Major League Soccer

full season schedule announced

http://web.mlsnet.com/news/mls_news.jsp?ymd=20100203&content_id=8015936&vkey=pr_mls&fext=.jsp

hooray for the Fire having no Sunday midday games

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AucOzX9qqRA

^^^those guys rule, can't wait until they join the league

that is, *if* there's a league any more after all this labor dispute that's been going on

http://pitchinvasion.net/blog/2010/03/17/peter-wilts-proposed-solution-to-mls-labor-strife/

Best friend and former ILXor now NOT coming to our opening game in the new stadium because labor dispute making game too uncertain and no one likes to get fucked by an unneeded airline ticket for an inconvenient time & destination.

Aw, boooooooo. Although, that's why I didn't buy a plane ticket. That being said, if that game actually happens, I'll be there w/ 250 or so friends! Yay for 14 hour road trips.

i'm getting excited for the season. i don't think a strike will happen. fuck i hope not. this year i didn't buy season tickets (or a half-season like last year). i just can't watch freddy ljunberg play. i don't think i've ever hated a "home team" player as much as i hate him. what is it? his style, something.

what's getting me interested in the coming season are all the new young guys-the recent draft class and the central and s. americans. and i'm glad about philly. and i am in awe at how beautiful this stadium looks: http://vimeo.com/10207459 nice job red bulls. see, a strike can't happen. they just built that stadium!

That's what I keep telling myself.

http://www.earthcam.com/clients/redbullarena/ !!!!!!

Although since it's a really beautiful day today and there's no snow on the ground, I have to conclude that the cams have frozen and those are not the real current images. When it's updating correctly every minute, it IS a sight to behold.

<3ed watching Ljungberg flip out at the ref over a (correct) non-call v. the Fire last year, get his second yellow, and sulk off the field.

Is Montero back this season? Amazing he hasn't been bought by some European side.

I'm exicted for new players as well: Collins John (ex-Fulham and several Dutch/Belgian clubs, apparently a bit of a basket case but loads of potential) and Julio Martinez from El Salvador, scorer of big goals in WCQs including this screamer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioE470BdWK8

wowza, and that looks like it was scored @ azteca.

Montero to Turkey seemed like a possibility earlier in the offseason. don't know what happened with that.

i went to the Seattle-Portland preseason game last week in the rain. check out this tifo from the emerald city supporters:

http://i40.tinypic.com/rm66ms.jpg

awesome, right, pointing that at the portland fans (couple hundred came up for a 6pm weeknight start, very impressive), pointing out the sounders' dominance.

then portland beat us 1-0. lol.

for a second there i thought they were holding up banners with mathematical equasions on 'em

MOAR ILX MLS FANS PLZ

is it worth it? i'm already missing too much proper football as evidenced by jibe showing us how awesome ligue 1 is last week.

Yeah I don't think anything in MLS is going to be more awesome that Ligue 1. Well, maybe not, who knows. I do think more Americans who are fans of the game should pay attention.

would be a superfan if mpls had a team :(

you have the new team, NSC Minnesota or whatever they're called!

huh!

I support the Wizards, especially this year as they have a Colombian defender named Pablo Escobar.

but frankly, I find MLS fairly hard to watch.

Soccer hooligans in Seattle?

A Portland Timbers fan who became involved in what he thought was "friendly rivalry banter" with three Sounders FC fans after Seattle lost to Portland last Thursday ended up being choked and dragged him around by his Timbers scarf, according to a police report released Wednesday morning.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/theblotter/2011367604_seattle_soccer_hooligans_choke.html

anyway are vancouver and portland scheduled to enter MLS?
I might switch my allegiance to the whitecaps.

Yes, in 2011.

As for finding it hard to watch, you just have to keep reminding yourself that the median player salary is $80k, and it makes it somewhat easier to bear.

And that median includes an extra-wide spread, with some jr players making more like $19,000 (nb: I haven't seen new salary numbers but I'm sure some of the kids are still that low).

thank fuck

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/soccerinsider/2010/03/mls_players_union_reach_deal_a.html

http://teacherweb.com/MA/WatertownLowellElementary/Gould/fireworks.gif

Pretty convincing win for NYRB over Santos on Saturday in the new Red Bull Arena. For a friendly both sides played hard. Red Bulls looked light years better than last season - quick passes, overlapping fullbacks down the wings, very attractive soccer.

really looking forward to the Fire/NJRB game this weekend

hey dan what do you think about the fire dropping busch?

someone here reads sbi

I think it's weird, but not entirely suprising. The team was carrying 3 keepers, and even with the new salary cap expansion it's still expensive. They're also looking to bring in a new left back, and the money's got to some from somewhere. Still unnerving though. For all the positive comments surrounding Dykstra (the former backup, now likely starter) he's still almost completely untested.

If this backfires RBNY-last-year-style, a lot of people here are going to be PISSED. Buschy is a very popular player.

Also I don't fully believe it until I hear someone other than Ives reporting the story.

I'm not going to worry about anything else until I secure two tickets somewhere in the end zone as near as possible to the supporter's club. Not sure how I'm going to deal with the ticket issue for the rest of this season, and I haven't had the $$ to think about it until now. But I'm getting WELL excited for Saturday.

I'm hearing now that under the new CBA certain veterans have to be waived by 5PM today, so we'll likely see some other surprise dropped players.

I love this league because tonight I swapped texts with the recently departed goalkeeper and swapped buying beers with the team technical director. Where else could this happen?

I know, I know, English 5th division right

The MLS salary cap will increase from $2.315 million to $2.55 million and will increase by %5 each season thereafter.

The CBA provides for guaranteed contracts for all players 24 years old or older with three years of MLS service.

Minimum salaries for senior roster players will increase from $34,000 in 2009 to $40,000 in 2010, with an increase of 5 percent each year thereafter.

MLS will establish a Re-Entry Draft. Players eligible for the draft include those whose options were not exercised, those whose contracts were terminated and those whose contracts expired.

Player Contracts will now have a limit on the number of option years they can have. The limit is two option years for players who are at least 25 and have four years of MLS service. All other contracts can have up to three option years.

Players whose annual compensation is less than $125,000, the minimum base salary increase will be %10 for players who play in at least 66 percent of his club's games and 12.5 percent for players who play in at least 75 percent of club's games.
Increases in 401K contributions by the league, appearance fees, per diem and relocation expense reimbursement. Among the addtional player benefits in the CBA are full health care benefits for every player and his family at no cost, 401K contributions and expanded insurance benefits.

Bonuses for wins and exhibitions. The CBA includes a package of bonuses for wins in MLS games and international tournaments, as well as appearance fees for international exhibitions.

The sides reached an agreement on an extension of the Group License that will run through 2015.

The sides will establish a joint committee to study the re-launch of a Reserve Division. In the event the rosters are expanded, the salary for those players will be a minimum of $31,250, with additional annual increases.

really liking the possible return of the reserve league

i love philly:

returned to Philly last weekend for my bachelor party. i'm walking down the street wearing a celtic shirt after watching the game vs. st johnstone in the morning and a group of guys stopped and asked if celtic won. they also asked if i was going to some union games this year. i was only able to say, "well i just moved to the DC area" when i started getting booed. i just rolled my eyes and continued, "so i'm going to come up for as many games as possible, I'm not a United fan all of a sudden".

any time you get booed in philadelphia for anything, you know it's officially arrived

the first piece of MLS-writing I've ever done:

http://www.section8chicago.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=497:some-words-with-jon-busch&catid=1:general-supporter-news&Itemid=161

yo mls people -

when you go to a game, are the stands divided into home/away sections like in yoo-rup?

Yeah, there will be a designated away-fan area, usually only one section or a part of one section.

good article dan

lol, lxy had never seen or heard lalas. her take: "gah shut the fuck up i hate him"

yes, lalas blows hard, but just wait until you hear max bretos call a game...

interesting signing by KC, apparently the best player out of India currently? I know their nat'l side is no great shakes, but he's still young and has scored a few goals.

http://theoriginalwinger.com/2010-03-26-kc-wizards-sign-sunil-chhetri-will-be-first-indian-player-to-play-in-mls

lxy smrt

http://dealbreaker.com/_old/images/thumbs/drudge_siren.gifSECOND DP SLOT ADDED FOR ALL TEAMS EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELYhttp://dealbreaker.com/_old/images/thumbs/drudge_siren.gif

In other words, a big fuck you to LA, NY, Toronto, and Seattle, you money-grubbing sons of bitches. If you can't win with the players you have, better spend more. :/

dp?

DP = designated player (AKA The Beckham Rule)

In a nutshell, it allows teams to only have a portion of the salaries of marquee players count towards the salary cap. Beckham, Blanco, Ljungberg, Angel are/were all DPs. There are a handful of lesser-known DPs as well.

The league decreeing (in the second week of the season, no less) that all teams suddenly are allowed a second such player (and can trade for a third) means that the teams who have the richest ownership groups (the ones I listed above) can now buy, buy, buy. Kind of throws the facade of parity across the league out the window... The league-only transfer window closes in another week or two, but the summer window could be very interesting. New York'll likely sign Henry.