Major League Soccer

Can I say that it looks good to have an 18-team league? Not exactly representative of the whole of both countries, but finally starting to fill out a bit.

Few surprises so far, and I did I just hear one of the ESPN dudes say Houston was trying to sign David Suazo and/or Gio Dos Santos?

i'd heard that a while ago about dos santos. hope it happens

i thought i'd read that salgado to vancouver wouldn't happen because he's not 18 and couldn't live in canada. but he'd lived in mex before...dunno, maybe they coveredd that. i'm just waking/catching up. oh alexi lalas, what a voice to wake up to

Yeah, and Twellman hosting?

Fire took the combine MVP, defender Jalil Anibaba. The talking heads have said he's the one guy in the first round that could step up and challenge for first team minutes. Dunno if I believe he's the *only* one, but hearing him referred to as "the Tim Ream of this year's draft" sits just fine with me.

Oh and I think it wasn't Salgado that couldn't live in Canada, it was the #2 pick, Nagebe? Not sure.

anibaba in front of sean johnson, seems like a good young start up the middle. der i am going to start liking the fire if i'm not careful

glad miley cyrus party in the usa is playing in the background. this SUPERdraft is like a party yall

I was lollin to myself when they said the Fire were on the clock and the crowd (sounds like mostly Philly fans) responded with a chorus of boos.

lol talking about john rooney and chad barrett in the same conversation, barrett has always been the rooney lookalike

25 New York Red Bulls [R2 trade 4] John Rooney Midfielder Macclesfield Town

http://images.mirror.co.uk/upl/m3/jun2008/6/2/4E71867A-BCFE-D483-BC25C74894D956AB.jpg

I'm sort of halfassedly listening to the MLS audio of the last round of the draft and almost wishing for Lolas back... these guys are beyond awful.

Rooney:

“They’re definitely one of the most well-known MLS teams in England. When people think about the league, they think about New York Red Bulls. They’re a super big team, the club is amazing. I’m so proud that they picked me,’’ Rooney said. “They’re well known all over the world; New York Red Bulls, a massive club. I’m just so proud that they picked me.’’

http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/soccer...OKPXPfReHA84TK

^^^is any of this true

The NY Red Bulls are probably the only MLS club that people know In France, if they know one. Thanks Thierry Henry!

And I guess it's safe to say that being the club from NY makes it more likely that people have heard of it, rather than a team coming from Columbus or San José, which people are probably incapable of placing on a map of the US.

All in all tbh I have no clue if any of this is true tho ^^

I just needed to type something to look busy at work.

haha

Full List of Draftees

Odds on who makes it big? With so many Akron players you'd think one of them would be destined for something.

Boring old Omar Salgado apart, that kicks off with a splendid run of names. I'll pick Demetrius Amphroy or Anthony Ampaipitakwong for the big time. Not John Rooney.

OK I was really optimistic when he came but Nery Castillo sucked it up here and I'm glad he is on the way out the door.

The myth of attractive football

not, y'know, totally right, but still, it's a start, i like
http://i.imgur.com/YYVhe.png

waaaaaaay too many dallas fans represented there

also fuck rapids fans in missoula

yaaaaaaay we get our own transfer rumor drama!

Charlie Davies is allegedly moving to DC United on loan.

red bulls looking to sign anelka

They should target Domenech as coach

Parity is a problem for MLS

You really want a promotion / relegation system if you're going to allow an elite to emerge. There is an excitement in battling for survival, there is an excitement in battling to gain (re-)admission into the promised land*. I can't see the attraction of watching a losing team bump along the bottom of a division year after year.

Also this is highly questionable: "The same holds true for fans attending matches. As Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski laid bare in their book, "Soccernomics," England's first division lived through an era of relative parity from 1949 to 1968, when it witnessed 11 different teams win the league in 20 years. However, over that span, stadium attendance fell from 18 million to 15 million visitors per season. From 1989 through 2009, when just six teams won it, and when Manchester United won it 10 times, attendance increased from 8 million to 13 million fans per year at a time when, the authors point out, "people had many more choices of how to spend their free time."

They chose two twenty year slices, separated by 20 years. What happened in the middle slice? Seven teams won the title, and (according to their own figures, which I haven't bothered to check) figures attendances fell from 15 million to 8 million. This doesn't invalidate their point, particularly since attractiveness to a television audience is more important economically than a full stadium, but it does suggest that there are forces at work other than competition / parity.

*My football team was relegated from the entire Football League a few years back, after many years narrowly avoiding that relegation. A fair few of our supporters will tell you that the five years we spent in the non-League, battling to get "back where we belong" in the 92 league clubs, were their happiest footballing times. That's in no small part because we weren't bloody losing all the time!

Nearly the whole of that book is like that. It's maddening because you suspect that most of what they say is correct, but it's so easy to pick apart their examples. Most of our threads are probably more rigorous.

The whole league-parity thing is such an NFL-style pursuit. Dominant teams are more about coaching and careful construction than just buying up good players. I really don't think promotion and relegation would work here, the businesspeople who back the league wouldn't go for it unless it was guaranteed to make them money. And then it really isn't relegation, is it?

A single league table is definitely necessary, on the other hand. Playoffs are exciting but they don't tell the true story of the season imo. Let the playoffs be for CONCACAF champions league qualification.

more about league money

http://www.socceramerica.com/article/41202/adidas-deal-supersedes-all-else.html

Dominant teams are more about coaching and careful construction than just buying up good players.

A successful team can be built through careful construction etc - a dominant club (i.e. one whose success continues through the assembly and break up of multiple successful teams) is going to be a rich club. They might get to be rich by being successful and well-run or they might get to be rich through the injection of cash from outside.

I tend to agree that promotion / relegation won't be acceptable the MLS, which is why some attempt at parity seems a reasonable choice - I don't know much about the NFL: is NFL-style necessarily a bad thing?

Due to the salary cap, the rich clubs (LA, NY, Seattle) can only get a leg up in paying for coaching, facilities, etc. They can't buy like crazy and a portion of the money they make from transfers goes back to the league. There is a huge maze of regulations. The league even mandates which hotels the teams stay at to keep things even (unless you've got a Beckham on your team).

I don't think NFL-style is a bad thing necessarily, because after all they've been hugely successful. There is a large contingent of US soccer fans who despise MLS as low class and not European enough, and going for an NFL model isn't going to make them come around.

houston's getting a new stadium, looks killer

http://vimeo.com/19614275

Jose Mourinho Would Struggle in MLS

if Andy Gray were American

no kidding

I wish the season would fuckin' start already so I could pay attention to something other than this kind of crap.

writer conveniently doesnt mention mourinho´s success with porto

yeah he gets called out in the comments

the home of the Fire this morning, aka the reason that a european-style season schedule probably wouldn't work over here

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/180652_10150135150344789_20210009788_8120786_5977252_n.jpg

(the 2011 schedule was released today, btw: http://www.mlssoccer.com/schedule)

just use an orange ball and you'll be fine

Effing hell. I booked a two week spell in the states, visiting FOUR cities with MLS teams (NY, Philadephia, Columbus, Chicago) and none will be playing at home while I'm in town. Damn.

xp it was also -4 F this morning, with windchill to -20something, I don't think many people would show up to a match!

dcu signed charlie davies, could be amazing if he can regain his old form

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/dc-united-acquire-charlie-davies-11

Are you going to submit a ballot to the 'player of the decade' poll, Dan? Would be most interested to see your perspective.

why not