The Sad Fall of Franck Tayou
- Fred
- 55 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Last night I turned on the Tacoma Stars/Baltimore Blast MASL game on Amazon.
It was 4-4 at half, so I figured I'd get a good game.
I was wrong.
As I wrote in the foreground, the game played in the background. The Blast piled goal upon goal on the Stars. With about 30 seconds left in the game, I had long since tuned out as the Blast were up 10-4. With 2 seconds left in regulation, # 15 on Tacoma appeared to swing on the Blast Defender. Both refs charged into the fracas as the Blast Defender flopped to the ground. Both refs had Blue Cards in hand. Now, unfortunately, the MASL doesn't have much of a budget for cameramen, so the replays were inconclusive, but the player that the refs escorted to the penalty box had a very distinctive look, it was clearly former 4-time MVP Franck Tayou.
This was Tayou's Facebook Post last week.
"I'm not the one calling Tayou the King of All Indoors, that's not the MASL, that's Tayou himself. The MASL needs to cash in on some of that drama like the NBA does, because I am telling you, it's there.
My predictions for the (St. Louis and Milwaukee) trade?
The St. Louis Ambush will fall from 10th to 11th and miss the playoffs.
The Milwaukee Wave will hold at 5th and lose to Chihuahua in the second round.
Franck Tayou? I think he'll sign with a different team this fall, which will be his 11th indoor team of his career, 22nd soccer team overall.
Something's not right about that."
So what happened? St. Louis traded Tayou, then unexpectedly slid into the last playoff spot, and was quickly eliminated from the playoffs. Milwaukee got Tayou, held onto the 5th seed, and then lost in the second round of the playoffs to Chihuahua. After the season ended, Tayou then signed with the Tacoma Stars.
Some of this isn't Tayou's Fault, teams join and leave the MASL every single year. The league is set up with a modified relegation/promotion model, but most of the time, squads either fold, re-brand, or start up as expansion teams.
Frank Tayou has now played for 5 of the 8 teams remaining in the MASL. At 35, Tayou sometimes posts how great he is on social media, but this year, he's been a ghost. When you look at his stats, he still leads the team with a 1.4 PPGA (Points Per Game Average), but he's only played 7 games for Tacoma.
I just assumed he's been injured, but when I checked with AI, and I'm paraphrasing here: "Tayou had an Achilles Injury some time in the past, but is fine now."
Wow, not helpful.
But even if Tayou was fine, that 1.4 points per game average is well off of his MVP days and wouldn't land him in the league's Top 10 leaders, even if he played enough games to qualify.
Right now, Tacoma is sitting at 9-11-1, tied for 6th, the last spot for the playoffs (in the 2026 format).
I went to the MASL home page this morning, it does not appear that Tayou was suspended. There is a story about the Empire Strykers, the other team tied for 6th, not sending their coach on a road game, one of the players will serve as temporary player-coach.
So apparently the MASL League Office is open.
My eyes tell me that Tayou may be "Willie Mays with the Mets," but who knows? The Tacoma Star (for now) could have just had an off game.
Do I want to double down on predictions? Sure what the hell.
The Stars will hold onto the 6th spot and lose to (ironically) the Milwaukee Wave in the first round of the playoffs. Franck Tayou will be on yet another different team in the Fall (Team # 23). But not necessarily in the MASL, don't rule out Tayou signing with a team in the MLIS.
That's Major League Indoor Soccer for those keeping track at home.