MLS begins a new season this weekend. The New England Revolution begins their march to return to the finals, after last seasons bitter end in LA in the Finals of the MLS cup. They will play Seattle this Sunday, at Seattle, 9:30 pm, and will be broadcasted on Foxsports 1.

Most of the team from last season is coming back this season. Biggest departures from last season are:

  • defender AJ Soares who left to go to Viking in Norway. Andrew Farrell, entering his 3rd MLS season, will take over for AJ. Andrew is a natural central defender, converted to right back when drafted by the Revs in 2013. This is without a doubt the biggest change from last season. Even though Andrew is a natural center back, that was in college. He has played center back in MLS, but only a few games. AJ and Jose formed a good defender partnership, so this will be key if Andrew and Jose can as well
  • with Andrew moving from right back to center back, it will be interesting to see who manager Jay Heaps trusts with replacing Andrew at right back. Naturally Kevin Alston is the first choice. Diagnosed with Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) in early 2013, Kevin made a return in July of 2013, but with Andrew Farrell as the starter a right back. He will without a doubt be looking forward to reclaiming his spot.
  • 2nd biggest departure from the roster is forward Patrick Mullins. To replace his spot on the roster, without the doubt the biggest acquisition for the team this off season, is former Revs Juan Agudelo. Juan, who played for New England in 2013, scored 7 goals in 14 games that season. After a failed attempt to gain a workers permit to play for Stoke City in the EPL, he was loaned to FC Utrecht (Holland) for the spring of 2014. Scored 3 goals in 14 games. Released during the summer time by Stoke, he was never able to sign with another team that summer, before signing a new contract with the Revs, for 4 years. 2013 was also the break season for Diego Fagundez, so no doubt he was very happy with his return. Juan does have speed, and the Revs looked faster when he was playing the lone striker position, where Mullins was a little more slower. To me this area the Revs improved. With Davies and Agudelo set to share time (Heaps plays with one striker and rotates his lineup), and more speed up top, maybe we will see more goals from our strikers this season from last season.
  • Another acquisition the Revs made was Jeremy Hall. He can/has played midfield, right back in his MLS career. He wont be a starter, but do look for Heaps to insert him into the lineup time to time, keeping his players fresh. I think this was a good move. This will add more depth in the mid/defense.

 

So MLS was able to avoid a players strike, but barely. The players wanted higher salaries, which the owners were ok to a certain extent. But the players also wanted free agency, something the owners were NOT going to give. The players union were ready to strike. This would of been a total disaster for MLS. Two new franchises in Orlando, who sold over 60,000 seats for their home opener, New York City Football, who signed international stars David Villa, Frank Lampard, and American Mix Diskerud. MLS signed a new tv worth around 700 million dollars, or $90 million a year until 2022. Also recently, EuroSport announced a 4 year partnership to broadcast MLS games through out Europe, and SkySports in the UK will also broadcast up to 4 games a week. So what did both sides finally agree on?

  1. a 5 year CBA
  2. free agency for players 28 years old and 8 years of MLS service
  3. minimum salary set at 60k, expected to be 70k by end of CBA, 64% increase from last CBA
  4. salary cap increase of 7% with a possible increase this season of double digits
  5. players making under 100k can receive 25% increase, between 100-200k 20% raise, those over 200K limited to 15% increase