I would only take issue with this para. I've been saying for years and years - 20 at least - that Columbus was many, many MLS fans second favorite team. Aside from DC and the F*re back in the day, nobody hated us except, for a spell, Toronto fans, but three years of bottom of the table suckitude cured them of that. I have a photo someplace of a TFC fan at that 2018 playofff game at HCS standing in line at a beer stand; he's wearing a TFC jersey and has taped over the name on the back and written Save the Crew on the tape. And STC did a bunch to solidify the sentiment. I also have photos of Seattle fans who've hung huge Save the Crew banners on the Capo stand in their stadium. Lots of other teams too. I even have a photo of Nashville fans holding a demonstration, marching down the street carrying a huge Save the Crew banner and that was months before their team's first game. It's always amazed me.
I could have just looked at the expansion draft rules Generation adidas players who occupy Roster Slots 21-24 and Homegrown Players 25 years old and under in the year in which the Expansion Draft takes place on a club’s Roster at the end of the 2024 MLS Season are automatically protected. Clubs do not have to use a protected slot on them. Last time around the only unprotected players were Bush and Molino.
I liked what I saw from Dej Jones. But I also don't see him displacing Max nor Mo at this point. Would be happy to be wrong. Besides, I wasn't advocating for him to be unprotected. Just saying I could see the Crew protecting others in front of him.
Nah, Dejuan has a ton of trade value. Even if Nancy no longer wants him, we can get a really good return for him. To give him away in an expansion draft for free would be ground for an immediate termination of Tall’s contract. It would be insane, San Diego would 100% draft him.
You can’t run the club like a business and allow assets to walk out the door. We paid over a $1M for Matan. He walked. We paid $2.5M for Yaboah. Will we get anything for him? How about Hinestroza? I’m all for moving on from some of these players, but maybe try to sell them or trade them off. Stop letting their contract run out.
Yeboah is a depth winger/wingback. Might get a bag of balls back. Matan had 3 bad seasons and 1 good season and would probably still go back to Europe if traded and not sign an extension with his new theoretical MLS club. Who is renting Matan for the playoffs? Hinestroza is a dud South American winger, who couldn’t even play half a season in MLS. Why would another MLS team want to give up anything for him? If a team hits on half their transfers they are doing well. Cucho, Rossi, LZ, Moreira, Camacho (for a year), Amundsen, Farsi, Arfsten, etc were all good moves. Others as well. We do gain cap space and rosters slots from them leaving, don’t underestimate that.
He is if the extension (in the true sense of the word) does not kick in until after this season. It can vary by the terms of each contract, but an extension typically does not begin until the existing deal runs out. Particularly ones signed mid-season. Teams sign players to extensions because they do not want them to hit FA and get away, or to reward them them for performance above contract terms or both. I mean, it would be awful dumb to extend a guy and voiding his auto-protectcstatud when you could have just waited two months and protected another player, right. But then again these guys did not understand the CCC GK rules, so maybe.
No, it is purely a matter of if his original contract is still in effect for this year or not. If it is, he's still a HG. If the changes kick in next year (new salary, options, etc.), then yes. If they kicked in immediately, then he is not on his original deal at the time of the draft, and needs protected. There is conflicting info. The Player's Union site has him at $421k. No way that is his original deal. But the roster page has him as HG still. My bet is that the roster page is the one that is off, but I hope I am wrong about that. I have enough doubt that I'd put it as an open question. Maybe the Player's Union reports new numbers as the contracts are signed? I have no idea.
Well, I'd say that we needed a bit more Quantity in our Quality category this season. More so than was the case in 2023. And based on being in the CCC next year, but a round earlier than we were this year, I assume that'll be necessary in 2025, too, if we want to compete for hardware. Otherwise, we risk having our Quality guys run out of gas at the end of the season again.
I agree running out of gas at the end of the season isn’t the goal, but I’m ok with making it to the finals of a few international tournaments, winning one, and still finishing top three in the league. MLS Cup is nice but not everything.
I know it doesn't go in the trophy case but the Columbus Crew is the #1 ranked professional soccer team in CONCACAF in 2024. That's not exactly nothing.
Agree with everything but one correction: Leagues Cup winner and MLS Cup winner both earn byes to the round of 16 in CCC. The Crew will not need to play an extra round in that tournament next year.
Sadly, the Eastern Lions are no more. They were owned and operated by Jack Warner and when his ability to steal money from world football.was curtailed the team lost its funding and had to close up.shop. I always loved the Joe Public logo and name.
I’m firm in my opinion if we keep having open roster spots instead of players who can adequately perform in order to limit minutes for aging starters like Nagbe, Camacho & Ramirez than we will fall behind the curve. We need to get the maximum amount of DPs possible and u22s. We have hit on DPs but not u22s and for a selling club that’s concerning. Crew2 has done an excellent job of providing depth but we haven’t really seen many defenders which is what we need. Sands, Zawadzki & Farsi so a 1 yr deal tba ?
McKay and Arace interview with Issa. https://www.dispatch.com/story/spor...-mls-gm-interview-2025-offseason/76126060007/ Q: What do you feel your needs are? ... You could feel the absence of Aidan Morris, as the season wore along. That’s not a knock on Sean Zawadzki, who we all know is a terrifically versatile player. A: “It’s a different profile, right? It’s different but I think Sean did great. Not only Sean was great, but I thought the other guys that came in. But I agree (there's a need) at the No. 6 (defensive midfielder position), with some of the qualities that Aidan had, it’s something that we would be looking for. Is it right in January to February, or is it for the summer? Sometimes it’s not only timing for us, but also timing of the market, because we are not aligned with, let’s face it, Europe, right? “So, even this winter, when we are looking to get a player, usually the pot is much smaller than in the summer. So, we understand that probably a six would help, a center back that’s different than what we have. And by that, I mean when you look at the size of our center backs there, probably the tallest is six feet. Maybe can we get somebody better in the air, better managing space with spacing behind, younger. And then, as you mentioned, that use of a third DP, where do you use it best? And is it a 10 (attacking midfielder), is it a nine (center forward)?"
So do we nickname Issa Tall " Captain Obvious"? Every single thought in that statement qualifies as conventional wisdom you can read every day both here and elsewhere.
No, shit, Issa. Which is why you shoukd have gotten a Morris replacement IN THE LAST EFFING WINDOW! To me, this is a tacit acknowledgement they are not going to do much because windows not aligned. Maybe a CB. That's it.
Back up vrs empty roster spots we are being unnecessarily frugal in roster construction and it bit us in the @$$ at the end of the season