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Kicking it: David Villa isn't interested in a 'retirement tour'
David Villa of New York FC became the fastest player ever to score 50 goals in MLS. John Raoux/Associated Press

Kicking it: David Villa isn't interested in a 'retirement tour'

Hello and welcome to 'Kicking it' with Demetrius Bell and Megan Armstrong, two of Yardbarker's most discerning soccer specialists. This week, league freshman Atlanta's recent winning run, how the U.S. Open Cup Round of 16 is taking shape, David Villa's MLS milestone and more. Busy week, so let's get right to it. 

Atlanta seems back to its early winning form with the return of Josef Martinez. Are we getting our hopes up too soon to see this expansion club make a postseason run? I mean, let’s face it, they make a run and they’re the face of the latest version of MLS expansion. 

Megan: Considering it’s Atlanta’s first season, I don’t think it’s too soon to get any hopes up. It’s exciting to see a brand new club compete at a high level, and since nobody had any real expectations for them heading into this inaugural season, they’re playing with house money. 

Demetrius: Atlanta’s looked amazing at times at home, where the combination of their lethal counterattack with the amazing crowd atmosphere is really something to behold. With that being said, they’ve also fallen into that familiar MLS trap of being pretty bad away from home. I mean, they just got done losing to D.C. United and giving up two goals against a team that seems to score once every leap year. That’s bad!

If they can fix their road woes and also find a way to tighten things up on the back line, they can definitely stay in the thick of things in the playoff race. It would be a huge deal not only for the new kids on the block, but it could also be seen as proof (alongside Seattle’s debut season) that you can actually compete from the jump in your first season in Major League Soccer.

David Villa hitting 50 goals in Major League Soccer has been quite the ride since he signed with NYC FC three years ago — one of the fastest to hit the mark considering it happened in 79 games. Where does this Champions League/World Cup champion now fit in the lore of the MLS? 

Megan: In short, he is the sole representative of when acquiring an older international star goes right. Wildly right. Half-century mark type of right. And not only does Villa stand out as one of the few international acquisitions that actually produced consistently in the MLS, but he was the first player NYC FC ever signed. 

Demetrius: This is the best-case scenario for when a European star comes over and actually takes things deadly serious instead of using it as a “retirement tour.” He’s done everything right since coming over from Europe and has been nothing but a boon for the league. They signed him to be the face of the franchise, and he’s been just that for New York City. The Beckhams and Henrys of the world paved the way, and now Villa is speeding along that path.

Who ended up with the best and worst draws going into the Round of 16 in the Open Cup? Any early favorites?

Megan: Unrelated, but why does Sporting Kansas City seem to always draw Houston in this round of the U.S. Open Cup? But to sort of answer the question, I’m looking forward to seeing Atlanta take on Miami FC to really gauge how far they’ve differentiated themselves from other potential expansion markets. As far as teams that might have lucked out? Chicago. 

Demetrius: If you draw a lower-league side at this point, you’re doing pretty well for yourself so shout-out to Atlanta, L.A. and Chicago (though I will say that when you consider Cincinnati’s atmosphere, that might be a bit of a snake pit for the Fire if they go with a “weakened” 11 for that one). Meanwhile, I can’t imagine that the two best teams out west are thrilled to be seeing each other at this point. A big fish is going down in this round.

Bundesliga Eintracht Frankfurt club just hired its first female scout, and the league itself hired its first female referee just last month. While the German women’s league is top-notch and ripe for such a move, do you think MLS could be ready to embrace more women in its ranks? (Especially since, historically, scouting tended to fall to coaches more here in the U.S.) 

Megan: I tend to view MLS as a very progressive league, even though I hate to think that you have to be “progressive” in order to hire women. Anyway, I wouldn’t be surprised. Although, maybe I should be surprised because way back in 2011 it was reported that U.S. Soccer hired Sandra Serafini as the Women's Professional Referee Coordinator and that she would  “work with the U.S. director of pro referees to assign female officials to semi-pro men's games in the MLS preseason and reserve leagues, NASL and USL Pro.”

Demetrius: I’ve always contended that Germany knows best when it comes to this whole “soccer” thing, and this is further proof of that. As far as MLS is concerned, you’d think that it’d be open to this sort of thing when you consider the success that the international side has had. Maybe an MLS side would decide to tap in to that well of knowledge since whatever they're doing seems to be working. But yeah, like Megan said, MLS is very progressive so this wouldn’t be a huge shock.


Orlando City SC midfielder Kaka had some thoughtful words on alcohol consumption. Reinhold Matay/USA TODAY Sports

After Orlando City’s Cyle Larin's DUI arrest last week, team star Kaka had an interesting quote beyond support for his teammate getting help during this time. 

“When I started my career, there was a whole model for athletes — sleep early, don’t drink, eat health food, this kind of thing. Now it is different. Now I think [alcohol] is part of everybody’s life, not just athletes. 

“But I still think the body is the most important thing we have. This is certainly [true] in my case; my body is my investment, so I need to take care of it. But a lot of players try to have a normal life and Cyle is not the exception. What we need to do now is be with him and say that we don’t agree with this situation, but we still love Cyle Larin.”  

It’s not often we hear athletes talk about *not* drinking these days. We all know the stories; there was never truly dry time in soccer (or in any professional sport for that matter). Is there room for promoting both sponsors (in MLS’s case, Heineken) and clean living? Every league has to grapple with it at some point. 

Megan: So, taking the last bit of this first: Yes, I think there is room for both promoting Heineken or other alcoholic brands by leagues and responsible living by athletes. The conversation when the NFL was ravaged with DUI arrests in a short period of time was that it was a little bit hypocritical, and that’s not completely false. I just think that your league promoting a certain brand doesn’t absolve your personal accountability. 

Kaka’s comments were very articulate and true. I said above that David Villa is one of few examples of an international champion and superstar coming to MLS for production and not just promotion — I put Kaka in that category, too. 

Demetrius: There’s a difference between promoting a brand and someone choosing to incorporate that brand into his or her lifestyle. So I’d say that it comes to down each person making smart decisions as an adult when it comes to this type of stuff. Clearly Larin made a dumb decision and is paying for it, but it’s not like this is something that’s plaguing the league at the moment. 

Also, I’m not shocked at Kaka’s comments on the matter because that’s just the type of guy Kaka seems to be. If anybody was going to come up with a classy statement, it’d be him. He’s definitely the type of guy who comes off as a great leader, so I’d imagine that Larin will be able to weather this storm if people like Kaka are surrounding him and giving him the right advice. Of course it would be better if Larin didn’t drive drunk, but you could definitely have worse people to consult in this type of situation.

Can you name every Major League Soccer team?
SCORE:
0/29
TIME:
5:00
E - GA
Atlanta United FC
E - NC
Charlotte FC
E - IL
Chicago Fire FC
E - OH
FC Cincinnati
E - OH
Columbus Crew
E - DC
D.C. United
E - FL
Inter Miami CF
E - QC
CF Montreal
E - TN
Nashville SC
E - MA
New England Revolution
E - NY
New York City FC
E - NY
New York Red Bulls
E - FL
Orlando City SC
E - PA
Philadelphia Union
E - ON
Toronto FC
W - TX
Austin FC
W - CO
Colorado Rapids
W - TX
FC Dallas
W - TX
Houston Dynamo FC
W - KS
Sporting Kansas City
W - CA
LA Galaxy
W - CA
Los Angeles FC
W - MN
Minnesota United FC
W - OR
Portland Timbers
W - UT
Real Salt Lake
W - CA
San Jose Earthquakes
W - WA
Seattle Sounders FC
W - MO
St. Louis City SC
W - BC
Vancouver Whitecaps

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