wolf stansson

Patrick Viera in at NYC FC. I hope someone asks him what they're planning to do with their targeted allocation money or who they like with their first round pick of the super draft.

There's never been a public mandate, but it's always kind of seemed like every year he doesn't win it, the pressure tightens a little bit. I don't necessarily think there's a better man for the job, but I get the sense that when this core is done, he'll be done. He's 62, morbidly obese and has some health issues. If and when they have to rebuild, it will be a very quick rebuild and with coaches like Kreis not being available that often and with Kreis' existing, championship winning relationship with Garth Lagerway, it makes a ton of sense that this will be the year they go in a new direction. Seattle has the ultimate luxury of being able to play the Jordan Morris card at any minute when they need to get younger, and they need to get younger. The problem is that the bulk of their payroll is tied up in the attack. I know he's been hurt, but I don't see Nelson Valdez as being a fit. Either he or Oba has to go if they bring Morris in just because they're not getting rid of Deuce and they have too much in the attack to play him. When they signed Valdez as their third DP after buying down Ozzie, I thought they should have kept their powder dry for a truly league class central midfielder. A Kljestan/Feilhaber type to pair with Ozzie to help with distribution and running in the MF was what they needed. The difference between what they have in Rose, Friberg and Pineda and someone like that is bigger than Neagle, Morris and Valdez. They lacked balance and depth in the MF and back line, but they spent on the attack. Ivanschitz was a great find, but Valdez just seems redundant. Especially when he's hurt and can't play the wing and they have to put Clint in the MF. He doesn't have the legs for that in a playoff run and it removes the fulcrum from the tip of their attack for Oba to run off of. If Ozzie Alonso, Brad Evans and Roman Torres are healthy, they probably win it all. That's not Sigi's fault. But now they haven't won with him in charge and Marshall, Pineda, Scott and probably some others are done. They need a rebuild.

MLS playoffs continue to be nuts/fun as hell. Everyone in Seattle has been trash except Dempsey, Frei, Marshall and Scott but somehow they're still in this in OT. Can't believe their old legs are still in this with this young Dallas team. Oba is invisible and Deuce is covering more ground than I've ever seen him cover.

Yeah we need to go younger. Hold on, gotta make a call... "Gordo? Yeah. Jurgen. What's up bud? What are you doing next week?" Just say Clint preferred to make a run at the cup with Seattle.

Also haha re: Fab. At least JK isn't letting ego get in the way of that one.

Hamid is our best keeper, isn't he? He needs a move away from DC.

Roster drop weird as per usual. http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2015/11/06/17/29/151106-mnt-klinsmann-calls-23-players-for-begining-of-2018-world-cup-qualifying-cycle U.S. Roster By Position: GOALKEEPERS (3): Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Bill Hamid (D.C. United), Tim Howard (Everton) DEFENDERS (8): Ventura Alvarado (Club America), Matt Besler (Sporting Kansas City), Geoff Cameron (Stoke City), Fabian Johnson (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Matt Miazga (New York Red Bulls), Michael Orozco (Club Tijuana), Tim Ream (Fulham FC), Brek Shea (Orlando City SC) MIDFIELDERS (7): Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Michael Bradley (Toronto FC), Mix Diskerud (New York City FC), Miguel Ibarra (Club Leon), Jermaine Jones (New England Revolution), Darlington Nagbe (Portland Timbers), DeAndre Yedlin (Sunderland) FORWARDS (5): Jozy Altidore (Toronto FC), Alan Gordon (LA Galaxy), Jordan Morris (Stanford), Bobby Wood (Union Berlin), Gyasi Zardes (LA Galaxy) Miazga and Nagbe, fantastic. Mix, Jones, Beckerman but no Kljestan or Benny still baffles but that fight is over. Dax, too for that matter. [expletive] Alan Gordon and Ventura Alvarado, lol.

The questions Sunil Gulati is dodging: http://m.nydailynews.com/sports/soccer/u-s-soccer-head-gulati-dodges-questions-fifa-scandal-article-1.2423883?cid=bitly&utm_content=buffer8e0ef&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=NYDNSports+Twitter

Some choice excerpts from a Matt Miazga profile: http://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/matt-miazga-polish-american-centre-back-whos-caught-eye-chelsea#:v7rjV3OILBxUhw

Textbook leg tackle in the open field. You wrap 'em up and pull 'em down. [tweet] [/tweet]

#klinsmann4nycfc

Kreis took a year off to genuflect at the throne of City Football Group just to get fired a season in. More than the terrible DP decisions, that was the biggest red flag. Anyone who knows MLS knows that Jason knows how to manage in this league and applying European ideas without tailoring them to fit is always a mistake. Their disregard for his accomplishments in MLS was a huge, huge mistake. Not that I'm a huge fan, but Mix isn't doing himself any favors at that club either. He's overrated but he's better than Pirlo in the deep lying playmaker role.

There's really no defensible angle. At best, he's a provincial rube who has no clue that there' s a world outside of Merseyside. At worst he's a dimwit who took a job without due diligence because he doesn't give a [expletive].

Steven Gerrard is dumb. http://www.lagalaxy.com/post/2015/11/02/steven-gerrard-looking-bounce-back-2016-what-could-be-final-season-his-legendary Every criticism of the team he makes in that interview is something he was specifically and egregiously guilty of. Especially the effort. It took Beckham three seasons of failure for his competitive pride to kick in enough for him to take MLS seriously. Gerrard doesn't have that much time.

These playoffs, man. So fun.

Just saw it. Does anyone in mls score better goals than Agudelo? He doesn't score as often as you'd like but when he does, they're bangers.

For someone who has been absolute dog [expletive] from the second he put on a galaxy jersey, Stevie G is spending way too much time screaming at his teammates.

This game is wild.

WOW. That's an incredible get. Good for Philly, who has low key done some cool stuff with their youth setup. They have an accredited charter high school for their academy kids that shapes the schedule around soccer. They're the first to do that.

Because it's an elected position and USSF is an airtight, insular organization. http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2014/03/17/12/49/140301-sunilgulati-reelected-ussf-pres He's theoretically doing important work as one of the only seemingly clean FIFA Executive Committee members. He's clearly an excellent bureaucrat to have climbed so high in these closed systems without picking up a whiff of corruption. I don't know that he's done a poor job other than his fascination with JK.

Jurgen fires Hugo Perez, the universally respected manager and former U.S. International who had our u-17's playing the kind of success Jurgen promised when he was hired. Jurgen replaces him with yes man Richie Williams who has who failed once already in the national setup. U-17's get steam rolled out of the world cup getting dominated in every statistical category. I don't know what's worse as a huge US fan, the losing or the millions of hot takes it spawns on both sides of the Jurgen aisle

I was hoping that an up and coming guy might see it as an opportunity to make a name for himself. The rest of the world doesn't have a real healthy respect for the US so if you could win there, wouldn't it turn a lot of heads? Or has the US already made enough progress/ earned enough respect abroad that he'd have to reach the cup final or something for anyone to care? I think you've got it wrong here. Like I said on the last page, foreign managers have a hard time navigating the weirdness of the US Soccer set up. MLS, the youth system etc. All very different than the environments they learned in, so it's probably better to go domestic. We have underrated coaches who know the player pool and understand the system. On the brink of World Cup qualification, we don't have time to integrate someone with no clue. We need results. That said, there are plenty of pedigree'd guys that would take the job if they don't have one. Like Guus Hiddink. A guy like Roberto Martinez would probably take the job if he got fired from Everton, but he wouldn't leave Everton to take it. Guys like Mourinho and Guardiola have talked about being intrigued by the job down the road. It's not really a matter of prestige. It's very attractive. They have money to spend and the pressure is minimal. They get to live in America. The needle is steadily pointing up on the level of talent. Being a national team coach isn't where ambitious guys coach. There aren't many games and you're only really tested every four years. Being willing to wait four years to prove yourself and get noticed for big club jobs isn't on the agenda of an up and comer. Has nothing to do with the perception or relative prestige of the US job.

My coaching wish list is on the last page, but this is all pointless. Nobody is getting fired or resigning. The US job is less desirable than the bottom half of the EPL except to maybe older coaches who are looking for stability and have less ambition.

They should! They both got fired at the right time in their regimes, but they both had to look at the the Klinsmann posters all over Sunil's office walls almost the entire time they coached.

Bradley would be my top choice but I don't think he's interested.