Offseason Notebook: Free Agent Big Board & 2024 Movie Rank
Ranking the USL Championship's defensive free agents, plus end-of-year self indulgence
Welcome back to the Offseason Notebook! Before we dig in, make sure to check out Backheeled, where I’ll have an interview deep-dive into the Jagermeister Cup next week.
Without further ado, let’s get to it.
Free Agent Big Board: Part I
This week and next, I’ll be ranking the unsigned (or yet-to-be announced) free agents at each position. The focus for now is on the defensive spots, including right back, left back, center back, and goalkeeper.
Each section will list the teams with a glaring need at a given spot, the ranking table, and a player spotlight. The table, powered by my player value calculations, provides a rough guide to the talent on offer; my goal is to hone in on potential options that aren’t as evidently can’t-miss.
With that out of the way, let’s get to it.
Right Back
Need: Birmingham, Hartford, Monterey, Oakland
Top Option: Younes Boudadi
Five starting right backs accumulated 0.15 xA per match and won 70% or more of their tackle attempts in 2024, and only one of them is a confirmed free agent. That player is former Indy and Hartford defender Younes Boudadi. Entering his sixth USL season at age 28, it’s safe to label Boudadi as a consistent top-ten player at his position.
What makes Boudadi so solid? A combination of offensive verve and unassailable defensive ability sets him apart.
Since his league debut with Reno in 2019, Boudadi has produced 16.0 expected assists. Only Jack Gurr and Memo Diaz have contributed more from the full back spot during that same span.
You see the defender’s impact on the overlap made clear above. In Indy’s system at the start of last season, Boudadi picked up three assists because of his well-timed runs and the variety of skills he offered in the final third.
Roughly average as a crosser by completion percentage, hovering around the 20% mark in recent years, Boudadi makes life easier himself thanks to aggressive dribbling in the clips. The right back can stand and deliver as a passer, but he’d skillful enough to take opponents on and find better crossing angles.
The defensive numbers bear out Boudadi’s impact in equal measure. Consider his per match ranks from 2024 in a few categories:
1.5 tackles (72nd percentile)
75% tackle win rate (77th percentile)
1.3 interceptions (73rd percentile)
0.3 final third re-gains (67th percentile)
0.5 conceded dribbles (68th percentile)
Need a right back that can contribute in the high press or jump a passing lane? Boudadi is your man. At the same time, he’s hard to beat with the ball, even on the back foot in his own third. Defenders that excel in multiple phases like that aren’t easy to come by in the USL, but Boudadi has that complete skillset.
As of now, it’s slim pickings outside of Younes Boudadi. I’m fully expecting Rafa Mentzingen’s option to get picked up by North Carolina - who, by the way, still haven’t released one iota of roster news?! - and would be shocked for Owen Lambe to leave Orange County. Derek Dodson just got selected in MLS’ Re-entry Draft…which means something, I guess?
Suffice to say, you’ve got one rock-solid piece in Boudadi and little else on the market.
Left Back
Need: Lexington, New Mexico
Top Option: Matt Real
My actual top option is Akeem Ward, but I may or may not have a breakdown of his game written for whenever a signing happens. In his stead, consider ex-Colorado Springs loanee Matt Real. A title winner while on loan from Philadelphia in 2024, Real provides consistency and poise that makes him a high-level starter in the USL.
The Union declined to extend Real heading into 2025, meaning that he’s on the market. Given that Colorado Springs just signed Isaiah Foster as their presumptive starter at left back, Real may not return as a Switchback.
Why’s he attractive? In 2024, the 25-year-old made 29 starts and was utterly indispensable in the playoffs. Real knew when to pick his spots in an aggressive, sideline-tilted high press, and he also contributed to three goals on just under 1.0 chances created per match. Not all that explosive on the dribble, Real makes up for it with his size and physical profile.
There are a few other solid options to ponder beyond Matt Real. Gabriel Alves is someone I’ve covered earlier in the offseason and will continue to praise. The numbers there - namely a low points-added sum according to my model - are skewed by limited appearances and a mixed usage as an occasional center back. Alves’ talents belie the single-number value mark.
I’ll also throw a nod to veteran defender Jorge Luis Corrales. You could argue that the 33-year-old is a step slow to start at left back these days, but the Cuban international had a stellar 2024 in Lexington while often operating as the left-sider in a back three. He’s a strong passer, clean defender, and good locker room presence for a club that wants to play out from the back.
Center Back
Need: San Antonio, Tampa Bay, Tulsa
Top Option: Laurence Wyke & Lucas Turci
Center back is absolutely rife with good options. For my money, it’s the deepest spot of any position this winter.
I want to primarily focus on two players that fit into the mold of “ball-playing center backs,” beginning with ex-Memphis man Lucas Turci. To label the Brazilian as a center back alone is doing him a disservice; Turci is skillful enough to work as a legit No. 10 in the USL and proved so in Tennessee.
Left-footed and bold as a passer, Turci underpinned many of 901’s best moments last season. He lit up the stat sheet by almost every metric, but it’s that incisive distribution that makes him such an interesting option.
I do think that the defensive numbers are somewhat misleading. Memphis was very up-and-down in central defense throughout 2024, and your mileage may vary when it comes to the blame game. I tend to think that Turci took up good positions and was let down by his teammates, hence why he’s at the top of my list.
Laurence Wyke is versatile in a different way to Turci, bringing composure and vision from the right side of a back line. Phoenix deployed the 28-year-old as a withdrawn right back in a phase-based shape at some points and as a true center back at others. Wyke did well no matter the charge.
The Englishman‘s precision stands out. Wyke completed just under 50 passes per match in 2024, and that included 6.1 long completions on a 64% completion rate. Both of the latter numbers put Wyke in the 97th percentile of USL defenders. That ability to modulate his distribution makes the center back a good fit in numerous systems, not just Phoenix’s hyper-possessive look.
Throw in a 60% duel win rate and 52% aerial win rate, and you’ve got a complete defensive option in Laurence Wyke. That efficiency sets Wyke apart from Turci, if we’re comparing. The Brazilian won just 49% of his duels to place in the 14th percentile. Still, a smart coach could paper over that limitation by pairing Turci - or Wyke, for that matter - with a staid presence in a give-take partnership.
Need a less adventurous pick? Kendall Burks was unreal with San Antonio in his first USL season, and the silence regarding his future is a surprise to be sure. Alexis Souahy and Conor Donovan are also commendable picks in the stay-at-home genre.
Goalkeeper
Need: Louisville, Phoenix, San Antonio, Tampa Bay
Top Option: Triston Henry
Memphis went long from the back at the sixth-highest rate of any Championship club last season, preferring to boot the ball ahead and press to re-gain upfield. That strategy owed, in parts to Tyler Deric’s limitations as a passer from goal. I don’t mean to disparage Deric in saying so; most goalkeepers aren’t built for the possession game.
Deric’s teammate, Triston Henry, is built for that sort of system. Recruited at midseason after a sterling six-year run with Forge FC in the Canadian Premiership, Henry put up excellent shot-stopping numbers and allowed Memphis to experiment with alternative shapes featuring their goalie as an effective outfield player.
Despite a somewhat rocky 2023 with Forge, Henry perennially posted a save percentage in the mid-to-low 70s throughout his stint up north. In USL terms, that’s equivalent to players like Rocco Rios Novo, Colin Shutler, and Jahmali Waite.
Across seven starts in Tennessee, Henry kept up that rate and ended up in the 71st percentile for total goals prevented. He’s good enough on his line to plug a hole for any organization, but Henry’s passing - the 31-year-old had Canada’s best completion percentage in 2020, 2022, and 2023 - recommends him for a tactically adventurous side.
Elsewhere, Henry’s ex-teammate Deric is a perfectly cromulent veteran choice. The same could be said of Paul Blanchette, who has elite upside even if he’s coming off of a genuinely bad season with Oakland. Looking for less commitment? MLS up-and-comers like George Marks or Hunter Sulte may be available on loan.
Movie Rank, 2025
I spend a hilarious, disturbing number of hours watching, pondering, and writing about the USL. If you’re here, you know that much.
I also spend a wild amount of time keeping up with movies. Because it’s the end of 2024, I figured I’d go self indulgent and talk about some of the 64 newly released movies I caught during the year.
For me, film is the ultimate artistic medium because of the complete control exerted by the author. You can put down a book, and you’re limited to a single auditory sense with music. Staged theater can go awry thanks to the nature of live performance. A movie, meanwhile, is painstakingly crafted and tailored to your captive in-theater experience. Every shot, every acting decision, every decibel of sound can be manipulated to create a feeling or service a narrative. True auteurism is possible with film, and you can feel the full suite of emotion as a viewer if you simply give into the experience.
We’ll get to the full ranking in a minute, but I want to start with the cream of the crop. Three films stood out above the pack in 2024: Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist, Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, and Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two.
Hamaguchi burst onto the scene for American cinephiles with his last film, the Oscar-nominated Drive My Car. Much like that prior work, Evil Does Not Exist is patiently paced and highly contemplative. Scenes that shouldn’t be captivating on paper - a four-minute tracking shot looking up at tree tops, a small-town city council meeting centered around a PowerPoint presentation - are rendered sublime and fascinating in the eye of Hamaguchi’s camera.
The story itself is about a widowed father and his young daughter as their town faces the entrance of a corporate glamping complex. There’s no melodrama, but the observational style, vivid color, and deep-focus camerawork make you fall in love with the characters and understand their relationship to the environment without pulling any cheap emotional tricks. The final scene is abstract, but it cut me to the core both times I’ve seen the film.
Hamaguchi is masterfully good at blocking multi-character scenes, which is really a lost art in most American cinema. My big project this year was to watch Akira Kurosawa’s entire filmography, which really underlined the value of blocking and camerawork; there simply isn’t a cleverer director when it comes to that craft. Hamaguchi isn’t Kurosawa (nor is he trying to be), but he’s a technical genius that uses the tools of moviemaking to enhance his themes.
If Evil Does Not Exist is a masterpiece in the “man and nature” corner, The Brutalist is an equally successful examination of a man, his identity, and his adoptive country. Starring Adrien Brody as a post-Holocaust immigrant in Pennsylvania, it interrogates the America of the 1950s and 1960s with an epic scope but a deceptively personal touch. Never didactic, The Brutalist raises questions about the lasting inequities of the post-war nation; the idea of “the presence of the past” is literalized in a coy epilogue scene.
Brody’s best traits as an actor make the movie so successful. There’s a rugged, weathered intelligence behind his eyes, a sense of pain that never quite goes away. His successes, his losses, and the way his very self is manipulated in the immigrant experience constantly shines through. It’s the performance of the year.
Dune is a movie that far more people have seen than either of my other picks, but it still feels underappreciated. I won’t pretend to be a huge lover of the Herbert novel, but I was struck by the way the movie traced the classic hero’s journey while also imposing a sense of deep discomfort at the final conclusion. Timothee Chalamet’s meek-to-dictatorial turn as Paul Atreides hasn’t received nearly enough love.
The best films make you feel something. Chalamet and Zendaya’s kiss, in no small part thanks to Hans Zimmer’s “A Time of Quiet Between the Storms,” sent a chill down my spine. The final scene mixing betrayal and triumph invoked a guilty, half-horrified awe. Dune made me feel like few other movies in recent memory.
In any event, here’s the big ranking. Loose tiers are implied by the shading; the rankings were baselined off a Letterboxd-inspired “half star to five star” scale before I kinda just started re-ordering.
Some other notes:
Civil War is terrific and got overlooked because film discourse is terrible. Partisan warfare taken to an extreme is the frame of the movie, but Alex Garland’s point isn’t to advocate for the left or right. This is a film about journalism, media, and our national fascination with violence as told through two awesome performances from Kirsten Dunst and Cailee Spaeney.
If you’re looking for a good time, Hundreds of Beavers is unhinged slapstick perfection. In the nicest way possible, it’s a bunch of dudes in beaver mascot costumes executing a plot that’s literally just video game logic…and yet I didn’t see a funnier movie all year.
Demi Moore should win Best Actress for The Substance, which was the most insane swing of a movie I saw all year.
Megalopolis innocent.
I feel the need to defend the I Saw the TV Glow rating, lest you, dear reader, assume anything about my politics. For one, Jane Schoenbrun is a really cool human! My beef with the movie came in terms of droll, unsuccessful performances and a conclusive act that was politically naive to the point of ruin. The themes of identity within I Saw the TV Glow were noble enough, but the anti-capitalist ending reeked so strongly of “I get all my takes from rose emoji twitter” that I left frustrated.
In the documentary space, Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger was catnip for me. The films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger are my absolute favorites,1 and this Martin Scorsese-shepherded retrospective on their lives and work is delightful. I got to see an early screening at MoMA, which then ignited a whole slew of rewatches and new discoveries.
The pick of the litter? A Canterbury Tale, which is quaint, pastoral, and utterly lovely. Much of the cast is composed of non-actors, but Powell’s direction and the parallelism of Pressburger’s script weaponize that innocence as a strength. Life is a pilgrimage, and the journey is filled with small wonders.
Final Thoughts
In other news this week…
This is a soccer blog, after all, so shout out to the Ollie Wright and Mikey Lopez adds in Portland. Wright excelled on the left wing with Huntsville in MLS Next Pro and could be an anchor in their attack for years to come. Lopez, meanwhile, brings strong veteran leadership as either a left back or No. 6 and fills a changing room role that every expansion club ought to fill.
I should’ve waited to write about Phoenix, because I really like the Noble Okello add in their midfield. He’s the sort of anchor that’ll let teammates like Charlie Dennis thrive.
Happy New Year to everyone that’s read along in 2024. This blog is a terrific amount of work to put together, and while I enjoy the process in and of itself, none of it would be worthwhile without the readership and engagement. Y’all are greatly appreciated.
That’s all, folks. See you soon!
I’d rank Colonel Blimp and A Matter of Life as two of my favorite movies of all time. Something about that oh-so-British moral and romantic sensibility - not to mention Powell’s wonderful visual skills, Pressburger’s succinctly beautiful plotting, and the cinematography of Jack Cardiff - are catnip for me.
We need the same monsters that leaked Charli XCX's Letterboxd account to leak yours.