Major League Soccer

All reports indicate the league decided this by flipping a coin

god i love mls

on a serious note it really sucks that this of all seasons is the year it's been mostly impossible for me to go to dcu games - they've been incredible (and there's something deeply funny about eddie johnson sort of being a liability to that)

yeah they got chris rolfe from chicago and he's been his same old self again, must have just needed a change of scenery (I heard he wanted out pretty badly + the fire wanted to dump salary)

kudos to dc for sticking with ben olsen long enough for his plan to come together, it's too bad the fire didn't keep frank klopas around long enough for him to get there

rolfe broke his arm, probably out for a month or so :(

(or maybe he can use the cast as a weapon a la "cowboy" bob orton)

dang, that sucks, but that's the other side of rolfe -- he's good for at least one month+ injury break every year

haha:
During pregame tifo setup, the capos on the stand started jawing at the New York players as is the norm for any team coming through the tunnel. One of the capos started calling Thierry Henry "Captain Handball", and he and Henry "chirped back and forth for like a minute" according to the capo. Apparently Petke came back up the tunnel and started screaming "Hey! Hey! F**K YOU!" while pointing at the capo. Petke continued his tantrum by saying "You're all scumbags! You'll never amount to anything!" before going back down the tunnel to the locker rooms.

lol petke

the comments on that post imply that petke might have been pissed off about the water on the field - i was watching the game saturday and it was hard for me not to think of that 2012 playoff game against dc, when nyrb famously did the bare minimum to get the snow cleared off the field before kickoff. if they don't get angrier about field conditions than every other mls team combined, they certainly don't do anything to dispel that reputation.

usoc woo btw

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BxtADcFIIAE_Vys.png

3 former Fire players in that Seattle lineup u_u

David Villa on $60k lol

http://www.mlsplayers.org/images/September%2015%202014%20Salary%20Information%20-%20Alphabetical.pdf

Also Chivas USA suspends operations for 2015-2016 ;_;

Say whaaaaat

http://www.si.com/soccer/planet-futbol/2014/09/30/chivas-usa-ownership-mls-vincent-tan-henry-nguyen-peter-guber-tom-penn-la

ho boy

http://www.si.com/soccer/planet-futbol/2014/10/01/thierry-henry-new-york-red-bulls-mls-premier-league-uefa-concussions

interesting talk here too: henry is not re-signing and red bull is not sticking with their team/stadium long-term

they really needed this

http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i/?img=/photo/2014/1008/soc_newcrewlogo_600x600.jpg&w=738&site=espnfc

so much better!

Dear Members and Loyal Supporters:

The D.C. United Front Office has unilaterally decided to only allocate 200 tickets in the 100 Sections to La Barra Brava for the 2014 Playoffs.

This is a significant change from past years where we sold tickets across Sections 135, 136, 137, and 138 into the 200's and even the 300s. For comparison purposes we sold in excess of 800 tickets for the 2012 Playoffs and regularly sell more than 200 tickets for regular season matches.
Sections 137 and 138 will no longer be Supporter Sections for the 2014 Playoffs.

welp this'll end well

Eeesh. Although, and I fully accept I could be wrong about this, but doesn't Barra Brava resell tickets at a markup? Or only to people who purchase a membership in the group? I know I've heard some members of other DCU groups complain about that practice.

face value for those tickets is $35. barra's single-game prices are $26 members/$31 guests/$35 non-members, vs $30/$35 day of game for screaming eagles (eagles prices may be lower now too - iirc those prices reflect the recent ticket price adjustments)

barra isn't exactly the most, er, transparent SG you're ever going to find, but i was a member when i lived in dc, and i never felt like it was overly shady or anything. somebody pointed out that the barra overflow sections are not currently on sale on ticketmaster as single tickets, so there may be more to this story. (barra's official speculation is that "the Front Office believes that their actions will encourage members to purchase season tickets next year")

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Playoff-Tickets-On-Sale-Now---Only-200-Tickets-Available---Must-Read-Announcement.html?soid=1104748327734&aid=GoZe1rBPayk

this is the full announcement btw

should also point out that i've necessarily been out of the loop the last couple seasons, so there very well could be something shady happening here - nonetheless this seems like a weird way to stage-manage it

'sup shield!

so fun and lolsome
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b8xdaNDXek

RIP Chivas USA

so, Bradley Wright-Phillips then?

He has worked out better than Luke Rodgers.

http://twitter.com/AaronQ13Fox/status/526962202096697344/photo/1

hmm http://twitter.com/AaronQ13Fox/status/526962202096697344/photo/1

LOL LAFC ownership

http://partners.lafc.com/#Leadership

includes Vincent Tan, Magic Johnson, Mia Hamm, and like 19 other people

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B1eVzgMCEAAvCey.jpg

terrible game yesterday, but lmao @ whoever brought the nycfc season ticket banner

heh heh heh

I haven't been paying too close attention to the playoffs myself, Fire missing out for the 4th out of 5 years has taken care of that. I actually hope DC does well because if they can turn things around that quickly maybe there's hope for Chicago too.

http://www.howlermagazine.com/stinger-san-antonio-subversive-mascot-globalization/

I loled

I saw Adrian hanauer (sounders gm) speak at this little event today. biggest note: he was very clear that MLS won't be a top league in 10 years time. We know that, but officials don't usually say it, sticking to garber's line or whatever about 2022. hanauer said, "in a generation, maybe, maybe, we'll be a top 4 league." more realistic than garber

imo they ought to be worrying about passing liga mx in quality/popularity before even talking about "top" status

For some reason this reminded me: Do you guys know who T3d W3st3rv3lt is by any chance?

I know the name.

huh, coincidentally this comes out, pretty good https://sports.vice.com/article/puppet-killer-one-mans-controversial-twitter-quest-to-save-american-soccer

http://soccergods.com/2014/11/19/mls-salaries-low-cba-negotiations/

If we look at the Daily Mail’s data on average attendance in the world’s major soccer leagues, MLS ranks eighth, with a healthy 19,149 attendees per game (6,185,127 total, annually). This puts the league below only the Bundesliga, Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Liga MX, Ligue 1 and the Eredivisie – all big leagues that existed in a strong capacity before the rise of MLS.

Compare that to the league’s average salaries, here. Look long enough and you’ll see MLS down at 22nd, behind the Superliga of Denmark, Premiership of Scotland and Super League in Greece. If you compare the two studies, you can easily see that MLS dwarfs those leagues in attendance. Comparing ticket prices for games won’t do anything to diminish that fact.

KEANO

Lando?

Doesn't matter I h8 MLS.

Only good thing is after tomorrow we don't have to hear about Landycakes.

Yeah a lot of the reporting surrounding him started to take on a messiah-esque tone.

This is the best thing to come out of yesterday's final:

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/B4WQ70fIEAMN0cl.jpg

Doesn't matter I h8 MLS.

― dan m, 08 December 2014 02:13 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I dont know if youre kidding or not but is this a general feeling of dissatisfaction with the league or just pissed off cos your team are doing so badly?

Mostly kidding, but yeah, general dissatisfaction with a lot of the bullshit the league pulls on the regular including, but not limited to:

-repression of non-league media for legitimate criticism
-completely fucked single entity structure and the ways it screws players, especially young American players
-tacit approval of absentee, non-spending owners (Chicago, New England until very recently, Colorado, Chivas USA until that cancer was excised, etc)
-Calvinball rules on player acquisitions, especially high-profile players

I still watch the Fire, argue/speculate online, am and a fan in general but mustering enthusiasm becomes harder and harder with both terrible results and further exposition of just how bogus a lot of league actions are.

Also the players' union CBA is up for renegotiation this year and I won't be surprised at all if there's a lockout/stoppage.

xp - dan, i can't really argue with any of that - so much of the weird financial shit seemingly exists just to ensure margins (or, uh, "parity" - and bear in mind that i even feel pretty squeamish about the results of that as a dc fan)

i do wonder how much the players union is going to be able to accomplish this time, up to the point of wondering whether a strike might actually be a necessary evil - they aren't even going to try to dissolve the single-entity structure, which seems like the primary thing that keeps the wage structure so unbalanced and unfair at this point. i don't know if raising the salary cap is going to accomplish anything given the way DP money is structured, and i doubt raising the minimum even to the mid-five figures (!) is going to do all that much without legit free agency

Fire should be signing this guy in the coming days, which will definitely pick up my interest for next year...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qy4JfHDtu4

Have heard a current MLS coach, not with the Fire, describe him as "Dominic Oduro Who Can Shoot".