What happened on Monday’s MLS roster cut deadline, including house cleaning in LA and defensive renovations across the country.
The latter stages of the MLS Cup playoffs roll on as we head toward the eventual finale of this long season, but the offseason is here already for most of the league. Its true start was marked by the initial roster cuts deadline on Monday, Nov. 27, when eliminated teams had to submit their decisions on which player options they would accept and which they would decline.
This process is one of many complicated ordeals that will take place over the next three or so months in MLS. It’s one that sets the direction of every team and is the major purveyor of the roster discontinuity that headlines this league’s offseason. After this deadline, some clubs will be slimmed down to a squad incapable of putting out a full starting XI.
Many players hit the chopping block on Monday and in the days prior, a number of which could be of use to multiple MLS clubs. Here are the major takeaways, and a complete rundown of the notables who were cut.
Sigi Schmid cleans house in LA
A lot of work is yet to be done in Los Angeles, and that applies to the Galaxy just as much as the expansion LAFC. The Galaxy were a Hot Mess Express in 2017, showing little direction in personnel or tactical decisions and playing most of the season with ghosts in important positions like goalkeeper, center-back, full-back and defensive midfielder. They were old, unorganized and incompetent.
Sigi Schmid, hired midseason as the managerial replacement for an overwhelmed Curt Onalfo, took a step in the right direction on Monday, cutting 13 guys in addition to letting three veterans walk. They now have just 13 players on the roster, none of them goalkeepers, and a whole lot of stuff to do before March.
Their midfield and attacking core is thin but talented: Giovani and Jonathan dos Santos dominate, Sebastian Lletget returns from injury and Romain Alessandrini will look to continue his 13 goal, 12 assist performance in 2017. Crafty winger Emmanuel Boateng is pretty good, to go along with a puzzling Gyasi Zardes, but nothing else is assured on a roster that will see a complete and total revamp.
The most important storyline to follow for this team is whether they can utilize their academy to greater effect. They sit in the most talent-dense area in the country and possess a fairly successful USL affiliate club, but they screwed the pooch with the most recent crop of Homegrown players, just this week cutting the likes of Jose and Jaime Villarreal, Raul Mendiola and Jack McBean. It’s imperative they figure out how to take better advantage of their academy (cough, play your kids, cough).
Vancouver were … active
The Whitecaps, not far removed from boringly stepping out of the MLS Cup playoffs in the conference semifinals, made 12 roster cuts, including DP defensive midfielder Matias Laba and savvy attacker Cristian Bolanos. Starters Andrew Jacobson, Fredy Montero and Jordan Harvey are out of contract, and they let go, for the time being, consistent contributors such as Sheanon Williams, Russell Teibert, David Edgar and David Ousted.
Apparently, though, they’re still in discussions with Laba, Bolanos, Jacobson, Montero, Harvey, Teibert, Edgar and playoff starter Nosa Igiebor. Some they might lose, others they might not. It’s tough to say for sure.
It’s clear that changes could be coming to the 2018 Carl Robinson Whitecaps, considering they were willing to decline the options of so many. Laba is a very talented player, but he’s recovering from a major knee injury, and Aly Ghazal played well as his replacement, so he could end up starting as a No. 6 outside of British Columbia.
After a surprising season that saw them bunker their way to third in the conference, substitutes could be on the way at full-back, central midfield, winger and striker. Time will tell.
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San Jose, New England thin out their defensive corps
Two clubs with recently-hired managers went heavy on backline cuts on Monday, looking to rehabilitate defenses that combined to allow 121 goals in the regular season.
The San Jose Earthquakes, fresh off the hiring of Mikael Stahre and the decision to keep Chris Leitch full-time as a technical director, cut three defenders and saw two more have their contracts expire, unlikely to be re-signed. Center-backs Victor Bernardez and Andres Imperiale, who have an average age of 33 and have been prominent features for years in San Jose, will be gone, and full-backs Kofie Sarkodie (a starter for most of the second half), Cordell Cato and Kip Colvey will also likely leave.
They have four defenders left, three of them center-backs: Francis Affolter, Harold Cummings, Florian Jungwirth and 23-year-old right-back Nick Lima. Now they have to get younger and more diverse in playing style with their depth, and figure out whether Lima can start every week.
New England hired Brad Friedel a few weeks ago, and he could push out five defenders, including multiple notable names. Starting right-back Andrew Farrell, who had a very average season, is out of contract, and center-back Benjamin Angoua, a disaster of a signing from last January, was cut along with three depth pieces. Josh Smith, Je-Vaughn Watson and London Woodberry will move on.
The Revs now have just three defenders left. Whether this kind of serious roster turnover is good for the league is debatable, but what’s clear is that these front offices have a lot of scouting, drafting and money-managing to do over the next couple of months and beyond.