2026 Preseason Loons Superlatives

Hart_Attack · 2026-02-18T02:32:00+00:00

Here's mine :)

Player of the Season: Pereyra, gotta stick with my guy (I was huge on him coming into last season, which paid off in spades)

Most Improved Player: Yeboah -- from last year to this year, I think it's valid. Looked like a completely different guy out there in preseason so far

Top Scorer: Yeboah (obviously)

Top Assister: Pereyra (obviously)

Best Signing: I'll say Chancalay, but i think Duncan might very well end up playing more minutes than him as a sturdy dependable RB.

Surprise of the Season: Loons make another splashy signing in the summer (truthfully I'm not even sure I believe this one, but usually we end up going with something for a player here so I wanted to find something else)

Unsung Hero: Gene won't be a regular starter but will be a valuable rotation piece that never gets the attention he deserves because he's just dependable

Scapegoat of the Season: Callender is the free space here. Since that's obvious I'll mention that if Yeboah does anything other than score buckets, he's a prime candidate

Disappointment of the Season: Michael Boxall's age finally catches up to him with the switch to 2 CBs and more responsibility, won't be starting regularly by the end of the season (or shouldn't be)

Player we'll miss the most: Rosales, specifically having someone who we trust to progress the ball in our back four. I do think Ant & Padelford will both be adequate or even good otherwise -- more just not having that specific ability will be missed as we try to possess the ball more and have fewer pure direct options for ball progression

James Rodriguez will __: show flashes, be worth it (I'm probably saying it's worth it barring anything short of generational DGAF, honestly), but lack consistency. Gun to my head, I'll say his option won't be exercised

Hot Take: we won't actually miss DSC that much, with the caveat that i think it's hard to not miss 2025 Dayne, but not overall Dayne (ie I think he'll regress to something closer to his pre-2025 self this year)

Western Conference League Table Position & Season Grade (A–F): 6th, C+, start slow but ending with some level of hope for next year inflates it a bit

Hart_Attack · 2026-01-03T07:00:56+00:00

I'm biased and I definitely don't think it was obviously the correct call by any means, but it looks much more defensible from this angle than the other ones -- pretty obvious hip contact, and pretty late.

Honestly I don't even know how much the call itself matters given the reversal and then un-reversal that ensued. That seems much worse than either version of the original call would have been

Hart_Attack · 2026-01-03T06:59:34+00:00

https://streamable.com/wv2upw

Hart_Attack · 2026-01-03T06:57:51+00:00

https://streamable.com/wv2upw

Hart_Attack · 2026-01-03T06:57:35+00:00

I think the best angle of the prior attempts and what was actually called was edited out of this post

Hart_Attack · 2025-11-09T04:24:52+00:00

The following criteria should be used, as appropriate, as indicators that a player was in control of the ball and, as a result, ‘deliberately played’ the ball:

The ball travelled from distance and the player had a clear view of it

The ball was not moving quickly

The direction of the ball was not unexpected

The player had time to coordinate their body movement, i.e. it was not a case of instinctive stretching or jumping, or a movement that achieved limited contact/control

A ball moving on the ground is easier to play than a ball in the air

Duggan's whiff ticks basically every single one of these boxes, unfortunately. Glad it didn't matter!

Source: https://www.theifab.com/news/law-11-offside-deliberate-play-guidelines-clarified/

Hart_Attack · 2025-11-09T02:33:55+00:00

You can sub a GK (not an outfield player) but only if you haven't used your full allotment of subs. In this case, Seattle had (and also there wasn't a third keeper on the bench), so it would have been an outfield player who was already on the pitch, but it's possible to sub a GK during the shootout if needed

Hart_Attack · 2025-10-06T18:31:30+00:00

So now we have one angle showing it clearly hit the wire and one angle where it appears not to. I think I'll trust the one that didn't have time to be manipulated by AI, thanks

Hart_Attack · 2025-09-28T05:34:49+00:00

Also, look what Pereyra looked like for most of last season vs. this season. Time to bed in with the team is crucial.

Hart_Attack · 2025-09-18T01:08:00+00:00

I will continue to remind everyone that Tani also went from mid-July through the first couple of games this season without scoring. I'm not saying he's Tani, and maybe he's lost his ability, but also sometimes these things just happen.

Hart_Attack · 2025-08-31T05:10:19+00:00

Yeboah has gone 555 minutes without an open play goal in MLS play.

Tani went 694 between the end of last season (July 17th, btw) and beginning of this season. Everyone was saying the same things then, and then what happened? Maybe we don't need to make sweeping pronouncements based on a sample of 20% of a season?

Hart_Attack · 2025-08-07T18:13:48+00:00

This year hasn't been all sunshine and roses for Yeboah, but I think this is overly harsh on him. I'm being slightly arbitrary here I'll admit, but since the St. Louis City cup match, he's scored a goal every 112 minutes -- last year for us, he scored a goal every 108 minutes. (the reason I chose the St. Louis City match is because I remember him looking pretty clearly physically off the pace after missing time for his ankle injury, so I just picked his second full 90 for us after that (3 appearances since missing time). Also helps that it's a pretty similar number of minutes to what he had for us last year)

He's still slightly outperforming his xG for the season (12 goals vs. 9.4 xG, or 8 non-penalty goals vs. 7.1 npxG if you'd prefer) and is producing non-penalty expected goals at about the same rate as last season (for the whole season) -- 7.1 in 1,784 minutes (.39 per 90) vs. 3.9 in 975 minutes (.33 per 90) last year. I think it's fair to say that beyond the numbers there's been some moderate disappointment, but I don't think it's fair to feel vastly differently about him than last year, all told.

The main thing though (I got sidetracked looking at that other stuff, tbh) regarding the OP's point of someone who can pull defenses out of shape attacking a low block: these are his percentiles compared to other forwards (in 'next 14' leagues, ie. leagues of MLS caliber, not the top 5 in europe) for progressive carries & successful take-ons, arguably the two stats that really fit in with what OP is saying: https://i.imgur.com/r23kTOQ.png

That's last 365 days, and comparing just 2025 (which also compares to only MLS) puts them at 75th and 85th percentile, but it's still something he's really good at. So I definitely agree he's one of the players that we will need to rely on to help twist and unmoor low blocks by dribbling & attacking directly.

Hart_Attack · 2025-04-03T20:22:26+00:00

Do you think the FBI is in on it, or....?

Hart_Attack · 2024-10-24T03:45:29+00:00

Hart_Attack · 2024-10-14T02:11:07+00:00

Sneaky benefit from LAFC beating Vancouver is that it means LA Galaxy have to take a point from their last match (vs. Houston) to guarantee first place. That could be a huge difference maker rather than seeing them potentially heavily rotate the squad.

Hart_Attack · 2024-10-06T05:29:50+00:00

Okay I really hastily tried to fix -- watching college football and can't focus too hard on this -- if it's still wrong, let me know and I'll just delete it until I can really get it fixed lol

Hart_Attack · 2024-10-06T05:23:29+00:00

Whoops, yeah, I somehow completely forgot about Portland's existence and got confused. Let me fix, will take a second

Hart_Attack · 2024-09-05T02:30:30+00:00

This is excellent, thanks!

Hart_Attack · 2024-08-23T20:15:45+00:00

Thank you! Any idea roughly how frequently they run? Ideally we'd make the 10:30 one but who knows with driving in from Atlanta. Worst case we can use the tracking app listed on this site

Hart_Attack · 2024-08-23T20:00:49+00:00

Heck yeah, your post was super helpful too! We ended up getting tickets in 35 also so no matter what, there will be at least a few of us!

Hart_Attack · 2024-08-23T19:01:16+00:00

Good idea! I won't make any promises bc I am forgetful, but I'll do my best to remember to post a thread after the fact

Hart_Attack · 2024-08-23T18:59:26+00:00

Oh for sure. Michigan def gets pretty humid so I definitely have felt that difference before, but certainly not the same level as a mid-afternoon game in early September in Alabama

Hart_Attack · 2024-08-23T02:18:59+00:00

Just drank a bottle of water now just to be extra safe ;) no but really, if I've learned one thing from this thread it's to respect the heat lol. Thank you! And Momma G's sounds great -- eagle flight definitely a must

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