The problem with ranking Dire Straits albums is that every album is great. So my ranking is really based on one question: Which album comes closest to being flawless? Obviously, it is still completely subjective.

1. Communiqué — No skips, a great opening, and an incredible finish. Some people argue that the title track is the album’s low point. I completely disagree; it is flawless. The recording also has a richer, more polished quality than the debut album.
2. Dire Straits — Every song is excellent, but the album does not have quite the depth or breadth of Communiqué. It also lacks some of the sonic polish Mark would bring to his later albums, but importantly not a skip on this album as every song has a rightful place.
3. Making Movies — A masterpiece whose biggest flaw is that Mark cut the title track. I cannot wait for the day it is finally released. “Action, action…” Being limited to roughly 44 minutes certainly helped keep the albums tight, but it also meant that we missed out on some gems.
4. Brothers in Arms — An unbelievable album, let down only by “Walk of Life” and, possibly, “One World” making the final cut. The CD era did allow Mark to give his compositions more room to breathe, though.
5. Love Over Gold — Mark’s greatest song opens my favorite Side A of any album, followed by another incredible track in “Private Investigations.” Unfortunately, it is dragged down by the most mediocre Side B of his career. I like “Industrial Disease,” even though it does not fit the album’s mood, but “Love Over Gold” and “It Never Rains” are among the schmaltziest songs Mark has ever recorded.
6. On Every Street — I have no problem with anyone arguing that this is the best album in the catalog, but I think even its biggest admirers must concede that it is easily the most flawed album Mark ever released. It is still an incredible album that I listen to often, but I hit the skip button more than I do on any other Dire Straits record. Did we really need the “Walk of Life” rehash that is “The Bug”? I imagine that if this album had been made for vinyl, some difficult choices would have been required and those choices might have produced a tighter, more nearly flawless final product.

Thomas Müller and Two Friends must be a really big draw for that kind of attendance on a weeknight. Over/under on our attendance for that game?

I think Lewandowski gets announced soon, I'm sure he takes the #9. What number would Hugo switch to?

531 unsold seats left for July 16 match vs Whitecaps. They will have to open up 300 level soon.

183 remaining season tickets. They had a queue this morning. Field side seats have sold out for 2027.

Anyone else watch today's presser?

Because whatever Bogert reported about the Fire cooling on Lewandowski, Berhalter sure didn’t sound like a guy who has moved on. He said Lewandowski would be great for the team and the City and that they have had a lot of communication. The reporter who asked GGG about Lewandowski is from Przeglad Sportowy, Poland's biggest sports weekly, and it looks like they think news is about to happen given that he's here.

Also, Neil Goulding at SportsBoom reported that Lewandowski has snubbed Saudi offers.

Goulding’s author page says he has 25+ years in journalism/BBC Sport production work, interestingly he has only three articles (including the Lewandowski bit) this year, all MLS “exclusives,” including Casemiro and Josh Sargent pieces that panned out.

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TL;DR: I’ve been rewriting this for 3 days because I wanted to get the details right. If you’re stuck in the "junior year disillusionment" phase where coaches outside of DIII or NAIA aren't responding to emails, here is why you should keep going. I’m convinced the recruiting market “flips” senior year when coaches move from fantasy recruiting to solving actual roster problems. My non-ECNL daughter went from years of radio silence to having 8 programs actively recruiting her this spring (5 DII and 3 DI).

The Reality Check

My daughter was never an ECNL player; she played DPL. She was never the "best player on every field." No one was chasing her. But she stayed visible—ODP state team, high school soccer, camps, and lots of outreach to programs she was interested in.

1. The "Market Flip"

I’m not a college coach, and during the "radio silence" of sophomore and junior years, I didn't really know what they were doing because we weren't hearing from them. At the DPL level, coaches aren't going out of their way to find you; any interest we saw back then was usually a direct result of a specific ODP game where a coach happened to be on the sidelines.

But based on how the phone finally started ringing, I’m convinced the market "flips" late in the cycle. My theory is that it’s just simple math. Rosters are volatile:

• Early commits realize they don't actually want the grind and quit.
• Players hit the transfer portal or fail to meet admissions standards.
• ACL tears and injuries create immediate, desperate holes in a roster.

It felt like coaches shifted from "shopping for stars" two years out to "solving actual problems" six months out. When they need a reliable player to fill a gap right now, they stop looking for the "brand name" and start looking for the player who fits the need.

2. The "Rescue List" (My theory on why the data finally matters)

I have no idea if coaches actually call it a "rescue list," but that’s exactly how it felt to us. During my daughter's junior year, I’m convinced our emails and profile links were just digital noise. But when a coach suddenly loses an outside back to a transfer or an injury in the middle of a cycle, they don't have six months to go scouting at national showcases.

They need a solution now. The most logical step for them is to go to their recruiting databases and start hitting the filters:

• Graduation Year
• Position
• GPA / Academic Fit

If your profile is updated and your grades are solid, you suddenly pop up as the answer to their problem. We went from years of absolute crickets to receiving direct, urgent texts starting in November of her senior year. By this spring we had coaches offering to travel hundreds of miles specifically to stand on a high school sideline and watch her play.

The data didn't change, and her film didn't change. The only thing that changed was that the coaches finally had a specific hole to fill, and the database told them she was a fit. It’s why people often say recruiting sites are a scam. In my experience, they are—until they aren’t. They feel like a waste of money when you’re shouting into the void, but they become a vital tool the moment a coach actually has a crisis to solve.

3. The "DI or Bust" Trap

My daughter was fixated on DI until she actually visited a program she had "chased" forever. The coach was honest: she’d likely be at the end of the roster if she joined, and frankly, there was no guarantee an offer was even coming.

She saw the environment, the 6ams, film, mandatory sessions, and the 24/7 grind. She realized that for many, DI soccer isn't a sport; it’s a full-time job. She ultimately decided she wanted to play collegiate club soccer instead, choosing the school environment over the "DI label." Ironically, the moment she relaxed and stopped chasing, the most doors opened.

4. You do NOT need ECNL

The youth soccer world loves creating artificial hierarchies. I cannot tell you how many times we heard that ODP was a "consolation prize" for kids not in the "right" club ecosystem.

That is nonsense. Coaches absolutely pay attention to ODP. It’s a different evaluation platform, often run by college coaches themselves. If you can play, they will find you. The timeline just doesn’t look the same for everyone.

The Takeaway

Too many families convince themselves the door is closed way too early, and end up closing it themselves. The "logical" path you see on social media is for the 1%. For the rest of us, the process is messy. Waiting is a scary prospect, but it could land you the best opportunity.

Keep the profile updated, keep the grades high, and don’t let the "junior year disillusionment" dictate your daughter's worth.

I am currently locked in a blood feud with a ghost editor.

Someone is obsessed with turning our Playoff wins into Conference games. I don’t know if they don't understand how brackets work or if they’re trying to improve playoff stats, but it’s ruining the table.

If you’re out there: A playoff game is not a conference game. Please let my stats live in peace. Has anyone successfully gotten MaxPreps support to intervene on "edit wars" like this?