Happy Friday! The offseason is fully upon us, so it’s the perfect time for me to catch a cold and be holed up in my house all weekend. Ah, well. Let’s talk some soccer.
San Diego FC logo revealed; team to start play in MLS in 2025 (The Athletic)
The name and logo are both pretty darn boring. I am enjoying some of the jokes, though.
Wayne Rooney: Birmingham boss calls salary rumors “a load of rubbish” (BBC)
The rumors had Rooney earning £1.5 million, 3 times what the previous coach made. Rooney denied them, but was not forthcoming about what his salary actually is.
Abandoned Belgium-Sweden match declared draw after shooting (ESPN)
The European Championship qualifying game was suspended at halftime after the shocking murder of two Swedish fans outside the stadium. Both countries “are satisfied with the decision,” which solidifies the 1-1 score the teams had when the match was suspended.
Parsons dismissal shows huge pressure that comes with Washington Spirit job (Pro Soccer Wire)
In-depth look at the dismissal of Mark Parsons from Jason Anderson, including thoughts on what went wrong in the 2023 season and pressures on the next coach.
Tyler Adams has until at least February after USMNT midfielder has surgery on hamstring injury (The Athletic)
This is the second surgery on Adams’s hamstring since he was injured in March.
Kansas City Current and CPKC announce historic stadium naming rights agreement (Kansas City Current)
Kansas City Current will have the first stadium built specifically for a women’s sports team and have announced it will be named after a company you’ve never heard of. (It’s railroads… I think.)
It is railroads, but I was unaware that Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern had merged. Checking Wikipedia it looks like it just happened this year.
I love Taylor Adams–great guy, great player at his skill set. But the US (and Berhalter) need to create a midfield and scheme that assumes Adams isn’t available. Like Gio Reyna, he’s spent most of his USMNT career injured.
And I’m really looking forward to reading the Jason Anderson article.
Jason Anderson’s article on the Spirit season and dumping of Mark Parsons is top notch.
While the names being thrown out for DC’s vacant GM position are promising (based on where they’re coming from), I have a feeling we won’t see more movement until the teams get knocked out of the playoffs. Which could take quite a while given the absurd format. Hopefully not so long that they don’t have time to formulate an off-season plan, otherwise it falls again to the current FO…
I’ve been a little peeved that Orlando and Cincinnati have denied DC the opportunity to talk to their guys, but Mackay from Nashville and Tall from Columbus do seem solid. Given my druthers, I think I’d rather have Columbus’s background, but I obviously don’t know enough about either candidate to say who’s actually better. My hope is that Levien and Kaplan will be looking at who the best candidate is, and not simply who will take the salary they’re offering, which is pretty much how they were conducting the coaching search that ended up with Losada. (I think they changed their tactic to actually get Losada, but I know Pineda turned them down because of the salary and I think hiring restrictions they were offering him).
Orlando’s refusal to let DC talk to their GM is especially baffling to me given that he’s going to be out-of-contract pretty soon. You’d imagine there would be something in the contracts of coaches, GMs and the like similar to players — where they could start to talk to other teams withing 6 months of their contract expiring
It’s pretty dumb. It’s probably some rule within the league (as if those aren’t frequently disregarded anyway).
If I remember right the big thing was assistant coaches and control with both Pineda and Armas. Losada came to DC because after the slide he was in at Beerschot it was likely he was on the hot seat, so he was willing to take some of those restrictions.
Tom Bogert with some updates that now United DO have permission from Orlando to talk to their guy for a GM role. So he’s a finalist along with Mackay and Tall.
The bigger news is that Bruce Arena has reached out to the club about being the coach (but not the GM), and DC is kind of noncommittal, saying they want to find a GM first. Which is smart, but also Arena probably needs to be dismissed out of hand. There’s still no word on what remarks he made, but after the whole Taxi debacle, and their trainer, United needs to steer as clear away from controversy as they can at the moment. Arena has his history with the club already, but the most important thing for the future are finding a GM and manager that can work together with a shared vision.
Petty me wants them to interview him and take the process far enough so that they find out wtf happened in NE. Maybe enough opportunities there to get a leak of some info somewhere along the pipeline.
Now that said, they *also* need to not just pick him because they messed up when hiring Rooney initially. No real consideration to candidates of other backgrounds. They’ve got several weeks to get their ducks in a row with the GM, so I’m fine with them waiting that out.
We didn’t “find out” what happened with Taxi the first time, this would be just as murky.
In case you’re wondering, absolutely detest the idea of even interviewing him.
Why does the San Diego FC logo remind me of the Pac-12 logo? Its so generic…its horrible in my opinion.
Because with the PAC-12 folding they’re hoping they can get some of the residual good will.
I keep seeing a grindstone at a grist mill.
The USL team had such a good name with Loyal
Trying to think how long it has been since a team came up with a new, American-style name— Chicago Fire? Red Bull? (sort of)
It’s probably the Philadelphia Union. Yes, “Union” is a European soccer naming convention, but it’s usually more like FC Union Berlin, with the Union before the city name. And I don’t think those teams are usually referred to as “the Union” like in Philly.
And Union makes sense in the context of American history in the city of brotherly love.
A couple bits of breaking news from the Athletic:
When Wayne initially left, I had the feeling Arena would be one of the options considered, so Im not terribly surprised to see this happen. He would have to petition the league to get hired though
Has it ever been in the press why Arena was suddenly separated from New England. I’d be weary of him returning in all honesty.
It was for comments that he made, the subject or contents of which have not been disclosed. However, an MLS investigation concluded that he did make them, which is why he’d have to be reinstated. I think a fair number of Arena’s staff didn’t feel like the statements were worth the dismissal, but I think they also took exception to Richie Williams’s role in all of it.
You’re right though that United doesn’t need to be involving itself in yet another scandal. Hopefully the new GM (who will be scandal-free, fingers crossed) will recognize that.
We shouldn’t take on the baggage of nor try to rehabilitate or retrain a septuagenarian credibly fired for racism. There’s layers of both bad and dumb if we did.
Hey now, it’s entirely possible that he’s a septuagenarian credibly fired for homophobia instead. That’s a whole different type of bad and dumb.
Ha, touché
I mean, he’s not a young dude, but he’s the most successful coach ever in MLS. Except for a mediocre sting with NYRB (which was better than anything we’ve seen in these parts in years), and the infamous loss in Trinidad, he’s succeeded in every gig. Not knowing what happened in New England, but unless it’s much more than a misstep with Ritchie, I’d take him.