In this week’s MLS offseason notebook, we look at the progression of expansion club LAFC.
The MLS offseason grind churns on as we hit peak Silly Season. Rumors abound across the globe linking all sorts of players to MLS while we try and focus on what little concrete transactions and takeaways we can during this league’s bizarre offseason. At the same time, third- and fourth-round draft picks are zipping around the country in minuscule deals that only serve to put names like Brad Stuver and Taylor Peay on our minds.
Before we go off on holiday break, a look at the biggest storylines of the previous week, including the progress of the newest MLS club.
Expansion LAFC start to come together
LAFC and their star-studded ownership were bound to go for it in their first season. With Mexican MNT star Carlos Vela already headlining the starting XI, that much has become clear early in this offseason. Not all of their myriad transactions over the past week have been glamorous or even positive, but they’re the building blocks of what is looking like a successful endeavor.
Through last Tuesday’s expansion draft, LA added San Jose striker Marco Urena, a world-class USMNT killer with the Costa Rican national team but a glorified Nelson Valdez so far in MLS; Seattle backup keeper Tyler Miller, a low-cost 24-year-old that could jump in a starting lineup today; and Sporting KC attacking renegade Latif Blessing, a 19-year-old U.S. Open Cup standout who can accurately be described in one word: pest.
Urena will be a quality backup and possibly even a starter if he can transfer some of that international form to the MLS level. Miller could well be an Alec Kann-type cheap goalie who will let them spend money elsewhere. Blessing is a young and versatile dynamo up top, capable of getting them super-sub goals and lighting it up in off-and-on starting appearances.
This is a good foundation. They also used this draft to significantly boost a starting XI that could very well compete in the Western Conference, drafting coveted left-backs Jukka Raitala and Raheem Edwards (this is a hard position to fill in this league, if you haven’t noticed) and immediately flipping them to Montreal for former MLS Defender of the Year Laurent Ciman.
Ciman, a Belgian international preparing for next year’s World Cup, will pair on the backline with Walker Zimmerman, the FC Dallas central defender whom LA acquired for $500,000 in allocation money and the No. 1 spot in the allocation order. That could immediately become the top defensive duo in MLS.
It’s possible this talented pair could be joined by top SuperDraft pick Tomas Hilliard-Arce, a center-back from Stanford who is widely considered the best college prospect. That would form a back three, of course, something manager Bob Bradley is not unfamiliar with.
Uruguayan forward Diego Rossi, 19, was signed to start up front, possibly alongside Vela, and Omar Gaber, an Egyptian-international who Bradley knows, will start at right back (or wing-back). Now they need to fill out their midfield and add a left-back using their final DP slot and the allocation money they still possess.
For now, LAFC are bearing noticeable resemblances to last year’s mightily-successful Atlanta United.
Next: The best under-20 player on every MLS team
Every transaction: What it means
LAFC made the biggest moves of the past week, but plenty of other teams were active. We run down the biggest trades, signings and hirings:
Timbers hire Giovanni Savarese
Portland’s longtime coach Caleb Porter left in mid-November, possibly desiring more personnel control or due to a front office dispute (reasons are not immediately clear). He had his flaws — in-house player development, integration of academy prospects, making tactical substitutions before the 85th minute — but he took an injury-ravaged Timbers to first in the conference this year. That 2015 MLS Cup final will always be a shining spot on his resume.
Needing a manager with domestic experience who can thrive in a pressurized environment like Portland, they hired New York Cosmos coach Giovanni Savarese, who scored the first goal in New York MetroStars history, built up the Red Bulls academy and won three NASL Soccer Bowls with the Cosmos.
Savarese has long been rumored for MLS opportunities (notably interviewing for the Dynamo job a year ago). He’s been successful in the U.S. and abroad, dealing well with locker room inequality — minimum salary draft pick vs. World Cup winner is a unique dynamic that’s often not easily dealt with by outsiders. This seems to be a good hire for the Timbers.
Galaxy find their goalkeeper
Goalkeeping should not be a problem position in a league with more than a few quality goalies sitting on benches, but that was very much the case in LA. Clement Diop, a Senegal international who is preparing for Russia 2018, started 15 games and looked as bad any player in this league. He made numerous clear howlers, showed little ability to make tough saves and seemed to have no clue what to do when coming off his line (other than that he was great).
Brian Rowe was injured most of the season and Jon Kempin, who started seven games when it became clear that Diop was incompetent, is merely a holdover. All three were let go at the end of the season, with Diop off to Montreal in the waiver draft, Kempin traded to Columbus and Rowe dealt to Vancouver for a second-round pick. That left the Galaxy with zero keepers on the roster.
LA appear to have found their first starting-quality keeper since Jaime Penedo left, trading $100,000 of General Allocation Money and $100,000 of Targeted Allocation Money for San Jose’s David Bingham, a 28-year-old former starter who not long ago was on the list of potential Tim Howard replacements for the USMNT. He fell out of favor with the Quakes this season after a shaky start, making this somewhat of a gamble given the amount of cash going the other direction, but Bingham is talented, and a change of scenery could be just what he needed.
It’s now officially Andrew Tarbell time in San Jose. He’s going to have to learn how to deal with crosses, or recent Homegrown signing JT Marcinkowski will take his spot.
Seattle add full-back depth — or a potential starter
With left-back Joevin Jones off to Germany’s Darmstadt this winter on a free transfer, the Seattle Sounders need to find a way to replace his attacking flair and width. Nouhou, a 20-year-old Cameroon international, has played well at the position, but Seattle acted quickly to find a pure overlapping full-back to compete with him.
Waylon Francis, a starter on the “bomb forward and cross the ball to Kei Kamara” Columbus Crew team that hosted MLS Cup in 2015, is headed to Seattle in exchange for $50,000 of GAM. He had mostly been a backup for Raitala, Hector Jimenez and various others over the past couple of seasons.
Jones-level on-goal production will not be seen from Francis, but he is a very attacking left-back, and one that can distribute and possess the ball in wide areas. The Sounders needed attacking variety, and that’s what they’ll get from the Costa Rican.
Sporting KC and NYCFC swap out-of-favor talent
Two of the most prominent names in the MLS trade rumor mill over the past year or so have been Sporting KC right-back Saad Abdul-Salaam, a starting-quality player sitting behind a converted Graham Zusi, and NYCFC lightning rod attacker Khiry Shelton, who has apparently not been a favorite of Patrick Vieira.
Those two were dealt for each other in a straight swap last Thursday. Whether Abdul-Salaam will start for NYC in unclear, but it’s clear that he is a capable week-in-week-out contributor in MLS, and if nothing else, they could flip him for good value in a league where full-backs are in demand.
SKC have needed wingers who can get close to goal since the beginning of time, so this is a solid deal for them. Now we’ll see if recently-signed No. 10 Yohan Croizet can fill a void.