Welcome to Week 20 of our staff column collecting news, insights, and highlights from around Major League Soccer.
When Garth Lagerwey took over as Atlanta United president last fall, he inherited a cluttered salary cap/asset situation. Though the club have made big, positive strides over the two transfer windows since his appointment, that murky cap sheet cost the club a key starter this week, as Atlanta United had to loan out midfielder Franco Ibarra in order to be roster compliant.
Ibarra, as he frankly told The Athletic’s Felipe Cardenas, did not want to leave. Atlanta also did not want him to leave. But through several bad decisions of its own doing, the club was essentially left with no choice.
Ibarra is on Atlanta’s roster via the U-22 initiative. MLS clubs are permitted to have up to three U-22 initiative players at any time. Another one of Atlanta’s U-22 trio is Edwin Mosquera, a 22-year-old winger who has zero professional goals in 77 appearances for five clubs in four countries. He had been sent out on loan to Argentine club Defensa y Justicia, but returned early this week because he wasn’t playing. Atlanta described the change of plans as “mutual” despite it leaving them in a situation where they needed to lose a starter.
Santiago Sosa and Erik Lopez are the other two U-22 initiative players. Sosa had a solid first season in Atlanta after arriving as a highly-rated Argentine youth international on a reported $5 million transfer fee, but has fallen out of favor, having started only seven games in 2023. Lopez has been a disaster, with Atlanta repeatedly trying to offload him with no luck. The Paraguayan attacker has played only 1,060 first-team minutes in two and a half seasons after arriving for a reported $3 million fee. He has made one MLS appearance this season.
It’s not all bad news. Despite this setback, Atlanta’s current cap/roster situation is far better than this time last year.
Club legend Josef Martinez left in a contract buyout, freeing up a DP spot. Underwhelming midfielder Marcelino Moreno left on loan for Brazilian side Cortiba. Alan Franco was signed by Sao Paulo, Emerson Hyndman went on a mutual contract termination, Dom Dwyer was waived, George Campbell was traded to CF Montreal.
This summer, struggling DP winger Luiz Araujo (signed for up to $12 million, one of the most expensive in league history) was transferred to Flamengo. Ezequiel Barco’s loan to River Plate turned into a permanent deal as well.
All in all, 16 players from last season’s roster have left. It’ll be 17 when Ibarra’s loan is official.
The moves cleared room for Giorgios Giakoumakis to be signed on a DP deal, which has worked tremendously – the Greek has 10 goals and an assist in 16 MLS appearances this season. Derrick Etienne arrived in free agency in the winter and midfielder Tristan Muyumba was just signed from EA Guingamp – he is expected to be a key starter once he arrives. The combination of Argentine World Cup-winner Thiago Almada and Giakoumakis is in the conversation for the best attacking duo in MLS.
There’s still work to do.
The U-22 initiative situation remains a mess and they’ll have to address it again in the winter when Ibarra’s loan expires. Miles Robinson is out of contract and all signs point to him testing free agency, with German and English clubs interested in the USMNT center back as a potential free signing in January. Atlanta’s decision to pick up Matheus Rossetto’s contract option — $764,375, per the MLSPA salary release — was an odd choice. A permanent move for Moreno will have to be sorted too. Almada will leave MLS sooner rather than later, too.
With improved results on the pitch and an open DP spot, Atlanta’s outlook is more positive than anytime since 2019. But as the Ibarra debacle reminded us, it’s still a work in progress.
Atlanta won again on Saturday, handing CF Montréal its first home loss of the season. The Five Stripes are up to fifth in the East, just three points behind second-place Nashville SC.
— Tom Bogert
Into the stratosphere we go
MLS has a long and storied history of legendarily quirky goal calls from its broadcasters: Dave Johnson’s “it’s in the net!” Tommy Smyth’s “bulge in the old onion bag.” Max Bretos screaming “yyyyyeeeeeahhhhhhhhh.”
On Saturday, during Charlotte FC’s 2-2 draw with FC Cincinnati, Charlotte’s Will Palaszczuk added his name to the annals of American soccer broadcasting history.
His call of Karol Świderski’s 24th-minute goal started out normally enough, but Palaszczuk’s voice very quickly reached stratospheric heights. The call started at a timbre of about 210 hertz. By the time Palaszczuk handed the call off to color commentator Jessica Charman, it had skyrocketed to around 1250. Just listen to it:
Palasczuk serves as Charlotte’s radio announcer, alongside Charman. Like every other MLS radio team, their call is simulcast alongside the national call on Apple TV. If viewers prefer a little local flavor, they can use Season Pass’ audio functionality to select the local team.
“I think people want passion and excitement out of a local call,” Palaszczuk said on Sunday evening. “I’ve always been that way (when I get excited.) I’m just being authentic.”
Palaszczuk did not expect his call to go viral. Long-time listeners have heard his unique style for years, but newcomers…well, some were confused. Other social media users were predictably cruel and unpleasant about the call, but most were simply amused. Palaszczuk says he’s heard from other commentators across the league and listeners alike. That response has been largely positive.
“The fact that Apple has made these local radio broadcasts available has been fantastic,” Palaszczuk said. “It’s given many of us a chance to continue connecting with our audience.”
I, for one, think the call is great. Apple’s national talent has done well this year, especially given the compressed timeline the league had to throw this entire operation together. But MLS’ national calls do sometimes miss a bit of the character that its local broadcasts have had for years. So Bravo, Will Palaszczuk. Keep on keeping American soccer weird.
— Pablo Maurer
A reversal of fortunes
The LA Galaxy, who are without regular starters Jalen Neal, Jonathan Bond, Martin Caceres and club captain Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez, are proving there’s something in the “addition by subtraction” theory.
In the absence of Chicharito, who has been ruled out for the season with an ACL injury, Riqui Puig is now unquestionably the top dog on the team, and recently, he’s looked every bit like it. Four days after scoring the winner in El Tráfico, Puig scored a goal and provided an assist in Galaxy’s 3-1 win over 2022 MLS Cup finalists Philadelphia Union on Saturday.
“You’re seeing the best of Riqui,” said Galaxy head coach Greg Vanney. “Because he uses players to bounce off of them, you give him the ball, he keeps moving, he gets it back, keeps playing – that’s part of the beauty of what he does and how he builds speed in attacks. And now, back in, gets the ball, and the game is flowing and has a rhythm to it that he shows you all with the ability that he has. And he had a good finish today, too.”
Vanney’s selling it short. It was an outrageous finish. Puig carried the ball from Galaxy’s half into the Union’s final third and passed the ball wide to Douglas Costa, who immediately switched to Dejan Joveljic. With Puig on the edge of the box, the Serbian international laid the ball into Puig’s path, and in two swift moves, the midfielder shifted the ball out of his feet and hammered a shot into the top corner. Even with his catalog of great goals since swapping Barcelona for the U.S. last summer, this second-half goal, clinching Galaxy’s 3-1 win, certainly ranks among the best.
It’s not just been the Puig show, though. Murmurs as to whether the Galaxy should exercise a buy-out option with Douglas Costa have been silenced by the Brazilian’s excellent recent form. Since being reintroduced into the starting XI in early June after suffering a leg injury, Costa has provided four assists in six league games, not including the corner on Saturday which resulted in an own goal by Union defender Olivier Mbaizo. Forward Tyler Boyd continued his strong goalscoring run with the opener against the Union, and Gaston Brugman, Raheem Edwards and Lucas Calegari, among others, have been consistently impressive.
Though the Galaxy still sit second to last in the West, they haven’t lost in their last six matches and have now strung together consecutive league wins for the first time all season.
For LAFC, things are quite the opposite: additions can’t come soon enough. Including the defeat in the CONCACAF Champions League final to Club Leon, LAFC has won only two of its last 11 matches and has slipped to third in the Western Conference standings, level on points with Real Salt Lake in fourth. Their latest frustration came on Saturday, when they could only manage a 1-1 draw at home against the San Jose Earthquakes who played most of the second half with 10 men.
Without a clear No. 9 and a lack of consistent goals from the wide forward roles as Denis Bouanga and Carlos Vela’s production has dried up from open play, Steve Cherundolo’s side is in dire need of a player to shoulder the goalscoring burden. To make matters worse, Cristian “Chicho” Arango, who finished as LAFC’s top goalscorer last season before being sold to Liga MX side Pachuca in January, marked his swift return to MLS with a goal as Salt Lake cruised past Orlando City 4-0.
LAFC’s big midweek trade, sending wide forward Kwadwo “Mahala” Opoku to CF Montreal in exchange for $1.75 million of general allocation money, suggests general manager John Thorrington plans to make some moves in the summer window. With no immediate let-up in their busy match schedule, Cherundolo could do with reinforcements sooner than later.
— Elias Burke
RSL’s dream summer start
It’s been a dream start to the summer for Real Salt Lake. Chicho Arango’s debut was everything the club could have hoped for and more, with the Colombian scoring the opening goal in the aforementioned 4-0 thrashing of Orlando City in front of more than 20,000 fans at America First Stadium.
Justen Glad, Jefferson Savarino and Anderson Julio added the other three goals. Arango started at center forward with Damir Kreilach just underneath then Jefferson Savarino and Diego Luna on the wings.
RSL spent a club-record $6 million fee to sign Arango from CF Pachuca six months after he was the leading scorer for LAFC’s MLS Cup and Supporters’ Shield-winning team in 2022. RSL co-owner Ryan Smith and GM Elliot Fall both told The Athletic they believed Arango could lift the group. So far, so good.
“You just know something special’s gonna happen when he’s out there,” head coach Pablo Mastroeni told reporters after the match.
The deal to acquire Arango was done and announced weeks ahead of the transfer window officially opening last Wednesday. As a result, Arango was able to train with his new teammates for weeks before his debut.
“The truth is that I visualized it over the last few weeks, and thank God I was able to have a debut like this,” Arango said via a translator. “I dreamed of a goal and winning, and thank God it was able to come true.”
Real Salt Lake is now unbeaten in seven matches and up to fourth in the Western Conference. Highly-rated Colombian midfielder Nelson Palacio was also signed just before the transfer window opened and the club remains active to potentially bring in another reinforcement.
— Bogert
What we’re hearing
Brondby chasing Justin Che
Brondby is among clubs pursuing FC Dallas and U.S. youth international defender Justin Che, sources tell The Athletic.
Che, 19, starred for the U.S. at the U-20 World Cup. The homegrown defender has already been on loan with Bayern Munich’s second team, as well as Hoffenheim — the latter of which ending this summer without Hoffenheim triggering their purchase option.
The defender made 15 MLS appearances in 2021 between the loans to Bayern II and Hoffenheim. Che made two Bundesliga appearances for Hoffenheim, spending most of his game time with the second team.
Brondby is among the biggest teams in Denmark, expected to challenge for the title every season.
— Bogert
One good read
When David Beckham came to MLS, he was targeted with bad challenges by jealous opponents. Lionel Messi could be in for similar treatment, or worse, when he starts playing for Inter Miami, presenting an added task for MLS referees. “This is not the level of David Beckham, or Zlatan,” PRO’s 2021 referee of the year Robert Sibiga told The Athletic. “This is a different level.” So how will officials navigate this dynamic, plus the calls for Messi to be given special protection? Find out here.
And one more that’s very much worth reading: ‘Abusive and belittling’ or a ‘woman being direct’? Vera Pauw at the Houston Dash.
One weird thing
Well, one question about a weird thing, really. How on earth is this not a red card?
(Top image: Getty Images, design by Sam Richardson)
