Major League Soccer

24 teams by 2020. Speculation on best bets is that Orlando (current USL-Pro team), Miami (Beckham), Atlanta (Falcons owner), Minny (Vikings owner), and San Antonio (Scorpions) are at the top of the heap.

must read by Wahl on the Dempsey xfer: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/soccer/news/20130805/clint-dempsey-seattle-sounders-mls/

lotsa people, including long-tenured MLS writers, raising srs questions on how this went down

it's pretty crazy and rather weird, to say the least. Nice piece from Wahl.

Understood none of that, but wow at salary

the league rules make it completely confusing but here's the important part:

A source connected to Seattle with detailed knowledge of the deal said Seattle's owners are paying Dempsey's $24 million in salary (at least the lion's share above the normal $368,750 covered by the league), but the league is covering the $9 million transfer fee. (A league official disputed that characterization without providing details.)

so in effect the league will pay xfer fees for players going to clubs that it deems worthy/in the league's best interest, but the mechanisms by which this happens are very very very vague, leading to many to claim they're making it up as they go & won't do the same for all clubs

this guy kinda sums it up http://bigquestionshow.com/2013/08/05/here-is-the-big-hole-in-the-mls-rules-that-dempseys-transfer-has-uncovered/

also Steven Goff (highly respected Washington Post soccer writer) has been tweeting extensively on it: https://twitter.com/SoccerInsider

Ok. I picked that up alright but didnt know how unusual that was in the context of the franchise setup.

a USMNT player that wasn’t a big-money, TV-needle-moving type like Jozy Altidore or Michael Bradley

these guys must be 3 and 4 after landon and clint no?

xp it's not illegal or anything, they're fully within their rights to do it... but it also has made people start making comparisons to WWE

another take on basically the same thing: http://deadspin.com/how-mls-made-sure-clint-dempsey-landed-in-seattle-1030615076

would think howard would be a big score as a returning player, seen a lot of rumors about jermaine jones as well. jozy & baby bradley would definitely make waves

joz and bradley would be bigger gets imo simply because they are younger.
i like the mls as wild west no rules kinda place run by one guy. it kinda fits into its current place in history as a still somewhat fledgling league, about to take off

http://www.businessofsoccer.com/2013/08/06/clint-dempsey-a-financial-decision/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QFdtc0Mv6E

RSL coach Jason Kreis on the Dempsey transfer drama

I think its a little suspect as to how the player was brought back, and I think its a little bit suspect that the league is helping one individual club in our league without giving any other clubs compensation

Oh hey Fire rolled over in the Open Cup semis tonight, no big deal, just sucking up the place horribly against a team they'd beaten 6-1 over two previous games in the league.

http://www.psmag.com/business-economics/my-economics-of-being-a-regular-professional-athlete-63770/

at least united's been playing a million times better since silva and doyle came onboard

on the bright side now i get to decide whether i want to go to the finals in...utah?

I'm going to refrain from posting offensive things about your mother and just say yes, you should go. Win or lose, you'll not regret being there.

http://www.chicago-fire.com/news/2013/08/after-long-negotiations-uruguayan-world-cup-veteran-arevalo-rios-excited-join-chicago-f

Excited about this guy, but man y u take so long to sign him, Fire?

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/999729_584599201591334_990553735_n.jpg

look dan we just don't stand for this kind of behavior in the city beautiful

http://shinguardian.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/salaries.png

brilliance here imo

http://www.bigsoccer.com/soccer/bill-archer/2013/08/08/what-the-deuce/

robbie bags a hat trick

http://www.chicago-fire.com/blog/post/2013/08/21/editorial-what-it-means-be-part-fire-family

o_O

pro tip for anyone in corporate communications: don't do that

like, irrespective of whether it's ignorant of soccer culture or not - the first thing i ever learned during my mercifully brief time in PR was "don't become the story"

shit's been on deadspin, the trib, sun-times, all over the f'n place, can't believe the dude still has his job. the ppl I know that work for the club say he's more or less just a mouthpiece for the owner at this point, falling on his sword for the man.

holy hell that was fun! 3rd highest attendance of the weekend(after manu, munich), http://twitter.com/blueeyedbuddha/status/371875290575691778/photo/1 , yedlin just ON his game, ej, lost my voice. so fucking cool to FILL an nfl stadium

HASHTAS SIXTYSEVENTHOUSAND

*HASHTAG

*parity

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18y5vpz3ujdcwjpg/ku-bigpic.jpg

haha!

This was on live here in the middle of the night - I recorded and watched up to the 89th minute, when my recording cut out. It was really pretty good all round. They should just turn the crowd noise right up imo & leave the commentators struggling to be heard.

I stayed up and watched for the hell of it, thought most of the match slightly dull and all games on turf have a bouncy-ball feel that never seems settled. I LOVED Lalas calling out Fire ownership in the halftime show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sclx_F_ED5E

http://levyllc.com/cascadia-dreams/

I watched and thought it was a pretty dreadful game of football. Timbers are toothless away from home. Having said that it was much less boring than the only other game I watched this weekend in the EPL...

Cool to see such a crowd in north america for a soccer game, and so close by to where I am, need to go down sometime.

segares

Dude had such a good game is what makes it so sad. His constant trolling of Rosales was lol.

Starting to really think there is too much internal drama with the Fire for them to be as good as they could be. Soumare went after a club staffer on Twitter after the staffer posted something about the handball.

will this work
http://www.soccercommercials.com/pictures/Eight.gif

absent relegation we need a loser's trophy. pass it back and forth between supporters groups. make it heavy and ugly so they can't wait to get rid of it. picture toronto fans watching this chivas dc game RAPT

Fans do the Supporters Shield, no reason there couldn't be a wooden spoon if ppl are willing to make it happen. Naming it would be fun.

i love it. it'd be apt if it were like, a weird broken grill you have to lug around to every tailgate or something

congrats govern yourself accordingly! hope you decided to make the trip, can't imagine what that must have been like for the DC supporters in attendance.

thanks! i couldn't go due to a crazy work project. i live in new york now and don't make it to many games, and missing this one really hurt. a ton of people made the trip though, including some district ultras guys who apparently DROVE from dc. i had to work late anyway, so i found a bar in midtown and made a fool of myself.

the win obviously doesn't accurately reflect how bad we've been this year, but we're a much different team with thorrington and neal healthy. they were an obvious nuisance for RSL to defend in the first half and it paid off. super happy this season didn't turn out to be a lost one after all.

This sums up the tournament rather well imo: http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/76533/we-went-there-the-100th-u-s-open-cup-final

Good article on the Fire's MVP this year http://soccer.si.com/2013/10/05/mike-magee-mvp-candidate-chicago-fire-mls/3/

http://www.sportsclubstats.com/USA/MLS.html

i believe that i am ready now for the sigi schmidt era to be over here in SEA. not this moment, but at the end of the season, regardless of what happens. i don't hate him (would rub that magic belly for luck if i could) but at some point it's best to move on, no matter the level of success. i think players tune out over time, hearing the same patterns, same admonitions, same rhetoric. imagine having the same lead instructor for even a year of college. no way you wouldn't tune him out on some level.

still need to say SIGI OUT in fine ilf tradition though right?

I have no idea what has happened the last few games. The defense was a sieve at home against Vancouver last night. It's such a weird collapse.