Hey friends,

Whew, do we have a lot to talk about… let’s get right to it.

• 😡 Fans Outraged over US Open Cup

• ⚽️ MLS Draft Day

• 📆 Schedule Release Highlights

• 🇺🇸 PSV’s American Lineage

MLS Pulls First Teams from US Open Cup

MLS fans were enraged on Friday when the league announced that MLS first teams won’t participate in the US Open Cup in 2024. Instead, delegating their MLS Next Pro teams, which play in the third division to take their place. US Soccer came back with a rebuttal yesterday denying them that right. This story is far from over but boy do we have some input.

With its inception in 1914, the US Open Cup is the longest-running soccer tournament in the country. And its name implies the beauty of the competition… it’s open. All tiers of American professional soccer play against each other to crown one U.S. Soccer Champion.

And like any Cup competition, such as the FA Cup in England or the Copa Del Rey in Spain, there’s a bit of romance involved. When a 3rd or 4th division team plays a home game against a 1st division club, the local community packs the small stadium in hopes of an upset. And there have been plenty of those. Like in 2012 when 5th-tier Cal FC beat the Portland Timbers in the third round. Or in 1999 when the Rochester Rhinos beat the Colorado Rapids in the Open Cup final. But it takes two to have a cupset. Every David requires a Goliath. With no MLS, there are no big upsets.

So why would the MLS abandon a tournament so beloved by all US soccer fans, so steeped in history, and so paramount to the game's growth at all levels in the country? Schedule congestion. Yeah… that’s it. This frees up six midweek games alleviating a packed MLS schedule that saw LAFC playing a record 54 matches last year.

But soccer purists don’t care about this. The MLS just created the Leagues Cup out of thin air last year. Why not stop that instead of a competition that is 110 years old and involves every level of soccer in this country? 🤷‍♂️ 

There is a hint of arrogance in this. A selfish, cynical move that prioritizes profits and the MLS over the growth and tradition of the game in the US.

The MLS has always straddled between trying to comply with the traditions and rules of global soccer while also being an American sports entity whose goal is to maximize revenue. This time they chose the latter. We’re doubtful they made the right decision.

Why Draft Day Was So Different?

The MLS Draft was Tuesday night. Overall, the draft had very little media buildup beforehand. Teams seemed to keep to themselves more so this year than in the past.

MLS Insiders Top Lists were all over the place, featuring loads of different players on each list. So why was Draft Day so unpredictable this year?

There was one key rule change to the MLS SuperDraft.

All non-freshmen are eligible to be drafted now.

This drastically increased the available player pool. The draft used to only include seniors and Generation Adidas signings. This rule change adds two years of younger talent to the eligibility pool. Scouts had nearly triple the number of players to look at this year. 3 of the top 5 picks weren’t Seniors this year.

It will be interesting to see how well MLS scouts can draft these younger less polished talents. Who knows, one of these young draftees could be the next MLS wonderboy! Here’s the full list of draftees and where they ended up.

Schedule Drop

The 2024 MLS Schedule dropped yesterday. Here are a few of the highlights…

Season Opener - Inter Miami (of course) at Real Salt Lake on Wednesday, February 21st

El Trafico - After a league record 82,110 came to watch last year, it’s back at the Rose Bowl for round two on the July 4th Holiday

MLS Cup Rematch - LAFC will host the Crew on July 13th for their first chance at revenge

Leagues Cup - MLS and Liga MX will start the second annual Leagues Cup on July 26th, 12 days after the Copa America Final

Decision Day and MLS Cup - On October 19th each team will kick off simultaneously to decide who makes the playoffs and then MLS Cup will take place on December 7th

PSV’s American Lineage

2022 Leeds United = 2023 PSV. A European First Division squad full of USMNT players. Music to our ears.

PSV has four American players and an American Sporting Director. Malik Tillman, Ricardo Pepi, Sergino Dest, and Richie Ledezma are all current PSV talents. Earnie Stewart, formerly with US Soccer now heads up their Sporting Director role.

You might be too young to remember as well (I was 8 years old at the time), but in 2004 USMNT legend Damarcus Beasley led PSV in Champions League goals on their route to the semifinal. Beasley is now working with PSV to set up training camps around the US to tap young players with the Dutch side’s academy program.

More good news for the future of the USMNT.

Goal of the Week

We can’t get enough of PSV. Tillman and Dest connect for a great goal in transition. They’re atop the Eredivisie by 10 points.

Tweet of the Week

🤣 🤣 🤣 

Quick Hits

• Inter Miami will face Messi and Tata Martino’s boyhood club, Newell’s Old Boys in a preseason match (Link)

• New England Revolution named Caleb Porter as the 9th head coach in club history (Link)

• Bob and Michael Brandley will stay at Stabaek next season after they were relegated on the last day of the season (Link)

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