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Monday kickaround

Wiley to Chelsea announced, Union back on track, Peyton Miller impresses, U-20's roll, Adams setback, & More

ASN's Brian Sciaretta offers up his thoughts on the top news in American soccer including opening up his MLS notebook, the U.S. U-20 team's strong qualifying opener, Caleb Wiley's big move, and what's next for Tyler Adams. 
BY Brian Sciaretta Posted
July 22, 2024
2:05 PM

LONDON, U.K – This Column is a little late as ASN is traveling to the Olympics but made a brief stop in London before heading to Marseille. But there is a ton of news to breakdown as MLS had a full slate over the weekend, a huge transfer took place with a prominent U.S. youth national team player, the U-23s are speaking with the media, and the U-20 team is rolling in World Cup qualifying.

MLS is on a bit of a break now as the All-Star game is this week followed by the opening of the second edition of the Leagues Cup.

 

MLS thoughts

 

Some takeaways from the games this weekend stateside.

 

LAFC was perhaps the biggest winner of the weekend with a 3-0 win away over a Seattle team that had won five in a row. Meanwhile, LAFC had looked shaky in its last two games (a bad loss to Columbus and a draw vs Real Salt Lake at home). While the Sounders had a great five game run, those wins all came against eighth or below. This game was closer than the 3-0 scoreline indicated but makes Seattle a hard team to figure out. LAFC, however, can safely be considered a top team and the previous two games were a blip. But part of the reason why LAFC was in control was Hugo Lloris who had a wonderful game in goal and made LAFC's team effort seem better than it was. 

Columbus drops an egg in Atlanta. Columbus traveled to Georgia and left with no points after a 2-1 loss. This comes after the Crew earned just one point at home with a 1-1 draw with Charlotte. Columbus was initially strong after the departure of Aidan Morris, but now it looks like they’re starting to feel the loss of their defensive midfielder. Morris was a huge link between the team’s defense and offense. It was only a matter of time before they missed him. They need a replacement. As for Atlanta, they have a pathway into the playoffs. Even with the sale of Almada, Wiley, and Giakoumakis, it might result in the team playing with a chip on its shoulder. But I also don’t think Atlanta will take risky moves just to get into the playoffs this year. It’s a longer-term project for Garth Lagerwey.

The team which had the best week was the Philadelphia Union, which posted a 3-1 win over the Revs on Wednesday followed by a 3-0 win over Nashville. It’s bottom feeding from Philly in beating up on both teams, but for the first time this season, they played like the Union. Now with the Leagues Cup break, maybe they can reset. While they’ve been sitting outside the playoff places the past three months, they are now just one point out. Also, the Union has a +3 goal differential all season. That’s deceptively good and is probably more indicative. The Union have been mentally week at too many minutes but something they should be able to fix given their history.

It's a running theme that Inter Miami has been very good, even without Messi. This time it was a 2-1 win over Chicago. The truth, however, is that Chicago wasn’t that bad. They’re outside the playoff picture right now, but it’s easy to see them making a surprising push.

It’s not a time right now for the “play your kids” movement. It’s a little tricky given that many top players are with the U-23s and U-20 teams at major tournaments. But how about Peyton Miller for the New England Revolution? The 16-year-old right back was the best player on the field for the Revs on Saturday in a 1-1 draw with FC Dallas. The Revs have been home to a bunch of promising young dual nationals but players like Noel Buck, and now likely Esmir Bajraktarevic have been opting for other countries. Miller played with the last U.S. U-17 team and maybe he emerges as a U.S. prospect.



The Red Bulls impressed in Saturday’s 3-1 win over a suddenly struggling Cincinnati team. But Cam Harper was forced out of the game in the first half and if he out long-term, it could be yet another blow. They’ve withstood so much (the sale of Frankie Amaya, the injury to Peter Stroud, and now the injury to Emil Foresberg) but they need to start adding. In this game, Lewis Morgan stepped up but this team is paper thin right now. I think they could be a tough out in the playoffs if they are smart this summer and they can stay healthy. As for Cincinnati, this was the first loss where the loss of Matt Miazga and Nick Hagglund showed. Adding in the absence of Miles Robinson and it’s just too much. They’ll get Robinson back after the Leagues Cup, but will that be enough?

Colorado continues to impress this season and exceed expectations. This time it was a 3-2 win over rivals Real Salt Lake. Even with Djordje Mihailovic away, they still find away to score goals and create chances. This time it was through Cole Bassett and Sam Vines. Colorado is now into fourth place, RSL is in third. Not bad for two teams that operate with a smaller budget. RSL continue to operate with Christian Arango on suspension.

In my opinion, Griffin Dorsey was the best player this weekend in MLS. The Houston right wingback had a two-goal effort in a huge 4-3 away win over Vancouver. He’s been good now for a year. It’s been one of the best examples of latter post YNT development stories in the league.

Finally, the LA Galaxy outclassed Portland 3-2 after the Timbers had won three out of four. The win moved the Galaxy two points atop the West (albeit with two more games played than second-place LAFC). Joseph Paintsil has been great for the Galaxy in a variety of positions, now center forward. He had a goal and two assists in this one. When Gabriel Pec and Paintsil are in form, the Galaxy are extremely tough to beat.

 

Wiley to Chelsea

 

Caleb Wiley sealed his long-awaited move to Chelsea, which has been reported by the media on both sides of the Atlantic for weeks. The Atlanta United left back marks the club’s third transfer of a starting player this season.

Wiley, 19, has a high ceiling and has made 80 MLS appearances for 5995 total minutes. With that kind of experience in his teenage years, it is the appropriate time to make a move. It is not too soon at this stage.

The good news for Wiley is that Chelsea seems ready to loan him out to Strasbourg in France’s Ligue 1 (which have common ownership with Chelsea). That should provide him a better chance of playing in his first steps as a professional player.

It’s an exciting move for Wiley, who has been one of the top youth prospects in MLS in recent years. With his athleticism, he checks the boxes for what clubs want in a modern-era fullback. It will be interesting to see how quickly he adjusts.

Meanwhile, Wiley is currently with the U.S. Olympic team in France where he is vying for the starting job with Red Bull left back John Tolkin, who has also had a good season and a good cycle with the U-23 team.

 

Adams surgery

 

Tyler Adams went under the knife for back surgery following the Copa America. Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola revealed the news over the weekend to the media.

“He finished the season with an injury in his back,” Iraola said. “He wanted to play Copa América because it was very important for him, but he had restrictions and was still in pain, so two days after they were knocked out, he had surgery.”

Iraola was also unable to put a timeline on when Adams would be ready.

But this news raises all sorts of questions about how much Adams was hurt towards the end of last season, why Bournemouth didn’t refuse to release Adams because of the injury, and how Adams has been managed throughout the season due to multiple injuries and setbacks? Also, how much longer before Bournemouth look for more options in defensive midfield?

Adams has had numerous long-term injuries in his career and he needs to put all the focus right now on his health – and not the national team. He needs to become a dependable club player before anything else can happen.

This is a huge season for Adams. If he doesn’t have a full season, how much longer before clubs see him as unreliable? That’s a scary prospect for a player, who now has a family, and his only in his mid-twenties.

Right now, Adams needs to put the national team on the back-burner and try to focus himself completely on staying healthy for his club. Everything else will fall into place after an extended period of that.

 

U.S. U-20’s start qualifying strong

 

The United States U-20 national team rolled past Jamaica 9-0 its World Cup qualifying opener in a game that was just not competitive at all. The most important thing the U.S. team did in this game was put the game out of reach early and squash any Jamaican hopes for an upset. David Vazquez scored a brace inside of six minutes. Pedro Soma also added two goals while Cruz Medina, Marcos Zambrano, Ruben Ramos, Nimfasha Berchimas, and Nikolas Tsakiris also each added a goal.

The U.S. team will take on Cuba on Monday night and look to move to six points. Should the U.S. team win Group A, it would get to face the third-place team from Group B or Group C in the quarterfinal. That game alone will determine World Cup qualification. The group stages are as much about practice and confidence-building as anything else.

Jamaica was very poor in this game, but the U.S. team played well and was clinical.

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