Major League Soccer

You really want a promotion / relegation system if you're going to allow an elite to emerge. There is an excitement in battling for survival, there is an excitement in battling to gain (re-)admission into the promised land*. I can't see the attraction of watching a losing team bump along the bottom of a division year after year.

Also this is highly questionable: "The same holds true for fans attending matches. As Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski laid bare in their book, "Soccernomics," England's first division lived through an era of relative parity from 1949 to 1968, when it witnessed 11 different teams win the league in 20 years. However, over that span, stadium attendance fell from 18 million to 15 million visitors per season. From 1989 through 2009, when just six teams won it, and when Manchester United won it 10 times, attendance increased from 8 million to 13 million fans per year at a time when, the authors point out, "people had many more choices of how to spend their free time."

They chose two twenty year slices, separated by 20 years. What happened in the middle slice? Seven teams won the title, and (according to their own figures, which I haven't bothered to check) figures attendances fell from 15 million to 8 million. This doesn't invalidate their point, particularly since attractiveness to a television audience is more important economically than a full stadium, but it does suggest that there are forces at work other than competition / parity.

*My football team was relegated from the entire Football League a few years back, after many years narrowly avoiding that relegation. A fair few of our supporters will tell you that the five years we spent in the non-League, battling to get "back where we belong" in the 92 league clubs, were their happiest footballing times. That's in no small part because we weren't bloody losing all the time!

Nearly the whole of that book is like that. It's maddening because you suspect that most of what they say is correct, but it's so easy to pick apart their examples. Most of our threads are probably more rigorous.

The whole league-parity thing is such an NFL-style pursuit. Dominant teams are more about coaching and careful construction than just buying up good players. I really don't think promotion and relegation would work here, the businesspeople who back the league wouldn't go for it unless it was guaranteed to make them money. And then it really isn't relegation, is it?

A single league table is definitely necessary, on the other hand. Playoffs are exciting but they don't tell the true story of the season imo. Let the playoffs be for CONCACAF champions league qualification.

more about league money

http://www.socceramerica.com/article/41202/adidas-deal-supersedes-all-else.html

Dominant teams are more about coaching and careful construction than just buying up good players.

A successful team can be built through careful construction etc - a dominant club (i.e. one whose success continues through the assembly and break up of multiple successful teams) is going to be a rich club. They might get to be rich by being successful and well-run or they might get to be rich through the injection of cash from outside.

I tend to agree that promotion / relegation won't be acceptable the MLS, which is why some attempt at parity seems a reasonable choice - I don't know much about the NFL: is NFL-style necessarily a bad thing?

Due to the salary cap, the rich clubs (LA, NY, Seattle) can only get a leg up in paying for coaching, facilities, etc. They can't buy like crazy and a portion of the money they make from transfers goes back to the league. There is a huge maze of regulations. The league even mandates which hotels the teams stay at to keep things even (unless you've got a Beckham on your team).

I don't think NFL-style is a bad thing necessarily, because after all they've been hugely successful. There is a large contingent of US soccer fans who despise MLS as low class and not European enough, and going for an NFL model isn't going to make them come around.

houston's getting a new stadium, looks killer

http://vimeo.com/19614275

Jose Mourinho Would Struggle in MLS

if Andy Gray were American

no kidding

I wish the season would fuckin' start already so I could pay attention to something other than this kind of crap.

writer conveniently doesnt mention mourinho´s success with porto

yeah he gets called out in the comments

the home of the Fire this morning, aka the reason that a european-style season schedule probably wouldn't work over here

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/180652_10150135150344789_20210009788_8120786_5977252_n.jpg

(the 2011 schedule was released today, btw: http://www.mlssoccer.com/schedule)

just use an orange ball and you'll be fine

Effing hell. I booked a two week spell in the states, visiting FOUR cities with MLS teams (NY, Philadephia, Columbus, Chicago) and none will be playing at home while I'm in town. Damn.

xp it was also -4 F this morning, with windchill to -20something, I don't think many people would show up to a match!

dcu signed charlie davies, could be amazing if he can regain his old form

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/dc-united-acquire-charlie-davies-11

Are you going to submit a ballot to the 'player of the decade' poll, Dan? Would be most interested to see your perspective.

why not

lol

http://theoffsiderules.blogspot.com/2011/02/open-position-dc-united-goalkeeper.html

ESPN UK (on Twitter): "Delighted to tell you we are showing MLS again this season. First game is Seattle Sounders versus LA Galaxy on Wednesday 16th March at 2:30am."

BIG TYME

i don't know where to put this, i want to start a stats thread but not right now, it was an american researcher and he did quantify some MLS, so why not put it here:

WSJ

The pace and flow of soccer generally make it difficult for managers to affect the outcome of a match once it begins. Since soccer has almost no stoppages for coaches to draw on clipboards or strategize with their players, a manager's most critical in-game decision may be choosing when to utilize his three substitutions.

That's where Bret Myers, a professor of management and operations at the Villanova School of Business, comes in. A lifelong soccer player and fan, he sought to help coaches make their subs at exactly the right moment and discovered what he calls the "Decision Rule."

To determine this, Dr. Myers analyzed the substitutions and ensuing results of every game played during the 2009-10 season in the top English, Spanish, Italian and German professional leagues, as well as the 2010 Major League Soccer season and the 2010 World Cup. He concluded that if their team is behind, managers should make the first substitution prior to the 58th minute, the second substitution prior to the 73rd minute and the third prior to the 79th minute. Teams that follow these guidelines improve—score at least one goal—roughly 36% of the time. Teams that don't follow the rule improve about 18.5% of the time. He noted 1,037 instances the rule could have been applied and found that managers abide by it a little less than half the time. He also found that the timing of subs has no effect on the team ahead in the score or if the match is tied.

Interesting that science bears out the "bring on the big lad after an hour" tactic.

http://www.portlandtimbers.com/news/2011/03/cascadia-summit-live-stream

first meeting of MLS versions of Portland and Seattle streaming now for free

portland might be decent?
sigi is hard to look at.

i liked the flares.

I'm loving this preseason, lots of free official streams. Fire v. Toronto right now.

lolwut

MLS UK - http://www.majorleaguesocceruk.com/
MLS France - http://www.mls-news.fr
MLS Italia - http://www.socceritalia.info/
MLS Brasil - http://mlsbr.wordpress.com/

http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/videos/66836/vancouver-whitecaps-promo-new-kit-by-painting-it-on-a-topless-model-video.html/attachment/vancouver

new iphone/android app available, supposed to be pretty good but I don't have one of those phones

http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/10/new-season-new-m-l-s-app/

here is a soccer thing to know.corner kicks,the ball goes out in your corner of the field then the other team kicks it in they can either pass to a goal bystander or shoot from the corner i hope that was helpfull bye

A bright future on Fox soccer awaits you.

tell me you're stoked for first kick

I'll be more stoked on Saturday.

my dad took me to the NASL sounders when i was four. tonight i get to return the favor and take him to his first MLS game

Nice. It's like when I saw Daglish managing Liverpool last week - he was on the field first game I ever saw as a five-year-old back in 1982.

the commish was at the Fire's season kickoff charity luncheon yesterday, shown here rocking one of our supporter scarves

http://section8chicago.com/images/fbfiles/images/garber_cf97.jpg

dude's a bit of a douche imo but damn that's a sharp scarf

nice feel good story here, a local kid went to the Fire open tryouts and appears to have made it onto the first team

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/soccer/4319651-419/pantazopoulos-makes-dream-team.html

classy tifo imo, rising sun flags
can we lool for a sec abt the ref spraypainting the 10 yd line? loved it
i am in an all cowbell sextion. who knew
should be 3-0 sounders

finishing!

they do the evaporating 10yd spray in mexico, imo glad it's here

sloppy goal by la but cmon keller

ok on replay maybe it wasn't such a sloppy goal

http://www.kmbc.com/r/27214722/detail.html

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco will be coming to Kansas City next week to tryout and train with the soccer team, Sporting KC officials tweeted on Wednesday.

lolwut

i see irish international striker caleb folan has gone to colorado rapids

Are there any major rivalries in MLS? How do they compare to, say, Liverpool-Man Utd, Arsenal-Spurs?

they're kinda manufactured since a lot of the teams are so new

Atlantic Cup — D.C. United vs New York Red Bulls
Brimstone Cup — Chicago Fire vs FC Dallas
California Clasico — Los Angeles Galaxy vs San Jose Earthquakes
Cascadia Cup — Seattle Sounders FC vs Portland Timbers vs Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Lamar Hunt Pioneer Cup, pre-season — Columbus Crew vs FC Dallas
Rocky Mountain Cup — Colorado Rapids vs Real Salt Lake
SuperClasico — Chivas USA vs Los Angeles Galaxy
Texas Derby — FC Dallas vs Houston Dynamo
Trillium Cup — Columbus Crew vs Toronto FC

None of them compare to Utd/Liverpool or other such rivalries, having not been around for generations.

Probably the biggest, starting this year, is the 3-way Seattle-Portland-Vancouver clusterfuck, due to their proximity and their history in other leagues over the past 30ish years.

NY-Philly-DC-New England is pretty big in a lot of ways, again because of proximity and all the other sports rivalries that exist between these cities. NY-DC hate is probably greatest in this one.

Chicago and Dallas used to be a huge rivalry back when there were fewer teams in the league, but has waned recently. Fire fans (of which I am one) basically hate everyone, but recent rivalries are biggest with Columbus (proximity) and New England (repeated playoff meetings).

Vancouver and Toronto (and Montreal when they enter the league) are going to be pretty big.

Columbus and Toronto is pretty dece.

The only true crosstown derby, LA/Chivas, is a rivalry, but is mostly hype-driven ime.

Dallas/Houston is pretty big too, being a Texas thing.

(afaik)

NY and New England not a rivalry, the supporters groups have been friendly for years! The DC part is for real, though.

Wait I thought you guys had like bottles thrown at you when you drove up to Foxboro that one time? Or was that in DC?