الدوري الأمريكي لكرة القدم‘s summer transfer window is officially closed, and even by the league’s standards, this was a wild one. For a league that has built a reputation for attracting star power, there was plenty to go around this summer. There were also plenty of more under-the-radar moves that made teams significantly better as the push to MLS Cup really gets going.
From a returning U.S. men’s national team rising star to international icons, MLS attracted plenty of names this summer. The league’s all-time transfer record was broken by Los Angeles FC – with the move costing $26 million – but there were plenty of other millions tossed around by other teams, too.
With the wheeling and dealing now officially over, BALLGM takes a look at this summer’s big winners and, just as importantly, this summer’s big losers…
Major League Soccer’s summer transfer window is officially closed, and even by the league’s standards, this was a wild one. For a league that has built a reputation for attracting star power, there was plenty to go around this summer. There were also plenty of more under-the-radar moves that made teams significantly better as the push to MLS Cup really gets going.
From a returning U.S. men’s national team rising star to international icons, MLS attracted plenty of names this summer. The league’s all-time transfer record was broken by Los Angeles FC – with the move costing $26 million – but there were plenty of other millions tossed around by other teams, too.
With the wheeling and dealing now officially over, بالجم takes a look at this summer’s big winners and, just as importantly, this summer’s big losers…
The moment that the Djordje Mihailovic sale went through, it was expected the Rapids would take a big swing. Despite not being a classic big-market club, the Rapids have been an ambitious team over the past two seasons. It is a club that is willing to make the right move at the right time, particularly for an American star that can be built up within their own system.
That move, ultimately, was Paxten Aaronson, and it was a shocking one to say the least. In Aaronson, the Rapids signed a future USMNT star, one who certainly had the talent to stay in Europe.
Aaronson’s decision to leave Eintracht Frankfurt and come back to MLS will be dissected for years to come, particularly as it relates to next summer’s World Cup. For the Rapids, though, it was a no-brainer. Here is a marketable, young, talented rising American star, one who just waltzed through the الدوري الهولندي الممتاز on loan and looked more than capable of playing at a higher level in Europe. Reports indicated that Aaronson had options at ساوثهامبتون, RB Salzburg, and back in the الدوري الألماني. Instead, he came home.
A controversial move for him, but an easy one for the Rapids. Now, the only question is how Aaronson handles the pressure of going from a youngster in Germany to the guy in Colorado.
Through the whole summer, it looked like Timo Werner or bust. In the end, it was bust.
The Red Bulls were prepared to take a big swing, so credit to them, but it turned out there was no real backup plan when that swing didn’t work out. Make no mistake: Werner – who plays for Red Bull Leipzig – would have been the biggest signing this team had made since Thierry Henry. Instead, the only forward help the club brought in was teenage striker Andy Rojas from Herediano. No disrespect to him, but he isn’t at the level of Werner.
So, heading down the stretch, the Red Bulls missed another opportunity to bring a game-changing striker. Maybe next year.
The biggest signing of the window, bar none. The arrival of Son Heung-min is a game-changer, not just off the field but also on it.
Son has already made an instant impact with LAFC, turning their attack into a real monster with Denis Bouanga also out there to terrorize defenses. These are the type of players that can win you an MLS Cup. Most teams want one superstar player. LAFC now have two. Credit to them, too, for pivoting off the Olivier Giroud situation when the time was right, and not just pivoting, but also ending up with a better player.
Add in the signings of veteran Ryan Porteous and young Irish international Andrew Moran, and Steve Cherundolo’s side had an incredible transfer window for a team that probably went from “very good” to “great.”
They’re on pace to be the best expansion team in MLS history. By the end of this, they may just win the Supporters’ Shield. Did they miss a chance to solidify all of that, though?
They lost Milan Iloski, who was putting up Golden Boot numbers, and that loss could prove to be a crushing blow. Sure, they went out and got some youngsters in David Vazquez, Aiden Harangi, Leo Duru, and Pedro Soma to go with veteran Corey Baird, but it’s hard not to notice that this team is severely lacking a real match-winner up top. Baird is a good striker, but not an elite one. Will that ultimately be their undoing?
MLS Playoff history tells us that the answer to that question is “almost certainly”. San Diego are clearly building for the future, but based on their spot in the table, they could have also built for the now.
اللاعبون يحبون توماس مولر don’t typically just show up in Vancouver. That was until this summer, when the Whitecaps made the biggest splash in team history, continuing what might just end up being the best season in team history.
It’s hard to really contextualize what it means for a club like the Whitecaps to sign a player like Muller. This isn’t a team that has the allure to attract big stars. They did, however, have the project to attract this particular star, with Muller no doubt excited by the opportunity to be the missing piece for a team that was already very, very good. Without the former Bayern Munich star, the Whitecaps looked like a contender. With him, they have a legitimate shot at MLS Cup.
Brian White needs to remain in form, and Vancouver need a healthy Ryan Gauld, but with Muller leading the charge, the Whitecaps just raised their ceiling massively.
Fire fans were almost certainly looking at the big names signed around the league and wondering, “Where’s ours?!?”
Both نيمار and Kevin De Bruyne had been linked in the past, but neither showed up in the Windy City. So, again, it’s another summer without one of those big names that really change things on and off the field.
The Fire are a decent team. They score a whole bunch of goals and look set to push for a playoff spot. The addition of Joel Waterman should help the backline, while Andre Franco adds midfield help. Manager Gregg Berhalter has clearly changed things for the better in this first season in charge, laying the foundation for what is obviously a project with the long-term in mind.
And so the wait for the player who takes this project over the top continues. The club clearly has ambition, but seems content to wait for the right piece at the right time to take that big swing.
Winner: Inter Miami – You take a team that already has Lionel Messi, Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets and Luis Suarez and you add Rodrigo De Paul? That’s the pull of Miami, who used their status to bring in a legitimate star midfielder on the cheap (for now) to continue their MLS Cup push.
Loser: Charlotte FC – To their credit, they did make the best of a bad situation by reinvesting wisely, but there’s no doubt that they would have wanted to keep Patrick Agyemang the rest of the season. That’s just how these things work, though, so we’ll have to see how the new guys and in-house replacement Idan Toklomati handle things the rest of the way. The good news? They’ll keep Adilson Malanda the rest of the way on loan after selling him to ميدلسبره. That’s very, very nice.
Winner: New England Revolution – The Revs have been a pretty bad soccer team all summer, and one of the only ways to quickly fix that is to bring in a pretty good goalkeeper. That happened with the return of Matt Turner, which comes with its own feel-good factor. We’ll have to see how Israeli international Dor Turgeman adapts to MLS, but this seemed like an attempt to make this team a little bit better.
Loser: نادي دالاس لكرة القدم – They’re right on the bubble for a playoff spot, and they lost their big offseason signing, Luciano Acosta, just months after bringing him in. Without him, this team clearly doesn’t have an elite match-winner, which will make that playoff push significantly harder, even taking into account the fact that Acosta didn’t look like his old self in Texas.
Winner: FC Cincinnati – They lost DeAndre Yedlin, which is unfortunate, but they somehow pulled off the return of Brenner, which is wild. Now, they have two top-tier strikers in Brenner and Kevin Denkey leading the line, giving them a legitimate two-headed monster up top for the playoff push. They were already arguably the league’s best team. Somehow, they got even better by bringing in a guy who will have no problem adapting back to MLS.
Loser: Seattle Sounders – The Sounders never make signings in the summer, and they tend to do just fine. In that sense, this wasn’t a surprise, and anyone with brains wouldn’t bet against manager Brian Schmetzer. That said, it’s still an opportunity to refresh a team that the Sounders, again, opted not to use.
Winner: نادي تورنتو لكرة القدم – Not only did they get out of the albatross contracts of their failed Italian stars, but they also brought in a new face of the franchise in Mihailovic. Is he as recognized as Lorenzo Insigne or Federico Bernardeschi? No, but he is a top-level, proven playmaker in this league that should serve as a good building block for this team’s rebuild.
Loser: D.C. متحد – A not very good team with very little to buy into at the moment, D.C. hired new coach Rene Weiler and brought in one new signing, Caden Clark. They paid a bunch of money for Clark, who admittedly still has high upside, but this team needs a lot more help than what he can provide. D.C. will likely press the reset button in the offseason, but they didn’t make much progress on that process this summer.
