Major League Soccer

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.

Sigi seems to be slightly hamstrung by the "big club" noise around him in Seattle. When he was at Cbus he was lord & master of that team, had absolute power to bring in his own players and build the way he wanted. I don't think that's quite the case in the PNW.

And, at any rate, fuck 'em.

For all the hype it was kind of a dull match last night between PDX and SEA. Liked Alonso finally getting caught for being a dirty player, seems like that should have happened a long time ago. Couldn't understand Sigi's strategy at all, anky u must be upset.

And then there's this:

WINTER BREAK
Major League Soccer is inching closer to adopting a European-like schedule that could be implemented by the start of the 2014 season.

The plan, which has the full support of FIFA, the sport’s governing body, would have the MLS season begin play in either late July or early August and include a six- to eight-week winter break. The championship would either be played in late May or early June. The MLS season currently begins in March and runs until the championship match in the first week of December.

MLS Commissioner Don Garber has been considering adopting the calendar used in Europe for several years but talks have intensified in recent weeks, according to a league source. The move would also placate FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who has been an outspoken — and often unfair — critic of the country’s fastest growing professional league.

“It would be better for U.S. soccer, and specifically also for the (United States)national team,” Blatter once said. “And the popularity inside the country.”

Most European domestic leagues begin in late August and end in early May. A winter break is necessary for the MLS since it has franchises in several cites — including Chicago and Toronto — where playing matches in December and March is a risky proposition.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/soccer/isola-futbol-monday-bad-sign-real-madrid-bale-article-1.1484559#ixzz2hi598Co0

Going to be an insane final week. http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2013/10/21/playoff-shield-scenarios-heading-final-week-2013-regular-season

http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/2013/10/25/mls-opportunity-lost-once-again-no-simultaneous-kickoffs-for-final-match-day/

^otm

Sounders were lucky to win vs Crapids last night imho. Looking forward to tonight's game. So relaxing to watch w/ no team in it.

FRANK YALLOP announced as new Fire head coach this morning btw.

that portland/seattle game is gonna be something, huh

dcu declined their 2014 option on de rosario, which isn't totally surprising (at roughly $700k iirc) - still i'm kinda getting resigned to the fact that they're not spending money until the stadium gets built

Pathetic crowd at Houston for this playoff.

Houston's comeback surprised me.

very good article despite being from buzzfeed

http://www.buzzfeed.com/djpeisner/the-low-budget-high-pressure-life-of-an-mls-rookie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np1JCxG_xvA