By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON, DC (Mar 5, 2021) US Soccer Players - Unless you're paying very close attention, it's easy to be confused about the division of responsibilities in MLS front offices. Every team has a head coach, but the way clubs label the people in charge of building rosters, overseeing academies, and engaging with the insanely complicated MLS budget rules runs a gamut. Because a . . .
Sebastian Lletget and another new look for the LA Galaxy
By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON, DC (Mar 3, 2021) US Soccer Players - Major League Soccer will be full of new look teams in 2021. Carrying that label isn't traditionally a good thing. Short of a re-brand, if you're promoting a new look, then the poor quality of the old look forced the change. New look teams almost always also fall into the rebuilding category. If you've got a new head coach, you're . . .
CF Montreal regroups
By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON, DC (Feb 26, 2021) US Soccer Players - The plan in Montreal was always to use 2021 to start over. Just not this way. The club made news just a few weeks ago when it announced a name and logo change. Gone was the Impact, the name it has used for the entirety of its existence dating back to 1992 in the lower divisions. Club de Foot Montreal replaced it, a name that hews . . .
Americans in Turkey’s Super Lig
By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON, DC (Feb 24, 2021) US Soccer Players - There are few places in world soccer where the passion of the fans is more celebrated than in Turkey. Though the Turkish top division doesn't get the same attention or praise from soccer fans watching around the globe, no one doubts that the support in the country is intense. It's that passion and the financial clout of a . . .
Americans in the Austrian Bundesliga
By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON, DC (Feb 19, 2021) US Soccer Players - Historically, the Austrian Bundesliga isn't exactly one of the leagues American fans normally show much interest in. The league comes in well behind all of Europe's bigger, richer operations for quality and popularity. In UEFA's current coefficient rankings for the region's leagues, the Austrian Bundesliga ranks 10th behind the . . .
Tony Sanneh: “I think it’s our responsibility when we have a platform to use it.”
By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON, DC (Feb 17, 2021) US Soccer Players - There are lots of reasons for the rise of American soccer players in some of the biggest clubs in Europe. There are lots of reasons for the continued growth of Major League Soccer and the league's success in developing a talented generation of young players. There are lots of reasons why the sport in America, in all its various . . .
More Americans in the Championship
By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON, DC (Feb 12, 2021) US Soccer Players - The ranks of US internationals in the English Championship grew by three this winter when Jordan Morris, Paul Arriola, and Daryl Dike went on loan. Morris and Arriola joined Swansea City, a club fighting for promotion to the Premier League. Dike moved to Barnsley, a club solidly in the middle of the table. Both Morris and Dike have . . .
What to expect from the MLS final four
By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON, DC (Feb 10, 2021) US Soccer Players - The most unusual year in Major League Soccer history ended with the Columbus Crew lifting its second MLS Cup trophy following a comprehensive victory over the Western Conference champions Seattle Sounders. The season did not end the way the Sounders had hoped, but the club's achievement of reaching four MLS Cup finals in five years . . .
USMNT players at the top of the Bundesliga
By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON, DC (Feb 5, 2021) US Soccer Players - If there's any consensus at all among soccer fans, it's that the top four leagues in Europe are also the best in the world. In order of UEFA's coefficient ranking, we're talking about La Liga, the Premier League, Serie A, and the Bundesliga. England's Premier League, the German Bundesliga, Spain's La Liga, Serie A of Italy. Ligue 1 . . .
MLS player movement in strange times
By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON, DC (Feb 3, 2021) US Soccer Players - Tracking soccer developments in these unprecedented times is an exercise in moderated surprise. How can we think anything that happens now is all that remarkable? Of course, soccer is going to be subject to the winds of pandemic-inspired change. Those winds picked up dramatically in an easterly direction at the end of Europe's . . .
