Major League Soccer

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

lol

http://theoffsiderules.blogspot.com/2011/02/open-position-dc-united-goalkeeper.html

ESPN UK (on Twitter): "Delighted to tell you we are showing MLS again this season. First game is Seattle Sounders versus LA Galaxy on Wednesday 16th March at 2:30am."

BIG TYME

i don't know where to put this, i want to start a stats thread but not right now, it was an american researcher and he did quantify some MLS, so why not put it here:

WSJ

The pace and flow of soccer generally make it difficult for managers to affect the outcome of a match once it begins. Since soccer has almost no stoppages for coaches to draw on clipboards or strategize with their players, a manager's most critical in-game decision may be choosing when to utilize his three substitutions.

That's where Bret Myers, a professor of management and operations at the Villanova School of Business, comes in. A lifelong soccer player and fan, he sought to help coaches make their subs at exactly the right moment and discovered what he calls the "Decision Rule."

To determine this, Dr. Myers analyzed the substitutions and ensuing results of every game played during the 2009-10 season in the top English, Spanish, Italian and German professional leagues, as well as the 2010 Major League Soccer season and the 2010 World Cup. He concluded that if their team is behind, managers should make the first substitution prior to the 58th minute, the second substitution prior to the 73rd minute and the third prior to the 79th minute. Teams that follow these guidelines improve—score at least one goal—roughly 36% of the time. Teams that don't follow the rule improve about 18.5% of the time. He noted 1,037 instances the rule could have been applied and found that managers abide by it a little less than half the time. He also found that the timing of subs has no effect on the team ahead in the score or if the match is tied.

Interesting that science bears out the "bring on the big lad after an hour" tactic.

http://www.portlandtimbers.com/news/2011/03/cascadia-summit-live-stream

first meeting of MLS versions of Portland and Seattle streaming now for free

portland might be decent?
sigi is hard to look at.

i liked the flares.

I'm loving this preseason, lots of free official streams. Fire v. Toronto right now.

lolwut

MLS UK - http://www.majorleaguesocceruk.com/
MLS France - http://www.mls-news.fr
MLS Italia - http://www.socceritalia.info/
MLS Brasil - http://mlsbr.wordpress.com/

http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/videos/66836/vancouver-whitecaps-promo-new-kit-by-painting-it-on-a-topless-model-video.html/attachment/vancouver

new iphone/android app available, supposed to be pretty good but I don't have one of those phones

http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/10/new-season-new-m-l-s-app/

here is a soccer thing to know.corner kicks,the ball goes out in your corner of the field then the other team kicks it in they can either pass to a goal bystander or shoot from the corner i hope that was helpfull bye

A bright future on Fox soccer awaits you.

tell me you're stoked for first kick

I'll be more stoked on Saturday.

my dad took me to the NASL sounders when i was four. tonight i get to return the favor and take him to his first MLS game

Nice. It's like when I saw Daglish managing Liverpool last week - he was on the field first game I ever saw as a five-year-old back in 1982.

the commish was at the Fire's season kickoff charity luncheon yesterday, shown here rocking one of our supporter scarves

http://section8chicago.com/images/fbfiles/images/garber_cf97.jpg

dude's a bit of a douche imo but damn that's a sharp scarf

nice feel good story here, a local kid went to the Fire open tryouts and appears to have made it onto the first team

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/soccer/4319651-419/pantazopoulos-makes-dream-team.html

classy tifo imo, rising sun flags
can we lool for a sec abt the ref spraypainting the 10 yd line? loved it
i am in an all cowbell sextion. who knew
should be 3-0 sounders

finishing!

they do the evaporating 10yd spray in mexico, imo glad it's here

sloppy goal by la but cmon keller

ok on replay maybe it wasn't such a sloppy goal

http://www.kmbc.com/r/27214722/detail.html

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco will be coming to Kansas City next week to tryout and train with the soccer team, Sporting KC officials tweeted on Wednesday.

lolwut

i see irish international striker caleb folan has gone to colorado rapids

Are there any major rivalries in MLS? How do they compare to, say, Liverpool-Man Utd, Arsenal-Spurs?

they're kinda manufactured since a lot of the teams are so new

Atlantic Cup — D.C. United vs New York Red Bulls
Brimstone Cup — Chicago Fire vs FC Dallas
California Clasico — Los Angeles Galaxy vs San Jose Earthquakes
Cascadia Cup — Seattle Sounders FC vs Portland Timbers vs Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Lamar Hunt Pioneer Cup, pre-season — Columbus Crew vs FC Dallas
Rocky Mountain Cup — Colorado Rapids vs Real Salt Lake
SuperClasico — Chivas USA vs Los Angeles Galaxy
Texas Derby — FC Dallas vs Houston Dynamo
Trillium Cup — Columbus Crew vs Toronto FC

None of them compare to Utd/Liverpool or other such rivalries, having not been around for generations.

Probably the biggest, starting this year, is the 3-way Seattle-Portland-Vancouver clusterfuck, due to their proximity and their history in other leagues over the past 30ish years.

NY-Philly-DC-New England is pretty big in a lot of ways, again because of proximity and all the other sports rivalries that exist between these cities. NY-DC hate is probably greatest in this one.

Chicago and Dallas used to be a huge rivalry back when there were fewer teams in the league, but has waned recently. Fire fans (of which I am one) basically hate everyone, but recent rivalries are biggest with Columbus (proximity) and New England (repeated playoff meetings).

Vancouver and Toronto (and Montreal when they enter the league) are going to be pretty big.

Columbus and Toronto is pretty dece.

The only true crosstown derby, LA/Chivas, is a rivalry, but is mostly hype-driven ime.

Dallas/Houston is pretty big too, being a Texas thing.

(afaik)

NY and New England not a rivalry, the supporters groups have been friendly for years! The DC part is for real, though.

Wait I thought you guys had like bottles thrown at you when you drove up to Foxboro that one time? Or was that in DC?

For anyone who's so inclined, a couple of Fire fans are producing a podcast starting this season.

http://hotmesscf97.podomatic.com/

Great humor, good analysis, a complete overview of where the team (and others around the league) are at the start of the new season.

Yah we did! But I think the climate has changed/different people are in charge of stuff/the people doing it weren't the main supporters club.

nobody goes to their games anyway lol

xp Would crosstown derbies work in the US if, say, Cosmos get off the ground? It doesn't seem to be a big deal in other sports e.g. I never hear about a Giants-Jets beef.

I am not a knowledgeable NFL fan, but afaik the Jets and Giants don't play each other because they're in separate conferences. I do know that Giants/Eagles is a huuuge rivalry.

Crosstown derbies could work though, imo, once there are some more teams. Gals/Chivas could be huge but the issue is that the Chivas branding tends to drive some fans away from their side. It definitely happens in other sports -- the baseball crosstown classic here in Chicago, Cubs/Sox, is always huge. The various California teams in other sports all hate each other, etc etc.

Jets and Giants could maybe meet in the playoffs? Dunno.

I'm not up on what's happening w the Cosmos name & future these days, but until maybe a year ago, it wasn't even clear that the NYC-area market could make ONE team really work, much less two. I would say we're a ways yet from having to worry about a cross-town derby.

There would DEFINITELY be people who'd join up for the Cosmos/any 2nd team just out of spite for Red Bull changing the name of the 1st team all those years ago -- a certain number of fans left after that who've never re-engaged, although some of them crumbled when the stadium opened.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpOnM4SHPO0

Cosmos got a bit of publicity here last week when Cantona did an interview with the bbc - our awful pundits were left open-mouthed when he named the Kung-Fu kick as the best moment of his career

They're the trolliest non-team in existence.