Major League Soccer

yeah, it's pretty flawless

columbus crew has to be my least favorite current mls crest, but this is one is just hilariously ugly:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4f/TampaBayMutiny.png

love the typeface

the guardian podcast has a preview of this weekend's final today, predictably they mostly make jokes and talk about Beckham

When I see that Mutiny crest my inner voice talks through a vocoder.

Sporking Kansas City
Kansas City Sportards

Jay DeMerit signs with Vancouver

damn it, I was really hoping the Fire'd snag him

That Slate article otm.

I think I've said on here before that they should revive some of these ancient clubs wholesale and see what sticks: Bethlehem Steel, Cosmos, Hakoah, etc. It was a whimsical notion that they might have a place in some kind of folk memory, but the article makes it obvious - that the history stuff is attractive in itself. The branding culture as it is does seem particularly brain dead - Galaxy or whatever is just a peg, 'Field Club' would do the same job and might actually bring something else to the table too.

I dunno, I quite like 'Sporting'. They should've called themselves Axis Kansas City though.

yeah, it bummed me out when i found out that there was an old team, west hudson athletic, that played in the same town where the new red bull arena is.

would definitely support a new Brooklyn Hakoah.

When I see that Mutiny crest my inner voice talks through a vocoder.

yeah it sure feels like it's this guy's favourite team
http://www.overidon.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/mega-man-2-air-man.jpg

One of the Fire communications dept staffers suggested "Kansas City City" xps

haha that would be awesome

http://unprofessionalfoul.com/2010/11/18/your-top-25-futuremlsfranchise-names/

priceless, I love "Newell's Old Boise"

also "Savannahthinaikos"

Racine Santander and Galatallahassee my faves

Galatallahassee and Dayton Orient for me.

this should almost be a poll

That's awesome. The comments thread just goes on and on - Galatasaraleigh-Durham, Denverbahce, Trabzonsportland

Brooklynverness Caledonian Thistle

the guardian podcast has a preview of this weekend's final today, predictably they mostly make jokes and talk about Beckham

― fwiw: lol iirc sb'd u tbqh (dan m), Thursday, November 18, 2010 2:43 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

also inlcuded the american journalist talking about some hertofore unknown team called Wigan Wanderers.

I think he said Wycombe Wanderers

Wisconsin Wanderers?

d'oh. sorry leander
xp

Just use your fucking hands, nobody cares about this shitty championship

fuck dallas with a duck phallus

And the league's worst nightmare comes true, shitbox Colorado hangs on to win, though it was deserved. The playoffs aren't going anywhere but let's hope that they at least play at the home stadium of one of the finalists from now on.

Now we wait for the expansion draft.

it had to be an own goal to decide the mls cup!
actually this game was fairly entertaining, thought a brawl was about to erupt for most of it.

apparently zakuani is off to train with everton...

fuck dallas with a duck phallus

Can we nick that for the SPL thread title next year if our head of refereeing development hasn't been dunted out of office please?

By all means. Dallas hate knows no bounds.

Different Dallas, same hate.

(I suspect we won't be nicking it, but if I remember I'll be nominating it as a suggestion anyway)

Anyone feeling particularly masochistic in learning about the details of MLS expansion would probably be interested in the expansion draft:

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/mls-releases-unprotected-list-expansion-draft

also lol arsenal

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/colorado-rapids-clinch-first-mls-title

Collins John we hardly knew ye

Also the Quakes released Geovanni? That might be a good pick up for the right team.

i wonder if he's too expensive
or maybe it's a personality thing

the consensus on the internet seems to be he wanted 3 years at too much money

How many professional sportspeople are there in the US? I ask because I'm watching Crawley Town right now, whom the commentator has just told us are a full-time club - iirc even in the mls the lower-paid guys have to have second jobs.

What's it like in other sports? Are there professional leagues below NBA, NFL etc?

Crawley are possibly the 100th biggest club in England

There are lower leagues for hockey and baseball for sure, those are probably the closest analogies to the futbol pyramid. Those will have a mix of actual full professionals and part-timers. I know the most about hockey, so for example the Chicago Wolves play in the American Hockey League, and are a "farm team" for the Atlanta Thrashers of the NHL, so they might send good players up when the Thrashers need back-up, or develop prospects that are too young for the big time.

Basketball and throwball not so much, although the college ranks take up a lot of that slack. But you won't find a journeyman nose tackle bouncing around the Southern Football Association or whatever.

portland y u so srs

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_cm7dPnQPGv4/TPfxojqQK2I/AAAAAAAABqc/vamCqjgzIMI/s1600/NoPity2.jpg

^^^actually met that dude once, very weird to see him building-sized

sean johnson on the gen ad trip to spain:

http://www.chicago-fire.com/news/2010/12/skyping-sean-spain

new fugly houston kits:

http://i51.tinypic.com/2dtuqrm.jpg

a long article about qatar and the us BUT
i liked this, about halfway down, for a solution for DC United and an idea for a national stadium:

I suggest that US Soccer and MLS join together in an effort to build a National Stadium. We need an American Wembley; our own Azteca; a Stars-and-Stripes version of the Stade de France. Sure, there are other nations that rotate their national team matches through a list of stadiums within (and outside) their borders, something the US seems content to do now and into the future. But wouldn’t it be special to have a single venue that would over the years see history made for our national team on a regular basis? It can be done, and it should be done.

I propose that the location for the US National Soccer Stadium should be close to our nation's capital, maybe even on the site of that raccoon-infested dinosaur RFK Stadium. Having it close to the Eastern Seaboard population metropolis is paramount (sorry fellow west-coasters) to ensuring a strong representation of supporters at every match. Being in the shadows of the District lends an air of credibility to the outside world that our stadium truly represents our country.

...With the next World Cup hosting opportunity still years away, get US Soccer and MLS working together to design and build a soccer stadium of modest proportions that could serve as the new home for DC United. Something in size smaller than your typical NFL stadium but somewhat greater than Red Bull Arena or PPL Park for the near term usage of Major League Soccer’s most decorated (and currently most underappreciated) franchise. Additionally, use the stadium for international friendly matches, the occasional US Open Cup and MLS Cup Final, and for various US Men’s and Women’s National Team qualifiers. Along with adding to the list of new MLS stadiums, build a following among US supporters that the National Stadium is the epicenter of American soccer.

cool idea, won't happen

think it's pretty clear that the gov't doesn't want to build anything for DCU in the capital, hence the rumors they'll move to Baltimore

Are there professional leagues below NBA, NFL etc?

basketball has a long history of 2nd divisions, some pretty entertaining. the will farell movie Semi-Pro touches on it a bit. now they have the d-league. it's basically the equivalent of the reserves in england, owned by an NBA team, but they play in smaller cities. that league was just set up a few years ago. mostly the NBA uses colleges to do scouting, grooming, teaching fundamentals. it's still how most players get noticed. this works for the nba because they don't have to spend much beyond scouting for the draft.

the NFL mostly relies on colleges as well. there are thousands of college american football players. again, the colleges sift through and promote the best players. it's up to the NFL to draft. there is arena football and cfl (canadian) and UFL, all very minor leagues. guys get paid but not a lot. very very rarely does a player come up through those ranks to make the NFL. they end up in those small leagues beacuase they're NFL castoffs, not aspiring players no one knows anything about.

as dan mentions above, hockey and baseball are the closest in model to soccer. i don't know anything about hockey, but i know baseball has a loooong development curve. kids drafted at 17-18 can sometimes take up to 7 years to make it to the big leagues.

the system is similar to what english football is like: mlb=the premiership, AAA=the championship, AA=league 1, A=league 2 etc. One key difference is that the MLB team owns the player all the way up through the system. players aren't sold on from smaller leagues. instead, they start at the bottom and work their way up with similarly-aged players. in that way it's a bit like u-17, u-19, reserves. another major difference is that kids in AA may make 12k a year, while the minimum at MLB level is 400k a year. vast gaps. and those young guys do sometimes still need to get jobs in the off-season.

MLB even has developmental academies similar to what you'd find in england. they're located in venezuela, the dominican replublic, etc. kids start as early as 16.

Fuck DC btw.

while we're in dreamin mode look what these jokesters in miami want to do http://football-miami-n-beyond.blogspot.com/2010/12/miami-marine-stadium-new-soccer-stadium.html

http://i55.tinypic.com/10wi06f.jpg

hm, 2 MLS teams in Florida have already failed