Major League Soccer

pretty light on information for the die-hards, but I <3 that this is front-page news this morning, albeit on the commuter paper:

http://www.redeyechicago.com/sports/ct-red-arne-friedrich-soccer-20120415,0,1646560.story

http://www.xiquarterly.com/

a couple of friends are wrapped up in trying to start a quarterly north american soccer mag in the vein (I think) of the blizzard. in the interests of good taste I'll skip posting the direct kickstarter link but take a look at their page and decide for yourself if you think it'd be cool.

I think it's a good idea. If I can scrape up some funds before the kickstarter closes I'll chip in.

yeah, i love pitch invasion, and this is way up my alley - backed hard

http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/soccer/poor+sport+North+America/6449707/story.html

Major League Soccer players aren’t exactly laughing all the way to the bank, despite the huge salaries paid to high-profile designated players like David Beckham and Thierry Henry.

MLS ranks a distant last among the five major pro sports leagues in North America, with an average salary ranging from $100,000 to $150,000 because of the fluid movement on rosters, especially early in the season.

The National Basketball Association topped the list in 2010-11 with an average salary of $5.15 million, followed by Major League Baseball ($3.31 million), the National Hockey League ($2.4 million) and the National Football League ($1.9 million).

very ready for the first game in 2 weeks, fuck a bye

also debuting a new scarf today:

https://p.twimg.com/AqhjtzRCIAAQgvW.jpg

that scarf is awesome!

http://wrongsideofthepond.com/2012/04/16/exclusive-chris-rolfe-on-the-move-again/

I can't even describe how happy this makes me

also quite proud to have taken part in this

http://gay4soccer.com/2012/04/16/amazing-chicago-tifo-celebrating-diversity/

so windy the tifo tore and match ended up getting called off. fuck sake.

also good gesture obv, don't get much of that kind of thing in football unfortunately.

dan m, that's beautiful in every way

more pics and explanation here: http://1863.pitchinvasion.net/post/21209409471/fire-diversity-strength

that tifo was awesome - great job

Hejduk's retirement and that of Chivas USA keeper Zach Thornton leaves Ramiro Corrales as the only active player from MLS's launch season in 1996.

lol tfc
lol nyrb

seattle comin' to town this weekend

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/653363695/xi-quarterly

^^^mission accomplished

(btw I have no connection to this other than being friends with a couple of these guys... genuinely happy for them)

Nasty elbow dislocation/break in the Dallas/RSL game. Carlos Rodriguez got kicked as he was going down (not dirty at all, bad luck) and his forearm and upper arm don't meet correctly as he rolls over on his back. Nasty.

that was awful , joe theisman but arm kind of replay

130 ecs trveling to chi

You comin' with? I saw a pic the other day of Sounders fans from Michigan with a banner that said "Third Coast Supporters" or something like that. Made be sad because 1. I'm from MI originally and 2. they only used the Lower Peninsula of the state (I'm from the Upper half).

I hear from FO contacts the squad is fired up and wants revenge for the USOC final last year. Hoping so...

i wish. gonna be in LA. end of this season?/next season i'm going to hit some away games

more usmnt than mls, but i REALLY want to go to the qualifier in antigua in october

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/577677_429523570409111_148619311832873_1579778_805922964_n.jpg

"Tell me, Frankie... How's the Portillo's up the way on Harlem Ave.? They got good malts? I love a good malt."

when does the babby drop

wow, I hate Michael Kennedy

seriously that game would have been pretty even if not for him, smh

we are snakebitten v seattle afaict

always a joy to beat chicago

― harl (harlan), Saturday, April 9, 2011 4:42 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the american soccer history archives

http://jezebel.com/5906805/major-league-soccer-blowhard-says-female-die+hard-fans-are-so-not-hot

I already couldn't stand Simon Borg, now he's dead to me

also

We've made too many compromises already; too many retreats. They invade our space and we fall back. They assimilate entire worlds and we fall back. Not again. The line must be drawn here! This far, no further! And I will make them pay for what they've done!

what a fucking asshole

http://womenunitedfc.com/blog/2012/05/wufcvsborg-the-world-is-speaking-with-us-for-us/

great response

Borg suspended

peter wilt ‏ @PeterWilt1

RT @Aljarov: TFC food for thought: BRFC Mgr Steve Kean won 26.15% of games. Aron Winter? won 14.28% of MLS league games. Lost = 50%!

http://www.youtube.com/v/c-LBveiBYgY

^new houston stadium tour

with the new place coming in this year, it's pretty interesting to look back at the evolution of new MLS stadiums and how the templates have changed

http://www.insidesocal.com/soccer/BarackGalaxy.jpeg

Not a lot of chat here lately? Fire took down SKC the other night in a pretty epic game, one of the more fun ones I've been to in a while. West teams still look stronger overall but LA, Chivas, Portland are all stumbling pretty hard. Open Cup round 1 starts today. Looking forward to traveling to Cbus on Memorial Day weekend & to SKC at the end of June.

Have you done away trips before? Are they fun, do you have to make a weekend of it?

I notice Montreal are attracting insanely large crowds - how can this be, did the club have an existence in some other form before this year?

Montreal was an NASL team before this season.

Presumably not drawing 40,00+ in the nasl though (what was that, even? An indoor league?)

what? doesn't their stadium hold around 10K?

nm xp, I looked it up - a rival league still seems kinda odd concept to me though

it's supposed to be a level below, like the championship in england, althought with promotion and relegation this doesn't make much sense.

They were playing in a 13,000 seat stadium (which is being expanded to 20,000, which is why they're in Olympic Stadium at the moment). NASL is the 2nd tier North American league, and the Montreal team has been around for 20 years.

xposts, obv.

*without*
xp

Have you done away trips before? Are they fun, do you have to make a weekend of it?

I've traveled to Columbus, Toronto, KC, NYC, and Seattle for Fire games, around 15 times total. It's great fun, best way to solidify fandom and meet a lot of people. The distances involved force making a weekend or multi-day trip out of it, which in places like NYC and Toronto is awesome. Seattle I did a < 24hr turnaround but it could probably be good too. Columbus and KC are where I've been the most and are boring as shit.

(I know saying KC and Cbus are boring doesn't really jive with being excited to travel there, but away days are fun no matter what.)

also sort of half-lolling at this

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/soccer/mls/redbullny/story/2012-05-12/red-bull-wilman-conde-arrested/54920454/1

Conde was one of the best defenders in the league w/ the Fire and NYRB coveted him for a long time. Now they've gotten him and he's an injured basket case. Must be that jersey one of our guys buried under their stadium.