Major League Soccer

it IS good for the league. next couple years it's gonna be shown that u can't get by and be old in mls anymore

in planning for my first pdl game i came across this

http://i27.tinypic.com/20su1op.jpg

badass

Rumour has it that Pirès and Ljungberg may join Titi at the NY Red Bulls.

At the moment, everything I've read is pointing toward Rafael Marquez being their third designated player. This is not to say that Pires or Ljungberg couldn't join, it would just have to be for less money than they'd probably require.

Call me crazy, but I actually kind of like the Arms Race that is going on in MLS right now. The rule changes made in the off season mean that teams can hire big guns for less money against the salary cap, and doing so in the summer transfer window means they only have to pay 1/2 that money for this year. Getting guys like Henry is not really surprising -- he had been rumored to be coming to NY for like 2 years. But the signings of Castillo, Omar Bravo, the Uruguayan WC midfielder in Seattle (forgetting his name atm) and all the rumors on top of that is making for the silliest silly season since I started following the league.

Of course it's all probably planned to coincide with the end of the WC, since the entire league is run by marketers.

"It's just tough to argue against the empirical data -- TV ratings, website traffic, bar tabs. They're all going up during and around soccer games. That seems to indicate that however annoying or casual the fans are, or however annoying they are to each other, they are still watching. Yes, the World Cup more than anything else. But U.S. interest in the English Premier League and Champions League and the ratings and website traffic surrounding those leagues is growing significantly too. There are even people who watch Major League Soccer. And that may be the biggest miracle of all. And the biggest proof that soccer must be going somewhere here. It's like Daniel Kellison's [former executive producer of 'The Man Show' and 'Jimmy Kimmel Live'] heterosexuality test -- any man can have sex with a model. But only the most heterosexual of men can bring himself to have sex with a truly unattractive woman. The fact that American soccer fans can sit through 90 minutes of MLS is proof of a love of soccer beyond anything the rest of the world can possibly fathom."

Wheres that taken from?

U.S. interest in the English Premier League ... growing significantly too

The fact that American soccer fans can sit through 90 minutes of MLS is proof of a love of soccer beyond anything the rest of the world can possibly fathom.

I don't see why it's so hard to believe that people would rather go to a match, live, in a modern stadium, for as little as $15-20 instead of getting up at 6 AM to watch Bolton v. Wigan or Hull v. Burnley?

sorry michael, it's from here: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/100722/mailbag1

just posting 4 the lols, i love mls

Me too, which is why it irks me when people assume it is automatically terrible.

This is a few days old now, but in case anyone missed it...the most awkward interview ever with Thierry Henry about coming to NY

http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/good_day_ny/new-york-red-bull-thierry-henry-20100719

Haha yeah, the official MLS blog had that listed as "worst soccer interview ever".

it was awful i loved every second

The cherry on top is the explanation of "Bronx Cheer", and the backpedalling that comes with it, LOL

ESPN had their own Henry interview the same day that proved not everyone over here is a clueless fool. That interview was conducted by Derek Rae and Shaka Hislop, of course. It also included a bonus Henry/Hislop head-to-head goals and results segment for the lolz.

lol, apparently Kansas City sold 700 season ticket packages for next year the day after they defeated Man Utd 2-1 in a friendly.

what it's all about tbf

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs211.snc4/38890_443902914788_20210009788_6206455_1862304_n.jpg

booyah

All-Star game on ESPN atm. :D

ok dan m or anyone else in the know, what the hell was going on with the coin toss before the game there?

I guess it determined which of the new teams picks first in the draft next year, Portland or Vancouver. Vancouver won I guess? Whatevs.

Team MLS proved tonight why this game is dumb. At least no-one got injured for no reason.

Kind of a downer, yeah.

lolstars

All "stars"

"All" stars

The list of Designated Players grew by one more in MLS Thursday, as the Seattle Sounders announced the signing of Uruguay World Cup veteran Alvaro Fernandez.

A 24-year-old midfielder, Fernandez joins Seattle after last playing for Universidad de Chile in Chile's Primera Division. He made four appearances for Uruguay at the World Cup in South Africa, starting the quarterfinal against Ghana and coming off the bench in three other matches.

I don't see why it's so hard to believe that people would rather go to a match, live, in a modern stadium, for as little as $15-20 instead of getting up at 6 AM to watch Bolton v. Wigan or Hull v. Burnley?

Where is loujagz to defend lower-league play when I need him

p ridiculous to suggest there are a lot of americans getting up to watch burnley, hull, wigan or bolton.

Bascially, yeah, it's not "the best play" which is kind of subjective anyway. At the highest levels like Champions League etc you often get stifling defensive play which is antithetical to what most Americans would probably consider "the best".

As for fading stars... Did you read the thing about the 24-year-old Uruguayan WC team player coming to Seattle? Or the 26-year-old Mexican who tore it up for their nat'l team and in Greece before pissing off some Ukrainian oil billionaires and getting blacklisted? Thierry Henry is sort of old but he is not finished by a long shot. There is also a bumper crop of young American talent that is just starting to rise to the surface, and instead of immediately lighting out to Europe they're staying home and developing into great players in front of us.

The tide is changing in MLS, it's too fast and physical to be considered a retirement home much longer. The tactical sensibility is low across the board, true, but it's rising steadily every season. And, above it all: It's our league. It will never rise to be anything near "the best" without the support of the people who care about the game in this country.

xp I wasn't suggesting that they were! I was saying it's silly to think that fans of the game in this country would prefer watching those teams to seeing a match in person.

The young MLS stars will (or at least should) move up to higher ranks - that's kind of what makes it a minor league. And if MLS refuses to let them move up to the bigger money in Europe, it won't have access to those players for long.

Fading stars - the Beckhams and Henrys - will continue to come over here for easier play and the American market. MLS will never have a level of play close to that of the top Euro leagues and I hope the league and its fans aren't pinning their hopes on that case. There's simply not enough money in the game.

I think even casual fans can distinguish between potentially boring but high-level play and lower-level play. Independent minor league baseball looks a lot like MLB - scores are roughly the same, etc. but it's not hard to see how much tighter the top-level game is in fielding, high-pressure pitching, etc.

I don't know where to start so I'll just respond to this:

MLS will never have a level of play close to that of the top Euro leagues and I hope the league and its fans aren't pinning their hopes on that case.

20 years ago there was no top-level outdoor men's league in this country and our nat'l team barely squeaked past Trinidad to qualify for the World Cup. Today we have a solid if unspectacular league and a national side that can play with any team in the world. Never say never.

I'm hearing rumors of Ljungberg to Chicago.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/415/facepalmby.jpg

Is it wrong to OTM yourself?

loool
enjoy him

They do need a creative midfield presence but damn it I've spent so much time making fun of him.

http://i28.tinypic.com/2dtxhcn.jpg

mls can aspire to be the best league outside of europe. long term it's not so far-fetched. mls has a bunch of factors working in its favor. what's better at this point? nothing in asia. brazil, argentina, and mexico are the only leagues i see as being better.
argentina is one wrong step away from their peso being worthless again. mexico, the security situation is a deep concern, even if quality of play and quality of pay are still better than mls. brazil i know nothing about but you have to think they sell their future stars fast.

there's no reason why mls can't step into what could become a void. the idea that

There's simply not enough money in the game

look at what's happened in colombia. the league is basically insolvent, checks are bouncing, and the players are bouncing from the league even faster. that's been to MLS's benefit. in the western hemisphere there's still a cachet to america/canada. players from el salvador or honduras whose families feel like europe is too far away, too unknown, will look to mls. your average nicuraguan parent of a future star, they don't know red star belgrade from cska, it all seems far away and foreign, but everyone has a cousin or family friend in LA or chicago. and if they stay long enough, hey, green card. have a kid here? s/he's american. MLS can be the main league for the caribbean and central america and canada and the US. that's a lot of talent. and mls can be attractive to pretty much any player. play in the right city and you have a social network of countrymen. no other league can offer that.

yes, the nearly-finished will still come to mls. and that's fine if it gets people to come out and see the game. i don't buy the 'quality of play sux so they won't come back' argument. i fell in love with soccer watching a team called Vegalta in sendai, japan. did i know how crappy the j-league supposedly is? no. i knew i could take the subway to a game, watch 20,000 japanese badly sing along to Country Roads, have a beer and cheer. A soccer-specific stadium in a city on a summer night practically sells itself, no matter how many red cards, no matter how sloppy the play.

i do think the washed-up former stars will get found out as the league gets better and better.

i'm gonna bet that we can all agree that MLS will be a feeder league for at least the medium term (15-20 years). but MLS has the chance to be the biggest and best shop window in the world, and there's nothing wrong with that. it's kind of awesome.

hear hear

the return of the NY Cosmos?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/sports/soccer/02cosmos.html

fyi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6Di8QT98Zk&feature=related

fyi

sega's back

http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/7732/segaa.jpg

nobody watching usa/brazil?

ugh

really not impressed w/ Borny or Bedoya

feel like we started out pretty good, now it's just brazil having fun

as I was saying...

so many players just standing still there, watching