Some Soccer News for Mar 21, 2017

It's Day 80 of 2017.


Forever United [VIDEO]

• From the pregame pageantry of the first Minnesota United home game in MLS. Narrated by you know who.

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Real Salt Lake is the first MLS team to push the ejector button this season and they fired head coach Jeff Cassar on Monday night.

• Cassar was #4 on the du Nord Futbol preseason MLS Coaches Hot Seat list.
• Assistant Daryl Shore will become the interim head coach.
• Former Minnesota Thunder player Freddy Juarez is another assistant at RSL.
• Former Red Bulls head coach Mike Petke is the current head coach of RSL's USL team Real Monarchs.

The RSL organization is a disaster! Owner Dell Loy Hansen appears to be crazy:

• Ran head coach Jason Kreis out of town - now coach of Orlando
• Ran general manager Garth Lagerway out of town - now gm of Seattle
• Ran president Bill Manning out of town - now pres of Toronto
• Gave head coach Jeff Cassar a 3 year contract extension at the END OF LAST SEASON!

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Chicago Fire has signed former German great Sebastian Schweinsteiger.

• I hope he can play and isn't another Steven Gerrard. I haven't seen him in a while.
• The story of the deal from Chicago exec Nelson Rodriquez. By Brian Straus for Sports Illustrated.

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I think its highly likely that the next uniform deal for MLS is worth $1.5 billion over 10 years.

• The current deal with Adidas, worth $25 million per year, ends after 2018 season.

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Remember when LA FC announced they were selling their stadium naming rights to a little known financial institute for a large sum of money? Many thought it sounded too good to be true. Well, apparently all is not right in heaven:

Banc of California remains LAFC’s stadium sponsor, amid considerable turmoil at the institution https://t.co/cRmBcCDsAh

— Angels On Parade (@Angels_Parade) March 20, 2017

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MINNESOTA UNITED

My MNUFC Notes from Colorado updated/upgraded and continued:

• Yesterday I heaped praise on Ibson and kinda dumped dirt all over Kevin Molino. Some people set me straight.
• No complaints about my Ibson hyperbole. He seems to universally have earned the love.
• But my opinion of Molino had to be straightened out. I wonder if I am down on him because of the high price the team paid to sign him? That's very possible. To me Molino should be your 3rd or 4th best player. Instead he is expected to be #1 for Minnesota. That is way too much to ask.
• Molino was better in Colorado than I gave him credit for. He is the one who set up Collen Warner to be fouled in the box for the penalty and first goal. Not Ibson like I said.
• I wrote "For the 3rd game in a row Molino was 85% invisible - is he this year's Lance Laing?" That answer is simple: No, he is not. I was a huge fan of Laing but it didn't happen for him last year at all. Molino already has drawn a PK, assisted on drawing a PK and scored the goals on both of those plays.
• I was wrong about KM.
• This weekend without him will be a big test to see what his real significance to the team is.
• End of story.

Some more final notes on Minnesota at Colorado - several fine points made here. By Alex Schieferdecker for Fifty One Fifty.

Minnesota will be without 4 starters on Saturday in New England due to national team call ups: Rasmus Schuller, Johan Venegas, Franciso Calvo and Kevin Molino.

• MNUFC will also be without Justin Davis due to a 1 game red card suspension.
• The Revs lost no one to call ups.

Various notes about players health and availability plus quotes from coach and players. By Megan Ryan for the Star Tribune.

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Max Kellerman compared Conor McGregor fighting Floyd Mayweather to Evel Knievel jumping the Snake River Canyon. Its a great spectacle, not a great sporting challenge. Perfect analogy. That's why Max is one of the best.

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MLS

Maxi Urruti of Dallas named MLS Player Of The Week.

Best goals of the week:

• Joevin Jones to Nicolas Lodiero to Jordan Morris
• Alberth Elis to Romell Quioto
• Romain Alessandrini to Emmanuel Boateng
• Albert Rusnak to Yura Movsisian
• Romain Alessandrini to Dave Romney
• Maxi Urruti
• Benny Feilhaber
• Yamil Asad to Josef Martinez
• Miguel Almiron to Josef Martinez
• Raheem Edwards to Jozy Altidore to Victor Vazquez

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USA MEN'S NATIONAL TEAM

With the status of Jordan Morris's ankle injury still a mystery, we see USA add Chris Wondolowski to the roster for Friday.

• It was an easy addition to the roster to make because Wondo plays for San Jose and the team is training in San Jose for the Friday game, so it gives them an experienced body for at least training.
• Jeff Carlisle reported that US Soccer says Morris is "day to day," with the injury. Not good.

Tim Howard is ready to go for USA despite a bad thigh muscle injury last Fall. By Janie Mccauley for the AP. Via SF Gate.

Lots of notes from Bruce Arena on his team for Friday. By Brian Straus for Sports Illustrated.

Roster:

• G: David Bingham, Tim Howard, Nick Rimando
• D: DaMarcus Beasley, Matt Besler, John Brooks, Geoff Cameron, Omar Gonzalez, Michael Orozco, Tim Ream, Jorge Villafana, Walker Zimmerman, Graham Zusi
• M: Kellyn Acosta, Alejandro Bedoya, Michael Bradley, Jermaine Jones, Sacha Kljestan, Sebastian Lletget, Dax McCarty, Darlington Nagbe, Christian Pulisic
• F: Jozy Altidore, Clint Dempsey, Jordan Morris, Chris Wondolowski
• OUT: DeAndre Yedlin (injury), Fabian Johnson (injury), Bobby Wood (injury), Jermaine Jones (suspended 1 game), Timothy Chandler (suspended 1 game), Brad Guzan (new child).

The Bird Is The Word