MLS/Liga MX Season Thread Now Featuring Inter Messi
Your Defending Champs:
Canada - MONTRÉAL
MLS Cup - Seattle
US Open Cup - Atlanta
Liga MX - Los Rayados de Monterrey
CONCACAF Champions League - Los Rayados de Monterrey
2020 MLS Cup Odds:

CONCACAF Champions League Bracket:

Biggest Departues:
Nacho Piatti from Impact to San Lorenzo
ZLATAN from LA Galaxy to AC Milan
Wayne Rooney from DC to Derby County
Brian Fernández from Portland to jail (I think)
Nico Gaitán from Chicago to Ligue 1 side Lille
NEW Players (w/summaries just for 72o):
Chicharito to LA Galaxy (age: 31) - needs no introduction. All time leader for El Tri (México) w/51 goals. Broke in w/Man Utd, notching 3 straight 10+ goal seasons, more recently bagged 16 goals in 55 matches for Westham, and comes to LAG from Sevilla.
Claudio Pizarro to Inter Miami (age: 25) - another fairly important piece for El Tri where he has 23 caps. Comes from los Rayados where he's already won a few titles in only a couple seasons. Although probably not a top 3 player for Monterrey, they'll be glad to part with him for the 20 million price tag Inter Miami agreed to pay. When he's on he's very good, but he's also very inconsistent. Should dominate in MLS though imo.
Jürgen Locadia to Cincinnati (age: 26) - IMO, the most interesting signing. Notable in that he's the only player in the top 8 most valuable MLS players who doesn't play in LA or ATL. I'm still not sure how Cincy pulled this off. Big time goalscorer w/45 in 127 matches for PSV Eindhoven. He's be a golden boot frontrunner if he played for a better team.
Mauricio Pereyra to Orlando (age: 29) - Uruguayan attacking mid comes from Russian side Krasnodar w/23 goals in 154 appearances. Caps w/Uruguay's U20s but never made an appearance for the nat'l team.
Alan Pulido to Sporting KC (age: 28) - The Mexican isn't really in the nat'l team picture anymore, but is coming off a great season for Mexican giants Chivas where he finished as joint golden boot winner.
Robert Beric to Chicago (age: 28) - 25 caps with Slovenia and comes from Ligue 1 side Sainte-Étienne w/a pretty solid goal scoring record, 26 goals in 81 matches over 5 seasons.
Lucas Zelarayán to Columbus Crew (age: 27) - The Argentine attacking midfielder has been a key player for Liga MX's best side in recent years, Tigres, with 113 appearances and 21 goals over 5 seasons.
Edison Flores to DC United (age: 25) - Yet another player from Liga MX. The Peruvian winger has been a stalwart for their national team with 13 goals in 47 appearances and was a regular for Morelia over the past 2 seasons.
Felipe Mora to Portland (age: 26) - Wildly inconsistent, but can bang in goals when he's on. Comes from Liga MX's Pumas.
Lucas Cavallini to Puebla (age: 27) - Has been great for Canada w/11 goals in only 17 apps. Another player from Liga MX (Puebla) w/ a very respectable 29 goals in 75 matches for a Liga MX bottom feeder side that doesn't score often.
Luis Binks to MONTRÉAL (age: 19) - Comes from Tottenham's academy thanks to Thierry Henry's connections. Supposedly Tottenham's 2nd best young CB.
Intra-league Moves:
DARWIN from Minnesota to Houston
Walker Zimmerman from LAFC to Nashville
Wil Trapp from Columbus to Inter Miami
Katai from Chicago to LAG
Nagbe from ATL to Columbus
Gressel from ATL to DCU
Romell Quioto from Houston to IMFC
brian whitecaps goat oat
weird game ..... other than white scoring i mean
in other news, messi was wearing a "segovia" shirt today (2g/1a in the first half). suarez had 1g/3a
not sure what happened after houston broke the shutout at the end, but miami seemed to get big mad about it
85' goal Lodeiro N. (Duenas E.) [HOU]
90+2' yellow Leo Afonso [INM]
90+4' yellow Cremaschi B. [INM]
90+5' yellow Alba J. [INM]
90+6' straight red Fray I. [INM]
What is the point of Montreal even existing as a club? There are no exciting players, never any interesting signings, and you already know the team can't compete. Our 1 "DP" is Vrioni, who NER were ecstatic to get rid of.
I couldn't be arsed to go to matches even if I were still living there. I guess I was super lucky to have been able to see Piatti and Drogba-mania in the 2 years I lived there.
whitecaps maybe moving because nobody here apparently wants to own the team, montreal and toronto not really interested in spending anymore ..... i wouldn't even be mad if all 3 were in the cpl instead and they built that into a real thing.
might not even be too far away from that given that 2 cpl teams got into champions league this year. hamilton naturally got smoked by monterrey, but calgary only losing 3-2 to pumas over two legs is pretty impressive
that dp thing with vrioni is pretty funny. think the whitecaps have done that move 2 or 3 times, where their new star player is some expensive guy that the other team was desperate to unload
that dp thing with vrioni is pretty funny. think the whitecaps have done that move 2 or 3 times, where their new star player is some expensive guy that the other team was desperate to unload
I guess it's a massive improvement over last year when our 1 DP was Wanyama, who didn't even play when he was healthy.
lol at that late VAR "penalty" against Vancouver in 2nd half stoppage time vs. Monterrey tonight in Concacrap "Champions League". Nice try Liga MX!
If I had bet Vancouver on the ML, I'd be very unhappy.
whitecaps beat monterrey in champions league lol. dominating the home leg by like 2xg but it took a late header from a corner to secure a 1-1 draw. went down to mexico without their best player after ryan gauld hurt his knee in their league game on the weekend, and advanced on away goals after a 2-2 draw. monterrey must have piled it on late because the xg was low and even most of the way, but they ended up with like 2.5xg. a 97th minute sergio ramos penalty wasn't enough for them. think vancouver will play pumas next
in other news
- lafc will play miami, probably? they play tomorrow vs cavalier from jamaica
- cruz azul beat seattle, will play club america or guadalajara. still up in the air, 1-1 as we speak
- tigres beat cincinnati, will probably play la galaxy next, but they're also 1-1 aorn vs herediano from costa rica
I guess it's a massive improvement over last year when our 1 DP was Wanyama, who didn't even play when he was healthy.
yeah what happened to that guy? couldn't believe when i saw him playing for montreal, thought this couldn't be the same guy i saw bossing barca in ucl when he was at celtic*. surely it had to be a different wanyama... lol
(* - or whatever, i'm probably misremembering all of that)
Damn, insane performance by Vancouver, especially being down a goal in Mexico. The other MLS teams got crushed there. Caps must be legit.
You will prob be favored against Pumas (if they don't choke in CR). They've been **** this year, but changed managers a few weeks ago and are slightly better, but not a great squad.
CONCACAF prob furious that a potential Messi vs. Ramos matchup is dead.
random factoids going into this weekend's action
St. Louis hasn't given up a goal in its first 3 games
New England hasn't scored in its first 3 games
vancouver 4-0-0 ... they're never going to not win again
#invincibles
playing chicago next week, will be quite a test with 2 starters injured and 4 away on intl duty. but so far it hasn't really seemed to matter who they have out there, everything is working
random factoids going into this weekend's action
St. Louis hasn't given up a goal in its first 3 games
New England hasn't scored in its first 3 games
St. Louis City 1-0 Seattle Sounders
New York City 2-1 New England Revolution
revs on the board!
Caps gonna pull a 2007 Patriots and win them all until MLS Cup and then lose the big one.