Quote:
Originally Posted by ILUVSAT
If true...that really blows.
Well, I guess the Lord doth giveth and the Lord doth taketh away.
A team is a team - but, geez. Austin was going to get a playoff contender. And, now...IF Austin gets a team, it's a crappy expansion team.
What in the hell happened???
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The team has done pretty well in the past several years, but as a close follower of MLS, I wouldn't be too worried about what we might be losing out on if we have to start from scratch.
The coach, Gregg Berhalter, is very highly regarded as someone who has created an attacking system that is both effective and entertaining. He's so highly rated, that he's considered to be the leading candidate to take over the US Men's National Team after this season.
Keeper - Zach Steffen is currently considered to be the most likely future goalkeeper of the national team for the next decade. He's not going to stick around MLS too much longer and he'll likely head back to Europe.
Best Playmaker - Federico Higuain is a decorated Argentine playmaker and he's been the focus of the Crew system for 6 years. He's great, but he's old and would be retired by the time we open our stadium.
The Crew have a few other national team prospects and pretty good players, but they're not world beaters or household names really. One of them, Will Trapp, is an Ohio native so he might even have wanted out of Austin anyway.
Basically, we probably would have seen a lot of roster and coaching staff turnover if the existing Crew moved here.
On the other hand, many of the recent expansion clubs have turned out to be really good right away. Atlanta United is maybe the most exciting team in the league and they were good right away. Same goes for LAFC this year and Seattle a few years back. Hopefully the same will happen here.