Despite Washington and Denver being 1,700 miles apart, Real Maryland and the Colorado Rapids announced an official partnership yesterday. What the heck? Certainly this will help the area’s newest minor-league franchise, but at the same time, it’s difficult to avoid wondering whether it will keep them from working closer with other MLS teams, including the one in its backyard.
D.C. United maintains multiple relationships with minor-league clubs, notably Richmond and Crystal Palace USA, both of whom have already had informal discussions with DCU about strategies for working out loan deals and friendlies this season. Exclusivity is not in D.C.’s best interest, but stronger ties with USL clubs is the new reality thanks to MLS reducing its roster size to 24.
“The challenging will be finding time for guys who are not getting playing time,” said United general manager Dave Kasper. “We’ll look to have some reserve games where we set up friendlies against local USL teams and college teams, maybe look into the possibility of loaning some of our guys out to USL clubs for a week here, a couple weeks there, to get some playing time. It’s a balance.”
One other USL note — it’s come to my attention that Pachuca’s interest in this country is most certainly leaning toward USL, not MLS as I linked to in this post. My bad. I suppose it’s fair to say either the reporter or Tuzos prez Jesús Martínez got it wrong. Reps from Pachuca and Sporting Lisbon were both at the USL’s most recent league meetings.
