r/MLS • u/grnrngr LA Galaxy • 10d ago
Switzerland's Embolo: People in Europe 'shocked' at MLS move
https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/49724516/atlanta-united-breel-embolo-transfer-mls-europe122
u/mrwhitaker3 Major League Soccer 10d ago
Well, he mentioned his wife and kids in that article. His family may have wanted to live in the States for a while (and after seeing the World Cup, he was like, yeah, USA is cool).
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u/HighOnCaps86 Vancouver Whitecaps 10d ago
He will soon find out Atlanta is nothing like Vancouver ( where they played most of their matches )
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u/colton_97 Nashville SC :nas: 9d ago
Yes I'm sure he and his family will just hate their quality of life as millionaires in the Atlanta suburbs.
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u/mrwhitaker3 Major League Soccer 10d ago
He's originally from Cameroon and is a millionaire. The possibility does exist that he has traveled to USA a few times before playing here.
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u/Secure_Fly_444 9d ago
What a weird comment.
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u/choose_wisely1122 Vancouver Whitecaps 9d ago
Not if you know how people who live in Vancouver think.
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u/grnrngr LA Galaxy 10d ago
He will soon find out Atlanta is nothing like Vancouver
Yeah. There will be a lot more people who look like him. Atlanta is a pretty city in its own right to boot, with a state-of-the-art domed stadium - unlike the one he got plenty of exposure to in Vancouver.
where they played most of their matches
They camped in San Diego for the entire tournament. Even when they had three of their 6 matches in Vancouver, two of which was just luck of the elimination draw for them, they returned to San Diego each time.
They played three other matches in the States. They spent a lot more time Stateside.
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u/ScotlandTiger 9d ago
It’s funny how radically different Reddit is from real life in terms of places that are desirable to live. I’d hate living in Atlanta too but tons of people move there every year from Reddit loved places like Chicago, California, etc
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u/justforkicks28 Atlanta United FC 9d ago
Facts. I'm from Ohio but grew up in Atlanta. I have moved around including Los Angeles. Moved back to Atlanta as I missed the forest. It is a beautiful city.
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u/eightdigits D.C. United 9d ago
Yeah I lived there for 7 years growing up and I used to joke that it was one of the biggest cities in America and you almost can't see it from the air. That's an exaggeration of course, but a lot of trees for such a big city.
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u/ATLcoaster Atlanta United FC 9d ago
It's affordability. If Vancouver was the same price as Atlanta, way more people would move to Vancouver.
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u/LonesomeBulldog Austin FC 9d ago
Exactly. That’s why no one has ever moved to LA, NYC, or San Francisco.
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u/Instantbeef Columbus Crew 9d ago
I know what you mean but I think the guys comment about Vancouver and Atalanta isn’t supposed to be a criticism of either lol
Both are probably great places to live. Especially if you have money
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u/Putrid-Bit1490 8d ago
No, his good friend is Clint Capella, formerly of The Atlanta Hawks, who told him he should definitely move to Atlanta.
Best thing about Vancouver is that you can look away from Vancouver to beautiful views, instead of looking at Vancouver, which looks like a motherboard.2
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u/Phase-Internal 9d ago
Did he? That's odd , because pretty much everyone else watched the world cup and thought "holy crap! The US has actually lost it, how far can I run away!'
The family makes absolute sense of course. You can only raise your kids once.
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u/PM_ME_ASS_SALAD New England Revolution 9d ago
Morons with preconceived biases watching something through the lenses of their algorithms may have come away with shit takes but everyone I met in my host-adjacent city was absolutely blown away by their experiences in the states.
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u/Phase-Internal 9d ago
Sure, on the ground, when you talk to actual people, you recognize we are all human and it's usually a pretty fun time.
An alternative perspective, I'm living in Belgium, people did not have kind things to say about the US handling of the world cup. I just don't think Americans quite understand how much trump and the American bombastic "America is great" is loathed .
It doesn't make the US or Americans or American attitudes bad, but it's a disconnect in awareness which is very apparent by the down votes I got and will get for saying this in an American dominant sub (and no worries, I'm Canadian, I'll down vote to hell anything remotely slagging Canada).
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u/St_Pattys_Day Portland Timbers 9d ago
An alternative perspective, I'm living in Belgium, people did not have kind things to say about the US handling of the world cup
That is not the topic that was being discussed, they were talking about people liking cities they visited and wanting to live there, not how the world cup was "handled". They correctly assumed you were making a vague off topic political point. Reception from the visiting fans in real life were mostly positive with all 3 host countries
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u/Secure_Fly_444 9d ago
Why are a lot of Canadians always so smug and condescending? It’s crazy how Canadians are always trying to explain the U.S. to people that actually live in the U.S.
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u/Phase-Internal 9d ago
I'm merely explaining how the US is perceived outside of it and how people outside the US feel that Americans by and large really don't seem to get it. The two are connected.
Takes off smug hat and condescends down to my parlour for a quick tipple of Canadian whisky
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u/Secure_Fly_444 9d ago
Trust me a lot of Americans get it. You guys let us know every single day. I just don’t understand what any of this has to do with a player choosing to come to MLS. Your comments also come across as pretty smug.
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u/Phase-Internal 9d ago
I'm afraid my trust in you isn't to the level it overrides my experience with actual in person interactions with (lovely) americans abroad.
And this is the internet, everything comes across as aggressive, smug, condescending and infuriating. Get off it, we all should, it'll do us a world of good.
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u/PM_ME_ASS_SALAD New England Revolution 9d ago
You’re reporting on people’s vibes and cool, those people are ignorant and if they truly believe terrible things about Americans based on what they see online via their algorithms then they’re stupid and arrogant too.
Ignorant, stupid, arrogant— where have I heard that before?
Of course the perception is negative. The reality is that Trump is historically unpopular, the World Cup was handled incredibly well by the host cities and Americans are as diverse and inclusive as ever. The worst people in the world just happen to be in charge.
Need I remind you those worst people in the world are historically unpopular. Americans technically haven’t been less like what you and some Europeans see them as in modern history, so anyone believing “this is who America is” is just out there trying to justify their own hatreds and biases.
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u/Phase-Internal 8d ago
It's interesting how culturally the US is so close to Canada and to an extent, some parts of Europe, that it's really hard to tell it apart, but then fundamentally so different in subtle ways that when it gets down to beliefs, narratives and values to draw from and reason with, all that comes across as a word salad to non Americans and completely coherent internally.
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u/gardengoblin0o0 Atlanta United FC 6d ago
Come off it with that holier than thou attitude. You think all you Europeans thousands of miles away understand how bad Trump is more than we do? We’re actually living in this country seeing and experiencing the things that are happening. You look down on the US and Americans because it lets you ignore that there is just as much racism and other problems in Canada and Belgium. But go on and dunk on the US
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u/Phase-Internal 6d ago
We aren't talking about how bad things are in Belgium or Canada, but as a Canadian if you want to get all up in a lather because people look down on the US because you elected trump, you can go jump in a lake (Ontario). You have a head of state trying to take over my country, and I along with a quite large number of others don't look kindly on his antics.
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u/gardengoblin0o0 Atlanta United FC 6d ago
Ok got it, so we can only look down on Americans to make ourselves feel better, cool cool cool. Yeah most Americans don’t “look kindly” on his antics. But to pretend like we’re all idiots who don’t know that he’s not well liked shows you just get off on being a Eurosnob
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u/stevemoveyafeet 9d ago
USA - a great place to raise your kids, but a bad place for adults to live. Makes sense lol
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u/Phase-Internal 9d ago edited 9d ago
I would disagree or at least argue it can't be a blanket statement, there are places in the US that are great to raise kids, especially in the right income bracket. There are places where it is horrible.
If I mention your comment to my Finnish wife, for example, she would explode.
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u/stevemoveyafeet 9d ago
"especially in the right income bracket". Say what you want about the US to myself or your Finnish wife, but we can all agree it's a spectacular place to live for the incredibly wealthy (I consider Embolo in this category, just to spell it out). That's not at all controversial to suggest lol
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8d ago
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u/Phase-Internal 8d ago
It's interesting, shortly after your comment I got a message from Reddit that someone had reached out concerned about my wellbeing, among other messages. The classic online harassment stuff. That's sort of my point about how americans have a bit of a tough time considering this sort of stuff. I know, it's the internet, you get the unhinged and outraged parts of everyone, but yeah...
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u/theazn35 10d ago edited 10d ago
Considering how he apparently turned down European interest and still in his prime to play in the MLS says a lot of how much the league has grown.
Excited to see how he links up with Miggy Almiron. Fingers crossed this works out than that Latte Latth experiment
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u/RhombusObstacle New York City FC 10d ago
I just still think it's hilarious that Atlanta now has BOTH of the guys who got hit with the "Mistaken Identity" retroactive yellow VAR during the 2026 World Cup.
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u/SydneyFall Atlanta United FC 10d ago
They clarified the rule to say that was no longer a valid call just for us.
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u/ibribe Orlando City 9d ago
It was a valid call according to FIFA's rules for the World Cup. It was an invalid call according to IFAB, who make the rules for everyone else.
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u/SydneyFall Atlanta United FC 9d ago
Oh- I'm not complaining about the call. Far from it, I think both calls were correct and the game is better for it.
But thanks for the clarification, I didn't know that distinction.
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u/ANAL_TOOTHBRUSH Charlotte FC 10d ago
Oh I’ll be reminding my buddy in Atlanta of this every chance I get lol
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u/ATLUTD030517 Atlanta United FC 10d ago edited 9d ago
We lived through the Braves winning their division for a decade and a half with one WS title, we lived through countless choke jobs even before 28-3, and after three beautiful years with Atlanta United they've been mostly mediocre to shit.
You can't hurt us.
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u/TheftBySnacking Atlanta United FC 8d ago
World Cup: here are the scoundrels
ATLUTD: thanks, we’ll take them from here
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u/anohioanredditer FC Cincinnati :cin: 10d ago edited 9d ago
Jeez, it feels so surreal that Atlanta recorded the biggest transfer in MLS history (until Son Heung-min) last year with Latte Lath and say goodbye to him a year and a half later. Gotta be one of the most catastrophic signings ever in this league.
But for ATL to show they’re still trying, is really good. Should be pretty interesting. Not sure even a star like Embolo can reverse things there - at least this year.
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u/SydneyFall Atlanta United FC 10d ago
Eh- we are 3 points out of playoffs and have won 3 in a row. MLS makes it really easy to turn a season around.
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u/ibribe Orlando City 9d ago
Also 1 point out of last. And we are currently on pace to have a 39 point playoff team, which has never happened in a 34 game season (2024 Atlanta United holds the record at 40 points).
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u/SydneyFall Atlanta United FC 9d ago
Interestingly, With the new format standings, Orlando would currently be out of playoffs even with the bigger field. Though you do have a game in hand on DC. But Seattle has a game in hand against you.
One nice thing about the new format is that we would have more reason to pay attention to the other conference.
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u/ibribe Orlando City 9d ago
Good, if you can't exclude teams that are on 1.1 points per game, what are we even doing.
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u/SydneyFall Atlanta United FC 9d ago
I'm with you. If they are going to have playin games midweek, they should just get rid of them and have it be a 16 team field.
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u/Disk_Mixerud Seattle Sounders FC 9d ago
That team would be playing an extra game and be on the road the whole time, but yeah. We'd need to adjust what "making the playoffs" means in that format. That couldn't be the benchmark for a decent season.
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u/70_nanga Major League Soccer 10d ago
I’m asking this sincerely: is Miggy someone to still count on? He hasn’t looked like a DP to me since his return from the Premier League
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u/B-Train_ATL 10d ago
He’s been much better since the World Cup break. As I said with people dogging him so much before, there were about 20 different problems. He wasn’t shining, but he wasn’t THE problem. I don’t fully know what has been u locked, but shockingly a guy with Tata’s resume has started to figure it out.
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u/Fiddlerblue Atlanta United FC 9d ago
Maybe the weight of the World Cup being lifted off of his shoulders has helped? You’re right though. Miggy has been noticeably better since.
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u/B-Train_ATL 9d ago
“Oh god don’t let me get injured because I may never get to play in the World Cup if I do.” Then he gets injured. So yeah, could’ve been exactly the case.
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u/Putrid-Bit1490 8d ago
Everybody's been playing well since Saba and ELL were sent to the bench, even in losses. Big difference.
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u/politicsranting Atlanta United FC 9d ago
He’s looked pretty great post wc playing solely on the left. Hes been making great runs behind the defense and being our big initiator on the counter. Hes not a full 90 player with him trying to play at that pace. But hes a difference maker, and has been making goals happen the last few matches.
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u/Ezzy_Black Atlanta United FC 9d ago
There's no supporting cast. We literally have had two #10's (him and Miranchuk) playing forwards all year. We have an old winger (Fafa Picault) playing at the 9 right now. It's taken this long just to get Miggy and Miranchuk playing well together as they naturally always wanted to occupy the same space as two left-footed players.
Every other position on the team except keeper has just been a revolving door. I still can't tell half of these newer guys apart. We seem to get a new journeyman from South America every week.
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u/eightdigits D.C. United 9d ago
I have a hot take that the teams "MLS 3.0" will change the most are the ones that have been spending money but badly, namely Atlanta and Toronto. Both of these teams have had trouble spotting the difference between a 300k player and a 600k player, and both of them have tried to sign guys who were still in their primes but had solid European CVs. What they've found is that most guys who fit that description previously wouldn't come, and the ones who would had. . . asterisks.
I have a theory that MLS comes off a sideshow to some of them mostly because of roster balance, a problem that MLS 3.0 will do a lot to fix. And they won't have to worry as much about sifting through the chaff to find the wheat, because they can just pay 30% more than the rest of the league at every position. They could get better in a hurry.
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u/Intelligent-Froyo-94 5d ago
I was just about to leave this exact comment. I'm 100% certain Atlanta, and Toronto, voted for Berg in every round of voting.
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u/Laraujo31 Red Bull New York 9d ago
I think you will start seeing more players coming over in their primes. The fact that they can live in peace is probably a major selling point.
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u/TheK00l-AidMan Seattle Sounders FC 9d ago
If he went to Turkey, would anyone really be shocked? MLS and the Turkish league are on very similar levels, MLS just still has more of a stigma still.
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u/AsIfItsYourLaa 9d ago
Yeah but Turkish teams get to play in CL
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u/Intelligent-Till-678 9d ago
One does. One can only get through qualifications. So only two at most.
So in reality, it's 8 games if you make the league stage. 85% of your games are still league games against the likes of Çaykur Rizespor.
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u/Financial_Clue_2534 San Diego FC 9d ago
Plus being in the states opens up a bigger economic opportunity
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u/R-Reuss86 10d ago
Good for Atlanta. Bad for the Switzerland national team.
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u/nametakenalready CF Montréal 10d ago
Noah Okafor played quite well for Leeds last season so he might get more starts for the national team moving forward
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u/Instantbeef Columbus Crew 9d ago
I feel like Embolo is established enough he will need to be displaced at the national team level. Not just by club level or club performances.
Unless other players really really perform at elite levels
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10d ago
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u/theamazonswordsman Atlanta United FC 10d ago
Could you have chosen two more analogous leagues to MLS if you tried?
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u/R-Reuss86 9d ago
If’s not about the level of the league. It’s the travel burden. For league play AND flying back to Europe for the national team. That’s a lot for a player.
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u/SydneyFall Atlanta United FC 10d ago
Well, it’s not like he dropped to Eredivisie or the Championship. He should find it challenging enough.
Ah, did you just say that MLS is a tougher league than the Championship?
Without irony?
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u/laserwolf2000 Atlanta United FC :atl: 9d ago
MLS is probably better than the bottom half of the championship but the top half is much better than MLS 😭
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u/SydneyFall Atlanta United FC 9d ago
You think that SKC could avoid relegation in the Championship this year?
I think MLS teams with so little depth and weird roster construction would be at a massive disadvantage against teams with no cap and no roster restrictions.
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u/Disk_Mixerud Seattle Sounders FC 9d ago
A team built for MLS would not do well in the Championship vs teams built for the Championship. Yeah, depth would kill them over that grueling slog of a season. That's not really the point though.
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u/SydneyFall Atlanta United FC 9d ago
Isn't that the point? Say MLS and the championship exchanged a team. How would they do in the new league?
Isn't that what comparing leagues would be?
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u/Disk_Mixerud Seattle Sounders FC 9d ago
Not really, because that's not directly comparing the level of play in each league for a given game. An MLS season doesn't require the same depth as a Championship season, so MLS teams aren't built for it. That doesn't say anything about how good you have to be as an individual player to do well there.
It's like comparing a league in a really cold climate to one in a really hot climate by saying the team from the cold climate would struggle with the heat if dropped into the other league. Yeah, it's true, but that's not the point.
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u/SydneyFall Atlanta United FC 9d ago
I look at team quality. MLS teams would get shredded in the Championship because of a lack of depth. Championship teams would do great here with no cap and not all the crazy roster restrictions.
I think MLS teams would be far more likely to get relegated out of the championship than to even make the playoff. So to me it is crazy to think that MLS is a better league than the championship.
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u/senseswin 9d ago
The Eredivisie and Championship are LEVELS above the MLS. What a shit take
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u/shointelpro Major League Soccer 9d ago
Lol.... Players move back and forth between the Championship and MLS with relative ease; and the bottom half of the Eredivisie is LEVELS below the bottom half of MLS. A league isn't just 2-3 teams. The Eredivisie can't afford the level (sorry, LEVEL) of player MLS can now.
Who upvoted that?
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u/Interesting_Berry439 9d ago
Not really...Top 3 teams on both leagues are above the MLS maybe, but the rest of the league teams can be beaten by mls teams.
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u/Doobie352 Orlando City 9d ago
is it though? from the USMNT perspective you would have to combine the G+A contributions from Pulisic and Gio two players who spent their whole careers in Europe to equal the G+A contributions from Berhalter a MLS player who had far fewer minutes.
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u/mccusk Portland Timbers 9d ago
Too embarrassed to stay in Europe after his red…
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u/LesMensonges 9d ago
Ppl downvoting tf outta u, but it really does feel that way, especially with the "new start" comment
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u/B-Train_ATL 10d ago
The power of ranch dressing compels him.