capitan America x MLS stuff. Is this just marketing or are they going to try to use that ball in games?
https://twitter.com/mls/status/1674079783708131328
I’m glad the coach’s picks are a thing, because some of the fan voted players were head scratching. Roman Burki as the fan voted keeper? No Zelarayan? Some interesting results.
Rooney also did some players a real solid. Riqui Puig is not an MLS all-star in my opinion. A big part of that is the team he’s on but still. Anyway, enough of me complaining about stuff that doesn’t matter. Anyone one else have thoughts?
I wish I did, the whole All-Star thing is just kind of structured mindlessness, but then, so is soccer in its own right.
Putting it another way, I don’t get as worked up about it as I did when it seemed more important for the All-Stars to prove that there were talented players in the league, that’s less important to prove now. It’s just something to watch for a bit, if you’re interested.
I think the All-Star game is kind of a fun cash-in, and hope it’s a fun game.
I do think that Burki has a case to be considered the top keeper in MLS. Certainly in the top tier with Petrovic and Blake. Stefan Frei is having a quietly excellent season, too. So Burki getting voted in isn’t really a travesty.
Yeah I’m not rustling my feathers at Burki getting his All-star check. Miller is sort of the odd man out but Rooney’s recognizing the difficult job he’s given him. And Frei of course will continue to miss out on well-deserved accolades.