Major League Soccer

yeah, yet another old DM is exactly what has kept NY trophyless all this time

Stephen Ireland will fix that, dude's a born winner.

Most improved player according to the stats crunched by whoscoredotcom

http://vimeo.com/38961384

not in the guardian this week but one of my homies is there instead, fucking loving that our inside-joke-laden group of drunk goofballs is getting quoted and linked to from such an outlet

Need to find ILF an outlet next.

The Guardian's starting to go for MLS in a big way, there's even been a MBM or two.

http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2012/0305/soc_g_backe_576.jpg

xp I think they're doing MBM on the nationally-televised games? anything on ESPN, TSN, NBC etc?

more GET PUMPED video for our home opener 2 weeks after everyone else

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxRhCTCY1a0

fuck u NE revs, you had months to scrub those football lines off

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

jimmy conrad and some british guy like our tifo (about 1 minute in)

ahahahahahahah wrong video although that one is totally awesome

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2aHsIhJnKs

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/mar/30/mls-le-toux-philadelphia-union-vancouver

Back at it again for Fire v Colorado. Also, just learned that Luke Rodgers got his visa denied and NYRB cancelled his contract.

getting ready to head out to united/dallas - united's really gone out of their way to get a big crowd for tv tonight; hopefully it'll be awesome and chaotic and fun

Excellent! I may be attending the Fire @ DC game in late summer, working on a weeklong eastern vacation swing.

have fun GYA! i will be watching from the west coast shortly. and then girding myself for 42 degrees and rain for sounders/SJ tomorrow

Should I go see Galaxy vs New England tomorrow night? y/n? I have never been to an MLS game but I am feeling the lack of live football.

i vote yes

http://www.ifc.com/portlandia/videos/portlandia-timbers

i hope "please please win, meow meow meow" catches on

Good goal by Santos for DC there.

lovely.

Horrible defending by DC there.

getting ready to start paying attention to this thread as i am moving to a north american city that has an mls team in the summer. unfortunately that mls team is the whitecaps.

Oh well done you - this means your trip went well?

yup,basically going as soon as i can get a visa sorted :)

Huge congrats from me, matey.

whitecaps might be no good, but it should be good fun. i really want to go to vancouver soon. congrats and good luck with the move.

thanks guys. yeah i'll def go to some games anyway, cheapest tickets are as cheap as you can get to a scottish premiership game for anyway. might be interesting to follow a team that's a minnow in their league. also i at least know one player in the team fairly well, barry robson used to play for celtic and is joining in july. one thing that intrigued me during my trip to the pacific northwest was that in portland i saw a lot more about the timbers (billboards, signs in bar windows etc.) than i did about their other sports teams. wondering if that actually reflects its popularity there or if that's just the result of a publicity push?

Think the Portland Trailblazers (NBA) are really well supported iirc

Horrible defending by DC there.

yeah - they're very young, and they're gonna make a million mistakes defensively this year

attack looks strong though finally - deleon was a real find, and i think they've settled on a role for de rosario

last night was a fun game, if not a particularly big crowd - anybody heading to a game at rfk, ping me via this thread and we'll make you feel more than welcome in lot 8 before the game

portland only has nba and mls for top tier teams. think both are very well supported but there probably is a lot of publicity for the timbers since they are new.

Welcome to Cascadia, jim!

the portland support is genuine. they've basically sold out their stadium for the season, so the billboards are to bump tv ratings, or just for general peception. portland (like seattle and vancouver) are new to MLS but have a glorious history dating back to the 70s and NASL. portland's always supported their teams well, they just haven't had many teams to root for, just basketball. and their stadium has what might be the best atmosphere in the league.

vancouver is a fun team this year imo. poor at the back and deadly up front, like 4-5 of the best attackers in the league. this will get anyone excited https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8Vfdx7LEh4

try to get to a vancouver vs. seattle or portland game. or toronto. those will have the best atmosphere. congrats on the job and welcome.

whoa a seattle fan being complimentary of portland, don't see that too often on these here internets ;)

and congratulations, jim, great to have another ilxor getting into the league

toronto v cbus is dullllll but I'm watching on a borrowed MLS live streaming account and holy shit the picture is nice

vancouver is a fun team this year imo. poor at the back...

i must have been stuck on last year's vancouver because right now they are an hour away from a record, longest season start w/o allowing a goal.

Demerit being healthy probably making a big difference there.

san jose bossing the game against seattle in the heritage cup (is this still a thing?) after they took a 1-0 lead from a dubious off the ball penalty.

The Timbers v. RSL game was all over the place. Timbers should have had a man sent off on that penalty, and RSL steals the win at the very end. Karma in full effect.

Nagbe's secong goal agains RSL was nice, but it highligted Rimando's non goalkeeperesque physique.
4 shutouts on the bounce for vancouver, and 4 wins for KC, are they actually good?

That's exactly what I thought on the Nagbe goal.

Fire were dire last night, looks like there's no real plan b beyond "get the ball to Oduro while he sprints past the defense". Back line was caught standing still too many times.

I don't know what to make of FCDallas right now. Missing a bunch of players for that Olympic qualifying tourney, but the effort and hustle that defined them last year has been lacking all season. Brek Shea is completely burned out too; every US national team for both main and Olympic squads, and that loan to Arsenal for training, means he hasn't had much time to recover in over a year. A lot to put on a young kid and it's showing in his form thus far.

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/306609_10150619088536990_553651989_9740449_176575268_n.jpg

Timbers fans atop an apartment building overlooking their home field celebrate a goal.

Superb!

http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/1110/major-league-soccer/2012/04/04/3012934/mccarthys-musings-continued-setbacks-prompt-questions-about

^^^decent article on the challenges facing FCD that EZ alluded to

Shipping out Chavez was a bad move. I'm assuming he was upset with the idea of maybe not seeing regular playing time, but he added something to the team last year.

They looked tired and out of sync against DC in the last fixture, and sadly I assume that will be the same tomorrow vs. New England. They couldn't feed the attacking talent from the midfield, so they just started hoofing it from the back. On top of that, except for Blas Prez who looks great, Shea and Villar have left a lot to be desired.

I have a cup of coffee riding on tomorrow's game so I hope they come through.

I won a cup of coffee! Late, late game winner from a free kick.

Honestly, New England deserved a point. Pretty evenly matched, though I think FCD had the better opportunities. I hope Villar and George John don't miss much time. Never good to see a player carried off or obviously concussed from a short range blast of a shot.

It was the first game Shea and Castillo took advantage of their speed down the outsides. Very dangerous when teams can't load up to face only one side or the other.

a litte 5 weeks in western conference analysis why not

chivas - they've got tarps now, things look hurt. team wins though? look like scrubs but hey Ws
sj - nfw are they best in the west but this is a start
vancouver - story of the season if not for 20 godawful minutes saturday
la galaxy - lol
dallas - tired and out of sync. lucky and unlucky
rsl - class. grind games out when they don't have it, scary when they do have it
colorado - don't care
sounders - highs and lows. beat santos and a good houston team? sure. but then the blowout in mex & loss to sj and a 0-0. rosales is missed.
portland - i never know what to make of portland

the east afaict

kc - looking scarily good, esp wrt "grind it out" tendencies
ny - also looking quite good at least up front, d is still suspect imo
revs - maybe not as bad as the past couple years
cbus - not so hot, no offense to speak of and the rest of the team is just dull
philly - nowak's gonna get fired at this rate
montreal - typical expansion team, interesting to see what they're like when back on their real home field
houston - pretty much same as ever, strong but not overpowering
tfc - lol
fire - too early to say but if they can find another way to attack + stop being pushovers wrt hard tackles in the mid, I'll be more optimistic
dc - maybe not as bad as the past couple years

seems like the "east = least, west = best" meme of the preceding 2-3 seasons is beginning to shift again

also p sure I've posted this before but this site is key: http://settingthetable.info/

I think your observations are spot on Dan. I watched the MTL v TFC match this week and saw two things: that field is criminal and shouldn't be allowed. They should be playing every game on the road until they get a real field. Worked wonders for KC last year. Secondly, Toronto is horrible. Theywant to play a style that they don't have the players for, and there is zero trust between teammates at the back, midfield or going forward. Scary part is, that's na improvement over last year.

RSL again the best team to watch. Not the most talented, but a pleasure to see from end to end.

Thanks for the link to that site, too. Looks snazzy.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/opinion/2012/04/winless-toronto-fc-severely-limited-in-options.html

sound assessment of the lolz that is TFC