Well, folks, it’s the offseason again. Some might argue there never should have been an on-season in the middle of a pandemic, but it happened, and for the most part it was actually pretty good. But now that’s over, and there’s so much other stuff to talk about I don’t even know where to start!

USL Championship, or not

So, let’s first start with the USL Championship. As you probably know by now, at least four guys from Tampa Bay Rowdies were confirmed to have contracted COVID19 in the days leading up to what should have been the Championship Final last Sunday, manager Neill Collins included. That led to the league calling off the game, which was both smart and also unfortunate, as it scuttled USL’s first ever chance to have a game broadcast on big time national TV. Then, instead of naming a champion based on points per game like they did in League 1 (congratulations Greenville Triumph), which would have been suuuuper asterisk-y, the powers that be decided not to name a 2020 champion at all, and instead just said “congrats on your conference championships, Tampa Bay and Phoenix.”

That seems silly, but awarding Phoenix a points per game championship when three of those points were earned via forfeit from San Diego after the Junior Flemmings incident would have been even more inflammatory. I suppose the USL would rather be inconsistent than completely awful, so I can live with that. That leaves us with no actual 2020 USL Championship champion, which given the year we’re having, sounds about right. Also noteworthy is the complete absence of any mention of the scrubbed championship final from the Championship’s home page. I hope nobody notices!

NWSL Expansion Draft

The NWSL released its protected player lists for Racing Louisville’s expansion draft yesterday, and there were some…choices out there! As we all know by now, each presently existing NWSL club got to protect 11 players in this year’s draft. In addition, the league limits Racing Louisville to picking just two “allocated players,” i.e. US Women’s National Team players whose salaries are paid or subsidized by US Soccer, in the entire draft. In addition to that, in this draft, the NWSL has further disincentivized Raching from picking USWNT players by offering them $150,000 in salary money if they don’t take any, and $75,000 if they take just one.

That begs a couple of questions: first, are Louisville City really going to play their inaugural season in arguably the best women’s soccer league in the world without a player from the USWNT, which is inarguably stocked with the world’s best talent? It’s readily apparent that’s what NWSL wants, which seems a little unfair given how hard the league pushed to get Racing to join a year early. The second question is: is having a national team player worth losing $75,000 or $150,000 over? They’re really the same question, but still. Denying Racing the ability to draft basically any of the top 100 players in the league significantly impairs Racing’s ability to be competitive. I’m sure Christy Holly and his staff would dispute that, but it’s a hard argument to make.

That said, those are the rules, so I guess we have to live with them. Of the available players, a couple of names immediately stand out: Tobin Heath, Megan Rapinoe, Christen Press, Heather O’Reilly, Ali Krieger, Ashlyn Harris, and Carli Lloyd. There is just about zero chance Racing will sign any of them, primarily because, per conventional wisdom, none of them will actually want to sign with an expansion team at this stage of their careers, and Racing can’t make them do it. Oh well, I guess.

That’s not to say that there aren’t some appetizing players out there that Racing realistically can sign: Ally Watt and Lauren Milliet from North Carolina Courage are high quality players that I’d be happy to see in lavender next year. Brittany Eckerstrom is a fabulous Portland Thorns goalkeeper that would also be a great addition. Jennifer Cudjoe from Sky Blue could be the steal of the entire draft if Holly can get her signature.

I’d be lying if I said I knew too much about the other players, but these are all things to keep in mind when draft rolls around next week.

Louisville City Roster News

Louisville City announced yesterday that, as we’ve come to expect, a good chunk of this year’s roster will be returning to play for the club in 2021. Among the returnees already announced are Paolo DelPiccolo, Corben Bone, Jonathan Gomez, Oscar Jimenez, Alexis Souahy, Napo Matsoso, and Chris Hubbard. The club also expects to officially announce the returns of Brian Ownby, Pat McMahon, Antoine Hoppenot, Wes Charpie, and Abdou Mbacke Thiam in the very near future pending league approval. Altogether, that’s twelve players already in the fold.

Ben Lundt and Cam Lancaster were loanees to Louisville City in 2020. What happens with either player in 2021 is presently out of LouCity’s control. I don’t have any kind of read on Cam Lancaster’s relationship with Nashville SC, but am not bullish on his chances to re-sign there. That’s too bad, as Lancaster is easily an MLS caliber player. Lundt is also a question mark, though how he would have escaped back-to-back wooden spoon champ FC Cincinnati’s notice after winning Goalkeeper of the Year in the USL would be beyond me.

Remaining unknowns are Sean Totsch, Jimmy Ockford, Niall McCabe, Akil Watts, George Davis IV, Kenney Walker, Arda Bulut, Jason Johnson and Speedy Williams. Of that group, I’d guess Totsch, McCabe, Watts, Johnson and Williams are priorities. I think that two possible COVID casualties may be Akil Watts and Arda Bulut. In a normal year, City would have enough games to get these guys significant minutes to help them reach the next level and get some transfer compensation in the process. That didn’t happen this year for either player.

I’ll be interested to see if Cuatro elects to continue his playing career or hang it up. The club (and league) legend didn’t play much in 2020, but was crucial to the club’s social justice efforts both in the USLPA and the USL Black Players Alliance. If he does retire, I hope that he still sticks with the club to help spearhead its efforts on both of those fronts.\

I could be, and probably am, wrong about all of the above, of course, and want to offer the caveat that I don’t have any inside sources telling me anything about any of this. Lots more to come, and the 2021 season will probably be here before we know it.

VAMOS!