For most sports in the U.S., the draft is a big deal. The NFL overblows the whole ordeal and American hand-egg fans eat that shit up like fried food at a state fair. The MLB draft is an exercise in endurance and patience but those who do it right can gain huge advantages. And no sport allows a team to change its direction through the draft more than the NBA. But the MLS SuperDraft is neither compelling nor necessary.
Amidst an influx of impressive young talent coming to Major League Soccer from South America, the Bundesliga is raiding the U.S. for young players. So while American teenagers may not be having any luck breaking into lineups at home, they’re finding more opportunities in the league of the world champions. To steal a line from Taylor Twellman, what are we doing?
In 29-year-old Mexican midfielder/right back Efrain Juarez, the Vancouver Whitecaps have acquired one of the greatest prospective films of all-time. Like any great movie, Juarez’s story starts at the beginning.
The native of Mexico City won the 2005 U-17 World Championship with El Tri (alongside the likes of Giovani dos Santos and Carlos Vela) while on the books at Pumas, facilitating an ill-fated stint with Barcelona’s B team. He then resurrected his young career by returning to Mexico to play for Pumas, helping his club to the 2009 Clausura championship.
Legendary German midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger has elected to re-sign with Major League Soccer’s Chicago Fire for an additional year on a Designated Player contract for the 2018 season. The Fire paid Schweinsteiger $5.4 million last year, but details have yet to be released concerning the new contract.
Atlanta United is doing everything right. From hiring a new coach who has made astute signings to building a beautiful new stadium and filling said stadium up with raucous fans, the Five Stripes have hit the ground running as a model for future expansion franchises to follow. That continued on Friday with the reported record signing of 18-year-old Argentine Ezequiel Barco.
Every so often you see a story or a headline about how soccer is taking over the U.S. — it’s been America’s sport of the future for at least four decades. The latest stories revolve around a recent Gallup poll, which asked Americans what their favorite sport is to watch. Soccer popularity in America is ranked fourth, easily passing by hockey and inching closer to edging baseball out of the top three.
U.S. Soccer’s annual January Camp takes on a completely different look this World Cup year with 26 of the 30 players called into camp harboring five caps or less, including 15 uncapped players. Experience will be provided by Gyasi Zardes (37 caps), Juan Agudelo (27), Jordan Morris (24) and Paul Arriola (15).
Less than a month after Toronto FC took down Seattle for the MLS Cup title, the 2018 MLS schedule has been released. Major League Soccer revealed the 2018 fixture list on Thursday and there are plenty of intriguing dates to mark on your calendar.
In what is becoming a tradition, the New York Red Bulls traded away their captain for the second straight year, sending Sacha Kljestan and $150,000 in Targeted Allocation Money to Orlando City for a pair of young players. The Red Bulls, who traded captain Dax McCarty to Chicago last year, received 23-year-old attacker Carlos Rivas and defender Tommy Redding, 20, in one of the biggest trades of the MLS offseason so far.
The 2017 MLS Cup Final will be rightly remembered as the crowning achievement on a historic, record-setting season for Toronto FC, but for the second year running, Seattle Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei came agonizingly close to writing the script himself — almost literally single-handedly.