Friday Mailbag & Open Thread: This Is Fine

Welcome to this week’s Mailbag and Andy Rooney-esque stream of consciousness rant. You can ask us anything on Twitter using the hashtag #AskHotTime.

So GM Nelson Rodriguez had his once-in-a-while press conference with the media, and it was far from the mea culpa that we wanted. Some highlights included stamping his foot down (again) on the banning of Sector Latino for the rest of this season, as well as the 2019 season, and his bordering-on-deranged optimism about still making the playoffs. Let me be clear, Nelson Rodriguez is Gar Foreman without winning the Derrick Rose lottery, and Velko Paunovic is no Tom Thibodeau. Pauno is not a good enough head coach to bail out poor roster construction. This team is not making the playoffs The best we can hope for is a Cup victory, and with Portland rescinding their challenge of LAFC, Bob Bradley’s expansion side is the odds on favorite to win the tournament. Good for Bob, he’s earned it.

The Tournament of Nations kicked off yesterday, and boy howdy look at that attendance figure!

Where was it played? Seattle? Portland?.... wait? Kansas City? The same Kansas City that just had their club team fold and their roster shipped off to Utah? That Kansas City?

This is not a knock on Kansas City. Far from it. You showed up to a soccer match kitted up and ready to cheer your hearts out. Cool. But what this does illustrate, and will illustrate here in a few days time, is how much US Soccer couldn’t care less about the NWSL. For all the shadiness and alleged conflicts of interest surrounding Soccer United Marketing, they sure as hell know how to promote a soccer match. They are very good at getting people to show up to watch games. So, why can’t they do that for the NWSL? Why did they have to let Boston Breakers and FC Kansas City crumble to dust? Why don’t they help struggling clubs with marketing and promotions, like they do with player salaries? It frustrates me to no end how no one in the fed cares enough about the NWSL to take care of it and nurture it like they did MLS after the Fusion and Mutiny were axed. The NWSL cannot be another WUSA or WPS.

And now for this week’s Mailbag.

Unfortunately, no. Wednesday during Nelson Rodriguez little pow wow with the media, he did say that there were offer sheets put in to two European based players, one of whom is n number 10. (I hope he isn’t Scottish. Hi Sean Maloney, you sucked.) But no, nothing on goalkeepers. We’re stuck with Richard Sanchez for probably the rest of the season, idiotic boners and substandard distribution included. The really sad part was we knew this was going to be an issue coming into the season. The Front Office has failed to find a suitable replacement for Sean Johnson when the traded him to Atlanta before the start of their expansion season, and the backline is what it is. The off-field issues are at the front of everyone’s mind right now, but the on field ones are just as bad, if not worse.