Major League Soccer

I admit it, I turned off Italy/Englande PKs to watch this ¯\(°_o)/¯

wau

espn ads making this out to be like celtic/rangers were a bit much

transfer window incoming:

Marco di Vaio- Montreal Impact (Bologna - Serie A)
Alex - Chicago Fire (FC Wohlen - Challenge League)
Barry Robson - Vancouver Whitecaps FC (Middlesbrough - The Championship)
Jairo Arrieta- Columbus Crew (Deportivo Saprissa – Primera División de Costa Rica)
Oscar Boniek Garcia- Houston Dynamo (C.D. Olimpia - Liga Nacional de Honduras)

not heard a lot of outgoing rumors besides geoff cameron -> stoke and marco pappa as mentioned above. the fire may also lose sebastian grazzini due to contract weirdness which would be a shame imo.

shevchenko rumors continue including 1.9m for 1 year with the fire. he scored some goals in ukraine last year but still I don't know if a 35yo forward is what we need exactly.

sounders-sj ustream is so fucked i'm watching some guy broadcasting from his phone. he and his buddy are commentating and singing along

haha just read a tweet from someone saying they were one of 450 people on some guy's iphone stream from the stands

if there was ever an indication of the relative nerdliness of american soccer fans, there you go

hha yeah lxy just now on the porch: "this guy broadcasting is such a soccer nerd, and this is the highlight of his fandom."

hoping Portland do well this year. their fans are something else.

DC United are fun to watch this year.

This SJ v LA game is nutso.

mls coming to queens?

Just watched a replay of the San Jose/Galaxy game. That was bonkers.

Nesta signing with Montreal hmm

http://i50.tinypic.com/snctxu.jpg

cynic in me is p sure that shirt swap was orchestrated by the league

stand up if you hate afternoon games

looks like DCU have some investors, finally. minority owners of philly 76ers?

my SA scorpions FC are nearly drawing as many fans per game as NE revolution
going to a game next Saturday, I'm stoked

Nice! Make sure and report back in.

seen internet rumblings about a summit between MLS and the lower leagues about setting something up for MLS reserve squads based on the Bundesliga model

no idea how true that is but it could be very awesome

what I mean by that is that reserve squads could take part in lower leagues and play every week instead of like 10 times a year

article on playing in MLS by former Fire midfielder Peter Lowry, pretty informative from an inside perspective

http://soccerwithoutlimits.com/mls-not-as-easy-as-it-looks

Thanks Dan. I've never thought much about the travel because all of our big sports have it. And the athleticism is a real good call.

yeah, i've only seen a couple MLS games (saw the sounders in seattle, dece operation you got there dudes) but just now watching youtube highlights of the RLS v LAG opener i was kinda struck by the work rate. looked like high school ball, in a good way? like chase those balls down, get into space, turn those corners over fast, etc.

i'd be very fine with mls being the hardest working league in the world /american

i yelled at chivas usa benchwarmer casey townsend tonight. that felt good. good enough to post about.

god damn mattocks climbed a ladder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuYuM5-D8oc

NY Cosmos to play in NASL next season huh

is this the way the world ends?

or does it mean that mn gets an mls slot???

Huh. Where are they gonna play? I didn't think they had anything but a name and a prayer.

Hofstra university apparently

That won't be a pian in the ass to get to on the weekends. No sir.

pian. me tpye well.

with the way the Don has been massaging this "stadium in flushing meadows" thing it makes me think they will do whatever it takes to get a reformed cosmos into the league, despite attractive options in like orlando, san antonio, mpls, etc

MLS just hustlin for ratings at this point
I don't live in an MLS market, do teams typically get local cable coverage on TV ala fox sports networks?

yeah, there is a league wide requirement that every match be available in HD

of course in chicago that means that some of them are only available on the NBC 5.2 over the air channel, just home games though

I'm watching last nights Toronto/Vancouver match and the work rate comments up thread are spot on. The effort and desire far outweigh the skill but it's completely enjoyable nonetheless.

I think that's why this years Dallas team bugs me so much. Last year they were never out worked; this year that happens nearly every game.

So the only player in the Toronto game who wasn't busting his balls gets traded to Dallas? Oh joy. At least the chance of Julain De Guzman being a designated player after his contract ends this offseason is about zero.

or Julian even.

guy has been a disappointment afaik for TFC, but then again that's kind of what happens when you bring in a DP defensive mid to a team with a majority of terrible players

whoa

I'm helping organize a supporters match between Fire and Aston Villa fans to take place before the friendly between the two clubs next weekend, and I just found out that the Villa fans will be lining up alongside Ian Taylor

not fair!

Wow! good luck with that, Dan! (I'm a Villa fan, by the way)

Thanks! I likely won't be playing -- even without an Ian Taylor there's still quite a few very experienced players on our side. We have a ringer or two up our sleeves as well, potentially including a certain guy from Chicago with MLS and EPL experience who used to wear #20...

nice. And sneaky.

Hold on - this deserves to be big news in ilf world, like when Martin Keown turned up at Ronan's five-a-sides. You've got to get on the pitch Dan, maybe even throw in a reducer on the ex-pro.

Haha well, maybe. I really suck, though! I'll be at the match for sure so I'll definitely get pictures.

I guess I should have criticized FC Dallas for their effort earlier than this week! Busted their butts all game and got their first road victory of the year.

k so this summer is when I find the sport to give a big sht abt when basketball isn't on, so now I have a bunch of dumb noob questions.
-how does MLS compare to first division leagues around the world? I know it doesn't rate alongside EPL or la liga, or bundesliga, or serie a, so what is its rep exactly?
-is the MLS planning to expand to ~30 teams a la every American sports league or will they cool off at about 24 or so?
-T or F: soccer will become a major professional sport in America

I have more, I don't want to overload yall

imo:

1. english 2nd division is seen as a rough equivalent quality-wise. aside from a few plastic turf fields the stadiums are all pretty much on par. the real difference is player salaries.
2. according to what I've read, not right away. some kind of 'mls 2' lower division development is probably more likely.
3. it already is a major sport, it's just that our domestic game isn't the thing most people follow.

Grant Wahl ‏@GrantWahl

Vancouver Whitecaps announce signing of Scotland captain Kenny Miller.

Poor Vancouver