Major League Soccer

Portland played that same game vs the Fire and shut them down very effectively earlier in the season, good to see someone is calling them on it, at least.

I didn't get a pic with Ian Taylor at our supporters match yesterday, but he did swap shirts with one of our players and I snapped this one: pic.twitter.com/lUaXtUgp

Also, our referee got his red card autographed: pic.twitter.com/Mizt5xDo

Final score was Fire 2-4 AV, we were up 2-0 in the first half so instead of trying to run through the lines Taylor just started pinging in amazing through balls and their players got on the end of a couple. Also, they had a Princeton U women's player in goal who was apparently on her way for a trial with Aston Villa Ladies. She made two amazing saves to keep them ahead. Good time, I got sunburnt and we all drank a bunch of beer afterwards.

taylor shirt pic: http://t.co/lUaXtUgp

taylor red card pic: http://t.co/Mizt5xDo

btw the real avfc beat the real fire 1-0 in a boring-ass game

You'll always be the real Villa v Fire to me Dan. Did you take the field yourself, or were you twelfth man?

Nope, we had more players than needed and I am terrible.

San Antonio must be getting big if they're getting a turn with Jeff Cunningham!

http://sanantonioscorpions.com/team-news/item/355-scorpions-add-mls-all-time-leading-goal-scorer-jeff-cunningham

tiiiiiight
we had 10,500 show up for our last home game

coulda been from $4 flashback ticket prices, but it's only slightly above average

Red Bulls are getting Tim Cahill from Everton. I know he's been injured of late but I'm still surprised he's coming over.

That is surprising

Given this move and others by New York and most every other team in the entire f'n league I am more than slightly annoyed with the Fire for doing nothing in this transfer period. They did technically sign a player, but everyone has known he's been coming since before the season started so it's not a surprise or a significant change. In fact, there are now two highly paid, important midfielders who are either on the outs or already out plus a third who they're letting ride out his contract and will likely leave for free at the end of the year.

Normally I don't get too down on club mgmt because this is still a fledgling league and times are tough all over but I'm getting to the "wtf" stage now.

question: is standing pat better or worse than trading for Julian De Guzman?

depends on how much money he gets

he's a designated player this year and I think it's the last year of his contract; I think he's getting around $1.5 million or something that stupid. Don't imagine Dallas would be interested in paying DP wages for him going forward.

what can I expect from Jeff Cunningham? he's only a few years removed from some quality play, but I know a fwe years can change everything in terms of productivity.

http://www.chicago-fire.com/news/2012/07/chicago-fire-sign-dutch-striker-sherjill-macdonald

This has been rumored for a while, most fans are not so hot on the guy but we'll see I guess.

Also the practice of giving players DP contracts in order to pay transfer fees is kind of stupid imo. Fire already have one of those sitting on the bench.

http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/story/_/id/8194367/mls-hopes-build-national-profile-roger-bennett

A Handler campaign deployed on ESPN2 during the Euro 2012 clash between Italy and England turned the subsequent Portland-Seattle match into the third-most viewed MLS regular-season game of all time with 888,000 people tuning in.

worked for me, those timber fans made me a believer

srsly those wacky pacific northwest hipsters going apeshit was infectious

MLS starters: Nielsen, Beitashour, Collin, DeMerit, Morrow, Alonso, Beckham, De Rosario, Donovan, Henry, Wondolowski

Not really sure why I'm gonna watch this... Other than hoping Osvaldo Alonso breaks John Terry's bones, somehow.

recording this

may possibly watch a replay.

i'll watch some. why not, it's fun.

more importantly though, wtf: Sources tell FOX Soccer that Tim Cahill's NY Red Bulls contract is 3.5 years, at $3.5 million per season.

interview with san antonio prez and also the head of refereeing in the usa

http://pitchinvasion.net/blog/2012/07/26/14514/

cool! thanks for that.
I know that there were (and still are some lingering) doubts about hartman's (owner) scorpions succeeding, especially since the spurs were trying to start a USLpro team simultaneously and there was feeling that bc of their success in the NBA, they'd be better suited to eventually get a team to the MLS. but they did some bogus things wrt to stadium and Hartman has been able to get enough private investors to get a SSS going by next year. I don't know if this is a surebet to get into the MLS, though. seems like MLS is in search of more tv ratings and SA won't help that v much (though we do have e largest local market share of any professional team in the country w the spurs iirc).

oh hai more sounders cast-offs that's cool I guess

always my least favorite sounders too, how does that work

Ljungberg had some good games here but the team was in such disarray that it didn't matter a whole lot. With the way they're set up now I can see Fernandez being a good replacement for Pappa when he finally goes. Still seems like a good creative central mid would have been a better move. If Fernandez comes to play the collective game I think they're trying to instill he could be very successful, and I won't deny it's good that they made a move for someone successful. I'm actually kind of surprised Seattle wanted to get rid of him.

hoo boy, just got back from a lopsided scorpions win, 8-0 against Carolina. Pablo campos scored fuckin four goals, he's an absolute beast of a striker.
I'm interested to see attendance figs, didn't seem like the 10,500 we drew last week, but I could've been deceived.

cool rendition http://deadspin.com/5929877/this-is-the-worst-national-anthem-rendition-ever

attendance was a shade over 7000, which is among the lowest turnouts for our club this season (but would still be the highest turnout of any other NASL club).

we got fucking JOBBED

5 mins of stoppage turns into 8 & SJ ties it on the last kick of the game, how magical

There was definitely some home cooking after the deserved sending off.

As a neutral, it was an amazing game to watch. Not a lot of midfield play, but both teams were able to move it to the attack very quickly and to great effect. Also didn't get too chippy or cheap until late on, which is rarely the case these days in MLS.

Chicago looks good Dan - much better than their showing in New York would indicate. Sean Johnson last night was as good a display of goalkeeping as I've seen in quite some time.

Johnson is riding a great streak right now, can't remember if his contract is up after this year or next. He's gotta be Euro-bound eventually.

Shalllllllllriiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeee to the fake goats = lol

Toronto fc really cleaned house against Aguila in concacaf champs league, huh

aguila, club of eternal fire fan inside joke defender deris UMANZOR http://www.neogeoforlife.com/images/smiley/rock.gif

(he sucks bad)

hope tfc got the goals out of their system and got nice & tired 'cause they're coming to chicago this weekend

salaries updated: http://www.mlsplayers.org/files/August%201,%202012%20Salary%20Information%20-%20By%20Club.pdf

I looooove the raucous Portland fans

what a sick strike from jewsbury

i've hated the lakers, angels, raiders, rams, usc, and ucla for so long. but all i care about now is soccer. the galaxy fit.

nice night. 60k, 4-0, 80°. hell yes.

I hate the Anaheim Ducks.

Seattle was impressive last night, but man the one thing missing in the whole equation is GRASS.

The Fire newcomers Fernandez and MacDonald handled themselves well on Saturday, both had very good chances to score but couldn't quite put it away. TFC is SO BAD though, it's really incredible. Poor guys finished with 9 men on the field too.

I watched that Fire/TFC game on MLS Live last night and it was pretty brutal. As you said Dan, TFC is horrid, though I have to say Chicago still needs better finishing. Hell, the whole league needs better finishing. So much buildup petered out around the 18 yard box. I think MacDonald looked pretty good though, and as he rounds into shape and gains rapport with the midfield Chicago will be dangerous. Chance to make some noise in the East playoffs if they don't gift teams goals like that one the other night.

Sean Johnson is quickly becoming special - forcing that save onto the post was something. A little luck, but strong fingers nonetheless.

Watching last Friday's Houston - New York game. The new Houston stadium is nice! And close to downtown. FC Dallas has a nice home but it's over 30 miles from the city center, with zero mass transit infrastructure. Appalling.

Appalling. might as well be DFW's tagline

Hey! I'm finding a lot to like in Dallas. Though the car culture and dead downtown are disheartening.

sorry, obligated to hate Dallas as a rule. my wife is from dfw (euless) and its aight.

have you been out to frisco for a game?

meant to say, as a San Antonio native, obligated to hate....etc

btw, SA drew over 10000 last night in a loss to puerto rico
hope don garber watching this shit

Sadly, I haven't, though I hope to go this fall. Had tickets for a spring game but had to give them away when I had to travel out of town. Sure as hell won't be going out there in this heat. I haven't acclimated at all and I can't get used to it being 100 at 9pm.

I think the funniest thing I've found talking to people all over Texas is that no matter what one town thinks of another, everyone agrees Houston sucks.