Major League Soccer

Huge congrats from me, matey.

whitecaps might be no good, but it should be good fun. i really want to go to vancouver soon. congrats and good luck with the move.

thanks guys. yeah i'll def go to some games anyway, cheapest tickets are as cheap as you can get to a scottish premiership game for anyway. might be interesting to follow a team that's a minnow in their league. also i at least know one player in the team fairly well, barry robson used to play for celtic and is joining in july. one thing that intrigued me during my trip to the pacific northwest was that in portland i saw a lot more about the timbers (billboards, signs in bar windows etc.) than i did about their other sports teams. wondering if that actually reflects its popularity there or if that's just the result of a publicity push?

Think the Portland Trailblazers (NBA) are really well supported iirc

Horrible defending by DC there.

yeah - they're very young, and they're gonna make a million mistakes defensively this year

attack looks strong though finally - deleon was a real find, and i think they've settled on a role for de rosario

last night was a fun game, if not a particularly big crowd - anybody heading to a game at rfk, ping me via this thread and we'll make you feel more than welcome in lot 8 before the game

portland only has nba and mls for top tier teams. think both are very well supported but there probably is a lot of publicity for the timbers since they are new.

Welcome to Cascadia, jim!

the portland support is genuine. they've basically sold out their stadium for the season, so the billboards are to bump tv ratings, or just for general peception. portland (like seattle and vancouver) are new to MLS but have a glorious history dating back to the 70s and NASL. portland's always supported their teams well, they just haven't had many teams to root for, just basketball. and their stadium has what might be the best atmosphere in the league.

vancouver is a fun team this year imo. poor at the back and deadly up front, like 4-5 of the best attackers in the league. this will get anyone excited https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8Vfdx7LEh4

try to get to a vancouver vs. seattle or portland game. or toronto. those will have the best atmosphere. congrats on the job and welcome.

whoa a seattle fan being complimentary of portland, don't see that too often on these here internets ;)

and congratulations, jim, great to have another ilxor getting into the league

toronto v cbus is dullllll but I'm watching on a borrowed MLS live streaming account and holy shit the picture is nice

vancouver is a fun team this year imo. poor at the back...

i must have been stuck on last year's vancouver because right now they are an hour away from a record, longest season start w/o allowing a goal.

Demerit being healthy probably making a big difference there.

san jose bossing the game against seattle in the heritage cup (is this still a thing?) after they took a 1-0 lead from a dubious off the ball penalty.

The Timbers v. RSL game was all over the place. Timbers should have had a man sent off on that penalty, and RSL steals the win at the very end. Karma in full effect.

Nagbe's secong goal agains RSL was nice, but it highligted Rimando's non goalkeeperesque physique.
4 shutouts on the bounce for vancouver, and 4 wins for KC, are they actually good?

That's exactly what I thought on the Nagbe goal.

Fire were dire last night, looks like there's no real plan b beyond "get the ball to Oduro while he sprints past the defense". Back line was caught standing still too many times.

I don't know what to make of FCDallas right now. Missing a bunch of players for that Olympic qualifying tourney, but the effort and hustle that defined them last year has been lacking all season. Brek Shea is completely burned out too; every US national team for both main and Olympic squads, and that loan to Arsenal for training, means he hasn't had much time to recover in over a year. A lot to put on a young kid and it's showing in his form thus far.

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/306609_10150619088536990_553651989_9740449_176575268_n.jpg

Timbers fans atop an apartment building overlooking their home field celebrate a goal.

Superb!

http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/1110/major-league-soccer/2012/04/04/3012934/mccarthys-musings-continued-setbacks-prompt-questions-about

^^^decent article on the challenges facing FCD that EZ alluded to

Shipping out Chavez was a bad move. I'm assuming he was upset with the idea of maybe not seeing regular playing time, but he added something to the team last year.

They looked tired and out of sync against DC in the last fixture, and sadly I assume that will be the same tomorrow vs. New England. They couldn't feed the attacking talent from the midfield, so they just started hoofing it from the back. On top of that, except for Blas Prez who looks great, Shea and Villar have left a lot to be desired.

I have a cup of coffee riding on tomorrow's game so I hope they come through.

I won a cup of coffee! Late, late game winner from a free kick.

Honestly, New England deserved a point. Pretty evenly matched, though I think FCD had the better opportunities. I hope Villar and George John don't miss much time. Never good to see a player carried off or obviously concussed from a short range blast of a shot.

It was the first game Shea and Castillo took advantage of their speed down the outsides. Very dangerous when teams can't load up to face only one side or the other.

a litte 5 weeks in western conference analysis why not

chivas - they've got tarps now, things look hurt. team wins though? look like scrubs but hey Ws
sj - nfw are they best in the west but this is a start
vancouver - story of the season if not for 20 godawful minutes saturday
la galaxy - lol
dallas - tired and out of sync. lucky and unlucky
rsl - class. grind games out when they don't have it, scary when they do have it
colorado - don't care
sounders - highs and lows. beat santos and a good houston team? sure. but then the blowout in mex & loss to sj and a 0-0. rosales is missed.
portland - i never know what to make of portland

the east afaict

kc - looking scarily good, esp wrt "grind it out" tendencies
ny - also looking quite good at least up front, d is still suspect imo
revs - maybe not as bad as the past couple years
cbus - not so hot, no offense to speak of and the rest of the team is just dull
philly - nowak's gonna get fired at this rate
montreal - typical expansion team, interesting to see what they're like when back on their real home field
houston - pretty much same as ever, strong but not overpowering
tfc - lol
fire - too early to say but if they can find another way to attack + stop being pushovers wrt hard tackles in the mid, I'll be more optimistic
dc - maybe not as bad as the past couple years

seems like the "east = least, west = best" meme of the preceding 2-3 seasons is beginning to shift again

also p sure I've posted this before but this site is key: http://settingthetable.info/

I think your observations are spot on Dan. I watched the MTL v TFC match this week and saw two things: that field is criminal and shouldn't be allowed. They should be playing every game on the road until they get a real field. Worked wonders for KC last year. Secondly, Toronto is horrible. Theywant to play a style that they don't have the players for, and there is zero trust between teammates at the back, midfield or going forward. Scary part is, that's na improvement over last year.

RSL again the best team to watch. Not the most talented, but a pleasure to see from end to end.

Thanks for the link to that site, too. Looks snazzy.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/opinion/2012/04/winless-toronto-fc-severely-limited-in-options.html

sound assessment of the lolz that is TFC

no options and no hope and no better than when they started. Well done TFC!

sortable single table standings? i'm in. thx for the link

pretty light on information for the die-hards, but I <3 that this is front-page news this morning, albeit on the commuter paper:

http://www.redeyechicago.com/sports/ct-red-arne-friedrich-soccer-20120415,0,1646560.story

http://www.xiquarterly.com/

a couple of friends are wrapped up in trying to start a quarterly north american soccer mag in the vein (I think) of the blizzard. in the interests of good taste I'll skip posting the direct kickstarter link but take a look at their page and decide for yourself if you think it'd be cool.

I think it's a good idea. If I can scrape up some funds before the kickstarter closes I'll chip in.

yeah, i love pitch invasion, and this is way up my alley - backed hard

http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/soccer/poor+sport+North+America/6449707/story.html

Major League Soccer players aren’t exactly laughing all the way to the bank, despite the huge salaries paid to high-profile designated players like David Beckham and Thierry Henry.

MLS ranks a distant last among the five major pro sports leagues in North America, with an average salary ranging from $100,000 to $150,000 because of the fluid movement on rosters, especially early in the season.

The National Basketball Association topped the list in 2010-11 with an average salary of $5.15 million, followed by Major League Baseball ($3.31 million), the National Hockey League ($2.4 million) and the National Football League ($1.9 million).

very ready for the first game in 2 weeks, fuck a bye

also debuting a new scarf today:

https://p.twimg.com/AqhjtzRCIAAQgvW.jpg

that scarf is awesome!

http://wrongsideofthepond.com/2012/04/16/exclusive-chris-rolfe-on-the-move-again/

I can't even describe how happy this makes me

also quite proud to have taken part in this

http://gay4soccer.com/2012/04/16/amazing-chicago-tifo-celebrating-diversity/

so windy the tifo tore and match ended up getting called off. fuck sake.

also good gesture obv, don't get much of that kind of thing in football unfortunately.

dan m, that's beautiful in every way

more pics and explanation here: http://1863.pitchinvasion.net/post/21209409471/fire-diversity-strength

that tifo was awesome - great job

Hejduk's retirement and that of Chivas USA keeper Zach Thornton leaves Ramiro Corrales as the only active player from MLS's launch season in 1996.

lol tfc
lol nyrb

seattle comin' to town this weekend

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/653363695/xi-quarterly

^^^mission accomplished

(btw I have no connection to this other than being friends with a couple of these guys... genuinely happy for them)

Nasty elbow dislocation/break in the Dallas/RSL game. Carlos Rodriguez got kicked as he was going down (not dirty at all, bad luck) and his forearm and upper arm don't meet correctly as he rolls over on his back. Nasty.

that was awful , joe theisman but arm kind of replay

130 ecs trveling to chi

You comin' with? I saw a pic the other day of Sounders fans from Michigan with a banner that said "Third Coast Supporters" or something like that. Made be sad because 1. I'm from MI originally and 2. they only used the Lower Peninsula of the state (I'm from the Upper half).

I hear from FO contacts the squad is fired up and wants revenge for the USOC final last year. Hoping so...

i wish. gonna be in LA. end of this season?/next season i'm going to hit some away games

more usmnt than mls, but i REALLY want to go to the qualifier in antigua in october