My not at all hot take is that before MLS was really playing in the int’l transfer market, the risk-benefit calculation here was obvious. Now that they are, it’s a much closer call.

Plus: International alignment; better playoffs timing

Risks: Turning some signs of softening attendance into a slide

So, in this most charitable formulation, Neville didn’t change much for Game 3. He made their structure more obvious on the team sheet and doubled down on creating a problem that San Diego had solved by the half hour of Game 2. And the result was the same as the middle 30 mins of Game 2. #RCTID

The best defense I could make of Neville here is that they played in a de facto 3 in Game 2 with Mosquera as a right wingback.

But SD solved that problem after the half hour in Game 2, and the Game 3 press was markedly more aggressive and less organized. #RCTID

I suppose I’m a little puzzled at how to reconcile those two statements. But, yeah, that’s probably only the second most puzzling thing about that statement.

That’s:

1) Pure gaslighting; and

2) An almost impressively shameless attempt to say “don’t blame me; blame the players.”

Phil Neville is a bad coach with a bad record. He was a bad hire. And it’s played out pretty much bang-on at the 50th percentile of expected outcomes. #RCTID

And even aside from the tepid overall results, how may of these embarrassments can Phil Neville survive?

The answer, I fear, is some number greater than whatever this one constitutes. #RCTID

Twice in the first five minutes San Diego plays through it like a knife through warm butter. 1-0. #RCTID

There are people in my mentions speculating about what this is based on the length of the nails of the silhouetted player in this post, so the @thornsfc.com social team should probably be allowed to call it a day. #BAONPDX

It’s what happens when you have a perfectly functional playoff model and then somebody goes “hey, if we have more games could we make more money?”

Good for them figuring that out before they went too far down the road. Always notable to me how many MLS clubs seem to forget the things that made certain clubs in MLS successful.

I haven’t really been paying attention, but are the Sounders considering Longacres as the potential site of their SSS? I’ve always understood why they’d want an SSS, but has to be in a location similarly as central as Lumen.

I’m still in the “Gregg was dumb to run his mouth even if what he said wasn’t really that bad” camp, but IMO the “maybe if Gio wasn’t such a shithead he wouldn’t be the subject of anonymized anecdotes about the team having to step in to stop him from being a shithead” camp is underpopulated.