West Offseason Grades: The rich get richer, the best get better (probably)

A reminder to sign up for MLS Daily, which'll hit your inbox at about 8 am ET every morning. After years of this league getting more and more difficult to follow, someone's finally built a tool to reverse that trend. Can't recommend it enough.

Ok, onto the column. Usually this round-up is going to be the only part of the Thursday column, and the entire thing will be free. But Offseason Grades is a two-parter, with East published yesterday and locked behind the paywall. For symmetry that means I’m going to put the West at bottom of this newsletter, and also the paywall.

But the round-up itself is free, and my plan is for it to be a weekly thing. I’m still working through the format, which I’m at least pretty sure it’s just going to be a brief “here’s a little of what’s on my mind” followed by some of what I’ve been reading and links to my podcast/video appearances. There will also probably be callbacks to/revisions of something I’d written earlier in the week, as I intend to bullshit-check my own work pretty regularly

So what's on my mind this week? Concacaf Champions Cup, of course. It’s been mostly enjoyable thus far, as most MLS clubs have registered commanding wins over some minnows while San Diego beat UNAM Pumas over two legs. That's such an impressive way to start your continental journey as a club.

It's not just the wins, though, but the style in which most of them have come. In every single game – save for the second leg of SDFC/Pumas – of every single series, the MLS team has been the aggressor. Yes, I'm going to include the Galaxy in that assessment, though man am I glad I called it a night at about the 20-minute mark last night.

I am just bound and determined to not take this for granted. I spent more than a decade hoping we’d someday get to this point, which marks real, tangible progress for the league. Know how many times we all saw Liga MX teams go down to Honduras or out to the Caribbean and drop five on someone? It was always "damn, why can't MLS teams do that?"

Now look at what LAFC and Cincy did. We're here, gang. Instead of early-round CCL-fever sweats, you can just kick back and enjoy it.

Now, will it feel quite so good three months from now when, I don’t know, Vancouver or Miami are getting their neck snapped in the final by Toluca? No, definitely not. But at least “the free space is disappointment” is being pushed back later and later in the tournament every single year.

Good Reads:

• Paul & Felipe over at The Athletic did the annual MLS exec survey. Here’s Part 1 and here’s Part 2.
• Backheeled’s Andrew Clausen dug in on what an unbalanced schedule really means.
• Ben Wright went into the film room to break down how Nashville’s already changed this year as BJ Callaghan gets new toys. This is really excellent work.
• Excellent match report + tactical analysis + quotes from Jason at his new venture, Green Line Soccer.
• Phil West over at VerdeAllDay unleashed a new feature that is already useful but will become much, much more so over the course of the season.
• Really in-depth from Tim Falusi (whose work I was not familiar with, but now I hope to see much more of) on the start of the Michael Bradley era in Harrison.
• Fotmob seems to be putting more into MLS this year and James Nalton’s always done good work covering the league. Good little Week 1 summary.
• I remain an avid fan of TSS’s Tuesday pod with Taylor, Jeff & Joe.
• “Lawmakers and city officials both expressed concern that World Cup host cities may face extreme budgetary shortfalls if promised federal funds aren’t released ASAP.” Pablo, as always, is digging into how the sausage is made (or isn’t).
• And finally, John Muller is working through a series of explainers for his new, soon-to-be released app, futi. This latest one is on improving xG, and is a must-read.

I also made three pod appearances this week:

Inside American Soccer with Tab, in which we ask if there actually might be a pathway to the World Cup roster for Player of the Week Julian Hall? What if this kid's on, like, 14g/3a over the first 3.5 months of the season? Is that enough?

On Kickback Committee with Sooz I told a story of what it’s like to drink with Bruce Arena.

And we had an Extratime reunion on Monday’s Soccerwise:

I had real technical difficulties with that one, so if you want the full episode, click HERE.

Ok, into the Western Conference offseason grades. As you know the East was yesterday, and all of these are subject to reevaluation next month when the window closes.

In we go:

Austin FC: B-

Biggest Move: It was the combo move of selling Osman Bukari – getting a more than respectable $6m for a guy who was a mid MLS starter – in order to open up space to bring in Facu Torres as a DP.

Is Torres exactly what this team needed? No. He’s not an elite run-of-play chance creator. Never has been and never will be.

But he’s a good player, much better overall than Bukari, and that alone will make Austin's attack better. Add in a couple of other moves, and there’s reason to be optimistic.

Biggest question: But not that optimistic, as they still lack that top-end playmaking all truly elite teams have. Without it, 50 points is probably the ceiling, even in a Western Conference filled with teams in various state of disrepair.

Scarier, though, is that they always have so little wiggle room if something goes wrong. 

Who spent the GAM, Rodo? Who spent the GAM???