Kenji Lindgren saves the USA (FM18)

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Preamble
After some research and looking back on my in-depth career in FM13 with Seattle and USA I decided to make a few decisions that will impact the realism of this dynasty. For those who don’t know, due to some licensing restrictions the salary cap in MLS is relatively fixed and the league can’t grow or change much regardless of what actually happens in-game. This limits things, including the competitiveness of the league, the quality of youth players, and the ability of MLS and USA to improve over time.

Unfortunately, there’s not a great way to fix things with MLS. You also cannot get up-to-date MLS and international results, so I can’t easily start with the Sounders losing MLS Cup and the US missing the World Cup. So to fix all of these issues, I used 3 FM mods:

1. Claassen’s Megapack. This allows me to play in any league in the world. The main benefit here is that I can load all of the CONCACAF leagues to make the region tougher and deeper.
2. North America 7 level database with promotion and relegation. I’m not Tinfoil Ted and don’t feel that pro/rel will solve all problems with US Soccer, but this update makes the USA/Canada leagues more interesting and removes many of the glass ceilings from a traditional MLS save. I’m a bit sad I won’t get to try to work around the quirks of MLS, but this was worth it.
3. Worldwide Champions League. This is a humongous champions league (plus a 2^nd tier “world league” and a youth cup) that replaces all continental competitions. This will allow for teams all over the world to play each other and for less prestigious countries to get big money and perhaps even upset some of the giants from all over the footballing world.

So this game will assume the Sounders won the MLS Cup, Bruce Arena got fired over the summer from USA, and the USA may still make the 2018 World Cup. It’s not what I was going for, but it’s the best I could do within the constraints I had.

Also, having 1 coach as the Seattle and USA coach is unrealistic, and I understand that. I do my best to spin a story around that. Thanks!

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I have been doing an NBA 2K16 dynasty for the last 2 years and have loved telling the story of the ’92-93 Hornets and Coach J in the modern NBA. I will keep updating that periodically, but have been looking forward to trying out my hand at a different dynasty and when I decided that I was purchasing FM2018 I just needed to figure out what my story/motivation were.

Here are some details about how I’ll be running this:

• Teams managed: Seattle Sounders (MLS); United States (National Team)
• Countries/leagues loaded: Every single country in the world. All of CONCACAF is playable, as is CONMEBOL and a few major nations in Europe and Asia. 378 leagues from 173 nations with a medium database (right around 100,000 players).
• Starting date: 7/17/2017 (Early 2017/18 preseason)
• Will sim all games (duh, that’s how FM works)
• Will devote entire posts to important or interesting games. This will be some Sounders games and most USMNT games.
• Will do periodic updates (perhaps once or twice monthly) with summaries of the rest of the Sounders games and an MLS update.
• Will do updates 2-4 times a year with what’s happened around the world in major leagues, competitions, and transfers

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Background
Following the Seattle Sounders 2017 MLS Cup victory, several major changes were made across the American soccer landscape, making 2017 one of the most interesting years in US soccer history.

Despite all the advancements made by MLS (in “MLS 4.0”), the league hasn’t made the kind of progress Don Garber promised – it wasn’t going to be a top league by 2020. In addition, the group of players in the US Pool in the 22-28 age range have been hugely disappointing. Jurgen Klinsmann and Bruce Arena had their faults as coaches, but in truth, the system was rotting around them.

There were many opinions written about what the US Soccer Federation should do next, and Mark Zeigler (San Diego Union Tribune) had one of the more interesting and well-formed opinions available. At least, that’s what the new Technical Director and “General Manager” of US Soccer, Garth Lagerway, thought. He brought Mark onboard as a consultant and media relations director. Garth may not end up driving toward all 6 of Mark’s suggestions, but he strongly agrees with many of the points and will be looking to end pay-to-play and wants to run the US Soccer federation more like an actual club and scout in a similar way. With many of the technical and development aspects of soccer being understaffed, that’s where Lagerway is going to be spending his time.

After a few days on the job, Bruce Arena and US Soccer parted ways as Mark Zeigler told the media “we appreciate what Bruce has done, but we’re looking for a new face for this new era of American soccer.”

Coaching Changes
So where does that leave the Sounders (where Lagerway has left) and the US men’s head coaching spot? The US has a vacant coaching spot and the Sounders don’t have a GM, but Lagerway and company had a strange plan for both spots: hire the same guy. Who was that guy? Kenji Lindgren.

Kenji Lindgren

Kenji “Ken” Lindgren was the son of a Japanese mother and a Swedish father, both of whom immigrated to the US in the 70s and settled in Seattle. Growing up in Seattle suburb of Ballard, coming of age with grunge music and having both East Asian and Scandinavian backgrounds, Ken was a quintessential citizen of Cascadia. That included the region’s love of soccer. He played through high school, was involved with Crossfire and other club teams, and even played for Pete Fewing at Seattle University. However, he was just an above-average college player and little came of his repeated attempts to break into MLS sides in the early 2000s. Earning his stripes as a scout and doing some coaching on the side, Lindgren was able to get a job assisting Adrian Hanauer and the Seattle Sounders when they became an MLS expansion side in 2009. His good work has kept him around the org and he even saw his responsibilities expand when Lagerway came in, as he split time between assistant GM duties and a member of the training staff.

However, the staff was in for a surprise right as the 2017 training camp started.

Due to some family medical issues, Brian Schmetzer had to step away from the team indefinitely. Caught in a bind as the team is ready to start camp, Kenji decided to step in and partner closely with his assistant coaches to lead the team, at least until there’s a better long term solution.

So now Garth Lagerway is running US Soccer, Kenji Lindgren is running the Sounders and coaching the US Men’s National team. What’s the deal? How is this making the US any better? How is this separating MLS and US Soccer? How will Lindgren actually be able to handle 2 high pressure jobs? This seems set up for failure. Garth Lagerway acted as if he had all the answers.

“Sure, it’s unusual, but I think it’s a benefit. Ken will be intimately aware of the players in our domestic league and have a variety of smart people at the local and national level around him. With all the changes happening to soccer worldwide, it’s a golden opportunity for the United States. I think a more vertically oriented soccer organization allows us to be do the right thing for soccer in this nation and make decisions in the nimble manner we need to.”

Coach Lindgren is ecstatic to be part of the setup in Seattle

Worldwide League Structure Changes
In early 2017, FIFA announced some shocking changes. All continental club competitions were going away in favor of a worldwide champions league featuring hundreds of clubs, as well as a secondary competition akin to the Europa League and a worldwide youth club championship.

These competitions will provide amazing and intriguing matchups. Boca Juniors facing off against Juventus, Monterrey against Tottenham, or Toronto FC against Ajax are all examples of the matchups we could see. To help counter the increased travel costs of such a competition, the rewards for participating and winning have been greatly increased over continental competitions. This should also help the lesser leagues and nations worldwide compete as they seen increased funding and visibility.

With these changes announced worldwide, Major League Soccer and US Soccer announced some shocking changes. US Soccer will now be a 7 level pyramid with MLS at the top and will feature promotion and relegation with no salary cap. After the years of stability brought growth and sustainability to professional men’s soccer in the US, the league was ready to mature and compete on the same level as the rest of the world.

The 7 levels of US Soccer

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Interesting highlights and notable achievements from this dynasty will be linked here.

2017-18 Season

• Coach Lindgren wins his first professional games in the FIFA Champions League vs Stjarnan
• Kenji defeats Mexico dos-a-cero in his first game as USA coach.
• 2018 World Cup groups drawn
• The Sounders make several major moves in the January window and an effort to run up the table in the second half of the season.

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The day started off with Adrian Hanauer giving the media and Kenji a reminder of how successful the club has been.

The media then dove straight into questions for Coach Lindgren. He started off by talking about how excited he was, saying he literally “could not stop smiling.” However, Mustafah Badarneh from the local radio station KIRO-FM followed up with a tougher question, asking how Kenji would handle the dual responsibilities of club and country coach. Kenji was confident.

“I wouldn’t have accepted the challenge if I wasn’t confident that I could handle it. Garth Lagerway and I have a wonderful relationship and a long-term plan to make this fruitful.”

When asked by Keith Roles of KONG-TV if there would be much upheaval, Kenji was a bit cagey, simply saying that “everyone will have a chance to prove they are worthy of being here.”

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The Sounders come into the year as a deep and experienced team. With the 2017 MLS Cup under their belt and 6 months of rest, they should come in ready to repeat their title run and make some money. Here’s a look at their current first team and youth system depth charts.

First Team
The current first team has a preponderance of central attacking and midfield talent but is a bit weak on the wings and has limited CB depth.

CB	LB	RB	GK	CAM	CM	CDM	LM	RM	ST
R. Torres	J. Jones	K. Leerdam	S. Frei	V. Rodriguez	C. Roldan	O. Alonso	N. Lodeiro	K. Funk	C. Dempsey
C. Marshall	N. Tolo	O. Fisher	T. Miller		B. Evans	G. Svensson	L. Neagle	H. Shipp	J. Morris
T. Alfaro		J. Delem	B. Meredith			Z. Mathers	A. Kovar	H. Wingo	W. Bruin
						C. Mallace			S. Adekoya

Formations
Coach Lindgren will look to tailor his formations to his personnel, but has a preference for 2 striker formations. Early in training, it looks like he’ll be using variations on a 4-4-2 with as his team’s primary formations, with some experimenting with a 5-1-2-2 for counter-attacking soccer.

Youth System
In addition to a few affiliates, the Sounders have 3 teams as part of their youth system.

• The Sounders U-20 squad. This is the official squad that competes in the youth championships and trains with the senior squad.
• S2. A holdover from the USL, pre-pyramid, days, S2 is an affiliated club that the Sounders can freely move players between and acts as another youth and backup squad.
• Sounders Academy. The official Seattle academy where players receive schooling and are in intensive soccer training.

Here is a listing of all players from those 3 youth systems that may break into the first team someday, with the players in green being the most promising.

CB	LB	RB	GK	CAM	CM	CDM	LM	RM	ST
R. Acuna	S. Whyte	T. Bakor	O. Suarez	S. Porter	C. Adams		A. Brugenhemke	D. Hernandez	A. De Cristofaro
C. Contreras		D. Ulysse	N. Escobedo	J. Edwards	G. Edoa		W. Maldonado	S. Hopeau	B. Solis
J. Herrera		C. Blanco	P. Adams	S. Lashbrook	S. Dombrowski		A. Gonzalez	L. Ramos	J. Fisher
S. Rogers				T. Lee				G. Oakley	F. Chenkam
R. Ele									M. Barton
K. Steele									D. Olsen
A. Franco									M. Hughes
									J. Stevens
									E. Magana
									D. Allen

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The Sounders currently have 6 coaches, 1 scout, and 4 members of the medical staff. Kenji will likely keep them all on staff, but will also want to greatly supplement his staff, especially scouts.

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Despite the success, depth, and experience on the squad, Coach Lindgren will be making several changes to the squad. Getting younger is a key priority, and molding the team after his philosophies will also happen. Lindgren likes speed on the wings, hard-working midfielders with good passing, and well-rounded quick strikers. He prefers his centerbacks to be tall, 6’4” or taller.

Finances
The Sounders are currently spending $13,238,593 out of $13,870,558 on salaries and have a $1 million transfer budget.

Promotions
After looking through the youth system and talking to his assistants, Kenji Lindgren has promoted or signed the following youth prospects.

Player	Position	Age	Change
Kevin Funk	RM	17	U20 -> Senior
Nouhou Tolo	LB	20	U20 -> Senior
Rafel Acuna	CB	16	U20 -> Senior
Denso Ulysse	RB	18	S2 -> U20
Steve Porter	CAM	16	U20 -> Senior
Aaron Brugenhemke	LM	16	U20 -> Senior
Christopher Adams	CM	16	U20 -> Senior

Several promising players (such as CB Carlos Contreras, LM Will Maldonado, and ST Antonio De Cristofaro) will be finishing out their time in the academy before being promoted.

Expiring Contracts
The following players have expiring deals this December. Those in green are the primary targets for re-signing.

• Chad Marshall, CB, 32
• Clint Dempsey, ST, 34
• Gustav Svensson, CDM, 30
• Brad Evans, CM, 32
• Osvaldo Alonso, CDM, 31
• Stefan Frei, GK, 31
• Lamar Neagle, LM, 30
• Will Bruin, ST, 27
• Bryan Meredith, GK, 27
• Calum Mallace, CDM, 27
• Harry Shipp, RM, 25
• Aaron Kovar, RM, 23
• Tyler Miller, GK, 24
• Christian Roldan, CM, 22
• Oneil Fisher, RB, 25
• Tony Alfaro, CB, 24
• Roman Torres, CB, 31

Their contracts expire mid-season (due to the league changes), so Kenji will need to be proactive about finding their replacements if he’s really going to let that many guys go. Locker room chemistry could be severely impacted by all these changes.

Targets
So who will Kenji target? There are several young players that could be gotten on frees or for cheap that he will go after:

• Bradford Jamieson IV (LA Galaxy)
• Tommy redding (Orlando)
• Justin Glad (RSL)
• Francisco Garcia (San Jose)
• Luke Caballero (NYCFC)
• Various 6'5" or taller players his scouts can find