Major Link Soccer: Where would Aron Johannsson land in MLS?

Seattle

ESPNFC (and Matt Pentz) has a great feature on Stefan Frei’s career resurgence in Seattle, focused around his performance in MLS Cup in his former home, Toronto.

You know how we know Osvaldo Alonso is one of the best midfielders in the league? Just look at all how many Audi Player Indexes he has! He has 633 of them! But seriously, according to Audi, Ozzie is the third-best player in MLS. So if David Villa is an Audi R8, Giovinco might be an S8 plus, and Alonso is an RS 7, which is not too shabby.

USWNT rising star Mallory Pugh is going pro, and lots of teams would like to have her. Is there some way, some how that Laura Harvey could bring her to Seattle?

The Cascadia derby between Seattle and Portland on May 27 is going to get a big lead-in from FOX, with Chelsea and Arsenal in the FA Cup final immediately preceding the MLS game.

If you’re in South Park or the vicinity, your local beer scene is back online. Burdick Brewery and Lowercase Brewing both have new taprooms open again after having to move out of their old brewery/taproom combos.

Major League Soccer

Three news chunklets at this link, so here’s the roundup of the roundup. Aron Johannsson needs playing time at age 26, and he’s not getting it in the Bundesliga. MLS seems a possible landing pad, and if he does come to the states, he’d go through the allocation process.

Also at the link above, we learn that Allocation Money has a self-destruct timer. GAM must be used by clubs within 30 days of the end of the third transfer window after it was acquired, or it gets cut in half. Then after two more transfer windows, it’s gone. TAM gets more leeway, you just have to use it or tell the league specifically how you’ll use it within 4 transfer windows.

Finally, Dilly Duka’s name hasn’t popped up in a while, and that’s because he’s a mediocre winger stuck behind several very good to pretty good wingers on Columbus Crew’s roster. We learn (again, link above) that the Crew wants to drop Duka, but he’s got a $175k price tag.

The Power Ranking Averages are back as always from RSL Soapbox, and FC Dallas have the top spot on lock, for now. Meanwhile, the Sounders continue to float around the 7-8-9 zone.

This was pretty much the perfect marriage proposal and acceptance for two Columbus Crew fans. It had custom scarves, a Crew match, and help from Frankie Hejduk. The big question: Will they make the wedding party wear black-and-gold checked dresses and suits?

NWSL

It was just going to be a broadcast deal, and then it became much more. A&E is now not only broadcast partner and sponsor, but also an owner of a stake of around 25 percent in NWSL, with two seats on the league’s board. Interesting info on the Lifetime/A&E/NWSL deal.

USL

Nashville SC is a 2018 USL expansion franchise, and it has a major new backer and majority owner, John R. Ingram, a very rich and prominent Nashville businessman.

A bid for a 2018 expansion USL team in Fresno has been approved. Lead investor Ray Beshoff truly stretched the definition of a certain overused adjective to its breaking point by saying about has nascent USL side: “Now we’re excited and going to spend the next couple of months bringing together a world class club.”

US Soccer

The ‘Baby Yanks’ put a 3-0 spanking on Honduras, nearly clinching a berth to the U17 World Cup. Josh Sargent snagged a brace and Ayo Akinola scored another to complete the domination.

In case you hadn’t heard, the US Soccer Federation is apparently sitting on $100 million in surplus cash, which, in case you hadn’t heard, is a lot of money. Reportedly they’d like to build a dedicated national training center with the cash, but is that anywhere close to US Soccer’s biggest need? Charles Boehm says definitely not.

Fox Sports 1 will televise the US games in the U20 World Cup later this month. Tab Ramos will try to improve on the U20s’ loss on penalties in the quarterfinals in 2015.

World

Sulley Muntari got two yellow cards for protesting to the official and then leaving the match after he received racist abuse from fans at Cagliari. Now an anti-discrimination group is calling for a strike, and Bologna midfielder Godfred Donsah says he is ready to join.

For more on that incident and racism in football in general, the AP has this feature. Rob Harris points out how widespread the problem is and how weak sanctions as punishment are unlikely to change behavior.

The story of Canelas 2010, the Porto-based amateur team with a serious violence problem. Threatening and assaulting referees? Flying kicks to the clavicle? It got so bad that the rest of the league’s teams have refused to play them, forfeiting their matches.