I think Ronaldo has other reasons for not coming to the US.
2025 Roster and Transfer Discussion Thread
- Thread starter LionNYC
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ZYanksRule
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Unless you're Lionel Messi, are your commercial opportunities that great here as a soccer player? Is Kevin DeBruyne really selling cars in this country?
This is a twist on something I wrote in the season thread, but as stated here it seems like a roster issue:
From NYCFC's first game in 2015 thru Taty Castellanos's last game in 2022: 1.61 PPG in 248 games.
From the first game w/o Taty to now: 1.30 PPG in 89 games.
We're approaching 3 years of bad soccer.
From NYCFC's first game in 2015 thru Taty Castellanos's last game in 2022: 1.61 PPG in 248 games.
From the first game w/o Taty to now: 1.30 PPG in 89 games.
We're approaching 3 years of bad soccer.
Davo15
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Looks like that new David Lee model that Sims heaped so much praise on kind of sucks.
I don't think it is bad stats to make this point even more stark by omitting year 1. I don't think that is cherry picking. We had a run of 6.5 years of good rosters. Now were are nearing 3 years of bad rosters. The difference is really clear.
Wealthy foreigner of color is different.
ZYanksRule
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"bad" soccer is a bit harsh. Team went to the conference final in 2022 and the conference semifinal last year.
2023 was a bad season. 2024 was better. David Lee has been caught with his pants down this window but it's hardly been bad, aside from 2023. We should be one of the best teams in MLS, but 2024 was not a bad year.
It's pretty subjective. If you find that 1 round of playoff success redeems a mediocre season, I will not try to tell you you're mistaken. Find your joy where you can. But for me advancing a single playoff round does not overcome a full season. There's a more stark example across the river. RB had 1.38 PPG last year and gave fans a win in just 7 of 17 home games. That's a poor team and a weak season and making MLS Cup Finals does not change that.
Back to 2024 NYCFC, the most generous judgment I can offer is they were modestly on the plus side of mediocre. The PPG was below 1.50. Through 30 games the team was at 0 Goal Differential, 1.37 PPG, and was on the playoff bubble. 2024 had the third worst defense in team history behind 2015 and 2016. Nothing in the underlying data suggests that it was similar to regular season 2021: a good or even great team with terrible luck.
Most importantly though, I did not claim 3 consecutive individually bad seasons. I said 3 years of bad soccer. 2024 was a season of meh sandwiched between bad and (so far) bad. Add in the final 13 games of 2022 after Taty was loaned out and as I noted they sit at 1.30 PPG and -3 GD over 89 games, which is 13 games away from 3 years worth. The team understandably suffered a roster depletion after the 2021 Cup that took about 15-16 months to play out. Taty's departure in summer 2022 was a clear break point identifying when results turned grim and IMO it is fair to measure from that point. So yes, I'm comfortable saying we're approaching 3 years of bad soccer since Taty left.
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I try to be mindful of when to treat 2015 as a special case to be excluded from team history comparisons and when to keep it in. But this too is pretty subjective.
FWIW the period of 2016 through Taty's last game NYCFC achieved 1.69 PPG over 362 games.
Totally appreciate that mindfulness. It struck me as reasonable as it was still quite a long stretch and the team during that time was frequently discussed as having the best multiyear performance in MLS. I can't remember if that "performance" was PPG or some other metric. But while we never threatened to really compete for the Shield, we were year in and year out in the elite group of teams.
ZYanksRule
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I don't disagree with really any of that honestly. I think we have high expectations for what this team should be capable of achieving every year, and they are not putting themselves in position to succeed. I feel that frustration too.
I think I'm arguing semantics, which is that their seasons have been below our expectations and below what they should be capable of if they had better sporting leadership. but that doesn't make them bad seasons, aside from 2023.
ezbeezy214
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KdB is perfect for Alonso
Seeing that Haak seems to have won the starting CB spot adding a DM is needed as long as he's not a DP.
I also continue to believe that someone like KdB instantly improves our wingers.
It's hard for me to believe a lot of the players on Miami are nearly as good as they look. Great players make other players better.
Brooklyn Blue
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Part of attendng games is having fun. KDB would be fun. It has been a minute since this team has consistenly been fun.People really think we’re in a position of strength from a talent standpoint to now welcome KDB?
It was a typo. Should have been *not in a position.*
