By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON, DC (Jun 9, 2021) US Soccer Players - On Sunday night in Denver, the USMNT showed proof that things have changed. Against a motivated Mexico, they won a regional rivalry and a trophy. They did it with a new look squad showing that head coach Gregg Berhalter's tactics can work under pressure. Berhalter's group is as close to a "new team" as any continuously operating . . .
Real Salt Lake was the club making moves at the MLS transfer deadline
By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON, DC (Jun 4, 2021) US Soccer Players - Major League Soccer's primary transfer window closed on Tuesday night. It hardly made a noise when it did. The end of the first period for signings and trades across the league did deliver a few "at the deadline" moves, but most of the big business happened months ago. While we might be waiting on the European transfer window to . . .
Title droughts can define a soccer club… until they don’t
By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON, DC (Jun 2, 2021) US Soccer Players - Something momentous happened on Sunday in Mexico. Something momentous in soccer and, for a long-siffering fan base, something momentous in their lives. Cruz Azul won a championship. If you don't know much about the history of the Mexico City club, you might not know that until Sunday, Cruz Azul was cursed. Okay, "cursed" might . . .
DeAndre Yedlin embraces changing role in USMNT
By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON, DC (May 28, 2021) US Soccer Players - American soccer's velocity is increasing. The generational churn is changing how coaches and fans alike think about player roles in the USMNT. It wasn't that long ago that a 27-year-old would be right in the middle of the age plot for a national team roster. The USMNT has always relied on players with experience, meaning players in . . .
A season of MLS transfers and loans to Europe
By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON, DC (May 26, 2021) US Soccer Players - The 2020 Major League Soccer season began with plenty of promise. It was the league's 25th season, a remarkable achievement for an organization that nearly didn't make it to its second decade. 2020 also brought an uptick in multi-million spending across the league. Clubs that had previously been reluctant to drop seven-figure fees . . .
New investor / operators in Orlando and Houston
By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON, DC (May 21, 2021) US Soccer Players - On the list of differences between Major League Soccer and pretty much all other leagues is how they define club ownership. Though the term has fallen out of casual use, MLS has investor/operators rather than traditional owners. That's one of the hallmarks of a single-entity league put in place to limit financial competition for . . .
Aaron Long’s injury and Berhalter’s choices at center back
By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON, DC (May 19, 2021) US Soccer Players - Tuesday morning brought the grim news that New York Red Bulls and USMNT defender Aaron Long underwent surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon suffered in the Red Bulls' 1-0 loss to the Philadelphia Union on Saturday. The expectation is that Long will miss the remainder of the 2021 Major League Soccer season. That means Long will . . .
Last place in MLS means different levels of pressure on coaches
By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON, DC (May 14, 2021) US Soccer Players - The great soccer minds of history never quite answered just how long a coach should get before it's fair to judge them on their record. Almost everyone agrees that coaches need a season. No one is quite sure how quickly a club should jettison its field boss if things go bad in the beginning or middle of a campaign. Barely five . . .
The 2020-21 Bundesliga run-in
By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON, DC (May 12, 2021) US Soccer Players - In an interesting twist to an already strange calendar, a domino effect of coaching changes has already hit the Bundesliga for next season. Bayern Munich's coach is taking the Germany job. His replacement comes from RB Leipzig, who, in turn, will bring in former USMNT player Jesse Marsch from Red Bull Salzburg. That should mean two . . .
Josh Wolff: “We want to break them down just like they want to break us down”
By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON, DC (May 7, 2021) US Soccer Players - Just three weeks into his first season as head coach at any level, while leading a team brand new to Major League Soccer, Josh Wolff is already ahead of the curve. Expansion teams aren't supposed to win two of their first three matches. They certainly aren't supposed to do that when all of the games are on the road. Wolff is the . . .
