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MLS Ticker: Diskerud talks break down; Spurs in for Yedlin; and more

Mix Diskerud

By RYAN TOLMICH

Despite the long-standing rumors, it appears U.S. Men’s National Team midfielder Mix Diskerud’s move stateside has hit a snag.

After agreeing to a handshake deal with the Columbus Crew, talks between Diskerud’s father/agent Paal and club have reportedly broken down due to a last second demand for higher pay. The Crew currently sit atop the MLS Allocation Order.

The 23-year-old midfielder, who was a member of the 2014 U.S. World Cup squad, currently plays for Norwegian side Rosenborg, although his contract is set to expire at the end of the year.

Here are some more news and notes from around MLS:

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR LATEST EUROPEAN CLUB IN FOR YEDLIN

The list of European clubs in pursuit of DeAndre Yedlin just keeps longer and longer.

Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur are the latest big-name side entering the Yedlin race, joining fellow powerhouses Roma and Liverpool on the list of Yedlin’s summer suitors.

After a standout 2014 World Cup, Spurs are reported to be the current favorites to land the 21-year-old right back, with the London club set to loan the U.S. Men’s National Team defender back to the Seattle Sounders for the rest of the MLS season.

DJALO TO MISS ONE TO FOUR WEEKS WITH QUAD STRAIN

Just four days after scoring the winner against the Seattle Sounders, Yannick Djalo is set to miss some time.

The San Jose Earthquakes midfielder, who has scored three goals in 13 appearances, has been ruled out for this weekend’s clash with the LA Galaxy after being diagnosed with a quad strain that is expected to sideline him for 1-4 weeks.

“He feels he’s improve a lot in the past couple days,” Quakes coach Mark Watson said of Djalo. “We’re still working off that time frame, kind of monitoring it day to day.”

The Quakes are hoping to feature newly signed DP Matias Perez Garcia in Djalo’s stead, with the club hoping to have completed the Argentine’s paperwork in time for a potential debut this weekend.

ORLANDO CITY BRINGS IN TWO FROM BENFICA

Orlando City’s partnership with Portuguese powers Benfica is paying dividends before the club even joins the ranks of MLS.

The club have reportedly added a pair of Benfica youngsters, 19-year-old Rafael Ramos and 18 year-old Estrela, with the duo set to join the team of the USL season before making the move with the club to MLS in 2015. Both players have signed multi-year deals with the club.

The duo, who have previously featured for Benfica’s U-19 side, join midfielders Kaka, Kevin Molino, Darwin Ceren and Yordany Alvarez and defenders Tyler Turner and Tommy Redding on the club’s MLS roster.

ORLANDO TO HOST ALL-STAR GAME WITHIN FIVE YEARS

With the 2014 MLS All-Star Game festivities in full swing in Portland, Orlando City is already looking forward to hosting the event themselves.

The MLS newcomers, who are sit to begin MLS play in 2015, have reached an agreement with MLS to host an All-Star Game in the next five years, with the two sides aiming for 2017 or 2018.

“It’s another example of how we can utilize all our resources that we have in Central Florida, as the world’s most visited city, to bring new people to the market and expose Orlando to more and more markets and more and more opportunities,” Orlando City chief operating officer Brett Lashbrook said. “Not just domestically and to Canada, but also internationally.”

The agreement comes as part of Orlando City’s agreement with the local funding Board of Commissioners with regards to the club’s plans for a downtown stadium.

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How do you feel about Diskerud’s move to Columbus falling apart? Would you like to see Yedlin at Roma? Would you make a trip to an All-Star Game in Orlando?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

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    Reply
  2. “Gregg Berhalter confirmed “big” USMNT player who contacted #crew96 last week was NOT Mix Duskerud.”

    interesting. sounds like Kljestan is not the LA player:

    “Hearing the new player the LA Galaxy will announce today is NOT Sacha Kljestan, and that it’s a much bigger name. Hmm…”

    so did LA get Jones on a non-DP contract for 6 months and will sort it out later? hmmmm. or is Mix flipping from Crew to LA? but again, Crew offered him $1M/year so not sure how LA matches that. so likely not Mix. Del Piero maybe? dude is still looking for any club he can get and probably wouldn’t be a DP anyway.

    Reply
      • Can you send me links to all of those games? I am sure you have analyzed his 7 Apps for Gent at the end of the 11-12 season so can send me links to the breakdown films. Any 21 year old who only appears in half of the games they are with a club is clearly a bust.

        Sure, they could have offered him a contract as that was when he was last out of contract and Portland thought they had a deal with him and proceeded to waste a trade for next in the allocation order and Daddy/Agent proceeded to nix the deal and stayed in Norway). Have no idea if that was part of Gent’s thinking also (crazy agent, not worth the hassle).

        I don’t think Mix is the next big thing (at one time I hoped he was) but in the right situation he has the game to contribute and is still fairly young enough that his tactical game can mature further.

  3. I thought Galaxy would get ronaldinho on the last minute. Red bull are a mess and won’t win MLS cup without ronaldinho.

    Reply
    • makes sense, there was no other way to make it happen. this way they get a pro-rated salary ($375,000) and maybe will even convince Anderlecht to keep paying some that 6 month salary. $375,000 is 50% of his annual salary so I could see LA saying they’d be willing to up to 75% of the rest of his 6 month salary. either way, it would keep him below the DP minimum.

      Reply
      • read my comment again. 75% of 50% of his salary. 50% of $750,000 = $375,000. so if LA pays 100% of that, they are below the DP minimum salary which is $387,500.

        75% of $375,000 would be $281,250, also below the $387,500 DP minimum.

  4. Mixx was nit good enough to play in this cup. Mls wont make him better. Stay in euope get some europa league team orgo to serbua with Adu

    and Yedkinplease dont go play for the Spurs

    Reply
    • …..so he wasn’t good enough to play at the WC while in Europe. There has been precious little real interest for him in Europe, but he he should stay in or go to leagues that are worse than MLS. Man, I love the intelligent discussion here.

      Reply
      • +1

        I always love the Euro-mancers as though Europe is automatically some sort of perfect growth situation for anyone and everyone. The best part has been of late the whole tortured “go to this team or that team but only if you play” …. LOL, as though the player can control that.

        Diskerud currently IS in Europe, but that isn’t good enough for MNT Eurosnobs, they would rather have him riding the bench at a bigger club. Laughable. Add to that their long standing bias against MLS for reasons that usually have absolutely nothing to do with the game itself and more with how it conducts business … just more laughs.

        I was in Philly last weekend and watched Inter-Milan beat Roma 2-0. Yes, it is pre-season for both teams but it was certainly not fantastic soccer by any means (entertaining, not fantastic though). 12-someoddK fans showed up with a large contingent of actual Italians living in the US. It struck me that as we here romanticize “European Soccer” we are rally talking about the top 5-10 teams in EPL and a handful of Spanish and German teams. Nobody really cares about the leagues in France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Italy, Greece, Ireland, Poland, Switzerland, Russia, any of the Scandinavians etc. in anything close to the same way. Sure, maybe odd Ajax and Celtic or a couple of teams in Italy with a family connection/tradition (as I saw in Philly) … but as we self congratulate over the gigantic crowd in Ann Arbor and how popular European soccer is here in the US, the reality is that we massively over-romanticize European soccer because most of it isn’t really that great or interesting at all. For me, having an MLS team (Timbers) which I have had a connection with since my youth in the 1970s and can actually go watch games live a couple times a month is far more enjoyable than pretending I give a hoot about Barca or ManU (much less Rosenborg or Nantes or Spartak Moscow or Crystal Palace or Ross County or Cagliari or Getafe or Hoffenheim … well you get the idea, all of those teams who are midlings in the top flight league in their country both last year and this year and vastly outnumber the teams that anyone really is talking about when they romanticize European Football). I can be entertained by any match, U6 to WC Final or UEFA Final — but I will GLADLY take any quality player to a team I can see regularly and personally care about … or even their opposition, over rotting anonymously on a bench of some midling team in Europe.

    • onlyagame – You are not good enough to post. Stay in school and get an education. Also, don’t go anywhere with Adu, no matter how cool his van down by the river may be.

      Reply
  5. Kasey Keller spoke about Yedlin’s move and was not crazy about it and as he pointed out he needs to play and going to Spurs is more than likely not going to see that happen…..

    Diskerud’s dad is not doing him any favors….and quite possibly hurting his career in the short run….

    Reply
    • Let’s be real, as long as it’s Roma, Spurs, etc., he’s likely to sit and I agree with Keller, go someplace you’ll play. Surely there is a happy medium level of team that needs defensive help and can outpay here but will pay a transfer and play him.

      FWIW, it’s even more extreme for goalies, if Keller was better than the next guy, he gets 90+% of the games. Conversely, Friedel rots.

      Reply
  6. So Mix and his daddy are making a habit of increasing their contract demands at the last minute? Wow, how classy. It’s not like the guy has a ton of leverage here unless he’s perfectly content to go back to Norway or a similar such place.

    Reply
    • I’m pretty sure that the bizillionaires that own MLS clubs would not have gotten to where they today are if they didn’t make last second contract demands either (or maybe their daddies did).

      Reply
      • A handshake agreement is made built on trust. If you want more money, then ask for more money, but don’t tell someone you’ll work for x and then renig and say you want x + y once the deal is ready for signature. Shows a lack of character and integrity.

      • Alex you sound like someone who has never negotiated with someone other than his parents. One massive component of negotiating is credibility. RAising a demand at the last moment is a rookie/incompent move…………. Unless there is another solid and credible offer on the table. Last second changes in demands are for occasional short term gains and consistent long term losses.

    • If there was a handshake agreement, it’s chicken [EXPLETIVE DELETED], but he is under contract through the end of the year and can simply wait them out.

      I don’t think he’s at peak value because he was an unused World Cup sub.

      If the deadline passed Wednesday I wonder what that means for Jones, Mixx, Sacha, et al. In theory you could sign at any time after being released but your contract team has to play along.

      Reply
  7. to add on to that Yedlin report, a deal has to be done TODAY if he is going to be loaned back to Seattle per MLS transfer rules. the ITC has to be sent out today and basically needs to be figured out entirely for it to be accepted. so hopefully we will find out what happens soon.

    don’t know much about those Benfica players, but it seems like a positive thing for OCSC.

    Reply

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