I'm surprised that Montreal did Ciman dirty like that given the backstory with his autistic kid but ....

Edwards is a great pickup for them imo, really sad that TFC couldn't keep him. He could be a devastating winger imo

Curious to see if Garde can work those connections to bring in a bunch of French Africans and France based players ..... it's an advantage they haven't utilized thus far at all.

I see Atlanta as our biggest competition this year, they are building up big time. LAFC looks interesting too.

Well so far the big rumor from Garde has been Clement Grenier. As a Lyon fan also, that would be a huge disappointment, especially for the salary he'd command. But I think Garde will be able to use some old connections to rework the roster.

So far Saputo and co. have been obsessed with aging Italians, I'm not sure why they haven't been working the French angle more. They will never spend as much as the top clubs, but that's one way potentially that they could build a competitive roster.

Brian Rowe confirmed to the Caps.

Rumors of David Bingham moving to Galaxy for some GAM (trade to rival instead of losing him for nothing)

And in your daily lol MLS [budget rules]

gdit, saw that and thought they picked up KELYN Rowe smh


just a backup goalie meh, hopefully he's cheap at least...

Press conference scheduled for NASHVILLE tomorrow, expected 2019 expansion. However, no news yet for the other 3 finalists.

Schedule releases for both the 2018 home openers and the concacaf champions "league", which is now just a home and away knockout tournament:

How exactly are the Rapids in the CCL? Aren't they like clearly the worst team in the league? Never change MLS

Though 20th/22 last year, the Crapids were 2nd in 2016. thanks to concacaf for changing the format as there's no longer summer/fall games.

https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017/...8-home-openers

Portland & LAFC doing construction, or ... ?

Portland is

LAFC stadium looks a long ways from completion < https://www.lafc.com/stadium/cams >. I guess the Coliseum is next door, so that's a backup plan if they can't get it done. Certainly a dry December must be helping the construction timeline at least.

Nashville 2019 is official, will officially be the 24th league team (lol Miami can't get its act together.) Obviously 2018 will have an odd number of teams, so I wonder what the hold up is on naming the other promised expansion team at the same time.

NYCFC lost out on its bid to build a soccer stadium at Belmont Park, but I'm sure the fans didn't want to build there and I bet their billionaire owners weren't too keen on that site anyway. Nonetheless, it looks like Yankee Stadium will be their home for at least the next few years.

27,500 seat stadium for Smashville is interestingly optimistic, but YOLO

saw some talk that Cincinnati & Sacramento might be the next 2

and ya, everyone seems to think that Beckham FC in Miami will happen eventually
(but we've saying that for years now already)

and then there's expanding back to CBus if the Crew leave...
(but Austin doesn't really seem all that jazzed for MLS, so who knows)

arthur blank must be an early bitcoin investor

I guess you never really know who will take to soccer. I would have never guessed Atlanta would be such a success. They've always seemed to have attendance issues in other sports.

Don't really care if Columbus leaves. Just a boring city, boring market, boring team, even a boring name (Crew).

Austin seems like a great market, it probably hinges on stadium location. 3-4 years ago it seemed like they couldn't lock down a good location otherwise I think they'd already have a team by now.

What the hell is the end game with all these teams? 2 conferences of 15 with a 16-team American-style playoff? Seems terrible for soccer and interest in the season always dies off around playoff time once the big sports get going. In my dream world, MLS and MLS 2 both have 18 teams, with promotion/relegation, and a 34 game season playing everyone twice.

pro/rel will probably never happen
wish ppl would just stop talking about it until MLS does first

could see 30-40 teams as an end game, split into East/West conferences
then like 6-8 teams make the playoffs on each side

40 team league, play some games and top 20 advance, play some more games and get down to the 12 team playoff we all know and love. I call it the super playoffs.

Ew

Barco to Atlanta agreement reached

http://www.espn.com/soccer/soccer-tr...-barco-sources

so we have to pay 30% of his next transfer if its before 2020 but just 10% after

two years of barco! we are all set to score 85 goals next year before blowing a two goal lead in the semifinals

Seems like it's gonna be LAFC, ATL, and TFC in some order then a large gap to the also-rans. LAG could be back which would make for fun battles at the top in the East and West. I think Seattle will take a bit of a step back.

Meanwhile, in Montreal. Looks like they're gonna lose Dzemaili, they have 5 mediocre goalies under contract, and not many interesting transfer targets (I guess Taider would be a good get). Remi Garde should have them playing more organized soccer, but they still have too many albatross contracts and he won't have the pieces for 2-3 years.

And the Union are just making signings to avoid relegation.


Wouldn’t mine them signing Lee Nguyen. Earnie Stewart came out and promised a difference maker at 10 and wing. Don’t mind his age as we have a young #10 home grown.

LOL playoffs

Hope he got some release clause in his contract so MLS can't hold him hostage when the real leagues come calling like they usually do. Doesn't the club get so little of their transfer fee anyway because the league gets so much? I'd be like lol ok sure whatever % you want of sell on fee just give us your stud player

why dont you look it up

ya that deal seems like it kinda guarantees that you get at least 2 full years of him, which is cool if he's as good as some say
(thought i saw ppl suggesting that he was literally the best prospect in South America, though the price doesn't really suggest that to me)

could get more years too if he's good, but not all that

ya basically the teams that are willing to spend are giving themselves a huge advantage

could really start to become a 2 tier league

haven't really been paying attention, have NYCFC, NYRB, or LAG brought in anyone interesting?

ya not real impressed with what Vancouver has done either

might be better, idk, seems kinda meh though

thought finding at least 1 really good winger was a pretty big need, and they didn't seem to do it

gonna experiment with 3 at the back
i'm guessing it'll fail and they'll revert to Robbo's standard 4-2-3-1 right quick

I don't mind it. Seems like the new allocation money rules are giving teams much more flexibility to spend and we're seeing players being brought in (mostly by ATL) who are legit talents.

I think MLS could really position itself to be the go to place for talents in the Americas either not yet ready for Europe or not quite good enough. Seems Central Americans already love MLS and more and more quality South Americans are choosing it now as well.

LAG hasn't really done much, but has dos Dos Santos and Alessandri, which is an elite core.
NYRB hasn't done anything interesting in years.
NYCFC has made a couple moves to shore up the defense.