By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON DC (Jun 29, 2018) US Soccer Players - The story at the start of Week 18 of the MLS season are teams going opposite directions in rivalry games. Namely, the two games on Saturday's schedule. Should viewers stick around after Fox's World Cup coverage, they'll see the Seattle Sounders vs Portland Timbers derby. A few hours later, ESPN has Atlanta United hosting Orlando . . .
Orlando City and the MLS coaching game
By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON DC (Jun 22, 2018) US Soccer Players - It’s tough to blame the leadership at Orlando City for deciding to dismiss head coach Jason Kreis during the brief World Cup break. The Lions aren’t exactly in a death spiral. It’s still too early for that. However, six losses in a row won't convince anybody that this is the year Orlando makes the playoffs. Kreis arrived in Florida . . .
What’s next for Orlando City?
If you want to part ways with a coach in MLS, dropping the news on a Friday when the attention is on the World Cup is certainly a strategy. That was the Orlando City scenario, announcing that ever popular parting of the ways with Jason Kreis and assistants CJ Brown and Miles Joseph out. The move wasn't exactly shocking. Orlando is currently 6th-place in the table, tied on 19 points with 7th-place . . .
Trying to make a run in the East
By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON DC (Apr 18, 2018) US Soccer Players - Let’s start this discussion about the Eastern Conference of Major League Soccer by putting aside three teams: NYCFC, Atlanta United, and Toronto FC. That's the elite of both the Eastern Conference and MLS. You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who disagrees that those teams belong at the top. Two other teams might deserve inclusion . . .
Paraguay’s new MLS influence
By Clemente Lisi – NEW YORK, NY (Feb 19, 2018) US Soccer Players – When the USMNT takes on Paraguay next month, it won’t be just another friendly. It will also highlight the growing relationship between MLS and the South American nation of just 6.8 million. While it’s true that waves of foreigners have come to play in this country since the league began in 1996, it’s the quality, age, and . . .
Is allocation money helping the MLS free agency problem?
By Jeff Rueter – SAINT PAUL, MN (Feb 1, 2018) US Soccer Players - A month out from the start of the 2018 MLS regular season, the flurry of transactions hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down. We’ve already seen some highs and lows across the league. Montreal swapped loanee Blerim Dzemaili for a permanent transfer of Bologna’s Saphir Taider. Atlanta United set an incoming transfer fee record by . . .
NYCFC and Orlando City in season four
By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON DC (Jan 31, 2018) US Soccer Players - Two of the most active clubs during a busy MLS offseason happen to have come into the league together back in 2015. NYCFC and Orlando City have been on divergent paths since an inaugural year that saw both come up short of the MLS Cup playoffs. NYCFC is now among the Eastern Conference elite. Orlando City is still chasing a . . .
Orlando City and the option for Cyle Larin
By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON DC (Jan 17, 2018) US Soccer Players - Orlando City striker Cyle Larin is still Orlando City striker Cyle Larin, no matter what the Twitter account of Turkish champions Besiktas might say. Of that, at least Orlando City is certain. Whether Besiktas accepts Orlando City’s version of the truth is still, as of yet, unknown. What Besiktas’s Twitter account said on Saturday . . .
Sacha Kljestan, Benny Feilhaber, and MLS blockbuster trades
By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON DC (Jan 5, 2018) US Soccer Players - For the second time in two days, one of Major League Soccer’s premier creative players found himself changing teams in an offseason that has not been short on surprise transactions. On Tuesday, the New York Red Bulls shipped Sacha Kljestan to Orlando City in a trade that moved the two-time MLS assist leader and $150,000 of allocation . . .
New Year, New MLS Stars
By Jeff Rueter – SAINT PAUL, MN (Jan 4, 2018) US Soccer Players - In many ways, 2017 was the most eventful year for Major League Soccer thus far. For the first time in nearly a decade, the East was the dominant conference of the two. Trade announcements included the amount of allocation money swapping hands, allowing for more detailed analysis of these moves. Between the Gold Cup and World Cup . . .
