Breakfast Links - January 7, 2022

It’s Breakfast Links, on a Friday! In a busy later half of the week, teams made the most of their January window.

Houston

As has been rumored for some time, the Houston Dash saw the return of Maria Sanchez, a Mexican winger that had spent a month with the club on loan from Tigres UANL.

On the men’s side, Alejandro Fuenmayor departed from the team after four seasons — leaving to play for the Oakland Roots in the USL Championship.

MLS

After an almost year and a half wait, Real Salt Lake now has an owner. The club was approved by MLS to be sold to David Blitzer and Ryan Smith’s entertainment group. RSL now look to put behind the legacy and misconduct of Dell Loy Hansen.

US Soccer announced 19 players to compete in the USMNT’s January training camp, in order to prepare them “to be included in the World Cup qualifying training camp,” according to head coach Gregg Berhalter. Only one player from the thirteen clubs represented competes for a Texas club, forward Jesús Ferreira out of FC Dallas.

The MLS SuperDraft is scheduled for January 11, an important event for every club. Starting at 1:30 PM CT, every team in the draft is eligible to select one pick per round. The Dynamo will have the fourth and 32nd overall pick in the draft, trading their 60th overall pick to the Los Angeles Galaxy for 31 year old center back Daniel Steres.

In another off-season move, the Colorado Rapids traded for center back Aboubacar Keita from the Columbus Crew, agreeing to send $300,000 General Allocation Money, with a potential addition of $150,000 General Allocation Money based on performance. Keita first played for Columbus as an academy member, eventually joining the team after playing at the University of Virginia.

Around the World

Photo by Tom Flathers/Manchester City FC via Getty Images

COVID continues to spread throughout the world’s top leagues, this week affecting Manchester City, a club that this far had not experienced as big an impact as some other clubs. Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, along with 14 staff and seven players are now in isolation as a result of the virus, all of whom will miss the clubs FA Cup match against Swindon on Friday.

After losing in a controversial manner to Manchester City, Arsenal have been fined £20,000 by the Football Association due to the fact that Arsenal “failed to control their players in an orderly fashion.” The fine refers to the protesting of a VAR decision by keeper Aaron Ramsdale and assistant coach Albert Stuivenberg.

Returning to the lineup after being left off the team sheet due to a controversial interview, Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku returned to the team in their 2-0 win against Tottenham in the Carabao Cup.

After a relatively quiet start to the January window, Chelsea have reported plans to pursue American international full-back Sergiño Dest, willing to meet the £16.7m asking price.