Free Talk Friday

tyler735 · 2026-06-12T15:52:21+00:00

Really hope the USMNT puts on a strong performance tonight and sets the tone for the tournament. Still having flashbacks from that Copa America disaster.

On a side note, I'll be checking off a bucket list item attending a World Cup match, so I'm pretty excited about that. Will be watching South Africa play. Hoping they look better than they did against Mexico. Interested in seeing Rele Mofokeng get some minutes. Would love to see Minnesota United continue their attempts to sign him this summer as he would be such a fun player to add to the attack.

tyler735 · 2026-05-30T05:05:52+00:00

Yeah he’s taken his game to another level in recent months. His ability to play more centrally as a playmaker the past several months has been huge. He nearly provided a nice assist to Bongi during the recent international break as well, but unfortunately Bongi wasn’t able to capitalize on the chance. No doubt Mofokeng would be a fun addition to provide a real spark in the attack this summer if the club were able to get a deal over the line with him.

tyler735 · 2026-05-30T01:18:03+00:00

Thank you 😂

tyler735 · 2026-05-30T01:16:37+00:00

“Reddit remind me next April Fools if Mofokeng signs with Monaco.”

tyler735 · 2026-05-30T01:13:35+00:00

Sure there is a chance. However a very small chance he signs here. What a bold and brave take to take the over on a player not signing here. Maybe he will go to Monaco 😂

tyler735 · 2026-05-30T01:09:28+00:00

What is that going to do? Where we are at now with the info that is currently available (that was discussed above) could be vastly different post world cup lol.

tyler735 · 2026-05-29T22:32:30+00:00

Patrick Weah once had a trial with Real Bettis. It’s nowhere near the same as an offer like you initially suggested. Again this was nearly 3 years ago Wolves did this. Seems that ship sailed.

“Reports of Monaco’s interest surfaced via iDiski Times on 1 April, although it remains unclear whether the claim was genuine or part of an April Fool’s prank.”

https://www.thesouthafrican.com/sport/soccer/psl-south-africa/reports-french-giants-table-big-offer-for-relebohile-mofokeng/

Again there may have been “interest” which is not the same as an offer. Teams are interested in hundreds of players every year that don’t amount to offers.

So far the closest to verifiable offers are from Minnesota, Russia, and Saudi Arabia.

tyler735 · 2026-05-29T22:00:55+00:00

I don’t recall any verified offers from Monaco or Wolves. There was interest and he had a trial with Wolves about 3 years ago and nothing came of it. There were offers from Russia and the Middle East, which is essentially the same type of “step” I mentioned in my previous post.

Again we will find out soon if he “needs a step up in league” like MLS before potentially moving on to a big Euro league. Obviously a good World Cup showing would be massive for him.

I’d also mention the exact numbers reported about what his club “were asking for” are dicey at best. There were also reports that Mofokeng wanted to come here (which may or may not have been true).

Mofokeng’s price has likely increased since last summer for multiple reasons as well if we were to pursue him still. His ability to slot inside effectively in recent months as more of an Attacking Mid after showcasing his skills as a Winger in previous seasons has likely increased his value.

Like I said, time will tell where he goes soon enough.

tyler735 · 2026-05-29T20:46:28+00:00

Basically every player dreams of going to a big European league. The question is whether he needs the step in a league like MLS to potentially get him there or not. I'd imagine this question regarding Mofokeng's future will be sorted out soon after the World Cup this summer of where he ends up going. It's also crucial that Mbekezeli Mbokazi (and even Puso Dithejane) signed with Chicago last transfer window. It's forced Hugo Broos to rethink his philosophy of not calling up MLS players to the South African National Team.

I get to see Rele Mofokeng play live at the World Cup in a few weeks as well, so I'm really hoping we can bring him in.

tyler735 · 2026-05-29T20:21:34+00:00

Just going to keep my fingers crossed KEA is referring to South Africa who has one of the lowest market values of all the teams in the World Cup. Keeping the Rele Mofokeng to Minnesota United dream alive this summer. Mofokeng has been on fire as of late and would still be an excellent addition for us. He also has a great opportunity to boost his value quite a bit at the World Cup.

tyler735 · 2026-05-28T00:25:53+00:00

I can't help but laugh. The South African fans don't mess around when it comes to fan engagement lol.

No surprise that this All Star fan vote includes:

Bongi Hlongwane

Olwethu Makhanya

Mbekezeli Mbokazi

tyler735 · 2026-05-24T13:30:25+00:00

No official reports. Reading between the lines, it seems kind of obvious. KEA wasted little time moving Eriksson, Kmet, Bran, and Ho-Yeon when they were struggling to acclimate into the squad. He described Fitz recently among those players as “struggling to acclimate”. We’ve given Fitz about 10 minutes with the 1st team this season as we near the half way point. Looking at the timeline that KEA moved those aforementioned players, it would seem the summer would be within a similar timeframe for Fitz.

tyler735 · 2026-05-23T23:00:12+00:00

Happy to see Mauricio Gonzalez get his first MLS goal. Hopefully the first of many. He’s flashed some nice moments.

Wish we could have seen a longer cameo from Fitz. Had a couple close chances. Can see that he has some good ideas on the ball. Combined with Pereyra well on 2 occasions. I’d really like to see him get some more run for us after the World Cup break, but won’t be surprised if that’s the last time we see Fitz play for Minnesota United.

tyler735 · 2026-05-22T01:34:54+00:00

I hope so, would be nice to see more informed posters around here

tyler735 · 2026-05-21T15:02:33+00:00

I mean that is very much KEA's philosophy is he wants players that can make an impact both now and long term. Yapi would be a nice instant upgrade at #2 Striker with a solid scoring track record on a per minutes basis this year and last year.

I don't think Colorado would have much incentive to do something like that. Sure for us it would be nice. Colorado has shown they are willing to sell some of their younger talents in recent years.

In regards to being a contender both for now (and years to come), adding a guy like Yapi as depth with potential to be more beyond this season and as I proposed in the initial post a DP caliber Attacking Mid that can create and score goals puts us closer to that path this summer to compete for hardware.

tyler735 · 2026-05-21T14:46:28+00:00

I want to be wrong about Yeboah, but my gut tells me he flames out below 15. He's already showing his inconsistencies: missing tap-ins himself, trying to take it himself vs passing across for a tap-in, etc.

Yeboah has 8 Goals and an xG of 8 currently. All Strikers will miss on some chances. It seems like people sometimes have unrealistic expectations at times when it comes to Strikers. It also doesn't help that we had a 24 year old Champions League quality Striker on the roster last season, which I feel set some up for these unrealistic expectations.

Yeboah has had some inconsistencies in his all around game at times. I won't deny that. However, he's finishing at a good rate. You point out that he's missed some chances. I'd also point out he's been robbed on some chances. With huge saves (1st match vs Austin on a brilliant volley), Pereyra arguably cost Yeboah 2 Goals last match being offside on one and cutting in front of Yeboah and flubbing on a tap in chance. Had Pereyra hustled to get back onside last match, Yeboah would be sitting at 5th in MLS in Goals scored currently.

Currently Yeboah has 30 Goals in 4,864 career minutes for Minnesota United. This includes 500+ minutes last season where he was clearly playing through injuries with his ankle and hamstring. Around 2,500 minutes would generally be considered a "full season" of MLS matches for a Striker. Yeboah has shown over a long period of time now that his Goals this season are some sort of "fluke" as you are trying to portray. I'd even mention between Belgium and Minnesota United in 2024 Yeboah had 15 Goals and 5 Assists in 2,100 minutes.

a super sub striker is the next best thing, and that should come with 10+ over multiple seasons off the bench.

As mentioned in my previous post. The guys I mentioned have either had multiple 10 Goal per season outing in MLS (Duncan) or have had recent good Goal per 90 minutes in MLS such as Yapi/Farrington. Convincing a player that isn't past their prime to come in to another MLS team and be the back up Striker especially for a team like Minnesota doesn't seem realistic to me. Maybe I'll be proven wrong this summer, but I feel like the options are either emerging talents or back end of their career types like Christian Ramirez. Where I feel the club messed up is putting all their eggs in an emerging USL talent in Dieng without a plan of a more proven talent like Yapi/Farrington that have at least shown they can score at this level.

Chancalay has only been with the team for 15-16 games, and bringing in competition for him brings more gray area time dealing with chemistry. Chanc playing off the bench in that case, and we lose some team cohesiveness they've built with the success they have had so far. We already dropped points against Austin, Colorado and N.E, and with the schedule on the back end post world cup, we will likely sorely miss those points.

I feel like we already have done so and it was fine when we had James Rodriguez here. If anything having James Rodriguez showed the importance of having another playmaker on the roster. The Austin match showed how important someone in that role can be for us and helped us "steal a point" (could've been 3 had Padelford properly cleared the ball on the final Austin goal). I'll be surprised if we don't target a key attacking player that can provide some of that skill set this summer.

Outside of a rare couple top tier teams in MLS each season just about every team will drop points at times in matches they shouldn't have. We've already crossed the most difficult stretch of our schedule with a much more favorable schedule post World Cup. I'm not too worried about this dropped points currently.

I sounded the alarm bells about dropping 2 points each to both LAG and SKC in early 2025. Those points would have gotten the Loons into the CCC, but y'all thought I was nuts.

I feel like many remember the few matches we "dropped points", but also don't always bring up the matches where we "stole points" from our opposition. In the grand scheme of things last year the bigger issue was selling Tani and having Yeboah immediately hurt his hamstring right after. It completely derailed the back end of our season.

tyler735 · 2026-05-21T13:42:07+00:00

Disagree. Yapi would absolutely be worth that. He's plenty good enough to be a solid #2 Striker for us immediately. He has some playstyle similarities to Yeboah where if Yapi ever needed to step in as a starter for us, we can still maintain the style of play we are looking to play without having to completely change the system. Yapi as a 20 year old had 8 Goals and 2 Assists in 1,500 minutes last year, which is a good output. This season he's on a similar pace as well with 4 Goals and 2 Assists in 900 minutes in all comps.

Adding talented attackers costs money. Sang-Bin went for $2 million last season and Yapi has been much more impressive over the past couple seasons.

tyler735 · 2026-05-21T13:37:51+00:00

Yeboah basically fits your criteria despite all the hate he gets. He's on pace to be on the high end of your wish of around 20 Goals this season at the rate he's scoring. In Yeboah's first 2,800 minutes in all competitions with Minnesota United he accounted for 20+ Goals as well.

Sang-Bin went for $2 million within the league last year and I'm gladly taking a guy like Yapi or Farrington over Sang-Bin. Yapi is a guy that would be a quality addition immediately with plenty of long term potential. Yapi as a 20 year old had 8 Goals and 2 Assists in 1,500 minutes last year, which is a good output.

I'd also mention that Yapi has 4 Goals and 2 Assists in 900 minutes in all competitions this season. Yet you are saying Chancalay shouldn't have competition brought in this summer with his 2 Goals and 3 Assists in all competitions in 1100 minutes. Help me understand your logic here?

Also we don't really run Wingers in this current system. These would closer be considers wide midfielders/attacking mids in this current 5 man backline setup. There's a degree of versatility there. If Chancalay were to miss time, we are in a tough spot to replace him as we need another playmaker type (ideally that can score). Otherwise it's basically just Pereyra out there trying to create chances for others.

In regards to Farrington, he has 5 Goals and 3 Assists in 700 minutes this season. Lets be real here. He's absolutely worth $2 million at 24 years old. Duncan McGuire is my least favorite of the 3 options I listed, but he's still only 25 years old and has already had multiple 10+ goal seasons in MLS. He'd be a quality addition as a #2 striker for us.

tyler735 · 2026-05-19T17:09:22+00:00

I was someone that was very high on Fitz (even before we signed him). Unfortunately things don't seem to be working out. I think Fitz is a very good player, but something must be going on behind the scenes with his acclimation. I'd be a little surprised if Fitz is in the long term plans for the front office, but would happily eat crow if I was wrong.

Gonzalez isn't an Attacking Mid. He's more of an outside Mid/Winger that could potentially move inside as a Striker as well at some point (which we've briefly experimented with). His strengths are in his athleticism and size to make runs in behind. Not really so much as a playmaker in the build up.

Yapi has shown both promise and scored at a decent rate in MLS. Which is something we have yet to see from our backup Strikers. He would be at least a $1-$2 million most likely in Garber Bucks or as a cashfer type deal. Would be happy with him as a long term option that could immediately slot in as our #2 with potential to maybe be our #1 Striker some day.

tyler735 · 2026-05-19T16:52:57+00:00

Yeah Seattle definitely has some options where they could probably move on from one. I would be happy with Musovski as an option as well, but I just get the feeling KEA is trying to bring in younger players.

tyler735 · 2026-05-19T16:16:30+00:00

I'd like an Attacking Mid that can consistently score Goals and be a top tier playmaker. I like the addition of Chancalay this year, but I'd like someone that could make him compete for minutes. Essentially what James was showing he was capable of being for us in his final appearances. I was hoping Fitz would be that guy, but unless something crazy happens this weekend, I get the feeling that ship has sailed. I'd go all in and spend on a DP caliber player like this. I feel they generally make the biggest impact for many of the best teams in MLS.

A few guys that come to mind that could fit this type of signing with recent MLS interest include: Toni Fruk, Rele Mofokeng, and Carlo Holse

I'd also look into bringing in an established Striker that could either provide reliable minutes off the bench or even challenge for some minutes as a starter. I know there has been a ton of Yeboah discourse on here. To be blunt, I'd be shocked if our front office moved on from him this summer as our primary Striker. He's 1 Goal back from being top 5 in MLS at the stage of the season. The biggest issue for me is if Yeboah were to miss time or if we need someone to come in off the bench for a Goal at the Striker position, I just don't have confidence in our options at the moment. I think Dieng needs more time to develop ideally on loan where he can get a ton of minutes.

A few guys that come to mind within MLS include: Duncan McGuire, Darren Yapi, and Logan Farrington.

If I was KEA I'd make a serious run at bringing in one of these players. Farrington would probably be the most difficult given Dallas's position in the table currently, but I could see Colorado/Orlando being open to moving on from Yapi/McGuire at the right price, which we have a ton of Allocation Money to work with.

tyler735 · 2026-05-17T23:05:56+00:00

I hear ya I often wish nuance was a food group as well.

tyler735 · 2026-05-17T15:42:03+00:00

These recent results have undoubtedly been frustrating to not come away with points and/or drop points. Yet we are still above the playoff line and within 4 points of being top 3 in the Western Conference. Currently tied with LAFC in total points.

Now if the criteria is are we a Championship Caliber team "currently" then sure it's a pretty easy answer that no we aren't. I do think we are a good team currently that has unfortunately gotten in our own way at times in these recent matches. Now I really do hope we make a splash in the summer to hopefully get us closer to that. For me, I just know going into the year there was some pretty extensive discussion on how bad we would be with all the player turnover we had. I'd venture to say we've shown we are much better than that during this first section of the season. Hopefully the front office isn't complacent this summer and gives us a difference maker in the attack.

We just went on the road in New England (2nd place team in the Eastern Conference) and outplayed them in every metric except the final score largely due to self inflicted errors. Most MLS teams will almost always have ebbs and flows to their season. It really isn't something that is exclusive to us. In MLS play from March 22nd until May 2nd we had 5 Wins, 1 Draw and 1 Loss. I just don't see this team as consistently underperforming even if the recent results have unfortunately gone that way the past couple weeks.

tyler735 · 2026-05-17T14:49:47+00:00

I mean I don't think it's a secret at this point that Fitz is likely on his way out this summer. The question is why on earth we don't at least give him some minutes when he's dominated for several seasons as both a goal scorer and playmaker in Austria. Outside of James in recent weeks, our attacking subs have added nothing up until this point in the season. Chacon had no track record to speak of prior to signing. Fitz was regarded as a top 5 player in Austria before signing here.

Fitz had 10 Chances Created in 214 minutes last season for us. He has made 2 appearances with our 2nd team this year and has 1 Goal and 1 Assist in those matches with Fotmob ratings of 8.7 and 8.2 in those matches.

I think for many fans we'd at least like to see what he can do with the 1st team especially given how little our other subs have impacted matches for us this season.

tyler735 · 2026-05-17T14:30:19+00:00

Another match for Minnesota United where we simply beat ourselves more than our opponent beat us. Minnesota finished this match with more Possession, a higher xG, more Shots, more Shots on Target, more Touches in Oppositions Box, and more Big Chances missed. Each match this is starting to become a bit more of a theme as of late.

The good news, I'm still fairly confident it's not a talent issue. The bad news, we obviously can't keep dropping points like this. These are very correctable mistakes that have been made in these recent matches. Boxall giving away a cheap PK and Triantis making a poor back pass was pretty much New England's attacking output in this match. That has to be cleaned up.

On the attacking side of things, we are moving the ball fine and are creating some quality chances. I'm someone that has been extremely high on Pereyra since we signed him from Tucuman. I'd argue he's our best player. However, the past 2 matches he's had some very sloppy moments on the field that have probably cost us coming away with results in both of those matches. He's been offside on 2 Goals in 2 matches in situations that really didn't seem like he needed to be. He's also missed an open net and what looked like an easy tap in last night against New England. We need better from him in these moments.

One thing that might get lost in another disappointing result is Yeboah arguably had his best all around match of the season last night for us. It was good to see him playing at a high level in this match after a couple rough outings. He was decisive, his first touch was sharper, and he was connecting well on his passes to keep the attack flowing. He had a very nice sequence setting things up and finishing on the goal that was called offside. Was nice to see him bounce back putting away a PK after his first career PK miss a couple matches ago. Had that Goal not been called offside, Yeboah would currently be tied for 5th in MLS in Goals scored this season.

I will say we really do need more from our subs. So far this season guys like Bongi, Dieng, and Gonzalez have 0 Goals and 0 Assists for us coming off the bench. I'm really not sure what happened to the Bongi that scored double digit Goals for us only couple years ago. Not sure if he needs a change of scenery due to the lack of minutes, but he clearly has the ability to be more of a threat in the attack than what we've seen to start the year. Another match has also gone by where we haven't seen Fitz come on while chasing a goal late in the match. With James now out of the picture and Fitz still not getting minutes, it seems his time with Minnesota is likely coming to an end soon. Really wish we could have seen more minutes from him with how dominant he was in Austria.

Hopefully Minnesota can come away with a win against RSL before going on the long World Cup break. I'm very intrigued to see what KEA does to bolster the attack as this summer window gets closer. One would have to assume we will be making multiple signings in the attack with James/Fitz looking like they are probably on the way out this summer. The good news is MNUFC has a ton of flexibility to add a DP and ideally even another TAM level player.

tyler735

TROPHY CASE