Taking A Chance in MLS Roster Construction

This off-season is a bit different for MLS fans as we have a sort of free-agency that enables a bit of extra chaos. The players now have a bit of freedom to move around the league and more influence in where they live and with whom the ply their craft. Most of us have already taken to the newly minted free-agent list and picked out their favorite Christmas present, be it Alan Gordon, Mike Magee, Justin Mapp or even Ricardo Clark or Drew Moor.

And with free-agency, it's inevitable that some club is probably going to give Nathan Sturgis another contract and another 1,000 or so minutes despite portraying the definition of a replacement level production. This isn't a personal attack against Sturgis, I'm sure he's a fine locker room guy and he sure does hustle a lot. These are tangible things to coaches and front office types.

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ASA Podcast XXX: The One Where We Talk Conference Finals

Happy Thanksgiving, all! We have a Conference Finals-centric podcast concerning the outcomes this past weekend's matches. Also, there was a little discussion that came out of it concerning formations vs. personnel. It's just us talking and coming up some random thoughts. It's not that long, but it's us and we're having a good chat... I think Matty at one point insults Sebastián Velásquez's hair cut, so there is that. [audio http://americansocceranalysis.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/asa-podcast-xxx_-the-one-where-we-ta.mp3]