WVHooligan - Soccer Blog

Now that my crazy car situation has been taken care of (the old car is getting fixed and I have a rental for the time being, for those who have seemed to care to ask). I figure since we are headed into the final stretch run of this offseason that we should take a quick look at who seems to be ready and who really isn’t ready for this new season to begin this weekend.

I can tell you as well there will be a couple season previews today. I plan on getting both San Jose and Toronto out of the way today so I can concentrate on other things here like power rankings and what not before Friday.

We are only a hand-full of days away from the start of a new season in Columbus with the Crew and Toronto FC. Crazy to think that we are that close to kicking things off here again.

Right now I see a few teams that wish this offseason was extended a bit longer due to lack of transfers and due to lack of quality play in the preseason. I would really say right now that most of this league is ready to kick off. Most, not all, not just some but most of the league is good to go for a new season.

DC got to work early as we know; New England found a few peices to stay competitive; Chicago has been working hard on getting a few players to work with Blanco; Colorado got Christian Gomez so one could think they are ready; Real Salt Lake made tons of moves; Houston is already playing well despite lacking another scorer; Dallas looks like they could use another week but I think they are ready; KC got their DP so they should be ready as well; and Chivas and the Galaxy are pretty much there as well.

That leaves a couple teams that could still use some time.

Of course this is a long season and the first month is worthless to most. Look at last year for one, Chicago and New York dominated the first month and to a degree so did KC. All teams hit a wall shortly after and struggled to reach the playoffs. Sure a hot starts helps but its maintaining that hotness is what makes this league tough.

The teams on this list didn’t do enough to address their needs in the transfer market this offseason. More than likely they will struggle for that. I could have added a couple more teams but these four are the ones that really stood out to me that needed more work.

I will start with…

San Jose: I will go more in depth in a bit with their season preview but is this club really ready for their expansion season? I don’t know but the last time I checked I wasn’t able to count out enough players to really fill a roster like the other clubs in this league. Maybe I am missing something with them here.

Columbus: The Crew are still a few signings away from being ready I think here. The team’s management said they were ready to make a splash in the transfer market and right now we are still in the waiting game. I know some are down to visas getting finalized and that is solely on the governments involved with those players. Still, no big splash like we had hoped for with this club. I would be willing to bet that they aren’t as ready as they could be.

New York: Let’s face it, the Red Bulls haven’t done jack this offseason in terms of getting players on transfer or loan. Sure they drafted alright but that won’t be enough to stay with the DCs and New Englands of this league. This club isn’t ready by a long shot in my estimate. Also losing Dane Richards really hurt.

Toronto FC: Another eastern club that didn’t make many moves on the transfer market. Loads of trialists but nothing really has come from them yet. Its Mo Johnston at work here but judging from their recent exhibitions things aren’t going well at all even with what I thought was one of the best drafts in the league this year. Julian James went down in the Carolina Cup last week, no word yet on how long he will be out. That’s a bigger loss than some realize just yet.