Brotherly Game Daily Links: USMNT ranking holds steady at 22

MLS News

MLS 2021 season: One thing to look forward to for every club
While we wait, we dream. We hypothesize. We speculate. We overreact. We assume. We imagine what April 17 and the 2021 season might bring. 

Orlando City Finalizing Deal for Dutch Winger Silvester van der Water
At the Eredivisie level, van der Water has scored 10 career goals and added eight assists in 53 appearances since joining Heracles, per Transfermarkt. He also scored 12 goals in 16 reserve league games, most of which came during the 2018-2019 season. He added three goals in seven cup appearances with Heracles.

Don’t expect a speedy resolution to the Cristian Pavón transfer saga
Multiple MLS teams have dealt with Boca Juniors in recent years and every time, they’ve indicated it was a total pain in the butt. Nearly every club in South America is a selling club, and to an extent, so is Boca, but they are also one of the few clubs in the region that also attracts star players and tends to have long-standing relationships with players.

U.S. Soccer News

US U-23 depth chart for men’s Concacaf Olympic qualifying
The Olympics are mostly a U-23 tournament, and Olympic qualifying is exclusively a U-23 tournament (though this time around it’s kind of a U-24 event, since everything got pushed back from 2020 into 2021 because of the pandemic). That means players born January 1, 1997 or later are eligible, and every single one of those guys is in that age cohort.

USMNT stays at No. 22 in latest FIFA rankings
There wasn’t much shuffling between the Concacaf teams as Costa Rica, Canada, and Guatemala were the only teams to move up or down this month. Los Ticos moved one spot up to No. 50 overall, Canada fell one place to No. 73, and Guatemala rose spot to No. 130.

Rest of the World News

Man City have not opened talks over Barcelona’s Messi – sources
City chiefs have been angered by reports the club have already tabled an offer to Messi ahead of a possible free transfer move to the Etihad Stadium in the summer.