Old Enough to Drink and Superdraft - MLS 2017

[jefe]

So the transfer window closes tonight at midnight EST, and all hell is currently breaking loose.

DCU sends Bobby Boswell to Atlanta for a future 3rd round draft pick, Lamar Neagle back to Seattle for a 2018 4th round pick, imports their winger from Kaiserslautern using allocation money to pay the transfer fee, brings in an American d-mid from Hoffenheim after Gary Medel falls through, and then buys Paul Arriola off of Xolos de Tijuana for $3m plus $500k of allocation money to the Galaxy because they somehow had homegrown rights on him despite his playing the grand total of 11 games in their academy.

Carlos Vela to LAFC as of 1/1/18

Chicago gets defender Christian Dean from Vancouver for a varying sum of allocation money depending on appearance plus a chunk of any possible transfer fee.

Vancouver meanwhile gets Aaron Maund from RSL for a 2nd round 2018 draft pick.

Ethan Finley to Minnesota for a whole lot of allocation money. Columbus also imports their winger from Braga as a DP, while Minnesota loans out Rasmus Schuller to HJK Helsinki, wants to loan in a Tico MF, and are kicking the tires on Mathieu Flamini.

RNBY loans out Anatole Abang to Astra in Romania.

San Jose gets an international slot from Atlanta for $75K of allocation money.

Kristian Nemeth returns, but to New England, with Columbus getting $350K of allocation money, probably for their spot in the allocation rankings so New England can sign him.

Lyon is very interested in Yangel Herrera of NYCFC.

On the expansion front, Birmingham is officially in USL for 2019, and so in a shock is the return of the Austin Aztex. The guy who owns the F1 track down there bought the team and will build a trackside stadium.

Sporks and San Jose are 5 minutes away from penalties in their USOC SF match, and the Sporks win on PK's. They host the RBNY-FC Cincinnati winner.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Whitecaps also signed Eygptian CM/CB Aly Ghazal from Guizhou Zhicheng. This transfer, and the signing of Maund, suggest Matías Laba's days in Vancouver may be numbered. He's a DP, and you've got to be a pretty special defensive midfielder to get paid that sort of money in MLS.

[Gerontophile]

Las Vegas Soccer are having a press conference to announce the Franchise's new name.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Let's hope they do better than the hockey team.

[Gerontophile]

I guessed at LV Silver Spurs.

[San Bernardhinault]

Vegas Rat Pack?

[Gerontophile]

Las Vegas Lights.

[Gerontophile]

There's a shortlist of 6:

Las Vegas FC
Las Vegas Lights (FUCKING SHITE)
Viva Vegas
Las Vegas Action (that will grow on me. Like warts)
Club Vegas
Las Vegas Silver.

But not Silver Spurs.

If you fancy taking a minute to skew the results, go to here, and if it asks for a zip code, use 89101.

[Anton Gramscescu]

TFC 4 - 1 Portland, combined with a hilarious Columbus 3 - 1 Chicago leaves us 6 points clear at the top of the table. A win for us next weekend at Toyota Park will sure take the pressure off for the run in.

[jefe]

Mastroeni fired in Colorado.

USOC final is Sporks v. RBNY

[imp]

Las Vegas Drought
Las Vegas Outage
Las Vegas Apocalypse

Because in a few years time it won't just be the soccer team lying parched in the middle of a desert where no city should be.

[imp]

Las Vegas Silver.

But not the Las Vegas Quicksilver, the appositely named entity that lasted one NASL year in 1977. Players included Eusebio and Trevor Hockey. Main reminiscence of players who went there was a night on the town and their boots melting in the heat.

[tee rex]

Chicago-Toronto TV coverage is really old school, they seem to only have a couple of cameras. It takes some getting used to but then feels quite soothing.

[Anton Gramscescu]

I am getting mildly concerned about the Impact as they quite suddenly look like the second-best team in the league. Piette looked good for the MNT in the Gold Cup and has continued to look good for Montreal. Not looking forward to playing three games against them in next eight weeks, tbh. Or at least not as much as I was looking forward to it a month ago.

[jefe]

The inevitable has finally happened. NYCFC v Houston Sat 9/23 exiled to East Hartford for a Yankee makeup game.

[Anton Gramscescu]

Is there even a hope of them getting out of Yankee Stadium in the next ten years?

[ursus arctos]

Ten years is a long time in New York City real estate.

But I don't see it happening in five.

The site adjacent to the Belmont Park racetrack has become embroiled in the usual nonsense and looks more likely to either be used for an arena for the Islanders or not be developed.

[Anton Gramscescu]

Ignore the deeply comfortable 3-0 win tonight and the now-seven point lead over Modern Slavery FC and that our flash Liechtensteinian right-back Nick Hasler (motto: my country is smaller than BMO's capacity seating) is integrating smoothly into the team thereby making us officially two players deep in every position: TFC led the evening sportscasts in Toronto tonight, ahead of the Jays. For the team - and the league - this seems like a big deal. Even if the jays do suck.

[jefe]

Houston v SKC postponed due to impending watery doom.

DC has now won their past 2 games. 1-0. Via own goal.

[Anton Gramscescu]

Is any American network televising the Impact-TFC game tomorrow? It's got all the makings of a barn-burner, but I get the impression US markets prefer not to watch the Cdn teams.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Hilariously wondrous win for Caps reserves in Orlando today. Full pelt end-to-end in Florida Summer temperatures. Way more fun than most of our games this year, I wouldn't mind paying $60 if I could count on this type of effort every match.

[Hot Pepsi]

Minnesota gets its first away victory.

[ursus arctos]

AG, per Live Soccer TV, it will be on ESPN, ESPN Deportes and ESPN 3

[Anton Gramscescu]

That's impressive. Cheers.

Now watch the match will probably suck, of course.

[Hot Pepsi]

TFC is now suddenly a marquee team just because of its players. Kind of like the Astros in baseball.