Good morning, y'all. Your pal Sam here. Let's soccer.
|
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
- New England Revolution acquire Blessing from LAFC: The New England Revolution have acquired midfielder Latif Blessing from LAFC for $400,000 in guaranteed General Allocation Money (GAM). LAFC can receive up to an additional $300,000 in conditional GAM. Blessing, 26, spent the last five seasons with LAFC after originally coming to the league with Sporting Kansas City in 2017. The Ghanaian midfielder was selected in LAFC's Expansion Draft and made 145 regular-season appearances with the club, winning two Supporters' Shields and one MLS Cup. Blessing won the 2017 US Open Cup with SKC as well.
THE BEST SIGNINGS OF THE OFFSEASON SO FAR
The pre-European window signings deserve appreciation before they come in and hog all the attention. Here are the best moves of the offseason so far.
Latif Blessing - New England Revolution
Oh, hey, look at that, a baked-in excuse to talk about the biggest news of the day. Amazing how that works. Also amazing how New England pulled off one of the best moves of the offseason so far. They're picking up an excellent player in Blessing who helps address one of the biggest holes in their roster.
Now, it's no real secret that Blessing has fallen off a bit since an absurd 2019 that, per American Soccer Analysis' goals added metric, ranks among the single-most productive central midfield performances of the last five years. Blessing made just 16 starts in 2022 and it seemed like the right time for everyone involved for him to find a new environment. Enter the Revs, who have grabbed a player whose ceiling is "one of the best midfielders in the league" as he enters his age-26 season. For a team whose biggest issues over the past few years have stemmed from midfield, picking up Blessing for just $400k in GAM feels like a steal.
Derrick Etienne Jr. - Atlanta United
Atlanta's strategy of attempting to coalesce a handful of dribble-happy attacking players with a handful of replacement-level central midfielders into a cohesive unit hasn't been the most fruitful roster-building strategy over the last few years. Etienne's signing seems to be a direct acknowledgment of that.
Because Etienne does this amazing thing where even when the ball isn't at his feet, he goes ahead and moves anyway. It's straight-up wild. In Atlanta, it's going to be a much, much-needed breath of fresh air in attack. Not only that, but he comes as a value buy. As a free-agent signing, his cap hit should be relatively minimal compared to some of his less productive teammates. This is the antithesis to so many of Atlanta's worst moves over the last few seasons and it's a sign that the club has learned from some of its mistakes.
Evander - Portland Timbers
Only one club has gone ahead and made a club-record signing this offseason. And he seems like he has the potential to instantly make the Timbers MLS Cup contenders again. He thrived at Denmark's Midtjylland, scoring 50 goals and dishing out 38 assists over five seasons. He even found time to score five times and deliver seven assists in the UEFA Europa League and Champions League.
Sometimes that kind of success doesn't translate to MLS. Or at least it takes some time to translate. That might be the case for Evander. However, you can't fault Portland's ambition here. And if he does become an immediate hit, Portland will immediately become very dangerous.
If it takes some time, well, Portland have him locked in through at least 2026. It kind of feels like we might have to prepare for the Timbers to have yet another outstanding attacker for a decade or so.
Aaron Herrera - CF Montréal
This move felt solid on the surface. Herrera has been awesome for RSL for a while and Montréal picked up the 25-year-old for just $500k in GAM. It became even more intriguing though when Montréal hired Hernan Losada to replace Wilfried Nancy.
I'm not saying he's going to turn into Julian Gressel, but it's not hard to envision Herrera having a similarly outstanding breakout year under Losada. Gressel turned in a Best XI-caliber year one under Losada and while they're not exactly the same mold of player, there's clearly opportunities for a full back like Herrera to make a major impact within Losada's system.
No matter what, Montréal got a great player for a value. They probably need a few more of those to replace all the talent they've lost, but it's a start.
Gyasi Zardes - Austin FC / Kevin Cabral - Colorado Rapids
I'm grouping these together in the "I want these to be good signings in my heart" category.
Austin grabbed Zardes as a free agent and he won't take up too much of their salary budget. The Rapids grabbed Cabral on a cheap trade that could potentially end up helping the Galaxy more than anyone. Long term, neither club needs these guys to work out. But it would be way more fun if they did.
Zardes has somehow circled back around to being underrated, while Cabral is an xG Hero with now famous issues turning expected goals into goals. There's a decent chance that both of these players come good and the clubs look brilliant. There's also a decent chance that neither raises the ceiling of the group and everyone will look back at these signings as lacking in ambition. In my heart, I want it to be the former. But I know that's not normally how things work out in MLS.
AND OTHER THINGS
THE READING RAINBOW
|
|
|
