Major League Soccer

Why this goalie again? Why don't they have a full roster? How can teams not know Accam is fast as hell?

Lol I yelled that at Seb Hines when he gaffed on that. The dick.

https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/podcasts/fading-embers-the-blizzard-podcast-episode-thirty/

Interesting take on the Fire's woes, only misses the mark on a few minor points.

http://i64.tinypic.com/69dpus.jpg

if you can you should see incident that drew the whitecaps first penalty Saturday night. a guy trips over his own feet in the box, the defender is about a meter away, penalty awarded. mls officiating at its finest!

whitecaps and sounders are both bad this year so far. 1-2 and 0-3 respectively. whitecaps had, I think, the best defence in mls last season, have so far conceded 6 goals in 3 games.

http://www.espnfc.com/major-league-soccer/19/blog/post/2826676/2016-mls-anonymous-player-poll

really interesting survey of mls players on a range of topics related to the league

pro/rel truthers getting all hip on us

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CeVsay7WAAIVXxq.jpg

promotion/relegation would really make the league a lot more interesting. never going to happen though.

it'd be a kick in the pants to the fire's ownership for sure but I doubt they (and a lot of other owners) would even be in the game if there was a chance their little investments could *gasp* lose and be devalued!

anybody got an NWSL team near them? we have the Pride too. I think I'm taking my mother to their home opener and she loves Alex Morgan. I'm so glad we have this.

lol we done fucked Portland's shit up

they had an assload of supporters at this one. gotta say they were loyal, stuck around to the final whistle.

san antonio fc got off to a good start popping off sounders 2, 3-0. i think my son is old enough to go to a game, or at least part of one, so im gonna try to to go to some this year.

do it! lotta kids at the match tonight despite late hour and they all looked like they were havin a great time.

I kinda wanna check out our USL team but Brevard is kinda far.

whitecaps have yet to score from open play in 5 matches.

The league is streaming its first ever match, 20 years ago today, to the minute: http://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2016/04/06/san-jose-clash-vs-dc-united-april-6-1996

Interesting stuff, there's some additional commentary/coverage that's pretty good too.

Wish they'd put more effort into stuff like this and less into banning people over bullshit: http://dcist.com/2016/04/dc_united_facing_fan_mutiny_as_supp.php

fuuuuck u dejong

not exactly surprising imo

https://sports.vice.com/en_us/article/behind-the-scenes-of-mlss-efforts-to-improve-officiating

God I'm not expecting like Premier League levels of flash and quality but jesus christ this DC United-Toronto match is abysmal.

there's a foul every 10 seconds, and Johnson just basically intentionally grabbed and climbed on an opponent's back and bitched when he got whistled.

nobody is holding possession for more than 3 seconds, just a series of errant volleys back and forth.

might have to change to another match (MLS Live)

orange ball yayuh

nobody is holding possession for more than 3 seconds, just a series of errant volleys back and forth.

sounds like pretty much every fire game of the last, oh, 3-4 years at least

Lol. They were pretty good the match I saw in Chicago in 14.

I'm at the OC match a bit buzzed atm.

Pride starts tonight!

i do believe that is the fastest penalty i've seen

hah yeah that was hilarious.

originally I thought we got jobbed by the ref but while that last handball was a horseshit call, I don't think our second goal should have counted either. bleh. still off to a sloppy start this year despite only having one loss! Kaka and Ceren had nice matches tho.

wow Pride lookin sharp already. this is way more exciting than our men's team's match today.

Pride break the all-time attendance record at their home opener and win 3-1. that was dope. took my mother and she had a blast.

does every motherfuckin' franchise share the same cheers?

lol, yes there are a lot of the same songs (this is similar in Europe tbh)

The toronto v vancouver game yesterday was amazing. Van went ahead 2-0 ahead in half an hour, toronto pulled one back before half time and equalised shortly into the second half. Then with about half an hour to go vancouver scored two quick goals. They then had their left back sent off, conceded to make it 4-3 and just managed to hold off toronto pushing for an equaliser. It was a really dramatic game. Vancouver have won 3 games in a row after starting the season badly, and this was their first away win of the season plus first ever victory away to toronto in mls.

OCSC - SKC entertaining as hell, even though both backlines have been shambolic at times.

Joe Bendik having a helluva game at goal.

officiating has (for once) been mostly competent, other than letting play continue while Ceren was eating the grass in the box.

xpost I heard about that one! good - fuck Toronto.

http://m.bbc.com/sport/football/36352180

that's insane, and kinda shows you the level of parity in the league, considering how bad NYRB were not that long ago (I think they've found their form lately tho!)

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/may/24/antonio-conte-italians-mls-consequences?CMP=twt_a-sport_b-ussports_c-us_g-1

This has got people twisted today

Antonio Conte, the Italy national coach, has said that Italian players who move to MLS must “pay the consequences in footballing terms” – which means not being picked for international tournaments while he is coach.

Not surprising imo, also not gonna be surprising when Italy goes out in the group stage

I wouldn't say Italy are guaranteed not to advance from their group. Giovinco maybe could have added something to their squad, Pirlo definitely not - while Giovinco looks like Messi in mls Pirlo actually looks like garbage.

Oh yeah, I'm mainly just shit talking. Honestly I think it's good that people were asking Conte about leaving Giovinco out.

Gerrard not making much of an impact over there either from what I hear

More than Lampard!

Phuck Filly!

Also kinda :/ at being a fan of the hothead team

GOD...DAMMIT

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/us/off-pitch-the-dark-side-of-american-soccer-fan-culture-1.2721583?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=dlvr.it

Yup, this has caused quite a stir. Like any story, it hits the mark in some ways and misses it in others. The league commissioner said it never should have been published or some such bullshit.

I'm not too bothered by it because I know the truth about my involvement and how my friends operate, but I know there are a lot of people (primarily younger and dumber white males) out there for whom this cuts pretty deep, and with good reason. Most of them are sounding off in opposition to the article's point, of course, but maybe a few will think on it and make some changes in the way they do their business? Or maybe not.

It's also a small piece of evidence of the game/league coming to greater and greater prominence -- if someone writes a clickbait-y "hit piece" about something, they know they're going to pull in eyeballs.

Absolutely terrible article and the writer himself is erasing all the Latinx SGs and all the other absolutely soccer-mad immigrant groups throughout NYC.

Snarky response although not a perfect rebuttal: http://www.firsttouchonline.com/the-dark-side-of-ridiculous/

The ESC has a whole section of their site devoted to Spanish language news & commentary!
http://www.empiresupportersclub.com/espanol/

The site also features this statement (and always has):

The ESC exists to support our team and to support each other, however, the ESC is against racism, religious intolerance, political demonstration, and violence on the grounds. We believe there is no place in football/soccer for these evils of society and will not tolerate our members engaging in this type of behavior. If your goal is to further one of these causes then ESC is not for you.

hmm, it's a pretty bad article. the anglophilic fetishization of english fan culture is definitely something ive observed from vancouver and seattle fans, and the culture being aped is def "problematic" - 80s casuals were extremely violent and the political bent tended to be racist/fascistic. it seems awful to me when I see Vancouver fans with a "casuals" flag because a) they are middle-class and soft, and have no actual connection to the culture, and are enamored with the image of something that existed in another continent 30 years ago (their idea of casual fashion is adidas trainers and fred perry shirts, it's a snapshot to a different time). games are non-segregated and even against the local rivals there seems to be no attempt to start agro. i sat in the middle of traveling seattle fans at bc place once cheering for Vancouver with my friend in a Whitecaps scarf, none of the supposed "hardcore" gave a shit. i would literally have been punched in the face if sat with opposition fans openly backing my team at a game back home (Scotland).

the fans simulacra of old school british football culture doesn't seem to be focused on the right-wing and violent aspect of English football fandom at all. In Vancouver, the only MLS city i can speak to with any sort of authority, there is a pretty sizeable lesbian contingent to the active fanbase. and despite being a city with a relatively small latin population one of the main fan groups openly apes the barra bravas of south america. the fanbase also seems overwhelmingly non-political, and non-threatening in a middle-class fashion.

it should also be noted that cock sparrer are not a right-wing oi band and the people who the song calls to put up against the wall and shoot are record executives.

oh I forgot a B) back there. haha. was supposed to be after the and and before the have lol

Another point I feel is that without an established autochthonous football culture it is inevitable that MLS fandom will ape existing styles of support. The EPL is the preeminent football league in the world, many MLS supporters - maybe most - have an English team. Much easier to draw from this than Latin American football.

it should also be noted that cock sparrer are not a right-wing oi band and the people who the song calls to put up against the wall and shoot are record executives.

Now this is a sore point. ESC members are having a meltdown on discussion boards and social med over whether the section/capos should discontinue this song altogether. Personally I vote yes and I'm embarrassed for/by the NJ hardman types who call it "giving in to political correctness" or any variation thereof.

Absolutely terrible article and the writer himself is erasing all the Latinx SGs and all the other absolutely soccer-mad immigrant groups throughout NYC.

otm, though I would add throughout chicago too, as well as other places -- and I'd add Polish, German, Portuguese, Italian, Greek, and other cultures to the list of erasures

it's just so narrowly focused, he obviously didn't do a lot of research outside a few small circles

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CnYIGA2UsAA24xB?format=jpg&name=large